CogniFit - Candy Factory: Brain Game

"Candy Factory" Brain Game: What is it?

Candy Factory is a brain training game. To advance in the game, we will have to introduce the sweets into the corresponding paper bags and then identify which of the sweets shown on each bag matches the ones we just saved. However, as the level of complexity of this mental training game increases, the cognitive demands will increase.

As you advance and help improve your cognitive skills trained in this online brain game, it will advance with you. Candy Factory is a scientific resource designed to constantly measure performance and automatically regulate the difficulty to ensure that the user is getting the most out of each training session. The mind game Candy Factory is appropriate for children and adults and can help improve essential cognitive skills.

How can the brain game "Candy Factory" improve your cognitive abilities?

Training with brain games like Candy Factory stimulates specific neural patterns. The repetition of this pattern through consistent training can help improve the creation of new synapses and neural circuits capable of reorganizing and recovering damaged or weakened cognitive functions

This brain game can be played by anyone looking to test and improve their cognitive performance.

• Recognition: In this brain game, we will have to identify which of the stimuli shown had previously appeared in that same place. This uses our recognition as a cognitive skill. Strengthening our recognition makes it easier for us to retrieve information that we have stored in our memory. This is very similar to when we do a multiple-choice exam, in which we have to recognize the correct information we have studied.

• Visual Short-Term Memory: We will have to remember for a short period of time the figures shown in order to perform the tasks of this mental game. By retaining this information during Candy Factory we would be stimulating our visual short-term memory. A poor state of this capacity would make it extremely difficult to retain information, even for a short period of time. We use visual short-term memory in academic settings to remember what was written on the blackboard before it was erased, or on a slide before it was passed.

• Short-Term Memory:The information we need to remember will only be useful to us for a short time, so we can then forget it (in fact, we need to forget it to prevent it from interfering with the next information we receive). For this, we will use our short-term memory, which can be stimulated by practicing this mind game. Good short-term memory allows you to store information of various kinds for a short period of time. It is one of the cognitive skills we use when reading something briefly.

• Phonological short-term memory: Mentally repeating the phonological information extracted from the screen image will be very helpful for the activity. Retaining the names and characteristics of the stimuli presented can make it easier to retain other information from our daily lives, such as items on a shopping list or a phone number.

• Non-verbal Memory: In this brain training game we will have to memorize the stimuli that are shown and the place where they appear, so we will need our non-verbal memory to retain them. By practicing Candy Factory we are reinforcing this cognitive skill. Better non-verbal memory makes it easier to learn and remember information that does not contain words. It is very useful when accessing information studied in diagrams, or when making drawings.

• Response Time: The time to memorize and to respond is limited, so we have to be quick in carrying out both processes and giving an answer. Therefore, training with this mind game can be useful to improve our reaction or response time. This helps us to react more efficiently to unforeseen events. In class, for example, we make use this when answering a teacher's question.

• Focused Attention: We must focus on the stimulus that is shown to us and then detect it on the screen, for which we will use our focused attention. Playing Candy Factory at an appropriate level can help us improve this cognitive capacity. Strengthening our focused attention is important to easily direct our attention to the relevant stimuli. In our daily lives, we constantly use focused attention, when we listen to what we are told in class or when we are focused on a reading.

• Hand-Eye Coordination: In this brain training game we will have to select the appropriate stimulus and then place it in the corresponding container. For these movements, we make use of our hand-eye coordination. This cognitive capacity can be trained with Candy Factory, and it helps us to perform manual activities with more . We use this cognitive skill, for example, when copying information from the whiteboard onto our notebook.

• Shifting: In this game will have to memorize different information, ignoring the previous. Our ability to adapt our response to different stimuli is part of what we call cognitive flexibility or shifting. By playing Candy Factory it is possible to improve this cognitive capacity. An underdeveloped cognitive flexibility or shifting would prevent us from adapting correctly to the changes and demands of the environment.

• Visual Perception: We will have to perceive and distinguish both the shape and the colour of the different stimuli in order to not confuse them. Visual perception takes care of this and it can be trained if we play this brain training game correctly. Good visual perception is essential to appreciate the details of the stimuli around us. This cognitive capacity is what we use in our daily lives to know which book to open or to distinguish our phone from others.

What happens if you don't train your cognitive skills?

The brain is designed to reserve resources, which is why it tends to eliminate the neural connections that it doesn't use. This is why if a certain cognitive skill is not regularly used, the brain will not send resources to the neural activation pattern, and it will become weaker and weaker. This makes the cognitive skill less effective and more difficult to use in daily life.