Brain-Training Games: Play as a Tool for Cognitive Enhancement

This extended abstract outlines an ongoing study investigating user perceptions and experiences with brain-training games, focusing on how play elements contribute to their adoption as cognitive interventions. The document highlights a significant increase in consumer purchases of brain-training games, growing over 400% since 2012, despite scientific skepticism regarding their real-world efficacy. While users show improvement in in-game tasks, evidence for transferability to daily life remains limited. The study posits that a "digital placebo effect," optimism about potential efficacy, and a preference for games over other enhancement strategies drive continued engagement, potentially influenced by aggressive marketing.

The research aims to address the gap in understanding how games and their marketing foster this digital placebo effect and how players experience play as a mode of cognitive intervention. It also examines how the positioning of brain-training within app culture legitimizes their evaluation as games rather than strictly cognitive interventions, framing them as an example of the "ludification of cultural practices" within the app economy. The methodology involves an inductive thematic analysis of user reviews from the Google Play Store for the top three brain-training apps from 2017-2019: Lumosity, Elevate, and Peak, focusing on US-based reviews. This qualitative approach is expected to yield rich insights into user values and perceptions, differing from existing survey-based literature.

Preliminary findings suggest users primarily associate their experience with enjoyable play rather than interventional engagement. Reviewers frequently describe these games as "mental exercise" or "workouts," akin to physical activity, indicating the psychological and behavioral affordances of game elements like challenges, rewards, and achievements. Expectations are also shaped by the free-to-play mobile game economy, with users desiring free or reasonably priced, customizable, and frequently updated content. Perceived benefits often relate to self-improvement, including enhanced attention, memory efficiency, and improved math and language skills, as well as broader behavioral changes like increased productivity and better decision-making. The ultimate goal is to reveal the role of games in user appreciation and adoption of smartphone-based brain-training interventions.