How Luminous Is The Lumosity Performance Index?
The Lumosity Performance Index (LPI) is the proprietary scale of the online brain training and research company ‘Lumosity.’ It constitutes: the game LPI, the area LPI, and the overall LPI. The overall LPI is directly averaged from all game LPIs in the five separate cognitive areas: (1) Speed Processing, (2) Memory, (3) Attention, (4) Flexibility, and (5) Problem Solving. Each area LPI is averaged from the relevant game LPIs. Each game LPI is (re)calculated every time you play the game, giving you the malleability to move upward, and ultimately, increase your overall LPI. For this reason, I believe its test-retest reliability is inherently contradicted, complicating further psychometric research into any use of LPI as a cognitive assessment — unlike their new Brain Performance Test (BPT) to study training-related changes. The daily registration of mood and sleep patterns prior to training, could potentially be the only bright side of its test-retest reliability, as these factors are said to affect performance. This is provoking since the games are developed from actual neuropsychological tests:
Over the past year, I did regularly play (for fun) the free version — with restrictions on daily use along with limited games and basic features. Given these conditions, the LPI that I generated also cannot be comparable to that of the full version. What other consistency could we — prima facie — observe? Luckily, the website provides a brief look into its measurement scale; a glance at how internal consistency could be analyzed. For example:
Why the scrutiny? The LPI was formerly known as the Brain Performance Index (BPI). The algorithm along with marketing of the scale drastically changed last year. The reason Lumosity briefly gives is unsatisfying. Immediately, I suspected that at least part of the reason had to do with the liability issue of claiming a “Brain” Performance Index without rigorous empirical research supporting its reliability and validity. This is given the fact that they claim an assessment of your cognitive abilities, and that using the service will improve your score — only recently have they switched to LPI and implemented the separate BPT. The company still displays research showing improvements. But, it’s not about the fact that Lumosity doesn’t work, but how significant is this commercial product relative to brain training of any other kind. To date, efficacy research has shown mixed results.
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