Here are some of the indications that will help you decide that if your child needs to develop their cognitive skills, Yes, if they are/have, - Getting low marks - Negative attitude - Lack of concentration - Low attention span - Problem with attention - Lack of competitive spirit - Not interested in studies - Fear – general and exam - Communication problems - Low self-confidence & self-esteem - Feel shy, reserved, fear of talking to others - Forgetting what they studied in the exam hall - Problems with visual and auditory perceptions - Problems in listening and understanding skills - Hyperactivity, Slow learning, learning difficulties - Problem with general abilities - reading, writing, etc - Specific problems in spelling / writing / mathematics - Repeatedly studying the same subject fearing they that they will forget - Writing problems, spelling mistakes – confusion between p and q, u and v, etc - Learning Disabilities – Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, ADHD, Processing Disorders, etc. - More interested in watching TV, playing computer games etc, than doing their homework or studying. - Any other that you feel is not healthy and appropriate.

Based on our experience in working with children, we broadly classify them into the following way, and there are mixes of some of the categories also. - Children who are good in studies, sports, etc, these are the people who analyse and understand what is taught in the class, clarify by asking doubts and have healthy behaviour, etc they also score good marks and are good in extracurricular activities. - Children who are good in studies only and not interested in sports or extracurricular activities, most of them don’t understand what is taught in the class, they just memorize (mug up) without understanding and give their exams, even score good marks, the risk is they will face difficulty when they move on to higher classes or colleges. - Children who are underperformers meaning they are intelligent, sharp, but the irony is they don’t use it in their studies, in short, they are interested in all other activities except studies. - Children who are average, these are the students who are performing up to their ability, not motivated to do better in studies or sports, etc. - Children who are poor in scoring and in general, most of them don’t understand what is happening in the class, they don’t ask questions, probably their skills are poor and are academically not performing well. - Practising with Cognifit's cognitive skills training will help all the aforementioned categories of children and their mixes also, it helps the first to maintain or move up, all other categories to move to first or higher level.

The reason he is not able to score high marks is that as you told he doesn’t understand what is taught in the class and this itself is a pressure, moreover thinking that you are only easing the pressure you have put him in tuitions which will burden him more, we are not against tuitions, what we want to tell you is your son is under pressure, as a result, he is not able to manage his time, so what is required is that he develop his skill sets through a brain fitness program, the first thing that will happen is, he is able to manage stress, as a result, he will think clearly, plan his activities, than as his thinking skills starts to develop he will be able to concentrate on his subjects and score high marks.

So, practising with Cognifit's Cognitive Skills training will only shorten and solve his problem otherwise there is a chance for the problem to persist all along with his study life, especially when he reaches college, etc.

Good your daughter is practising abacus, and abacus or similar programs only develops the mathematic skills and allied skills, but life, as you know, is not just mathematics alone, In order to be successful in studies or life, we need to have and use all the skills that we have then only we can say he/she is a successful person. The uniqueness of Cognifit's Cognitive Skills training is that it approaches skill development in a holistic way, as a result, all the skills are developed and used by the individual, especially with the patented Individual Training System and online coaching the training is individualized and sees to that everyone receives the training required for them and no two training programs are same.

Here is an article that appeared in a leading English newspaper, readon…. Sales of memory drugs soar due to annual exams

Bhopal: It's that time of the year again when children start cramming for their annual exams and chemists make a fast buck selling memory booster drugs of all hues, despite medical warnings that these 'wonder drugs' may have harmful side effects.

The popularity of medicines that claim to enhance memory can be gauged by the tens of advertisements seen in the local dailies every day.

"Lured by the advertisements, especially of ayurvedic medicines promising no side effects, parents anxious to see their children excel in examinations rush to the chemists to buy brain tonics," said Anshumali Joshi, a chemist in the posh Shakti Nagar area of the state capital.

"Earlier, the annual examination time (usually in the months of March-April) used to be 'memory power boom' season, but now we get such customers throughout the year," says Joshi.

Deepak Chaturvedi, a doctor at a private hospital here, said: "I get eight to 10 calls a day seeking advice on which medicine to take for improving a student's memory. In many cases, it is the parents who seek such advice."

Apart from ayurvedic medicines, some homoeopathic and allopathic drugs are also being sold. Some common memory enhancers readily available with the chemists are Shankhpushpi, Dimagheen, Memo Nerve and Brain Tone Tablet.

"I was worried about my child as she failed to score good marks in a test series earlier this year. Looking at her inability to memorise important lessons we have now started giving her an ayurvedic medicine, which helps increase memory," says Laxmi Sharma, mother of Ipsha who is to appear for Class 7 examinations next month.

Drug manufacturers and sales representatives claim that these medicines improve memory and enhance learning ability by increasing protein activity and new protein synthesis, relieve mental strain and stress and make the mind sharp and alert.

But doctors advise against the use of such memory enhancers. They say it is better to sleep for around eight hours, increase intake of fruits, dry fruits and milk and also avoid stress to feel better equipped to face the exams.

"These so-called memory enhancers could have an adverse effect on the child's memory as the effects start tapering off three to four months after their continuous intake. These medicines increase the flow of glucose into the brain, which when stopped can lead to the decline of natural memory," warns said R.N. Sahu, head of the psychiatry department at Hamidia Hospital.

M.S. Meenai, former head of medical service at a government hospital here, said: "No medical research has so far proved that these tonics really work. Rather than getting these, it is necessary for parents to have a more positive approach towards their children's exams. Instead of stressing on marks, they should stress the holistic overall development of the child's personality, social skills and performance as an all-rounder."

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common mental disorders that develop in children. Children with ADHD experience impaired functioning at home, at school, and in relationships with their peers. If untreated, the disorder can produce long-term adverse effects, extending into adolescence and adulthood, in as many as 50 per cents of children diagnosed with ADHD. The cognitive symptoms of ADHD are primarily attention-related difficulties. These usually include the inability to concentrate or to sustain attention, avoidance of mental effort, inability to follow instructions and inability to inhibit actions. In addition their ability to train all 22 key cognitive abilities, CogniFit brain fitness programs are particularly effective at developing and improving attention skills. The fact that the tasks are engaging and entertaining makes them even more appealing to children diagnosed with ADHD. CogniFit brain fitness programs also feature a personal coach who offers tips and suggestions along the way, making it easier for young users to remain interested and motivated to stick with their training.

When people ask about what makes Cognifit's Cognitive Skills training programs so different from others, We usually tell them that there are many answers to that question. And that’s true. But it really all begins with the assessment we provide before you start your training. Cognitive science is a very wide area of study and cognitive scholars conduct research in many areas. Traditionally, the main areas of interest for cognitive scientists are attention, perception, memory, motor control, learning capabilities and language processing. Each of the domains described above can be separated into smaller units. For example, in the field of attention, we can analyze your ability to divide it, shift it, and focus it. In the field of memory, we can study long-term memory, short-term memory and working memory. CogniFit brain fitness programs assess and train 14 key cognitive abilities in 4 different domains, in order to ensure that you’ll get the most out of your training. The reason that our assessment is so important is that it gives us the information we need to create a personalized training program for you, which is based on your performance in the assessment phase. This initial assessment takes about 45 minutes to complete as it measures your performance on 22 cognitive abilities that include Eye-hand Coordination, Short-Term Memory, Visual Scanning, Divided Attention, Reaction Time, Awareness, Inhibition, Time Estimation, Shifting Attention, Visual Perception, Spatial Perception, Naming, Working Memory, Planning, etc.

After you complete this initial assessment, your performance in these abilities is compared to a representative sample of users that is matched to your age and gender. This allows you to receive a personalized training program that will improve your weaker abilities as it maintains your strengths. It also enables our patented software to supply you with accurate feedback about your individual strengths and weaknesses. The CogniFit assessment has been validated against other well-known tests and tools, and the results can be found in our website.

The brain fitness industry is a fast-growing business. New brain teasers appear each day, on the web and on mobile phones. They offer to improve your memory, attention, or other cognitive skills, all for free. They may be fun to do, but how many of them really work? Below is a list of the important differences between serious brain training programs and the brain games and teasers you find everywhere these days.

Scientific background - If you’re serious about improving your brain fitness, you probably don’t want to waste your time on brain games that aren’t proven effective. In order to get the most out of your training, you should use exercises that have a solid scientific background and have been validated by independent sources. You should always check to make sure that the product you’re using was tested and showed positive results among people who are similar to you in categories such as age, gender, and general health.

Adaptability - As you may already know, the big secret to maintaining brain vitality and taking advantage of the brain's ability to rewire itself is to encounter a constantly rising level of challenge as you progress through a program of brain training. This will allow your brain to always be "on the edge" as it meets the demands of a certain task. Some programs will allow you to choose your level of difficulty level as you go. But you will have much better results if you use a brain-training program that offers you an independent and objective assessment of when your performance level indicates that you are ready for more challenging tasks.

Variety- Most brain games train only a single skill, such as divided attention or working memory. So if you want to get the maximum benefit from your training time, you should look for programs that train a wide variety of skills. Brain fitness programs that train a wide range of cognitive abilities will create better 'cross-sectional' improvement.

Cost- It's always great to get free stuff. But when it comes to brain training you may soon find out that “free” can be pretty expansive, especially if you’re spending valuable time doing brain teasers and games that don’t offer much benefit. Generally, the cost of a brain-training program reflects the time and effort that’s been invested by the group of people who developed it. So make sure that you don’t get fooled by free offers that promise benefits they can’t really deliver.

Support- Brain training is not a do-it-yourself project. It takes some time to see noticeable improvement and will you may have questions about your training and how it works as you progress. So always make sure that the brain-training program you choose offers you the option to get technical and theoretical support. It’s the best way to assure that your training is truly working and that you’re getting real benefits in exchange for the investment of your time and money.

Recent developments and discoveries in the area of neuroscience have shown that regular brain fitness training can provide considerable benefits to people of all ages who have experienced a cognitive decline due to disease, trauma or chemotherapy, CogniFit brain fitness programs help you to recover, improve and maintain your cognitive health, read on…

Multiple Sclerosis The subsequent brain damage ultimately results in long-term disability. Because the disease can cause multiple sites of damage throughout the central nervous system, patients will experience a wide variety of symptoms. One of the most common is impairment of cognitive ability. Cognitive impairment, including impaired memory, attention, processing and executive functions, affects up to 65% of patients who have MS. Short-term memory, which is the ability to recall information that has been acquired only a brief time before it must be retrieved, is most often affected. In a recent study, which compared two groups of people with MS, CogniFit Personal Coach proved successful in improving three memory domains among the people who trained with it, as compared with those who did not. The areas that showed improvement included working memory, visual short term memory, and general memory. The key to Cognifit's Cognitive Skills training success appears to be its ability to provide focused training in both visual and short-term memory.

Alzheimer's Disease Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is the best-known and most common form of dementia, which is a disease of the nervous system that’s characterized by loss of certain mental abilities. It usually develops during old age and it’s marked by a decline in mental functions such as memory, reasoning, and the ability to plan. A person with AD usually experiences a gradual decline in mental functions. The first stages include a slight loss of memory, such as the inability to remember the names of people or objects. But as the disease develops, people with AD begin to lose the ability to carry out familiar tasks, to reason, and to exercise judgment. Moods, personality, and ability to communicate may also be affected. What many people don’t realize is that only about a third of people who have Alzheimer's disease actually develop the symptoms. The rest live perfectly normal lives; only after they have died do autopsies reveal that their brains were riddled with the Alzheimer's scars. Evidence shows that the symptoms of AD can be slowed down and even prevented by building up a strong cognitive reserve that can act as a buffer against the onset of the disease. A strong cognitive reserve can be created in three ways. The first is regular physical activity, which is important because it increases the blood supply to your brain. Secondly, engaging in and maintaining an active, busy and diverse lifestyle throughout your life will provide the comprehensive cognitive stimulation that promotes good brain fitness. And finally, following a regular program of brain fitness that targets many areas of the brain will provide the kind of brain training that creates an effective cognitive buffer against the symptoms of AD and other degenerative diseases. CogniFit Personal Trainer is particularly good at this for two main reasons. First, it offers you a personal assessment of 14 key cognitive abilities that will determine your cognitive strengths and weaknesses. Using this information CogniFit Personal Trainer designs a brain fitness program that gives you the training that’s exactly right for you. It’s the best possible way to start building up a cognitive reserve that will help you maintain a healthy, active and productive lifestyle.

Parkinson's Disease Parkinson's Disease (PD) is characterized primarily by the effect it has on motor functions; its symptoms include trembling, stiffness of limbs, slowness of movement and general postural instability. The disease usually affects people over the age of 50. Early symptoms of PD are subtle and occur gradually, but as they become more pronounced, patients may have difficulty walking, talking or completing other simple tasks. In some people, the disease progresses more quickly than in others. The cognitive disturbances most often caused by PD include longer-than-normal reaction times, declined executive functions, language difficulties, short term memory loss, and dementia. In addition to cognitive decline, Parkinson's disease also causes mood disturbances such as depression: in the face, these two symptoms are often related. CogniFit's brain fitness programs have been shown to successfully address the cognitive decline and related depression that are associated with PD. Thanks to Personal Trainer’s ability to adapt to every user's unique set of symptoms, the program is able to deliver the kind of focused and personalized training that produces measurable results.

Chemo Fog It is well-known fact that people who receive chemotherapy for cancer have a higher risk of developing cognitive impairment in later life than those who have never undergone chemotherapy. Patients who have been treated with higher doses of chemotherapy have a higher risk than those treated with standard doses. The duration of chemotherapy can also significantly affect cognitive impairment: the longer the treatments, the more it tends to affect cognition. The condition is known as Chemo Fog and the exact mechanism that causes it is still unknown. Since chemotherapy is not specific, it affects more parts of the body than just the area where the tumour is located. The central nervous system, including the brain, is particularly vulnerable to its side effects. The effect of chemotherapy on cognition skills also appears to be generalized instead of restricted to a specific region of the brain. The range of cognitive skills that are affected by chemotherapy includes attention, mental flexibility, reaction time, speed of information processing, visual-spatial memory, and motor and verbal function. However, it is known that chemotherapy might cause a reduction in grey matter throughout the brain, and also a reduction in regions of connective tissues in the brain. The good news is that people with chemo-related cognitive problems generally tend to respond very well to the kind of focused and personalized brain training that CogniFit brain fitness programs provide. Studies have shown that people who use our programs after undergoing chemotherapy experience measurable improvement in their cognitive skills.

ADHD Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common mental disorders that develop in children. Children with ADHD experience impaired functioning at home, at school, and in relationships with their peers. If untreated, the disorder can produce long-term adverse effects, extending into adolescence and adulthood, in as many as 50 per cents of children diagnosed with ADHD. The cognitive symptoms of ADHD are primarily attention-related difficulties. These usually include the inability to concentrate or to sustain attention, avoidance of mental effort, inability to follow instructions and inability to inhibit actions.

In addition their ability to train all 14 key cognitive abilities, CogniFit brain fitness programs are particularly effective at developing and improving attention skills. The fact that the tasks are engaging and entertaining makes them even more appealing to children diagnosed with ADHD. CogniFit brain fitness programs also feature a personal coach who offers tips and suggestions along the way, making it easier for young users to remain interested and motivated to stick with their training.

Here is the research that shows how CogniFit’s brain fitness training program can improve cognitive fitness in as little as one training cycle

Seattle, WA – March 18, 2009 – CogniFit®, Ltd., the leading producer of personalized brain fitness programs, today revealed that 99.9% of 972 users showed improvement in at least one cognitive ability after one eight-week training cycle with CogniFit’s brain training program. The average number of abilities that improved was approximately eight for this group. This data was tracked by CogniFit’s personalized brain training program, which retains pre- and post- training anonymous user assessments. The validity of this assessment has been demonstrated as part of a study published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Cognifit's Cognitive Skills training exercises the brain across 22 key cognitive functions including planning, inhibition, visual perception, visual scanning, visual short term memory, speed and response time, working memory, awareness, time estimation, naming, spatial perception, eye-hand coordination, shifting and divided attention. All of these functions are essential but fragile cognitive processes that decline as people age. CogniFit’s study found that after just one training cycle, users improved cognitive skills in these areas including:

Attention (shifting, divided attention) by an average of 12% Memory (Visual, STM, Working memory, naming) by an average of 13% Motor functions and Inhibition (hand-eye coordination, reaction time, inhibition) by an average of 18% Perception & Estimations (Visual Scanning, visual perception, time estimation, spatial perception) by an average of 14% After three cycles some users are improving over 40% CogniFit’s programs are personalized to address individual strengths and weaknesses based on an initial baseline assessment. CogniFit is the only brain fitness software to offer a comprehensive baseline assessment, and this assessment plus the ongoing adjustment during training provides users a powerful advantage in training effectiveness. The assessment tasks are different from the training program tasks, so users don’t simply improve performance by “learning” how to do the tasks. Since the CogniFit assessment has been validated by independent researchers, this data shows that CogniFit users truly improve their cognitive function, not that they have simply learned how to do the tasks.

“We can say with confidence that customized training is more effective than generic training,” said Dr Shlomo Breznitz, founder and President of CogniFit. “CogniFit offers the only brain fitness program that is personalized based on performance and adapts in real-time to the individual’s changing training needs. With over 99% of users showing improvement, this research shows that CogniFit’s personalized brain fitness programs do improve people’s cognitive fitness.”

In order to effectively interact with the world around us, our brains have to continuously process large amounts of complex information. We need to select the information most important and relevant to us at any given time, properly attend to it, perceive its message and store it in memory for long enough to act on it. In the absence of well-developed capacity for attention, perception, and memory, a person walks through life as a moonwalker oblivious to his/her circumstances. These most basic cognitive skills do not come easy, and the brain has to invest in learning how best to perform them from the very first day of life. What sights, sounds, and smells are more important than others and must not be missed? What type of touch and taste are more central to survival and well being? How to make sense of complex visual patterns and build an internal database of familiar people and places? How not to be distracted by less important and less meaningful stimuli, even if they glitter and tempt our attention? How to disregard the highly predictable and the repetitive around us? And, perhaps most critical of all, how to safeguard important information from oblivion for future use? In short, how to best store in memory our impressions, experiences, and discoveries, and thus build our own private version of the world in which we live? Throughout our life-span, our ability to deal with the many challenges we face is to a large extent a function of our cognitive vitality. Consider, for example, the paramount importance of language skills. As we try to communicate an idea, any idea, even while talking, our brains run ahead of us searching for the most appropriate words to use. Those of us, who have built a rich and often utilized lexicon, or developed well-practised search skills, would be far more effective. Good long-term memory for faces, names, and events is yet another example of a highly advantageous cognitive skill.

For many years the accepted wisdom was that everything that grows must eventually shrink, and things that develop would inevitably decline. Consequently, so went the argument, cognitive loss is a necessary by-product of normal aging, and there is not much that we can do about it. Indeed, initial studies comparing groups of people from different age groups, tended to corroborate this notion. It was only with the publication of the important prospective studies, following the same individuals over many years, that the true picture started to emerge:

While there is a clear slowing down in cognitive processing in older people, this is not of a magnitude that has functional implications. In other words, as we grow older things take longer than before, but the delay does not lead to quality decline as well. One would have to look at some specialized activities that are extremely speed sensitive, such as being a fighter pilot, in order to translate this slowing down process to a meaningful loss of function. Safe driving of a car is clearly an important issue in its own right. There are very significant individual differences in the amount of cognitive loss between different people. While some show major loss, there are others that have very little or no loss at all. Furthermore, even in case of loss, it is not evenly distributed across areas of activity. The areas of particular interest to the person tend to be protected from loss. Given these findings, the obvious intriguing question became:

Who were the individuals that maintained their cognitive vitality well into advanced age? Was this yet another case of hereditary pre-determination, or was there something which they did during their lifetime that made a difference? One factor, whose major role in predicting cognitive vitality that has been systematically found in many different studies, is years of formal education. Thus, people with higher education have much smaller age-related cognitive decline. This cognitive resilience of those who have some years of college or university cannot, however, be attributed to the actual experiences of the studies themselves.

There is little in those three-four years that can account for the huge benefits more than forty years later. It is much more realistic to assume that on the average, those with higher education were employed in jobs which were mentally more challenging.

Consequently, for the entire duration of their work-life their brains were necessarily more active. Current studies of the role of work complexity on cognitive vitality support this interpretation.

Investigation of the lifestyle of people who maintain their cognitive vitality well into advanced age throws yet additional light on what might be the key protective factors. Hobbies such as chess, bridge, and crossword puzzles, are well represented in this group. So are lifelong habits of reading books, playing a musical instrument, and generally leading a life of active mental involvement. The more passive ways of spending leisure time, such as watching TV, tend to be risk factors rather than protective ones.

Does cognitively challenging activity protect against Alzheimer's disease?

It is hard to marshal a more persuasive argument than protection against Alzheimer's disease. While the precise cause for its onset, and certainly ways to cure or prevent it, are still far from understood, the evidence for the beneficial effects of cognitively challenging activities is well established.

Statistically, the risk of people with higher education is about one third of the general population. This enormous difference in risk surpasses by far the genetic factor as it is understood at this time.

Furthermore, individuals practicing the various above mentioned cognitively challenging hobbies are at significantly lower risk.

It seems that the same factors that protect us from the deleterious effects of age-related cognitive decline also protect us from the debilitating effects of dementia. The underlying principle behind all these factors is the benefit of cognitive effort.

With the recent advances in neuroscience came several discoveries about the health of active brains. All of them, without exception, enhance the principle of "use it or lose it". This has now become such a pervasive notion that there is a good chance that additional reasons will be discovered in the future. The list of available ones is, however, convincing enough:

Active brain cells (neurons) need a better blood supply and get a better blood supply than idle ones. This preferential supply of oxygen and a variety of nutrients enhances their function. Neurons are particularly vulnerable to an inadequate oxygen supply, and their activation ensures that they will not starve for oxygen. As the activity of neurons increases, so does their tendency to sprout dendrites that connect between brain cells. Consequently, the more active a particular brain cell is the more connections to neighbouring cells it develops. It is estimated that a single neuron can have up to thirty thousand such connections, making it a centre of a highly developed network of activity. One outcome of belonging to such a network is that the chances of being stimulated by others are also higher, thus increasing the chances of future activation. Neurons that for some reason reduce their activity tend, over time, to lose this connectivity. The importance of being part of an active network cannot be overstated, and for the brain cells involved, it can easily become a matter of life and death. The reason is as follows: From adolescence onwards, our brains lose a high number of neurons every day. Unconnected cells indicate that they have been idle for quite some time, and thus their loss would not heavily impact the functioning of the individual. Consequently, they become a prime target for cell death. This competitive advantage of active and well-connected neurons was beautifully argued by Edelman in his seminal work on "neural Darwinism." With the recent advances in neuroscience came several discoveries about the health of active brains.

Active neurons enhance the production of Nerve Growth Factor (NGF), a substance that contributes to the maintenance of healthy neurons. Since brain cells can often be quite old, their continuous maintenance is of primary importance to their function. Once again, the higher the cognitive challenge, the greater the secretion of this beneficial NGF. Last but not least, recent research discovered that contrary to accepted common wisdom, there is a regeneration of new brain cells throughout the entire life span. Stem cells develop in the part of the brain called the hippocampus (an area closely related to memory consolidation), and migrate inside the brain itself to the area of highest need for "reinforcement" of function. Once they reach that area, they mature and learn from the surrounding cells on how to perform their function. This local education of the cells is a particularly striking example of the brain's exquisite specialization.

A good example is a process launched after brain injury or stroke. As the person tries hard to activate the damaged area, this can stimulate higher production of new cells that will eventually migrate to the area of the lesion, and over time contribute towards the restoration of the lost function.

Once again, the effort to activate the brain during the rehabilitation period is the key to the entire sequence of events. It is doubtful whether a passive acceptance of the loss of function would have similar results.

The cognitive effort builds cognitive reserves

It is not clear whether higher education, a complex working environment, or mentally challenging hobbies can ensure risk-free cognitive ageing. The same, of course, goes for dementia, the prevention of which cannot be guaranteed by any of these factors. Rather, they might lead to the development of sufficient cognitive reserves that will effectively delay these problems. Thus, if available brain cells are in good shape, they may well compensate for cumulative cell loss over the years. The building of such cognitive reserves becomes, therefore, an excellent investment, ensuring cognitive vitality well into the future.

One common denominator of the entire list of factors mentioned so far is cognitive effort. In other words, for some activity to be useful in maintaining or enhancing cognitive vitality, it has to require some effort. This is not unlike physical exercise whose effectiveness calls for at least some minimal investment in physical effort. Engaging exclusively in very easy exercises would have an only marginal impact on one's physical fitness. By effort, we imply the need to actively focus on the task at hand and allocate sufficient resources of attention to carry it to its successful completion.

A wonderful illustration of the benefits of cognitive effort is provided in the famous "Nun Study" by Snowdon. As part of the attempt to study the antecedents of cognitive health in elderly nuns, the study analyzed one-page autobiographical essays written by them at the average age of twenty- two when they were in college. These short descriptions were analyzed blindly by linguistic experts for "idea density" (i.e., number of different ideas per every ten words) and "grammatical complexity" (simple versus complex sentence construction, branching, etc.).

To everybody's astonishment, the results were able to predict cognitive health sixty years later, at the average age of eighty. Sisters with higher idea density in college had significantly higher scores on standard cognitive tests and were less likely to have Alzheimer's disease than those with lower idea density. A similar relationship, though somewhat weaker, was found between grammatical complexity and cognitive scores.

Both high idea density and grammatical complexity require greater effort on the part of the writer (and for that matter the reader as well). The ability and willingness to invest in such cognitive effort bode well for the future cognitive vitality of the sisters.

The opposite of cognitive effort is automatic processing. Cognitive activity that can be carried out automatically does not require any effort at all. As certain activities become gradually more familiar with the experience, they become easier and less effortful. At some point they might become fully automatic, thus releasing us from the need to attend to them altogether.

The brain's capacity for developing automatic sequences of routine tasks is, on the whole, a major blessing. The number and variety of activities that we are able to carry out without attending to the process itself is impressive indeed. Consider the way we walk home from the station without the need to rehearse the directions. In fact, we may be deep in thought about other matters and yet will find ourselves entering our home. Think about the complex hand-eye coordination necessary for a smooth handshake. We just do it; there is no need to think about it anymore. Reading itself becomes an automatic activity through experience.

Thus, the visual pattern of whole words is stored in memory and the jump from looking at a page and extracting the meaning becomes effortless. In the same way, with years of experience, some elements of driving become automatic as well, freeing the driver to talk, listen to music, or otherwise engage part of his/her attention.

Automatic processing, however, is not without its costs. The convenience of well-rehearsed actions, allowing the brain to manage without cognitive effort, encourages certain forms of mental laziness to take root. The outcome of such idleness, just like in the case of physical idleness, is getting out of shape and losing some cognitive vitality. Consequently, one of the best ways to build cognitive reserves is to engage in activities that are relatively new and preclude automatic processing.

When on a trip to a new place, the road back to the hotel cannot be taken without proper attention allocation on our part. We must be well aware of the surrounding circumstances, remember a few key reference points and plan the route accordingly. In the same manner, when driving a new car in a new location, the driving would involve much more deliberate attention than typically. Novelty, the natural opposite of routine, poses important challenges to the brain and contributes to cognitive well-being.

Our brains are well-suited to profit from experience, and very few things retain their novelty for a long time. On the contrary, we are capable of developing routines extremely fast. This gives us a good feeling of mastering a new situation. Even the most complex activities have significant components that are routine. The cognition-enhancing qualities of novelty must be therefore actively pursued, and we cannot rely on opportunities provided by everyday life experience to do the trick for us. This is further augmented by the natural preference of the human brain to develop routine procedures that save energy and effort.

There are two very different modes of action our brains can take when faced with a particular cognitive challenge. The first one, involving situational analysis and choice between alternatives, is clearly effortful. The second, on the other hand, relies entirely on prior experience. Our mental database is searched for similar instances in the past, and the precedents serve as the basis for the current solution. This is much less effortful, and most of the process can be carried out automatically without our awareness. As we grow older and more experienced, this second mode takes over a growingly larger segment of our personal decisions. The opportunities for effortful cognitive processing would be fewer, and its beneficial contribution to cognitive vitality would be gradually reduced.

We cannot, therefore, rely on everyday life to provide sufficient opportunities for exercising our brains. In the same manner, the sedentary lifestyle of most modern people does not provide sufficient physical exercise. Consequently, just as we need to seek specific ways to "work-out" physically, we have to seek ways to exercise our brains.

Certain kind of games and hobbies served us well for many generations as tools for sharpening our wits. However, even the best among them, such as chess and bridge, have some very obvious limitations. Chief among them is the narrow band of cognitive skills that they exercise. In the case of chess, it is primarily visual perception, long term focusing of attention, and memory for similar positions. Experienced chess players can recall hundreds of important games played by themselves or others and rely heavily on experience. Many moves become almost automatic, drawing on well-rehearsed routine openings.

Bridge trains short-term memory and some basic combinatorial skills. The bidding conventions become routine. Crossword puzzles exercise almost exclusively retrieval from lexicon and are often repetitious.

Reading books is another good way to exercise cognitive skills, particularly if their proper understanding requires some effort. The more varied the genre, the better. Descriptions of new places and unfamiliar situations further challenge the reader. So does, of course, travel. New sights, sounds, smells, and tastes, are all capable of pulling our cognition from its traditional grooves. Playing a musical instrument and learning a new language is also highly beneficial. So are some sports that in addition to physical skills often require highly developed cognitive skills as well. Even though some of these activities might feel difficult when started later in life, their benefit is guaranteed, and it is never too late to engage in them.

In many respects, the personal computer, more than anything, provides an ideal tool for exercising the mind. This is primarily due to its ability to adjust the level of challenge to each person individually. It is very easy to err on this account. Consider, for example, the level of challenge of a crossword puzzle. If it is too difficult, after a few futile attempts we would likely give up. If it is too easy, and we feel that there is little or no challenge involved, this will quickly become boring and we will lose interest.

It is only when the puzzle is at some optimal level of challenge that it has the capacity to mobilize our attention and get us deeply involved. In the case of the crossword puzzle, this is merely a matter of luck, and there is nothing that can be done to effectively optimize the level of challenge for us. The situation becomes dramatically different when a computer is involved. It can measure the precise time it took us to carry out a particular task, and whether we completed it successfully. On the basis of such information, it can adjust the difficulty of the current task, or select another one best fitting our needs. The computer's ability to present well-designed stimuli in both visual and auditory modes is another important advantage.

The storing of detailed information about the users' performance allows important lessons to be learned both online and offline.