Posted on 04/28/2008 7:25:57 PM PDT by blam
Simple brain exercise can boost IQ
22:00 28 April 2008
NewScientist.com news service
Alison Motluk
Can mental training improve your intelligence? No video game or mental puzzle has convincingly been shown to work. But now a group of neuropsychologists claims it has found a task that can add points to a person's IQ – and the harder you train, they say, the more you gain.
So-called "fluid intelligence", or Gf, is the ability to reason, solve new problems and think in the abstract. It correlates with professional and educational success and it appears to be largely genetic.
Past attempts to boost Gf have suggested that, although by training you can achieve great gains on the specific training task itself, those gains don't transfer to other tasks.
Now Susanne Jaeggi at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, US, and her colleagues say that is not true.
They invited 70 healthy adults to participate in a challenging training exercise known as the "dual n-back" task.
Daily training The first part of the exercise involves small squares on a screen that pop into a new location every three seconds. Volunteers have to press a button when the current location is a duplicate of two views earlier.
For the second part, the volunteers have to simultaneously carry out the same task with letters. Consonants are played through headphones and they have to press a button when they hear one that is the same as that heard two "plays" earlier.
If participants perform well, the interval to be tracked (n) increases to three or more stages earlier.
Jaeggi's volunteers were trained daily for about 20 minutes for either 8, 12, 17 or 19 days (with weekends off). They were given IQ tests both before and after the training.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
I don’t get it.
I think it’s been stated for years that things like working crossword puzzles help older people’s brains working better.
Lol, I may not have worded that in the best way.
It doesn’t help democrats or socialists. They are stuck on stupid.
I started to think it was going to be waterboarding.
It’s my only hope!
I would argue that people in general don’t spend enough time thinking; critically or otherwise. By taking an initial test, spending 2+ weeks concentrating intensely on a task that does require concentration, then taking a second test that they’ve put into use a “muscle” that they very rarely exercise.
Nah, it's learning to put the toilet seat down. Or up? Or first up, then down?
Oh well, there goes that IQ test.
Okie, doke! Let’s then stay clueless as to what this means. Because what this demonstrates, nothing less or more, is that all IQ tests measure is the ability to solve puzzles, which ability is part of intelligence, sure, but not all of it, and, arguably, not the most critical part of it. D’uh!
Yeah, that's for sure.
***
My brain needs a personal trainer.
>nothing less or more, is that all IQ tests measure is the ability to solve puzzles,
That is incorrect.
Well, other than my boo - boo, in writing “brains working better”, it was worded OK, lol.
I prefer to do the Daily Cryptoquote in my head, without aid of a writing tool.
“Here I’m thinking fluid intelligence refers to beer!”
You are right. Beer is “fluid intelligence”.
One afternoon at Cheers, Cliff Clavin was explaining the Buffalo Theory to his buddy Norm…
“Well ya see Norm, it’s like this… A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members.
“In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the lowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, as we all know, kills brain cells, but naturally it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer elimates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. That’s why you always feel smarter after a few beers.”
Ha! you better get crackin on those crosswords...LOL.
IQ tests measure different things, and they have been very helpful in determining what parts of my daughter’s brain is damaged. An MRI showed that she had damage, but the IQ tests really tell us what she can and can’t do.
For one thing, she has great long term memory, but horrible short term memory. She also has some processing problems.
IQ tests don’t tell the whole picture, but they are valuable in giving us information.
It also doesn’t mean she is smart or not smart. She is actually gifted at math. She just has other areas that don’t work well.
Lol, that WAS pretty funny! All that and I make a messup, I’m still laughing.
Well, sorta...
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