"Can We Increase Our Intelligence?"

The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is the neural site of working memory, intelligence loaded tests, abstract thought, adaptive decision-making, deductive and inductive reasoning. It is the major site of our thinking or rational brain.

Source: Sam Wang and Sandra Aamodt, The New York Times, March 10, 2009

"A key contribution to this subject comes from James Flynn......Flynn first noted that standardized intelligence quotient (I.Q.) scores were rising by three points per decade in many countries, and even faster in some countries like the Netherlands and Israel. For instance, in verbal and performance I.Q., an average Dutch 14-year-old in 1982 scored 20 points higher than the average person of the same age in his parents’ generation in 1952. These I.Q. increases over a single generation suggest that the environmental conditions for developing brains have become more favorable in some way........

"Flynn has pointed out that modern times have increasingly rewarded complex and abstract reasoning. Differences in working memory capacity account for 50 to 70 percent of individual differences in fluid intelligence (abstract reasoning ability) in various meta-analyses, suggesting that it is one of the major building blocks of I.Q....... This idea is intriguing because working memory can be improved by training."

Comment: I don't think it is at all surprising that the ability to take I.Q. tests improves visibly over a period of decades. Society changes, and different abilities are developed over time. It is no more surprising that kids have been getting less exercise or that they are getting fatter on the average. (No, I don't think all these trends are equally desirable!)

The idea that working memory can be improved by practice is also not surprising. My Dad who went through Irish schools that emphasized rote learning had a great memory, and I always attributed it in significant degree to the training he had received as a youth, perhaps developed by continued building on a good base.

On the other hand, I had not realized that working memory capacity is related to analytic capacity. I do recognize that experts tend to have very good working memory with respect to their areas of expertise. A chess master will be able to recreate his recent games in detail, as a bridge master will be able to recall all the hands of a recent tournament. One of the characteristics of expertise is that the expert can recall the stuff that matters. (I suppose that neither the chess nor the bridge master would be any better than average in remembering the clothing worn by his/her oponents.) JAD