Playing Games to Boost Your IQ

With the aging of the Baby Boomers, improving the functioning of our brains to ward off dementia and cognitive decline has been gaining in popularity as of late.  While there are no guarantees that anyone can successfully stave off dementia, studies have shown that challenging your brain can help to maintain brain health as we age.

The ability to reason and solve novel problems is called fluid intelligence.  This type of intelligence is important in a variety of mental tasks and is an important factor in the ability to learn new information.  In our increasingly more complex world, it is also related to success in life.   A new study by researchers at the University of Michigan claims that "training on a demanding working memory task" can translate into more points on your IQ score.  And, as they say, "The harder you train, the more you gain."

One of the online games used in the study is dual-n-back .  N-back is a working memory task that involves remembering either auditory or visual stimuli that are presented within a particular time frame.  The "dual" refers to the auditory and visual stimuli when they are presented together, making the task more challenging.  Working memory is the ability to hold information in short term memory while simultaneously performing an action on it.  A common everyday example is remembering a telephone number while you dial it.

Although skeptics claim there is no way to raise your IQ, the game is challenging and fun.  Try it yourself and see what happens!


http://dual-n-back.com