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Memory Training Improves Intelligence
A new study has found that it may be possible to train people
to be more intelligent, increasing the brainpower
they had at birth.
Until now, it had been widely assumed that the kind of mental
ability that allows us to solve new problems without having any
relevant previous experience — what psychologists call fluid
intelligence — is innate and cannot be taught (though people
can raise their grades on tests of it by practicing).
But in the new study, researchers describe a method for improving
this skill, along with experiments to prove it works.
The key, researchers found, was carefully structured training
in working memory — the kind that allows memorization of
a telephone number just long enough to dial it. This type of memory
is closely related to fluid intelligence, according to background
information in the article, and appears to rely on the same brain
circuitry. So the researchers reasoned that improving it might
lead to improvements in fluid intelligence.
First they measured the fluid intelligence of four groups of
volunteers using standard tests. Then they trained each in a complicated
memory task, an elaborate variation on Concentration, the child’s
card game, in which they memorized simultaneously presented auditory
and visual stimuli that they had to recall later.
The game was set up so that as the participants succeeded, the
tasks became harder, and as they failed, the tasks became easier.
This assured a high level of difficulty, adjusted individually
for each participant, but not so high as to destroy motivation
to keep working. The four groups underwent a half-hour of training
daily for 8, 12, 17 and 19 days, respectively. At the end of each
training, researchers tested the participants’ fluid intelligence
again. To make sure they were not just improving their test-taking
skills, the researchers compared them with control groups that
took the tests without the training.
The results, published Monday in The Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, were striking. Although the control groups
also made gains, presumably because they had practice with the
fluid intelligence tests, improvement in the trained groups was
substantially greater. Moreover, the longer they trained, the
higher their scores were. All performers, from the weakest to
the strongest, showed significant improvement.
“Intelligence has always been considered principally an
immutable inherited trait,” said Susanne M. Jaeggi, a postdoctoral
fellow in psychology at the University of Michigan and a co-author
of the paper. “Our results show you can increase your intelligence
with appropriate training.”
Why did the training work? The authors suggest several aspects
of the exercise relevant to solving new problems: ignoring irrelevant
items, monitoring ongoing performance, managing two tasks simultaneously
and connecting related items to one another in space and time.
No one knows how long the gains will last after training stops,
Dr. Jaeggi said, and the experiment’s design did not allow
the researchers to determine whether more training would continue
to produce further gains.
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