The MRAB is an innovative cognitive aptitude assessment battery created by a research team led by Dr. Stephen Kosslyn, Chair of the Psychology department at Harvard University. Originally designed for use by NASA, the MRAB was created in order to measure the effects of space travel on astronauts' cognitive functions (prolonged space travel can be hard on the brain.) If an astronaut's MRAB score was far below normal on a given day, for example, then maybe someone else should be operating the space shuttle. MRAB-equipped Palm Pilots have even been taken up Mt. Everest by a team of climbers, who used the test to measure the effects of extreme altitude on their cognitive functions.
Cognitive psychologists and neuroscientists now devote much energy to exploring the ways in which the human brain works, and the relationship and interaction between mind and body. When it comes to measuring cognitive ability, one of the few consensuses to emerge is that traditional instruments for measuring an individual's brain power, such as IQ tests and related cognitive aptitude tests, yield only a partial picture of a person's cognitive competency.
The MRAB is based on a new understanding of cognitive competency that is less narrow than the traditional understanding of what constitutes "intelligence." The MRAB tests a subject's attention skills, powers of concentration, working memory, and problem-solving abilities; collectively, these measures provide a measure of a test subject's "brain fitness." As one of the first assessment instruments to emerge from this new research on the brain's information processing power, the MRAB has a unique ability to predict a subject's ability to perform various real-world tasks.