Can intelligence increase

Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors.

Brain training is big business. From online websites to video games to mobile apps , it seems like there are plenty of ways to give your brain a bit of a boost. But does all this brain training really work? Can it increase your cognitive abilities or your IQ? According to a few recent studies, while these brain training tools might help sharpen your abilities to retain information, they won't necessarily increase your intelligence or improve your ability to reason and think abstractly.

The parent company of one of the most prominent "brain training" websites, Lumosity, was fined by the Federal Trade Commission in January for deceptive advertising.

And that brings us to the last element to maximize your cognitive potential: Networking. If not, start. By networking with other people—either through social media such as Facebook or Twitter, or in face-to-face interactions—you are exposing yourself to the kinds of situations that are going to make objectives much easier to achieve.

By exposing yourself to new people, ideas, and environments, you are opening yourself up to new opportunities for cognitive growth. Being in the presence of other people who may be outside of your immediate field gives you opportunities to see problems from a new perspective, or offer insight in ways that you had never thought of before. Learning is all about exposing yourself to new things and taking in that information in ways that are meaningful and unique—networking with other people is a great way to make that happen.

Steven Johnson , author who wrote the book "Where Good Ideas Come From", discusses the importance of groups and networks for the advancement of ideas. If you are looking for ways to seek out novel situations, ideas, environments, and perspectives, then networking is the answer. It would be pretty tough to implement this "Get Smarter" regiment without making networking a primary component. Greatest thing about networking: Everyone involved benefits.

Collective intelligence for the win! Remember back to the beginning of this article where I told the story about my clients with autism spectrum disorders? Why were those children able to achieve at such a high level?

It was not by chance or miracle—it was because we incorporated all of these learning principles into their therapy program. While most other therapy providers were stuck in the " Errorless Learning " paradigm and barely-modified " Lovaas Techniques " of Applied Behavior Analysis, we adopted and fully embraced a multimodal approach to teaching. We made the kids struggle to learn, we used the most creative ways we could think of, and we challenged them beyond what they seemed capable of—we set the bar very high.

They surpassed that bar time and time again, and made me truly believe that amazing things are possible if you have enough will and courage and perseverance to set yourself on that path and stick with it. If those kids with disabilities can live this lifestyle of constantly maximizing their cognitive potential, then so can you.

This is the kind of intelligence that is valuable, and this is the type of intelligence we should be striving for and encouraging. The motivation for the former is driven by dopamine, and associated with curiosity—the latter by adrenaline, and typically associated with more dangerous activities. Garlick, D. Psychological Review , , no. Haier, R. Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Cerebral glucose metabolism and intelligence.

Vernon, Biological approaches to the study of human intelligenc e pp. Norwood, N. Susanne M. Jaeggi, M. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Ramey, C. Early Intervention and Early Experience. American Psychologist , Sternberg, R. PNAS , , no. Implicit Theories of Intelligence, Creativity, and Wisdom. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 49 , The Theory of Sucessful Intelligence. Review of General Psychology, 3 , Weinberg, R. Intelligence and IQ.

She teaches social skills, communication, and behavior intervention in home and community settings, training both children as well as parents on methods of therapy. As well as being a researcher of creativity, she is also herself a fine artist and has been trained in various visual communication medium, ranging from traditional drawing to digital painting, graphic design, and 3D modeling and animation for the medical and behavioral sciences.

The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Scientific American. The views expressed are those of the author s and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.

Already a subscriber? Sign in. Thanks for reading Scientific American. Create your free account or Sign in to continue. See Subscription Options. Go Paperless with Digital. One must develop an instinct for what one can just barely achieve through one's greatest efforts. Well, I disagreed. What is "Intelligence"? The take-home points from this research?

This study is relevant because they discovered: 1. Fluid intelligence is trainable. In fact, memory games have been used in research studies to explore how memory relates to language and object knowledge. Reasoning and language are both used as intelligence measures, meaning that memory activities can continue to develop intelligence. Executive control is the ability to control complex cognitive activities.

Research suggests that executive function is strongly tied to fluid reasoning, one aspect of human intelligence. In one study , researchers found that improving visuospatial reasoning led to an increase in IQ test scores. Relational Frame Theory relates to the development of human cognition and language through relational associations.

Research from has shown that using Relational Frame Theory as an intervention can significantly improve IQ scores in children. A more recent study using this intervention also found improvements in IQ, verbal reasoning, and numeric reasoning. One study found that musicians have better working memory than non-musicians.

It should come as no surprise that learning multiple languages is beneficial to the human brain — and the earlier, the better. A recent study investigated the relationship between early language learning and IQ. The results indicated that language learning through talk and interaction from 18 to 24 months was most beneficial for cognitive outcomes later in life.

In fact, the benefits on development are even more pronounced when books become part of parental bonding activities. In one recent study , researchers discovered that when parents read aloud to their children, the child had greater language and cognitive development skills.

In a review of studies on IQ and education, over , participants were studied to determine the effect of education on IQ levels. The researchers found that for every additional year of formal education, participants experienced a boost of one to five IQ points. Your brain is also more likely to come up with creative ideas. According to research , regularly playing an instrument can change the shape of your brain, thus improving cognitive skills. It can even increase IQ by seven points in both children and adults.

Musical skills can also carry over to non-musical skills, including processing auditory information. A person who practices an instrument has an increased grasp of language, motor skills, and intelligence in general. Practicing an instrument, and therefore increasing your intelligence, requires actively learning how to improve your music skill and progressing onto more difficult music pieces.

Regardless of when you start, learning a new language can improve your brain in numerous ways. Research has shown that language studies result in an increase in the hippocampus and cortical thickness. When you practice a foreign language, the parts of your brain associated with language undergo structural changes.

As you start speaking and listening to more than one language, you develop a better sense of focus while ignoring irrelevant information. Your brain learns to switch between different languages and becomes more attuned to auditory information.

This skill flows into other aspects of life, such as gaining new skills and listening to people speak. Learning a language can be as immersive as you want it to be. You can learn by regularly using a language app, enrolling in a class, or even spending a summer abroad. Your muscles ache afterward.