Lumosity training and brain-boosting food effects on learning

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224 Educ. Res. J.was supported with ample evidence. According to somestudies, Ginkgo can significantly improve attention inhealthy individuals. In such studies, the effect was almostimmediate <strong>and</strong> reaches its peak in 2.5 hours after theintake. One study suggests that Ginkgo’s effect oncognition may be attributable to its inhibitory effect onnorepinephrine reuptake.Folic Acid refers to water-soluble forms of vitamin B 9 ,which after conversion to dihydrofolic acid in the liver,produce enormous biological importance that is essentialto numerous bodily functions, particularly the <strong>brain</strong>. Folicacid (also known as folate or vitamin B 9 ) is used in thehuman body to synthesize DNA, repair DNA, <strong>and</strong>methylate DNA in addition to acting as a cofactor inbiological reactions that involve folate. Folic acid ismajorly used for prevention or treatment of neural tubedefects, mental depression, forgetfulness, mentalconfusion, cognitive decline, pregnancy complications,peptic/mouth ulcers, heart palpitations, irritability, sorethroat, swollen tongue, behavioural disorders <strong>and</strong> cancer(Wikimedia Foundation, September 22, 2011). Adequateintake of folic acid during the preconception period (thetime right before <strong>and</strong> just after a woman becomespregnant), helps to protect against several congenitalmalformations, such as neural tube defects. Neural tubedefects produce malformations of the spine, skull, <strong>and</strong><strong>brain</strong> as well as spina bifida <strong>and</strong> anencephaly. The use offolic acid drastically reduces the rate of or prevents therisk of congenital heart defects, urinary tract anomalies,limb defects, clef lips, fetal growth retardation, birthdefects, chromosomal defects in sperm, stroke, cancer<strong>and</strong> obesity as well as depression, memory loss, learningdifficulty <strong>and</strong> schizophrenia (Wikimedia Foundation Inc2011). Folic acid is necessary for fertility in both men <strong>and</strong>women. While folade contributes to spermatogenesis inmen; in women, it contributes to oocyte maturation,implantation, placentation <strong>and</strong> helps throughoutpregnancy. Of greatest importance is the fact that therecannot be a healthy <strong>brain</strong> without enough folic acid. Forexample, if an individual’s neural tube suffered defect dueto inadequate folic acid intake, his entire central nervoussystem (the <strong>brain</strong> <strong>and</strong> all that is concerned with learning)in the person is damaged. The entire cognitive function ofan individual is improved with sufficient consumption offolic acid. Notable experimental studies, documented inWikimedia (2011) have shown that subjects who takefolic acid are significantly better in working-memory, longtermmemory, mental agility <strong>and</strong> verbal fluency thanthose who took placebo. Folic acid is so essential to thecentral nervous system <strong>and</strong> the health of the entirehuman body that the United State of America <strong>and</strong> severalother nations like Canada, Australia, etc. have by law,m<strong>and</strong>ated “fortification”, the adding of folic acid to allgrains products to fortify them <strong>and</strong> get everybody whoeats grain products to automatically take a certaindosage of folic acid. The Food St<strong>and</strong>ards Agency inUnited Kingdom has also recommended fortificationof grains products with folic acid. Each of such nationshas recorded incredible results of cognitive fitness.Nigeria is yet to contemplate fortification of grainsproducts with folate. This absence of dietary consumptionof folic acid in Nigeria is a potent factor for theinvestigation of the effect of folic acid as <strong>brain</strong>-<strong>boosting</strong><strong>food</strong> supplement in this study to ascertain whetherNigerians have nothing to gain by taking folic acid.METHODOLOGYThis study adopted r<strong>and</strong>omized six-group experimentaldesign which is a very powerful <strong>and</strong> most suitablebetween subject’s research design for unquestionableestablishment of cause-<strong>and</strong>-effect relationships betweentwo independent variables <strong>and</strong> one dependent variable(Kpolovie, 2010; Kpolovie, 2007). This experimentaldesign has all the merits of r<strong>and</strong>omized Solomon fourgroupdesign <strong>and</strong> factorial design. This, it does byallowing for the <strong>effects</strong> of two treatment conditions on adependent variable to be studied at once with influence ofpre-test totally removed. R<strong>and</strong>omized six-groupexperimental design does the work that even applicationof Solomon four-group design twice could not do at once,as it elicits two main <strong>effects</strong> <strong>and</strong> an interaction effect(Kpolovie, 2010). The design has six r<strong>and</strong>omized groups,four of which are experimental <strong>and</strong> the other two arecontrol groups as illustrated hereunder.A r<strong>and</strong>omly drawn sample of 72 SSIII boarding studentsfrom an institution of learning in Nigeria <strong>and</strong> sixexperimental conditions were r<strong>and</strong>omized into six groupsas shown above. Subjects in groups 1, 2 <strong>and</strong> 3 weregiven a valid <strong>and</strong> reliable test, called ExperimentalLearning Test, with 3 subscales (Statistical Inference,Phonetics <strong>and</strong> Community Health). The ExperimentalLearning Test was designed in accordance with classicaltest theory (Kpolovie, 2002; Kpolovie, 20010; Kaplan <strong>and</strong>Saccuzzo, 2005) by the researcher to avoid informationthat the subjects or some of them have already beenexposed previously, from confounding the findings of theexperiment. Learning was measured with theExperimental Learning Test with high construct validity(0.82) <strong>and</strong> internal consistency reliability (0.84) thatproportionally covered a Specialized Learning Material(consisting Statistical Inference, Phonetics <strong>and</strong>Community Health) which was specifically designed forthe experiment.A Specialized Learning Material, designed to meetrequirements of constructivism learning material (TexasCollaborative for Teaching Excellence, <strong>and</strong> InstructionalDesign, 2007; North American Division Office ofEducation, 2004-2011) that covers specific areas inStatistical Inference, Phonology <strong>and</strong> Community Healthwas given to the subjects to study. Study hours for thespecialized learning material were 2 of 1 during afternoonprep <strong>and</strong> the other 1 during evening prep each working
Kpolovie 225day in the six weeks that the experiment lasted. Thespecialized learning material was in soft copy form in thelaptop provided for each of the subjects. They wereinitially taught collectively on how to boot the laptop <strong>and</strong>access the file containing the learning material. Onlysubjects in the groups 2 <strong>and</strong> 5 were taught how to access<strong>and</strong> play the <strong>Lumosity</strong> Training games. While subjects ingroups 2 <strong>and</strong> 5 exercised their <strong>brain</strong>s by playing the<strong>Lumosity</strong> games for 15 <strong>and</strong> 30 minutes respectivelyduring each prep period before studying the specializedlearning material, subjects in groups 1, 3, 4 <strong>and</strong> 6 usedthe entire prep time to study the specialized learningmaterial. Electricity supply <strong>and</strong> internet access weremade available throughout the prep time in the school bythe researcher. To ensure that none of the subjects hadaccess to the learning material outside the prep time,their systems <strong>and</strong> modems were taken from them at theend of each prep time. The subjects in groups 1 <strong>and</strong> 4 for<strong>brain</strong>-<strong>boosting</strong> vitamin supplements were given Ginkgobiloba (500mg) <strong>and</strong> Folic acid (folic acid 5mg + B 12 5mcg)three hours before the first prep time, daily. While thoseof them in the <strong>brain</strong>-<strong>boosting</strong> natural or dietary group hadsalmon, sardines, mackerel, blueberries, watermelon,mangoes <strong>and</strong> dark green vegetable each experimentalday. All through the six weeks of the experiment,participants were prevented from taking coffee, alcoholicdrink <strong>and</strong> smoking. At the end of six weeks, the sameExperimental Learning Test that only participants ingroups 1, 2 <strong>and</strong> 3 had written at commencement of theexperiment was administered to all the 72 subjects underthe same strict conditions. Their scores on the test wereanalyzed with two-way ANOVA, Sheffe’s multiplecomparison tests <strong>and</strong> independent samples t-test asappropriate to test tenability of the null hypotheses at0.05 alpha.RESULTSResults showed the omnibus null hypothesis of “nosignificant <strong>effects</strong> of <strong>Lumosity</strong> Training <strong>and</strong> Brain-Boosting Food on student’s leaning” is rejected as boththe <strong>Lumosity</strong> Training effect [F (2, 2) = 24.478, p < .05]<strong>and</strong> interaction effect (<strong>Lumosity</strong> TrainingxBrain-BoostingFood) [F (2, 66) = 7.683, p < .05] were statisticallysignificant. Consequently, multiple comparisons weredone, using Sheffe. Results indicated that those whoreceived 60 minutes daily LT (<strong>Lumosity</strong> Training) learntsignificantly better than subjects exposed to 30 minutesLT, who in turn learnt significantly better than the subjectsin the control group are shown in Table 1 - 2.Perhaps the graphic mean differences of students’learning in the six groups will further clarify the <strong>effects</strong> ofLT <strong>and</strong> B-BF on students’ learning.Thus, while exercising the <strong>brain</strong> with LT for 30 minutesdaily improved learning from a mean of 20 for the controlgroups to almost a mean of 80, 60 minutes LT improvedto almost a mean of 100 from the baseline or pretreatmentmean of 20. Similarly, B-BF (<strong>food</strong> rich inomega-3 fatty acids such as salmon, mackerel, <strong>and</strong>sardines plus <strong>food</strong> rich in antioxidants like blueberries,watermelon <strong>and</strong> mangoes) improved learning from amean of 20 to about a mean of 60; B-BFS or <strong>brain</strong><strong>boosting</strong><strong>food</strong> supplements (Ginkgo biloba <strong>and</strong> Folic acid)improved learning to virtually a mean of 80 from as lowas a mean of 20 in the control groups. In fact, the effectof B-BF on learning is also statistically significant. Forinstance, the mean of learning by subjects who took B-BFS is significantly greater than those who receivednatural B-BF: t (70) = 2.142, p < .05. By the principle ofFisher’s LSD (Least Significance Difference) (Kpolovie,2011), if the learning difference of about 20 pointsbetween B-BF <strong>and</strong> B-BFS is significant, the close to 40mean difference in learning between the control group<strong>and</strong> B-BF as well as the approximately 60 me<strong>and</strong>ifference between control group <strong>and</strong> B-BFS must eachbe statistically significant. Synoptically, each of the fournull hypotheses postulated for this experiment wasrejected on the basis of preponderance of overwhelmingstatistical evidence. The mean <strong>and</strong> st<strong>and</strong>ard deviation onlearning for each of the groups serve as answers to theresearch questions.DISCUSSIONNot only have the results of this experiment corroboratedprevious findings that <strong>Lumosity</strong> Training is anextraordinary exercise for enhancement of learning <strong>and</strong>general cognitive function, but have also concurred withprevious findings in the developed world that <strong>brain</strong><strong>boosting</strong><strong>food</strong> (both in vitamin supplement <strong>and</strong> naturalforms) can overwhelmingly enhance human memory or<strong>brain</strong> in improve learning (Hardt, 2011; WikimediaFoundation Inc, 2011; Ginkg-Ginkgobiloba.com, 2011;Medicine Net Inc, 2011 <strong>and</strong> Helpguide Inc, 2011) in linewith the constructivism learning theory on which theinvestigation was based. Constructivism theory oflearning points to the fact that the learner is at the centerof learning as it is only the learner who can make learningto occur in him. Therefore, to optimize learning, thelearner must be engaged in activities or practices that arecapable of actually enhancing his memory, <strong>brain</strong>,intelligence <strong>and</strong> entire cognitive function maximally. Suchkey practices as revealed by the results of thisinvestigation are <strong>Lumosity</strong> <strong>training</strong> (an online <strong>brain</strong>exercise for 30 or 15 minutes twice daily, beforestudying); <strong>and</strong> eating of <strong>brain</strong>-<strong>boosting</strong> <strong>food</strong> (<strong>food</strong> that isvery rich in omega-3 essential fatty acid like salmon,sardines <strong>and</strong> mackerel; <strong>and</strong> in antioxidants likeblueberries, mangoes, watermelon) every day; as well astaking of <strong>brain</strong>-<strong>boosting</strong> <strong>food</strong> supplements (500mg ofginkgo biloba <strong>and</strong> folic acid 5mg + B 12 5mcg, 3 hoursbefore studying).
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