Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums GT Research Can You Make Yourself Smarter?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/magazine/can-you-make-yourself-smarter.html
Can You Make Yourself Smarter?
By Dan Hurley
New York Times
April 18, 2012

The following data is from a sidebar of the article:

'What Your I.Q. Means

116+
17 percent of the world population; superior I.Q.; appropriate average for individuals in professional occupations.

121+
10 percent; potentially gifted; average for college graduates

132+
2 percent; borderline genius; average I.Q. of most Ph.D. recipients

143+
1 percent; genius level; about average for Ph.D.'s in physics

158+
1 in 10,000; Nobel Prize winners

164+
1 in 30,000; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the chess champion Bobby Fischer.'

The article discusses "N-back" training, which has been discussed in a previous thread http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....cs/104740/Boot_Camp_for_Boosting_IQ.html .

One's productivity depends on what one knows (crystallized intelligence) and one's fluid intelligence (and of course on other factors). Are students better off spending 30 minutes a day on N-back training or on reading a book or doing math problems? The latter two activities increase crystallized intelligence, and maybe the mental stimulation temporarily boosts fluid intelligence by a small amount.

Well I'd go with reading a book or doing a math problem (or a puzzle, or drawing, or playing an instrument, or having a stimulating conversation) if anything it just makes life a bit more expansive...and interesting?

Bostonian, I found myself reading through some Pearson college guides at the library today. Have never done that. Very interesting. Would not have occurred to me to peruse at this point if not have been visiting this site. DD too young of course but the whole thing was quite fascinating.

I think productivity has more to do with "do I actually care about what I'm doing?" and "do I have any real interest in being productive?"

Concur, in certain situations. In others, no amount of "work harder" can trump "work smarter" for total productivity... particularly in circumstances where the "product" is information-based (a design, a story, a program, a solution, etc.).

There are other situations in which the process is prescribed, and there aren't many opportunities for time gain. For instance, no matter how smart the pilot is, the pre-flight checks are the pre-flight checks, and the plane is only going to travel as fast as it travels. A super-smart pilot might find ways to shave a whopping ten minutes off a 6-hour flight. That won't make him more productive, it'll just get him home ten minutes earlier.

I have tried to make myself smarter and it just doesn't work for me. I always admired verbally gifted people like my husband and my son with their vast store of general knowledge and thesaurus in their brains that allow them to make quick witty remarks and come up with just the right words to express themselves. Even though I have learned a lot of new vocabulary and can score higher on vocabulary tests now there is still a difference. I still can't express myself as well as they can or make jokes the way they can. No matter how hard I try I can't make myself verbally gifted.

The same goes for math. I am doing algebra every day now. Some of it I remember and some of it I don't remember ever learning in the first place. I can learn it but I have never been able to come up with faster alternate ways of finding answers like my son does and I could never do mental math like he does. I know it took me longer to learn algebra the first time than it takes my son. I think I only did well in school because I was a good test taker.