Here is my Cliff's Notes version of the article's list:<p>5 Ways to Increase Your Cognitive Potential:<p>1) Seek Novelty. Openness to new activities correlates with IQ, because those individuals are constantly seeking new information, new activities to engage in, new things to learn, and new experiences.<p>2) Challenge Yourself. Brain games like Sudoku don't work to increase cognitive potential if you keep playing them. You play them, learn how the game works, then move onto a new challenge.<p>3) Think Creatively. This doesn't mean "thinking with the right side of your brain." It means using both halves of your brain to make remote associations between ideas and switching back and forth between conventional and unconventional thinking (cognitive flexibility) to generate original ideas appropriate to the activity you are doing. Like thinking both inside and outside the box when trying to solve a problem.<p>4) Do Things the Hard Way. GPS as an example. You may use GPS because you have a poor sense of direction. Using GPS will make it worse because you aren't giving your brain a chance to learn and build its ability to navigate. Same thing with auto-correct/spell check. You can't spell anymore because you rely on software to fix your mistakes.<p>5) Network. Whether on social media or in person, this gives you exposure to different ideas and environments that you otherwise wouldn't be exposed to. It allows you opportunities to practice the previous 4 objectives. Knowing more people gives you the chance to tap into more collective knowledge and experience.
One of the most consistent ways research has demonstrated to increase connectivity in the brain is to learn new physical skills. Controlling the body in space appears to be particularly good at stimulating the growth of new synapses (and possibly new neurons as well, though the research is not conclusive here outside the hippocampus). Yoga is a good start. Modern dance, breakdancing, capoeira and gymnastics are all excellent if you're slightly more athletic.<p>Beyond that, practicing thinking in different ways really helps your brain develop. One thing that most people neglect is geometric/mechanical intelligence. Get some 3D puzzles, and once you get really good at them, start building simple machines. If you never got good at math, trying to pick up some advanced mathematics can be a good exercise as well.
"
Efficiency is not your friend when it comes to cognitive growth. In order to keep your brain making new connections and keeping them active, you need to keep moving on to another challenging activity as soon as you reach the point of mastery in the one you are engaging in. You want to be in a constant state of slight discomfort, struggling to barely achieve whatever it is you are trying to do
"
Then working in IT (aka being in a constant state of noob-ness) is making you ever smarter.
<i>First of all, let me explain what I mean when I say the word "intelligence". ...I'm talking about increasing your fluid intelligence, or your capacity to learn new information, retain it, then use that new knowledge as a foundation to solve the next problem, or learn the next new skill, and so on.</i><p>And when you define intelligence this way, it turns out that the best way to increase your intelligence is to practice learning new things.<p>But what if you defined intelligence as depth of insight instead? It would seem that were one to define it that way, dropping new skills as soon as the novelty wears off would be counterproductive.
> once the "training" stopped, they went right back to their previously low cognitive levels... not to create a lasting change.<p>This article criticizes previous methods for lacking enduring effect, but does not claim enduring improvement for any of the promoted methods (including for the boy with PDD-NOS, and dual n-back) nor revisit the issue. On the contrary, it later claims that on-going training is required. This is not "lasting change".<p>This article is written enthusiastically rather than scientifically. It reminds me of "In Search of Excellence", that had sensible, intuitively appealing advice, but whose supporting data turned out to be fabricated.<p>Also, quoting Einstein is a red flag. He wasn't a polymath (unless you count several areas of theoretical physics as wide learning).<p>Still, it's interesting, and what more can you expect from popsci Scientific American?
I thought dual n-back had been discredited as a method of increasing cognitive performance. I know there must be some experts on here - would you care to comment?
I can relate to that. I am not super-intelligent, I have ADD, and generally consider myself to be lazy and distraction-prone.<p>However, for some reasons unknown, I have excellent working memory, which allows me to perform feats. Multi-choice exams? Can prepare for anything in few hours. Learn Scala (and another 5-6 programming languages) in a few months? Easy! I don't use password managers, as I remember all my long passwords. And credit card numbers. And phone numbers. This multiplies my intelligence quite significantly.<p>If only I could be consistently productive...
> In order to keep your brain making new connections and keeping them active, you need to keep moving on to another challenging activity as soon as you reach the point of mastery in the one you are engaging in.<p>Mastery may be too strong of a word here but the intention is definitely clear. It seems to me that certain activities are more suited to naturally force novelty on someone. Musicianship comes to mind, as when one finishes learning a piece, they can advance to a more challenging one, which would be considered 'novel'.
As the article is pretty old I suggest looking at a more recent discussion of the topic:
<a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v531/n7592_supp/full/531S10a.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v531/n7592_supp/full/53...</a>
Hypotheses concerning intelligence from this article:<p>1. It is correlated with short term memory.<p>2. It is anti-correlated with experience. "Efficiency is not your friend."<p>3. Technology affecting cognition (think of a map or a calculator) acts as a crutch to reduce the required intelligence for an activity. Just like physical technology.<p>4. Intelligence is correlated with social skills.
So plowing through many different games on e.g. Steam, and just playing each game for a short period (not trying to excel or improve your scores) before moving on to the next game, could somewhat satisfy #1 and #2 (novely + challenge)?
As someone who previously fit the diagnostic criteria for PDD-NOS as a child and no longer does - I wonder how much of the described effect comes from a potential, sparsely documented trait of HF autism spectrum disorders that starts a person at a lower cognitive level but has more potential than others to overcome such a handicap?<p>I'd love to see more study in this - at age 15 (whilst heavily medicated) I had the social skills of a 9 year old, generally because of the lag of having to find processes that worked for me where neurotypical kids had a naturally good environment to learn these things. Since striking out and finding my own path I've grown leaps and bounds and many people I respect as having good social skills and emotional intelligence call me charismatic.<p>My hypothesis is that autistic kids /require/ a rational framework with which to work in dynamic situations, but while young do not have enough well-developed/healthy cognitive maps or experience to achieve a workable one until later. Couple that with low expectations and special treatment - necessary to stave off active pain but eventually turning into a crutch - had I stayed on medication/done what the doctors/teachers/parent said I have no doubt I would probably be on some sort of disability or at the very least not have the skillsets that have given me success today.<p>All that said, I'm certainly a firm believer of being able to grow cognitively at any age. There's just a hell of a lot of inertia that is very easy to get into - habits die very very hard and require a lot of effort to overcome. When you don't have the ability to do a hard reset and move away, get out of the space you're in it gets harder.
This fits well for anyone working in web development. The quote: "You want to be in a constant state of slight discomfort, struggling to barely achieve whatever it is you are trying to do" explains how I feel whenever I'm starting out with new frameworks, languages and tools. The webdev world is in a constant state of flux. This year is a great example for me, as I'm in the process of learning: ES6, Typescript, Angular2, RxJS and Webpack--I'm always in a state of "slight discomfort".<p>I just have to avoid using "Google" and "StackOverflow" to parallel the author's experience of travelling in Boston without GPS, but I don't think I'm ready for that yet.
> While Einstein was not a neuroscientist, he sure knew what he was talking about in regards to the human capacity to achieve.<p>This line gets to me because it paints a neuroscientist in an unqualified light. This kind of implicit trust breeds pseudoscience through inflated egos.
By the way, this is why Lumosity is generally regarded as "crap" by the scientific community (and why they were fined $2M for deceptive advertising[1]). Any "improvement" you see in playing Lumosity's games isn't improvement in mental acuity, but efficiencies in repetition (#2).<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10845068" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10845068</a>
Should have "2011" in the title, as there has been new research on the article topic since then, and this article isn't the last word on the topic.
It is one thing to improve the IQ of rapidly-growing children who have developmental disorders, and quite another to improve the fluid intelligence of adults.<p>Brain training games don't boost IQ <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/6/22/11993078/brain-training-games-dont-boost-iq" rel="nofollow">http://www.vox.com/2016/6/22/11993078/brain-training-games-d...</a>
> Novel Activity—>triggers dopamine—>creates a higher motivational state—>which fuels engagement<p>Is there anyone else that <i>doesn't</i> get this reaction?<p>I usually just feel tired and then ennui sets in.
Well, I can tell you this... I did tests long time ago and since the test I got many contacts around since my IQ is extremely high. I don't socialize with people I had only few people with who I have spended some longer time and I have noticed since the begining of our friendship untill now their way of thinking extremely changed. Sometimes I even don't like this... I feel like a battery which is charging others for nothing.