You can develop your intelligence: 5 ways to maximize your cognitive abilities

Do not pursue goals that are easy to achieve. It is worth aiming at what can be done with difficulty, having made considerable efforts - Albert Einstein

Despite the fact that Einstein was not a neurobiologist, he knew exactly when he spoke about a person’s ability to achieve something. He intuitively guessed that only today we were able to confirm with the help of data, namely: what makes cognitive abilities work at the highest possible level. Essentially: That which does not kill you makes you smarter.

Most recently, my teacher told me that people are not good at controlling their intelligence. It was genetically incorporated at birth. He explained that the efforts made to develop children's intelligence (for example, using programs such as Head Start ) were not very successful after they were put into practice, and besides, as soon as the “training” was over, they immediately returned to initial low level of cognitive abilities. Indeed, the data confirmed this , and he (along with many other researchers of intelligence) came to the conclusion that intelligence cannot be improved, or at least the changes will not be lasting.

However, I objected.
You see, before embarking on this stage of my research, I started working as a Specialist in Behavioral Therapy, teaching young children with autism. These children had a number of cognitive impairments - my task was to teach them in areas that were not sufficiently developed to bring them as close as possible to the level of functioning, like their peers. In order to achieve the goal, in the treatment process we used a variety of methods, or Multimodal Education (when using the maximum number of methods for entering information).

One of my first clients was a little boy with PDD-NOS (Pervasive mental retardation), a non-acute form of autism. When we started treatment, we tested his IQ, and he turned out to be about 80 - this is almost considered mental retardation. After working with him for about three years - individually, teaching him in such areas as communication, reading, mathematics, social behavior, playing skills, entertainment and recreation - using multi-modal techniques - he was re-checked. His IQ was now much more than 100 (considering that 100 is considered "average", compared to the average resident). This is an increase of 20 points, an improvement of more than one level in a child with autism syndrome!
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It was not the only child who before my eyes had progressed significantly during my medical practice. I was very fortunate to see how many children developed rapidly - not by a miracle, and not even taking medicines, there is also evidence of their success. I thought - if these children with serious learning problems were able to progress so much and achieved such success in every aspect of cognitive functioning - why the average person cannot progress as well? Or even achieve great success, given that he has no additional problems in terms of autism?

Although the data from earlier studies did not give very accurate results, I didn’t give up. I still believed that there was a chance to significantly increase cognitive functioning by providing suitable training - as I saw it with my own eyes when I worked as a doctor.

Then in 2008, an amazing study was done, “Increasing the level of mobile intelligence through short-term memory training,” according to the method of Jaggy, Bushkul, Jonids, and Perrig. This research was to some extent a breakthrough for those who explore this topic. They were the first to show that it is actually possible to develop the intellect to a sufficiently high level with the help of training. What did they do differently?

People in the study Jaggy was trained using intensive, multimodal (visual and auditory information input) tasks for short-term memory ( n-back task ) for time periods of different lengths, for one or two weeks, depending on the group. After this training, they were checked to determine how much they improved. Most likely, one would assume that after learning their level has increased. But they went even further. They wanted to see if progress could be transferred to a completely different test of cognitive abilities, which would become indicators of an increase in absolute cognitive ability. What did they discover?

After training short-term memory, using the n-back test, people really were able to transfer a significant increase in the level of cognitive aspect, which is absolutely not related to others. It was a big deal.

The following is a graph of their results, more details about the entire study can be found here .

What is Intellect?

First of all, let me explain what I mean when I say the word "intelligence." To be clear, I’m not just talking about increasing the amount of facts or bits of knowledge that you can accumulate, or what is called crystallized intelligence - this is not training for fluency or memorization - in fact, it is almost the opposite. I'm talking about improving your moving intelligence , or your ability to memorize new information, save it, then use that new knowledge as a basis for solving the next task or learning another new skill and so on.

Now, while short-term memory is not synonymous with intelligence, it is very connected with intelligence. To successfully make an intellectual conclusion, it is rather important to have a good short-term memory. Thus, in order to maximize the use of intelligence, it is worthwhile to significantly improve short-term memory - this is, for example, using the best and most modern details to help the mechanism work at the highest level.

What can we learn from this? This study is important because it was discovered:

Hypothetical intelligence can be trained.
Training and subsequent success depend on the dosage, the more you train, the more benefit you will get.
Each person can develop their cognitive abilities, regardless of the initial level.
Progress can be achieved with the help of training on tasks that do not resemble the questions in the test.

How can this research be applied in practice and benefit from it?

There is a reason why the n-back task has been so successful in increasing cognitive abilities. This training involves the division of attention between competing stimuli, that is, multimodality (one visual stimulus, one auditory stimulus). Here you need to focus on certain details, ignoring inappropriate information, and this helps to improve short-term memory over time, gradually increasing the ability to perceive information effectively in several directions. In addition, the stimulus was constantly switched, so that the phenomenon of “training to the test questions” never occurred - every time there was something new. If you have never taken the n-back test, let me tell you about it: it is very difficult. It is not surprising that from such an occupation there are so many benefits for cognitive abilities.

But let's reason from a practical point of view.
Ultimately, the cards in the deck or the sounds in the piece will end (the experiment lasted 2 weeks), so it’s not practical to think that if you want to continuously increase your intellectual abilities throughout your life, then one n-back will be enough. In addition, you get tired of it, and you stop doing it. I’m sure I’d do that. Not to mention the time you spend on training in this way - we are all very busy all the time! Thus, we should think about how to model the same types of super-efficient multi-modal brain-stimulating techniques - which can be used in a normal life, and yet getting the most out of the growth of cognitive thinking.

So, taking all this into account, I developed five basic elements that will help in the development of mobile intelligence, or cognitive ability. As I have already noted, it is impractical to constantly perform the n-back task or its variations every day for the rest of your life in order to gain benefits for cognitive abilities. But it is practical to change the lifestyle in which it will be the same - and even more benefits for cognitive abilities. This can be done every day in order to benefit from an intense all-brain workout, and also this should go in favor for full cognitive functioning.

These five basic principles are:

Look for innovation
Challenge yourself
Think creatively
Do not go easy way
Be online

Each of these points is a great thing in itself, but if you really want to function at the highest possible cognitive level, it’s better to do all five points, and as often as possible. In fact, I live on these five principles. If you accept them as fundamental guidelines, then I guarantee that you will make the most of your abilities, surpassing even what you thought you were capable of — all without artificial enhancement. Excellent information: Science confirms these principles with data!

1. Look for innovation

It is not a coincidence that such geniuses as Einstein understood many areas, or were scholars, as we call them. Geniuses are constantly looking for new classes, learning new areas. This is their individuality.

Only one trait from the “Great Five” of the Five-Factor Model of Individuality (Acronym: ODEPR, or Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Pleasantness, and Irritability), which is associated with IQ, and this is a trait of Openness to a new experience. People who have a high level of openness are constantly looking for new information, new activities, new things that can be learned - new developments in general.

When you are looking for innovation, several things happen. First of all, you create new synaptic connections with each new activity in which you participate. These connections are based on each other, increasing the activity of the nervous system, creating more connections, so that new connections are created on their basis - thus learning occurs.

An area of interest in a recent study is neural plasticity as a factor in individual differences of intelligence. Plasticity refers to the number of connections created between neurons, and how this affects subsequent connections, and how long these connections are. Basically, this means how much new information you are able to accept, and whether you are able to store it, making permanent changes in the brain. Constantly exposing yourself directly to new things, helps put the brain in its original state for learning.

Innovations also trigger the production of dopamine (I mentioned this earlier in other posts ), which not only strongly motivates, but also stimulates neurogenesis — the creation of new neurons — and prepares the brain for learning. All you have to do is satisfy your hunger.

Excellent condition for learning = New activity-> dopamine production-> contributes to a more motivated state-> which promotes the involvement and creation of neurons-> neurogenesis can occur + an increase in synaptic plasticity (an increase in the number of new nerve connections, or learning).

As a continuation of Jaggy's research, researchers in Sweden found that after 14 hours of short-term memory workouts for 5 weeks, there was an increase in the amount of mandatory dopamine D1 potential in the prefrontal and parietal areas of the brain. This specific dopamine receptor, type D1, is associated with the growth of nerve cells and their development, among other things. This increase in plasticity, contributing to greater fixation of this receptor, is very useful in order to maximize cognitive functioning.

Do the following at home: Be Einstein. Always look for a new activity for the mind - expand your cognitive horizons. Examine the tool. Take a look at painting courses. Go to the museum. Read about the new field of science. Be addicted to knowledge.

2. Challenge yourself

There is a huge amount of horrible works written and distributed about how to "train the brain" and "become smarter." When I talk about “brain training games,” I mean memorization and speed games, the purpose of which is to increase the speed of information processing, etc .; This includes games such as, for example, Sudoku, which are advised to engage in "free time" (complete the oxymoron, given the development of cognitive abilities). I'm going to debunk some of the material that you previously heard about brain training games. Here is what I tell you: They do not work. Individual learning games don't make you smarter — they make you more experienced in educational brain games.

So, they really have a goal, but the result will not last long. To get something out of these types of cognitive activity, you need to turn to the first principle of the search for innovation. Once you have mastered one of these cognitive actions in a brain training game, you must move on to the next stimulating activity. Understand how to play sudoku? Fine! Now move on to the next type of challenging games. Conducted a study that confirms this logic.

A few years ago, scientist Richard Heier wanted to find out if cognitive ability could be significantly increased through intensive training in new types of mental activity in a few weeks. They used the Tetris video game as a new activity, and used people who had never played the game before, as objects of research (I know, I know - can you imagine, such people exist ?!). They found that after training for a few weeks at Tetris, the objects of study showed an increase in cortical thickness, as well as an increase in the activity of the cerebral cortex, as evidenced by an increase in the amount of glucose used in that area of the brain. Basically, the brain used more energy during that training period, and became thicker - this means more nerve connections, or new learned experience - after such intense training. And they became experts at Tetris. Cool, yeah?

Here's the thing: After the initial sharp cognitive growth, they noticed a decrease in both the cortical thickness and the amount of glucose used during the task. However, they still played Tetris well; their skill did not deteriorate. Brain scans showed less brain activity during the game, instead of increasing it, as in previous days. Why decline? Their brain has become more efficient. As soon as their brain understood how to play Tetris, and really began to understand it, it became too lazy to do something. He did not need to work so hard to play the game well, so cognitive energy and glucose went in a different direction.

Efficiency is not your helper when it comes to cognitive growth. In order for the brain to continue to create new compounds and maintain their activity, you must continue to move on to other stimulating activities as soon as you reach the peak of mastery in a particular activity. You want to be in a constant state of little difficulty, struggling to achieve something, no matter what it is, as Einstein noted in his statement. It keeps the brain in limbo, so to speak. We will return to this question later.

3. Think Creative

When I say that to think creatively will help you to improve the nervous system, I do not mean writing a picture, or doing something fanciful, such as, for example, in the first paragraph “Look for innovation”. When I speak of creative thinking, I mean direct creative knowledge, and what it means while the process continues in the brain.

Contrary to popular belief, creative thinking is not “thinking using the right side of the brain.” It involves both halves of the brain, not just the right. ( /), , ( ), , , , . , , .

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