You know what it’s like, that feeling you have when you come back to work after a vacation and you just can’t get back into the groove. Some call it “vacation brain,” where you are there but your brain is not engaged. It seems scientists now recognize this as a real occurrence, just the opposite of what happens when your IQ jumps right after you have spent time concentrating hard on a project or lesson. This means they believe after a vacation, where your brain has also taken a rest, your IQ will actually dip.
Researchers theorize that exercising the brain can lead to enhanced performance in some relatively unrelated tasks. They have found that both children and adults perform better on IQ tests after undergoing specialized forms of cognitive training, including brain exercises that sharpen focus and improve memory. Neuroscientists still do not know if this increase lasts for an extended period of time, past a few months.
It seems that conventional wisdom in the scientific area, which measures intelligence by scores on standardized tests, believes that our intelligence remains the same throughout our lifetime, we are born with a certain IQ and it does not change. Mounting evidence, however, seems to show there is a rise and fall of intelligence, even for short periods of time. This would explain why you would feel empty-headed after a vacation, while feel much more alert and intelligent after training.
From this new discovery, that our IQ varies according to the challenges it is presented with, it could change the way children can be taught, and how we would prepare for mental challenges and competition.
According to John Jonides, researchers at the University of Michigan, he and his colleagues published the first paper indicating that intensive working memory training can boost fluid IQ test. The degree of training makes a significant difference.
In Toronto, a scientist at Defense Research and Development Canade, Oshin Vartanian, is seeking a way to enhance people’s brains to prepare them for difficult jobs that require an “outside the box”solution. He utilizes brain-imaging techniques to find out why training exercises that improve working memory (ability to hold on to information for a short period of time) also seems to improve fluid IQ (ability to solve abstract problems). It is his theory that training will make the brain more efficient, and will use less oxygen and energy.
About the author:
Ron White is a two-time U.S.A. Memory Champion and memory training expert. As a memory keynote speaker he travels the world to speak before large groups or small company seminars, demonstrating his memory skills and teaching others how to improve their memory, and how important a good memory is in all phases of your life. His CDs and memory products are also available online at BrainAthlete.com.
Sources:
The Globe and Mail , A workout program for your brain: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/new-health/conditions/brain-health/a-workout-program-for-your-brain/article2210112/
