IQ Science
It has taken 40 years to discover how to increase IQ. Why?
It is only thanks to recent insights from cognitive psychology about the nature of what is called ‘working memory’ that has enabled us to design precise training exercises that increase IQ. Cognitive psychologists are uncovering the underlying information processing systems of intelligence. It is this understanding that has enabled us to design the task to be effective in increasing intelligence.
We can increase IQ. How does it work?
Part of the story is short term memory. We use our short term memory every day. For example for:
- remembering a telephone number before dialling it or writing it down
- remembering what you have to get when you go shopping
- holding directions in mind when you are driving
The Magical Number Seven
The amount of information most people can hold in short term memory (numbers, food items, directions) is limited to around 7 items plus or minus 2. This short term memory capacity or ‘memory span’ has been called the ‘magical number seven’ in one of the most famous papers in cognitive psychology, by George Miller at Princeton University.
Working memory
But more important than just remembering information by rote is being able to do mental operations on that information – to solve a problem, to figure something out, or reason through something to find an answer. For instance, remembering the changing locations of chess pieces while you run through a series of moves in your minds’ eye, or figuring out a 15% tip (‘the bill is 29.30. Call that 30. 10% of 30 is 3. Half of 3 is 1.5. 3 plus 1.5 is 4.5.’).
The ability to hold information in mind for brief periods, and manipulate it mentally while screening out distracting information is a type of short term memory called working memory. With working memory you do mental work on the information, not just store it.
The capacity of working memory
The average capacity of working memory is much less than 7. Most people have a working memory capacity of about 2 or 3.
The working memory-IQ link
People vary widely in their working memory capacity, and that these differences in fact predict general intelligence level as measured by standardized IQ tests. General intelligence depends on working memory because working memory affects a wide range of complex cognitive tasks besides figuring out a tip, involving reasoning problem solving, and making sense of things. We use working memory when we reason, plan and problem solve.
Working memory and general intelligence both share the same brain circuitry – part of the frontal cortex of the brain called the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. (‘Dorsal’ means up, and ‘lateral’ means to the side – hence ‘dorsolateral’).
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How to obtain an IQ increase? The logic
The logic is simple
- If you can improve your working memory capacity by training it directly, you can increase your intelligence level indirectly.
- There is a ‘transfer effect’ from working memory training to intelligence and IQ.
You can improve working memory capacity by over 65% and intelligence by 40%
In 2008 cognitive psychologists at the University of Bern in Switzerland and the University of Michigan in the States, demonstrated that by training on a working memory exercise that we have replicated exactly in High IQ Pro® you can increase working memory capacity by over 65% over just 19 days of training. This improvement then results in a remarkable 40% gain in intelligence as measured by a version of the time limited Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices IQ test – one of the most valid and highly regarded IQ tests for culture fair intelligence.
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The scientific paper demonstrating dramatic IQ and intelligence gains through training working memory can be found by clicking on the icon.
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