Older Scrabble players’ brains can outperform college kids

[ameriken]

This study is not very good at comparing brains. It compares a group of people with a practiced skill to a group who doesn't practice the skill at all. There is some value in this comparison, but claiming their brains out preform is just ridiculous.

I'll provide an example to show how bad this study is. Take a group of college kids who actively party sudoku and a group if fifty year olds who don't pay sudoku. Now give them tests to measure brain performance using number puzzles. Who's brain do you think will 'out preform' the others now.

For a fair comparison they should use all competitive scrabble players or all non. Better yet, do both trials for a true comparison.

Good point.

All I no is, spilling was my best subjet.

[soul_power]

This study is not very good at comparing brains. It compares a group of people with a practiced skill to a group who doesn't practice the skill at all. There is some value in this comparison, but claiming their brains out preform is just ridiculous.

I'll provide an example to show how bad this study is. Take a group of college kids who actively party sudoku and a group if fifty year olds who don't pay sudoku. Now give them tests to measure brain performance using number puzzles. Who's brain do you think will 'out preform' the others now.

For a fair comparison they should use all competitive scrabble players or all non. Better yet, do both trials for a true comparison.

Good point.

All I no is, spilling was my best subjet.

Speling is hard . Also, this study really pisses me off. I hate people who publish papers that have scientific or medical claims that isn't backed up by the data. There is no way the claim of "They look better than the undergraduates. Their brains are just as fast and more accurate." can be found with the data. I'm not saying it isn't true, but the data doesn't back it up and now most people who read this will see it as fact. This study wouldn't hold any value to the scientific or medical community.

I just can't wrap my head around why this study was done. It makes me wonder about the people who would approve/fund this. I mean seriously, aren't people in their 50's supposed to have a larger vocabulary? I've never heard of dementia or mental decline setting in by the 50's either.

[BlackSpinner]

I just can't wrap my head around why this study was done. It makes me wonder about the people who would approve/fund this. I mean seriously, aren't people in their 50's supposed to have a larger vocabulary? I've never heard of dementia or mental decline setting in by the 50's either.

Bad reporting. This is what the study was about in a more intelligent blurb:
http://scienceblog.com/47203/super-scra ... -possible/

Word recognition behavior can be fine-tuned by experience and practice, according to a new study by Ian Hargreaves and colleagues from the University of Calgary in Canada. Their work shows, for the first time, that it is possible to develop visual word recognition ability in adulthood, beyond what researchers thought was achievable. Competitive Scrabble players provide the proof. The study is published online in Springer’s journal Memory & Cognition.

[Julie]

I think it's funny that the word judgment was misspelled in that second article, but it did give a better description of the study. I would also expect people who have been at work for decades to do better in any case - livelihoods depend on being accurate, at being able to sustain concentration and flexibility in projects (whatever the work), and to see connections to related work, and to be creative (or lose ground to new colleagues.

I don't think it was a terribly meaningful study, but if they use it as the basis for other similar ones with a wider range of subjects and tasks it could be interesting in future.

Black Spinner - I can't imagine not showing our report cards to our parents - who had to sign them before they went back - do you remember that?

[LinkC]

Judgement is an acceptable alternate spelling.

Also, especially British , judge·ment.

[LinkC]

Instead of saying that older scrabble players have better cognitive abilities, I wonder if it should be saying that the education system over the past 20 or 30 years has declined to the point that it is no longer producing adults who can think critically.

or SPELL!

[soul_power]

Bad reporting. This is what the study was about in a more intelligent blurb:
http://scienceblog.com/47203/super-scra ... -possible/

Nice find. Your right, this is just a case of horrible reporting. The writer needs to be fired.

[BlackSpinner]

Black Spinner - I can't imagine not showing our report cards to our parents - who had to sign them before they went back - do you remember that?

Yes for every thing. And for my daughter up to middle school the agenda had to be signed every day. That drove me nuts.

[SleepyT]

DAM PUBLIC SHCOOL SYSTEM!!

Funny!