Memory Training Can Make You Smarter
For years researchers have thought that IQ – the standard measure of intelligence, or the ability to solve new problems and reason well—could not be changed. You were either born smart, not smart, or somewhere in between. No one really believed there was something that could be done to boost your native intelligence. That is changing now though! A study published in Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences shatters that belief. See Full Study Here.
Several training sessions were run using a computerized test that was designed to become harder as the participants’ scores rose and easier as their scores went down. The participants’ intelligence was measured before taking the first test and after each training session. The researchers found that intelligence levels began improving after 12 days and were significantly better after 17 days.
“Our findings clearly show that intelligence is not immutable,” says coinvestigator Susanne M. Jaeggi, a postdoctoral fellow in psychology at the University of Michigan. But, she adds, “you can’t expect to get smarter if you do such a training once or twice. You really have to stick to it for a fairly long amount of time.”
That is certainly good news for our children, as we now know that a little bit of brain training on regular basis can bring long term benefits in their brain development.
