In 2016, Lumosity agreed to pay $2 million to settle charges from the US Federal Trade Commission: the app had promised better performance at school, at work and against age-related decline, without solid evidence. That same year, a major scientific review concluded that such exercises improve the trained tasks, help less with similar ones, and do little for everyday mental life.
Remembering is not replaying a recording — it is rebuilding. Each time you recall a memory, it becomes temporarily malleable and can be altered before being stored again. That is why two people can sincerely remember the same event… differently.
In 2003, Johnson and Goldstein compared European countries. Where you must tick a box to become a donor, consent rates ranged from 4% to 28%. Where you're a donor by default unless you opt out, they topped 85%. People aren't more generous on one side; most simply stick with whatever option was chosen for them.