Fighting the Zeitgeist

In a Q&A at StackExchange, Jeromy Anglim addresses the question “What exactly is IQ, and how to develop or improve it?” His response offers the following:

“Many quick fixes to boosting intelligence are advertised under the banner such as brain training, however, there is little evidence that they are effective.”

Actually, this does not address the whole true. This was the understanding, years ago, but since then, improvements in testing and analytics have revealed that so-called “brain training” might actually yield positive, long-term results. Studies such as ACTIVE have found that regular mental exercise allows for improvements in memory, reason, and information processing speed-- improvements that can translate into better, more consistent performance in everyday tasks.

In our hypermodern ultra-fast world, it makes sense that people would find  a “quick fix to boost intelligence” appealing. And indeed, there are no brain steroids that are both safe and have a lasting effect. But dedicated body-sculpters will tell you that regular, smart exercise not only yields better results than quick-fixes; they’re healthier and have long-term effects.

You get out of it what you put in. And people are “brain training” all of the time. Whether its a daily crossword or Sudoku, or even reading, studies have shown that such activities can play a part in maintaining mental health into old age.

So, it turns out that playing games and staying “young at heart” can keep you “young at brain” too.