The Globe and Mail

Out with the old, in with the new. But what if the old could become new - or at least newer - again?

That's the question being asked by Cogniciti, a new for-profit company that will create and market products designed to help adults extend their memories and cognitive abilities.

The Toronto-based business is a partnership between two non-profit organizations, Baycrest and the MaRS Discovery District, an organization that helps science, technology and social entrepreneurs build their companies.

Cogniciti may have just launched in December, 2009, but it's been a long time coming. Twenty years of brain research at Baycrest's Research Centre for Aging and the Brain precede it, Baycrest chairman Anthony Melman says. “Science has matured to a level where we can now provide tools to people who are aging to keep their brains functioning in a much more effective way,” he says. “Where we are with brain fitness is where the world was 40 years ago with physical fitness.”

The company's first product, Memory@Work, targets the aging brain in the workplace. “We see the impact of changes in our brains on our ability to be successful at work,” says Baycrest CEO William Reichman. “We don't want to be shown the door because we're not as effective as our younger colleagues. And that's a sensibility among baby boomers that's quite widespread,” he says, pointing to the fact that one in three workers in North America will be 50 and older in 2010.

Memory@Work is Cogniciti's first product not only because of the opportunity the ballooning baby boomer population presents, but also because it's the most commercially ready and will be rolled out this year. Baycrest researchers have already piloted a version of the product with 120 participants. Among other positive results, participants reported an improved ability in remembering job-related tasks and information.

Where the pilot program focused on one-on-one lectures followed by pen and paper exercises, Cogniciti's product will comprise group workshops followed by computer games and exercises designed to sharpen memory and improve problem-solving and multi-tasking skills. Participants will also have access to one-on-one coaching via phone and Internet. Cogniciti will partner with existing corporate wellness program distributors to sell Memory@Work to corporate clients, at a cost comparable to that of other wellness-at-work programs. Corporate training courses typically cost between $250 and $1,000 per employee.

“We have different kinds of memory and different techniques suit each type,” says Veronika Litinski, MaRS's business lead for Cogniciti. “The workshop teaches participants what kind of memory they're using in certain situations and what techniques will work best.”

For example, committing something to memory when you're distracted requires a different technique than remembering something you only need to recall in the short term.

One exercise taught in the workshop, and later enforced in computer exercises, is known as space repetition. The most effective way to commit something to long-term memory, such a phone number, is to repeat it at increasing time intervals. Mass repetition, which is what many of us are tempted to do, won't work. “Repeating it 20 times in a row will not make any difference,” Ms. Litinski says.

Here's what will: Repeat the phone number at 30 seconds, 90 seconds, three minutes, five minutes. “You'll remember it for the rest of your life,” she says.

Who's to say any of it will actually work? Cold, hard, scientific facts, says Ms. Litinski. “Credible outcomes and data drive Cogniciti's strategy,” she says. “Cogniciti is uniquely well positioned for the corporate market because of its strong affiliation with Baycrest and its data-centric product development approach,” she adds, noting that Baycrest scientists have published extensively on the validity of the techniques used in Memory@ Work.