What Are America's Smartest Cities?

Who says playing games can’t make you smart? A recent study by Lumos Labs evaluated users’ game scores across the country to determine which metropolitan areas in the U.S. are the smartest.

1 minute read

June 7, 2012, 8:00 AM PDT

By Akemi Leung

Richard Florida examines a new type of metric that ranks cities according to their residents' cognitive performances. Lumos Labs analyzed the results of more than one million users who played cognitive training games using the company's Lumosity Software that focuses on improving memory, attention, problem solving, speed, and flexibility. This method, which is a departure from standard evaluations comparing education levels, is potentially a "more direct way" to evaluate "brain performance."

Rounding out the top five are:

Charlottesville, Virginia
Lafayette, Indiana
Anchorage Alaska
Madison, Wisconsin
San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose

"The result is not driven principally by college students, according to Daniel Sternberg, the Lumosity data scientist who developed the metro brain performance measure. 'Since our analysis controlled for age, the reason they score well is not simply that they have a lot of young people,' said Sternberg. 'Instead, our analysis seems to show that users living in university communities tend to perform better than users of the same age in other locations.'"

Thanks to Akemi Leung

FULL STORY: America's Brainiest Cities

Wednesday, June 6, 2012 in The Atlantic Cities

Social / Demographics United States Lumos Labs Lumosity

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