How can we account for why cognitive speed training seems to reduce Alzheimer’s risk? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Working with images on a computer screen on a task that gets faster and more complex may reduce one’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease by 25% compared with a memory task or no training. Study author and Alzheimer’s disease expert Marilyn Albert at Johns Hopkins says the first type of learning is implicit while the second type is explicit.

Albert: In implicit learning you're learning something without being given instructions. You're just getting better and the task may be as complicated but over time you improve your performance. Explicit learning is when somebody gives you instructions and you try to apply those instructions. The memory and the reasoning training was explicit memory. People were being given instructions and they tried then to apply them not only to the task but to their daily lives whereas in the speed training they were just sitting at a computer trying to do the best they could in order to perform the task.   :34

Albert says participants likened the speed training to driving a car. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.