How Matiks Trains Your Brain's Executive Functions (Not Just Calculation)
When you use Matiks, you're doing much more than just practicing math. You're giving a powerful workout to your brain's "CEO"—a set of crucial skills called Executive Functions. 🧠💼
These high-level skills, located in your prefrontal cortex, are what allow you to plan, focus, and mentally multitask. Strengthening them improves nearly every aspect of your life. Here's how Matiks targets the three core executive functions.
1. Working Memory 📝
What it is: Your brain's mental scratchpad—the ability to hold and work with information in your mind.
How Matiks trains it: Many puzzles require you to hold a rule or the result of a previous step in your mind to solve the next part. For example, a multi-step puzzle like "Take the number of sides on a pentagon, multiply by 4, then subtract 10" forces you to hold and update the numbers $5 \rightarrow 20 \rightarrow 10$ in your head.
2. Cognitive Flexibility 🔄
What it is: The ability to switch gears and think about a problem from different angles. It's thinking outside the box.
How Matiks trains it: We interleave our puzzles, meaning you might go from a number sequence to a spatial logic puzzle to an algebra problem all in one session. Your brain can't just stay on one track; it's forced to be flexible, analyze each new problem, and shift its strategy accordingly. This is a direct workout for mental agility.
3. Inhibitory Control 🛑
What it is: Your brain's brakes. The ability to stop and think before acting, suppressing an impulsive first guess.
How Matiks trains it: We design puzzles with tempting but incorrect "trap" answers. Consider: "A bat and ball cost 1.00 more than the ball. How much is the ball?" The impulsive answer is 1.10 + 0.10 \neq 1.100.05). Every time you double-check a pattern or resist jumping to a conclusion, you're building this vital skill.