OT: Brain Training Does Not Boost Brain Power - BBC Suggests

Hi All

I must have missed this when it first came out, and I cannot find a mention of it in past threads -

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8630588.stm

Mars

. . . All of the study volunteers were viewers of the BBC . . .

Could that one clause from the article be the central key to the conundrum?

[/quote]
Could that one clause from the article be the central key to the conundrum? [/quote]

I just sprayed coffee all over my moniter!!

I seem to remember hearing about this or a similar study a few months ago... but then I could be wrong .

Post by jnk on Wed Dec 29, 2010 9:14 pm

. . . All of the study volunteers were viewers of the BBC . . .

Could that one clause from the article be the central key to the conundrum?

This is difficult. One never knows if a post by JNK is serious or flippant.
Or if it is a serious post masquerading as a flippant post, or a flippant post masquerading as a serious post.
Then again it could be a serious post pretending to be a flippant post masquerading as a serious post.
Or, heaven forbid, a flippant post masquerading as a flippant post that is actually a serious post' (or a flippant post).

I could go on, but you get the picture.

I have it on good authority (JNK himself) that not even JNK understands his posts.

So what are we to make of this one line - ?

Could that one clause from the article be the central key to the conundrum?

Then from Bones we had -

Post by Bones on Wed Dec 29, 2010 9:23 pm

Could that one clause from the article be the central key to the conundrum?

I just sprayed coffee all over my monitor!!

which many would say is the only appropriate response to JNK's comment.

But then Julie points the way to the real solution by saying -

I seem to remember hearing about this or a similar study a few months ago... but then I could be wrong .

Again, not all is at it seems.

If we assume that the conundrum that JNK was talking about actually referred to Julies' post, and the study that Julie was talking about referred to JNK's posts, then everything becomes clear.

We Forum members who have studied the writings of JNK know that Forum members do not need extra Brain Training, because we all have JNK's post's to read. And just reading them needs tremendous brain energy. Then trying to understand them,( which almost nobody does,) is the best Brain Training in the world. As for the BBC viewers, well, they are not reading JNK are they. Hence the study results.

Having sorted that out to everybody's satisfaction I can now relax for the rest of the year.

Happy New Year

Mars

Rereading my post from yesterday, I have to assume I must have meant one of two things. Either (1) that regular BBC viewers have such amazing brain power that doing those little puzzles was the equivalent of having olympic gymnasts do five extra sit-ups a day or (2) that regular BBC viewers have had their brains so completely fried from years of pseudo-intellectualism and official government propaganda that a few puzzles ain't gonna do diddly for them.

Since neither position would be defensible on a public board, I am relieved that I seem to have maintained plausible deniability as far as ever having held either position firmly.

Could it be, rather, that I have invested so heavily in the manufacture of keyboards and monitors and I tend to go for comic relief and audience reaction among those drinking hot beverages while browsing this board?

Whatever the case, I have no doubt that Mars understands my posts much better than I understand them myself, and that is one of his many redeemingly endearing qualities that I appreciate here on a regular basis.

And that last sentence is said with all sincerity, as much as is possible in any public forum in which the posters remain mostly anonymous and aloof while enjoying one another's posts.

Good OP. Good response. Thanks for putting up with me, Mars. It seems I often feel free to be my purposefully ambiguous self in your threads, don't I?

It would be more meaningful to see this broken out by age groups. But of course it is already a self selected group of people who watch BBC so really it is not going to say anything about people who don't/can't watch that.