Pumping Up Your Brain Is Easier Than You Think

First, readers should know that “fluid intelligence” is not knowing which kind of beer tastes best with a particular meal. It’s the ability to reason and solve problems, such as figuring out which kind of beer tastes best with a particular meal. The good news is that researchers now think that fluid intelligence, once considered a constant, like height, can be improved. CBS News reports that experiments conducted at the University of Michigan suggest that a demanding memory task might kick
your intelligence up a notch or two, and the more you engage your brain
this way, the smarter you might become. Psychologists asked healthy adult volunteers (average age: 26) to take a standard test
for fluid intelligence, and then perform a series of training
exercises designed to improve their working memory. The researchers
divided the volunteers into four groups; each group repeated the
exercises over a different number of days. CBS News reports that when scientists retested the volunteers’ fluid intelligence after the
training and compared the scores to those who did not receive training they noted a significant improvement in fluid intelligence scores among
those who participated in the demanding memory tasks. There were
greater improvements seen in those who spent the most time training.
Read more from CBS News.