MindSpan Memory Booster vs Executive Functions

Watch. Remember. Answer. MindSpan trains the most important cognitive skill you have: working memory. A shape moves across the screen. You watch. Then you answer: what was it? What color? What pattern? Sounds simple. It isn't. HOW IT WORKS Each round, a geometric shape — triangle, star, polygon, moon — travels along a path. Your job: hold it in mind, then identify it from a set of options. As you improve, shapes move faster, paths grow more complex, and the distractors look more alike. CHALLENGE LEVELS Between the memory rounds, brain-teasers change the pace — mental math, logic and odd-one-out puzzles, lateral-thinking riddles, and number patterns. The question stays on screen; you reason it through. Memory and reasoning, woven together, so no two sessions feel the same. WHAT YOU'RE TRAINING Working memory is the brain's scratchpad — the ability to hold and manipulate information in real time. It underlies reading comprehension, mental arithmetic, decision-making, and sustained focus. Research consistently links working memory capacity to fluid intelligence and learning ability.

Executive Functions are a set of cognitive processes that allows to manage complex or unusual situations successfully. They regulate analysis, planning, control and coordination of the cognitive system, and control the activation and use of knowledge processes. It is widely believed that Executive Functions play a fundamental role in 'smart' behavior and that they can be trained and improved through specific exercises. Main executive functions are the acquisition and updating of Working Memory, Cognitive Flexibility and Behavioral Inhibition. The "Executive Functions" series of apps is dedicated to the exercise and improvement of these skills. The first app, which is presented here, is dedicated to 'Working Memory', and proposes many exercises to verify, improve and use the ability to remember, recall and discriminate in the short term some elements that can be images, colors, words, voices or combinations thereof. Each exercise/level is divided into two stages: during the first, a set of stimuli is presented which must be memorized. Then, in the second stage it is required to use, list and/or discriminate between the elements presented. At the end of each exercise the app shows the result obtained and assigns scores and evaluations taking into account the relative difficulty, the number of elements proposed, the time taken and so on. "Executive Functions" contains over 200 "cards" and their names, written and recorded with a female and male voice. The ‘cards’ represent animals, food, means of transport, numbers, etc. and are used to propose 349 exercises/levels generated and managed automatically for a very high number of possible combinations.