How to Get Smarter

What is intelligence?  How do you define it?  Is it something that can be standardized with test scores and grades?  Is it more about your problem solving capabilities or common sense?  Is it your “street smarts” or your “classroom smarts” that count more?

einstein-formule-tableau

Image Source: mjmmedia.com)

 

Different cultures, ethnicities and socioeconomic groups define smart differently, making it clear there is no objective, quantifiable standard.  Regardless of what anyone thinks intelligence could be, it’s all obviously tied to the human mind, and many studies are now showing we ARE getting dumber.

A University of Sweden study showed we have lost almost 14 IQ points on average since the Victorian times.  A further study conducted by Dr. Richard Flynn of the University of Ulster indicated that while median IQ in the United State went up three points from 1930 until 1980, it had already declined by 1 point by 2000 and is estimated to drop another 1.3 points by 2050. 

What does all this mean to the average Joe?  It means it is time to stimulate and exercise your brain.  Neural networks strengthen and expand through learning experiences and pushing the brains capacity to react and store information.  Without further ado, here are some of the best ways to work out the brain.

 

Classic Game Changers

While technology has taken brain training to the next level, there is something to be said for more classic games.  Old-fashioned board, card and puzzle games stimulated the mind long before smart devices came along.

Crossword, logic and other visual puzzles have been proven to be beneficial to those with some memory degeneration or issues with visual memory because they often force an individual to think outside the box.   Puzzles make the brain combine memory and imaginative association in order to see a pattern or solve the puzzle.

Card games, like poker combine strategy with creative problem solving.  Playing poker can keep your intellect sharp as it focuses on objectives such as figuring out what your opponent has or manipulating them into folding a better hand.  Playing multiple games of online poker at the same time increases multi-tasking efficiency and the ability to be strategic on several different fronts at once. All this activates the frontal lobe of the brain, which is responsible for rational thinking and attention.

Simple age-old games such as chess and checkers teach patience and planning as well as cultivating a strategy for short-term losses and a long term win. And of course, if you can’t find the old-fashioned board or card game, almost everything is available online or for devices and phones.

 

Video Game Challenges

Video games have long been seen as the villain in the game of learning, but new studies show that playing video games is actually more like a “gateway drug” to new ways of learning. Video games, both on the computer and game consoles, provide the opportunity to teach things that are difficult to learn in a classroom, such as problem-solving. 

Video games teach the scientific method of coming up with a hypothesis, collecting data for or against it and refining it over and over again.  Video gamers are seen to have improved spatial and logical intelligence.  Games make a player learn in three dimensions and improve his or her ability to solve conflict.

A study conducted by the National Academy of Sciences in 2014 stated that action video games actually help facilitate the development of better perceptual templates; meaning their brains are able to more rapidly focus on, understand and organize the stimulus and patterns that enter through the senses.  That, combined with the fact that they are pretty darn fun, makes a couple hours of Warcraft way more worthwhile.

 

Mobile App Brain Trainers

It seems that all these statistics regarding our drop in IQ have, of course, triggered an exuberant amount of new games and brain training apps. Over 500 new apps hit Android Play and the Apple Store every day, and many of them promote brain training with puzzles, tests, and other games.

It appears that every game developer is suddenly putting together teams of cognitive psychologists and neuroscientists in their effort to create apps that increase focus, improve logic and memory, and facilitate better emotional intelligence.  Some claim to boost IQ and some to stave off dementia, but all are guaranteed to take up your time.

Some of the most popular ones are Luminosity and Elevate, both of which use games to stimulate the mind.  Both give you a limited number of games for the free download and require a monthly or annual subscription to have unlimited access.  They allow for customizing based on what you want to improve and can change your routine daily.

Mensa, the worldwide organization of people in the top 2% of IQs in the world, developed another interesting app.  The Mensa Brain Training App has a short, medium and long test mode to test your mental capacity.  Warning:  this one is not a time killer – you actually need to dedicate your time and focus to complete each test. It does gauge your improvement against the rest of the world because it’s important to know when you are smarter than that computer geek in India or that “Think Tank” dude in China.

 

Simple Self-Tests

Sometime the best ways to focus and exercise your brain are the simplest of all.  They don’t require a board or a phone or a computer.  They only take the willingness to discover and do the various mental exercises on a regular basis. A study from the New England Journal of Medicine stated that adults who frequently engage in mentally stimulating exercises are 63% less likely to develop dementia.

Activities like working primarily with your non-predominant hand for one day or counting backwards from 200 by 3,5 or 7 can give your brain a workout.  Other such activities can include drawing a map from memory from a place you have only visited once or closing your eyes and identifying ingredients in a meal you are eating (as long as it’s something you didn’t prepare of course!).

Being purposeful in creating simple stimulating and fun activities for yourself, much like parents do for children, can make a difference in your memory capacity and learning ability.

 

Spend Time Offline

One of the best ways to learn and keep your brain active is to go take a class.  Learn a new language.  Take a cooking seminar.  Learn to play an instrument.  Take up a new sport.  Get off the computer, the tablet, and the phone and get away from the television. 

Not only does learning something complex keep up your cognitive development, but also learning in an active way will stimulate the body as well as the mind.  This will keep you younger.  It is also stimulates your social thinking skills when working with peers, and not on Facebook or other social media.

The bottom line is “use it or lose it.”  While studies will continue and endless amounts of money will be spent to discover if you can get smarter or if you can keep your mind from aging, if you don’t do anything you will most certainly lose your mind – even if it’s just from boredom.

 

Be sure to like Pissed Off Geek on Facebook and follow them on Twitter to keep up to date with all the news and reviews.

Leave a Reply