Brain Fitness Training - Make Yourself Smarter
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When French psychologist Alfred Binet designed the first standardized intelligence test, he felt strongly that an IQ score shouldn't become a label. Binet feared that a low IQ score could affect a person's self esteem as well as the opinions of others. But it wasn't long before people were using IQ test scores to categorize and discriminate. Henry Goddard, who popularized IQ testing in the US, held that low IQ was caused by a recessive gene. Goddard's views echoed those of the American public at the time, who worried that a disproportionate number of immigrants were of low intelligence.
For several generations it's been commonly believed that our childhood IQ remains more or less stable throughout life. But the science on the matter contradicts this belief, disproving Goddard's prejudice. Whereas some degree of intelligence derives from inheritance, a large part is shaped and developed through our environment and formative experience.
The research then supports the idea that we could take steps to change our intelligence. However, despite many attempts, until recently no one had been able to devise a method for doing so in a measurable and reliable way.
Brain Training That Makes You Smarter
It was Graeme Halford (a Professor of Psychology at the University of Queensland) who first proposed that the brain functions that work on problem-solving compete for processing cycles with the functions that control working-memory. Halford theorized that our capacity to hold things in our mind overlaps with the functions of fluid intelligence.
A team of researchers from the Universities of Michigan and Bern picked up on Halford's theory and took it a step further. If working-memory can be increased by training, they posited, perhaps this would lead to an increase in fluid intelligence. To test this idea, the scientists developed a task that would develop a subject's working-memory.
Using questions from a standard IQ test and comparing to a control group who weren't trained, the study showed that fluid intelligence did increase with working-memory training. Moreover, the increases were considerable. With just 19 days of training, all participants in the trained group recorded increases over and above the control group of more than 40%.
The team published its results in April of this year, engendering a good deal of attention. Not surprisingly, many people who read about the study wanted to try the training for themselves. (In the interests of full disclosure, I should point out that I was one of those people; my company launched a commercial version of the working-memory training back in June. I've experienced myself and heard from many customers that the training works just as well outside the lab. We've even had people increase IQ scores on full-scale moderated tests - a finding that the researchers hesitated to predict.)
Finally then we can relegate the concept of fixed IQ to the scrap-heap of mistaken ideas. Alfred Binet would appreciate this advance, I bet, although he might wonder why it took so long for us to get here.
For several generations it's been commonly believed that our childhood IQ remains more or less stable throughout life. But the science on the matter contradicts this belief, disproving Goddard's prejudice. Whereas some degree of intelligence derives from inheritance, a large part is shaped and developed through our environment and formative experience.
The research then supports the idea that we could take steps to change our intelligence. However, despite many attempts, until recently no one had been able to devise a method for doing so in a measurable and reliable way.
Brain Training That Makes You Smarter
It was Graeme Halford (a Professor of Psychology at the University of Queensland) who first proposed that the brain functions that work on problem-solving compete for processing cycles with the functions that control working-memory. Halford theorized that our capacity to hold things in our mind overlaps with the functions of fluid intelligence.
A team of researchers from the Universities of Michigan and Bern picked up on Halford's theory and took it a step further. If working-memory can be increased by training, they posited, perhaps this would lead to an increase in fluid intelligence. To test this idea, the scientists developed a task that would develop a subject's working-memory.
Using questions from a standard IQ test and comparing to a control group who weren't trained, the study showed that fluid intelligence did increase with working-memory training. Moreover, the increases were considerable. With just 19 days of training, all participants in the trained group recorded increases over and above the control group of more than 40%.
The team published its results in April of this year, engendering a good deal of attention. Not surprisingly, many people who read about the study wanted to try the training for themselves. (In the interests of full disclosure, I should point out that I was one of those people; my company launched a commercial version of the working-memory training back in June. I've experienced myself and heard from many customers that the training works just as well outside the lab. We've even had people increase IQ scores on full-scale moderated tests - a finding that the researchers hesitated to predict.)
Finally then we can relegate the concept of fixed IQ to the scrap-heap of mistaken ideas. Alfred Binet would appreciate this advance, I bet, although he might wonder why it took so long for us to get here.
About the Author:
Learn more: increasing fluid intelligence by training working-memory. Martin Walker is a member of The British Neuroscience Association, Learning and The Brain, and MENSA. Mind Evolve, LLC publishes free information on the field of neuroscience and brain training, as well as effective, affordable brain training software under the Mind Sparke brand.
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