Can We Train Ourselves to be Smarter?
Wednesday, April 25th, 2012
(photo, Kiyoshi Takahase Segundo)
Fascinating and in-depth article in the NY Times Magazine about the latest iteration of “brain-training” games and programs. Combining better understanding of the brain’s plasticity (the ability to grow and adapt and create new neural pathways) and the idea that “practice makes better” finally seems to be paying off.
I’ll write more on this subject, but for now please read the article.
What do you think, is intelligence a fixed commodity or is it fluid and can you “grow more if it?”
The NYT article came at just the right time. We can build better brains just like we can build better bodies. However, cognitive training is not about playing games, it is about an intervention that requires hard work and close monitoring. Without coaching many people derive little or no benefit from cognitive training. One of my jobs as a Cogmed Coach is to motivate the people with whom I work and push beyond their natural boundaries. Truly, without motivation there will be little improvement. If by improving intelligence you mean improving the ability to assimilate, analyze and act upon information, the answer is yes, you can “grow more of it.”
Caryl, I’m not surprised that you responded (smile). You and I have had a longstanding healthy skepticism about programs that purportedly change the brain. The time seems to be arriving however, to really take advantage of these emerging trends, backed increasingly by evidence.
The truth appears to be that whenever we improve a specific brain-based skill, it’s reflected in greater neuron pathways and connections. Simple but profound.
Cognitive retraining and enhancement is as you say, the result of hard repetitive work with specificity of task, and in the case of many, appropriate coaches to help maintain and elevate the level of motivation and consistency. Cogmed appears to be the most clinically researched program of its kind and kind of the grandaddy of what will I’m sure be a growing field and enterprise. The fact that they use game-like user environments is good. Adding a level of fun in the midst of increasingly challenging work is a good idea.
I highly recommend to parents to do their due diligence so as to avoid scams.
I disagree that one needs a coach to provide motivation. It’s like saying one needs a personal trainer to get in shape. Neither is true for everyone and I’m not sure that becoming dependent on an external motivator is such a good thing in the long term.
I’m also not sure that we can say with certainty that we can’t learn to be better learners on our own without a coach. I do agree, however, that it takes a lot of hard work to “get in shape” both physically and cognitively.
Teachers, coaches, gurus, yoga teachers, personal trainers can provide a starting point, a structure, and an example script for how to keep going but part of that script, in my opinion, should be to work toward client independence.
Richard, there are two main pieces to the article. One is the suggestion that you can “make yourself smarter” and then embedded in some these cognitive training programs and mentioned by Caryl, is that coaches are needed.
I’d agree with your disagreement of the idea that everyone needs a coach to train up cognitive or problem-solving abilities. Not every training program or every person would necessarily need one. I think the goal of any training is independence and generalization across time and space.
The whole discussion is ripe for all sorts of issues to deconstruct. In the context of the article, “making one smarter” is mostly connected to cognitive skills that act like tools to help one perform better with all sorts of tasks, academic or real-world. One of these skills is working memory and these are the ones that are cropping up in various training programs and claims within them. Many are smoke and mirrors and I’ve been a hard sell for many years as you know. The one that is most grounded in research is Cogmed.
“I’m also not sure that we can say with certainty that we can’t learn to be better learners on our own without a coach. I do agree, however, that it takes a lot of hard work to “get in shape†both physically and cognitively.”
I don’t think anyone’s suggesting that all people need a coach, trainer, guru, etc. with all programs and goals. It’s completely dependent on the individual and the type of training one is starting. With strength training as an example, the “trainer” can be literature you read or videos you watch, to help with technique, breathing, etc. Having a personal trainer in the beginning, for some folks, is a highly valued tool, to avoid pitfalls and injury. But after that phase, it’s entirely up to the person.”
The idea that skills we thought of as central to intelligence and that science told us (erroneously) were fixed commodities, are actually amenable to training and improvement, is a leap forward for the field of learning and learning disabilities. Too often people have been judged as less intelligence simply because their performance in working memory tasks left a lot to be desired.
Sandy: I think you need an HTML coach, your italics contains things you wrote as well as what I wrote…