[011011100]

There are a lot of feel good nonsense posts in this thread. The parent gave no indication he was referring to motivation. It sounded like he was saying his wife suddenly became better at whatever he considers math to be by just playing a video game. That's basically claiming that brain training works. I may have a slightly different definition of "brain training", but it doesn't really matter because it's just as unscientific. There is no evidence to support the idea that playing video games somehow makes you better at "math" (where "math" is referring to those activities that require deductive thought and understanding of mathematical structures, not number crunching).

[Millennium]

Not even so much "brain training works" as "practice makes perfect". It was a fun way to practice, and I thought it might be helpful for other people looking for a way to brush up on the basics.

[011011100]

She's practicing number crunching and maybe some other cognitive tasks that probably can't be related to mathematical thought, unless you squint really hard. I can identify at least one cognitive task: holding configurations in your head (I have played Fire Emblem). From my experience, I would say that this has nothing to do with the type of thought that goes into mathematics. Like I said in my first post: good chess players can do this well. Does that mean good chess players are also good at some part of math?

And, you know, one would have to show that there is some "mathematical thought" that can be trained to begin with. I'm not entirely sure there is.

I don't disagree that "practice makes perfect". I disagree with the statement "practice in fire emblem makes perfect in math (not number crunching)".

People want to share stories. I get it. But if we're not being rigorous about it, then we're just fooling ourselves. And then the conversation devolves into a circlejerk where everyone thinks they're brilliant.

[Millennium]

We were all newbies once, and newbies have to start somewhere, even if it is not the most "pure" of beginnings. The kind of proof-snobbery you're displaying here likely bears a large part of the blame for driving people away from math in the first place.

Yes, there is more to math than number-crunching, but to claim that number-crunching is not math is to forget the very roots of the discipline. This is where it begins, and it's where people who have been out of practice for a while return. Give it some respect.