WARNING: This eBook is for your personal use only. You may ......to debunk a few myths attached to...

© Saqib Ali Ateel 2018 http://www.personality-and-aptitude-career-tests.com 1

WARNING: This eBook is for your personal use only. You may

NOT Give Away, Share Or Resell This Intellectual Property In

Any Way. Copyrights © 2018 Saqib Ali Ateel


DEDICATION: I dedicate this eBook to my beloved wife

who has always helped me with love, care, courage and

vision. It could not be a complete project without her

active support.

DISCLAIMER: I don’t claim any expertise in brain fitness

or brain training industry. However, as a layman, I have

reproduced what I have learned from top researchers in

the field and my own experience with the

intelligence tests during my 14 years of self-study in the

area. I am not aware of your current physical and

mental conditions so please consult your psychologist

and physiologist before applying any of the methods

described in this book.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Saqib Ali Ateel has an experience

of more than two decades in the public sector of Pakistan

in different managerial and administrative positions. He

has completed some human resource management

assignments besides re-engineering a couple of processes

at Harvard USA and Pakistan. He got Masters’ degree in

Public Management from Lee Kuan Yew School of Public

Policy, NUS, Singapore with Fellowship at Harvard

Kennedy School of Government, Boston, USA. He has also

got degrees in Literature, Law and Mass Communication

from Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan. He

has been running his personal websites since 2004.


Table of Contents

1- IQ Tests; My Anschauung ........................................................ 5

2- An Overview of the Book ..................................................... 8

3- What is Intelligence? A Historical Perspective .................... 12

4- How much weight the Intelligence Tests Carry? ............... 18

5- Have IQ Scores any Relevance in Today’s Academic and

Working Environment? ...................................................... 25

6- How Brain Training Increases your Level of Intelligence? ... 30

7- What & How Diet Can Have an Effect on your Mental Skills

and Intelligence? ……………………………………………………………. 35

8- Can you Benefit from Brain Training? .............................. 39

9- Can Brain Training Improve Your Memory and Help you

Concentrate Better? ............................................................ 45

10-What Type of Brain Training Exercises will you Find Useful? 52

11-How Learning Influences IQ Scores and Intelligence? ........ 60

12-Interesting Facts about Some of the World’s Cleverest

People? …………………………………………………………………………….. 75

13-Conclusion ........................................................................... 78

14-Time to Say a Few Words .................................................... 82

15-FREE Tests


IQ Tests; My Anschauung!

While launching my first website http://www.personality-

andaptitude-career-tests.com in 2004, I was clear in my mind that IQ

tests were going to have less importance in the future academic and

workplace environment. However, while creating my fairly lengthy

domain name, I excluded “IQ tests.” These have been a considerable

number of visitors to my website, and many have left their own

opinions on the subject, and healthy debate has ensued. For now,

though I intend to stick to the original basis for the website:

“There are two sharply divided opinions regarding

psychological tests. The testing industry claims their level of validity

lies between 70% and 100%. The skeptics reject them altogether by

highlighting their potential weaknesses. However, the truth lies

somewhere in between. Psychological tests are helpful but you

MUST trust your personality, potential, and capabilities.”

My mantra for this situation is as follows:

“Psychological tests are valuable but not 100% dependable. Follow

the reality that lies somewhere in between.”

http://www.personality-and-aptitude-career-tests.com/





Intelligence tests have a long history. The younger generation still

attaches a strong element of romanticism towards IQ scores.

Dissenting voices are also very strong. Whichever side of the fence you

are on, they still exist. It has recently been proved that three major

capabilities, short-term memory, verbal capability, and reasoning

create intelligence (Dr. Adrian Owen 2015). In fact, intelligence tests

measure the developmental level of these three capabilities. Human

beings have great potential to maximize the potential of their

capabilities, and where intelligence is concerned, these three

capabilities are all improvable skills.

Leaving the details of this book aside for a moment, romanticism

attached to IQ scores is in the air. It has become a multi-billion dollar

industry which cashes in on this romanticism. This book is an attempt

to debunk a few myths attached to the concept of intelligence,

intelligence tests, and IQ scores.

These are valid opinions I have developed about intelligence tests

during my eleven years working in the field of psychological tests. I

have included results from various relevant studies I have come across

as otherwise, these would simply be my personal opinion, but one

which did not weight. That is most definitely not the case.


It is an admitted fact that intelligence tests having had tremendous

success in identifying both super-intelligent as well as mentally

challenged students. However, these tests have been proved

relatively inaccurate in measuring the genuine intelligence level of

those falling around the average IQ score of 100. This is the second

reason for the existence of a testing industry on the internet.

I have simply attempted to clear this fog in layman’s language, without

confusing you with too much technical stuff!

I am thankful to Mr. Faheem Safdar, M.Phil in Human Resource

Management, and others who have provided me with active support

when requested. I am also thankful to my wife, children, colleagues

and friends who have spared me their time and provided me with the

peace of mind to complete this project.


An Overview of the Book

Intelligence Quotient, or IQ as it is more commonly known, is one of

the first forms used as a measure of anyone’s level of intelligence. A

test of intelligence is different to a test of knowledge and

understanding.

At school and university, we are all subject to taking exams to prove

how well we have learned a specific subject. It might be history, a

foreign language like French, or Chemistry on the scientific side. An

exam simply asks us how well we know the subject and that is all.

An IQ test, or test used to measure intelligence, is based more on how

capable we are at using our intelligence to solve problems and puzzles,

with one additional and very significant factor taken into account –

our AGE!

It is a clever system for one simple reason. As we get older and

experience more of life, we learn how to achieve results and work

things out. This adds to our level of intelligence. However, our IQ is a

measure of our intelligence based on both our age and the average

score someone of our age should achieve when taking the test.


The average score for the IQ test across a large number of people of

the same age tested is given a score of 100. Anyone achieving a higher

than average result for their age will achieve a mark more than 100

and anyone performing below average will receive a mark lower than

100.

In this book we intend to take you on an exciting journey through the

fantastic world of the IQ test, from explaining briefly about its humble

beginnings, all the way through to investigating whether there is

anything you can do to either increase your IQ, improve your brain

function, or both. We will try to bring you simplified information

without fuming too much of technical and glossary stuff.

To begin with, we will discuss work of the English psychologist Sir

Francis Galton, and two French psychologists, Alfred Binet and

Théodore Simon who, between them, created the first relevant and

accurate intelligence tests. It will lead us to the question of accuracy

and validity of IQ scores in an attempt to help calculate their worth

today. We will then look at the relevance of IQ scores both where the

job market is concerned, and also from an academic standpoint.

From here we will move to the most important part of the book to

explore the relevance and effectiveness of brain training to see


whether or not it is possible to improve your IQ and overall level of

intelligence. We will also take a look at the effects of diet on brain

functionality and whether such things as ‘brain food’ really exist. We

have often been told that fish is ‘brain food,’ but maybe it is just fish

rich in Omega 3 oils such as tuna, salmon, and mackerel that are good

for our overall health, and therefore good for our brain as well.

After that, we will look to see who can benefit most from brain training

– students, young children, parents and even the elderly? The results

may be quite surprising to you. We will then look more deeply into the

applications for brain training and see if it can be of benefit to those

with learning difficulties, whether it can help you to concentrate

better, and improve your memory.

We will clear the ambiguities and myths regarding intelligence

increasing possibilities through an insight into the latest researches

being made. The conclusions will surely encourage you to take every

intelligence enhancement possibility practically. You will understand

how attention and repetitions improve your brain functionalities and

cognitive abilities. It is not a “tips & tricks” book which don’t base on

scientific reasoning.


We will also show you some examples of modern brain training

exercises and what might be seen as old-fashioned brain training

games and toys. Finally, we shall look at some people, some who may

be familiar to you, and see who has an incredibly high IQ.


Chapter 1

What is Intelligence? A Historical Perspective!

As this book is devoted to intelligence and brain training, perhaps it

would be a good idea, to begin with, if we explained what we actually

mean by intelligence.

How many times have you heard someone described as being bright,

clever, smart or intelligent?

Have you ever asked yourself what the difference is between each of

these descriptions or if they are all just different ways of saying the

same thing?

Let’s start with the word “intelligent.” In general terms, this word is

used to describe someone who has a high level of understanding or

good mental capacity; quick in comprehending something and quick

to respond to problems or a situation. The words bright and clever are

virtually identical in meaning and are used to describe someone who

is both intelligent and quick-witted. Someone described as being

smart is someone who is quick witted, but not necessarily highly

intelligent.


The next question you probably want an answer to is why there is a

need to measure intelligence?

The simple and most effective answer is to differentiate between

individuals following patterns and development levels of their

capabilities. In schools, you will normally find the most intelligent

pupils in the top streams or classes. In the top streams, just being able

to remember facts is often not enough, having an understanding of

the subject is also required. Having that extra understanding allows

for further learning and a greater ability to use that knowledge gained.

Take this a step further to university, and you will get a better picture

of where a measure of intelligence is important. In most countries,

there are more applicants for places available on a university course.

Exam grades for a good number of pupils may be identical, but you

are only able to choose 20% of the candidates.

How do you decide which 20%?

Ideally, you will want to choose the most intelligent as they are the

ones most likely to learn more about a subject, and consequently

achieve a better result at the end of the day.


As you will discover, intelligence is not governed by age. As a

consequence, the earlier you can detect a child’s superior level of

intelligence, the sooner you can capitalize on it. This will ensure that

the education provided to that child meets their intellectual needs

from very early on. You will often find that child prodigies have

appreciably higher levels of intelligence than the average child.

To give you a potted history of how the IQ test came about, we have

to go back to the late 1800s and Sir Francis Galton, a renowned

psychologist. He was the first person to truly understand the

relevance of differences in intelligence and he was also the first to

produce a series of tests to help differentiate between levels of

intelligence. However this was not an IQ test, just an ordinary test.

After this and in the early 1900s, two French psychologists, Alfred

Binet and Théodore Simon, became involved in measuring

intelligence. It originally started with the French Government asking

Binet if he could create a test that would enable the Government to

identify which children would benefit best from school education and

who might struggle and require additional assistance. Together with

Simon, they found that results for tests centered on practical

knowledge, vocabulary, reasoning, and memory were much better

pointers towards success in school than the results of tests originally


used by Galton. Children were asked to perform simple tasks and

gestures, repeat spoken numbers, define common words, identify

how two objects were different, and provide a definition of an

abstract term. These are not dissimilar tests to those you will find in

today’s IQ test.

Where Binet and Simon came much closer to understanding the

concept of an IQ test was that here they made a specific note that if

an eight-year-old child managed to answer questions that a twelve-

year-old child would be expected to answer, that eight-year-old child

would be described as having the mental age of a twelve-year-old.

The Binet-Simon work then found its way over to America where

Henry Goddard, the director of a school for students who were

mentally challenged, used it to assess their level of retardation. This

test was then further developed by Lewis Terman, who used it more

on adults. He was the first to create a specific number based on both

a person’s age and on what would be seen as an average score. It was

Terman who first used the expression ‘Intelligence Quotient’ as a level

of measurement in his test.

However, intelligence quotient (IQ) was initially identified by German

psychologist, William Stern, in 1912. To work out a person’s IQ, Stern


divided their mental age by their actual age and then multiplied the

result by 100 to create a whole number. Consequently, a child who

was eight years old and who was able to answer test questions, as well

as an average twelve-year-old, achieved an intelligence quotient score

of 12/8 x 100, which is 150. On the reverse, a twelve-year-old who

could only answer the questions, as well as an average eight-year-old,

achieved an IQ of 8/12 x 100, or 66.

This calculation worked extremely well for comparing intelligence

levels of children, but because intelligence plateaus in adults, that

formula wouldn’t apply to adults. In basic terms, a thirty-year-old and

forty-year-old of identical intelligence should answer the same

number of questions correctly. However the older person, using the

formula, would have an IQ of 30/40, or 75 and in theory, the older you

got, the lower your IQ would become, even if your actual intelligence

level did not change. As a consequence, when calculating IQ scores,

there is a cut-off point where age is no longer part of the equation.

For those of you who are slightly older when reading this, you may be

more familiar with the term IQ or Intelligence Quotient. However, for

those of you who are a younger, you may not be so aware of it. The

reason for this is because IQ tests and scores are now rarely taken and

used in their original sense. Instead, today’s intelligence test


compares a person’s performance (score) with that of others their

age, while giving an average score of 100 and basing all scores on this

datum. Because an average IQ score was taken as 100 and today's

intelligence tests are also marked based on 100 being an average

score, the term IQ is still used, if incorrectly.


Chapter 2

How Much Weight the Intelligence Tests Carry?

Accuracy and Validity of an IQ Score

If you are going to use a system as a measure of someone’s

intelligence in relation to that of their peers, or equals, then you would

want that test to be one which was a fair reflection with wholly

accurate results. However, there are some basic flaws with an IQ

system even before you delve deeper into scientific reasons why IQ

results may not be accurate.

For a start, you usually take an IQ test once, rather than, say, three

over a period of three weeks.

Does an IQ test take into account that on the day the person taking

the test has the flu?

No.

Does the test take into account that the person taking the test has just

lost their favorite pet and they are upset?


No. Does the test take into account the fact that certain people just

struggle with the pressure of taking tests and exams and therefore

never reveal their true potential?

No.

Does the test take into account the fact that of all those taking that

one particular test, 20% being tested have been doing extra brain

training and mock tests?

Not at all!

What we are trying to say here is that there are some variables which

can affect a person’s IQ score and, as a consequence, its accuracy has

to be called in to question. We are not saying that IQ test scores are

useless.

The reality lies in between…

The IQ tests’ success in identifying the super-intelligent and mentally

challenged students is an admitted fact. However, those who fall in

around the average score of 100 could well have a much higher,

though seldom lower IQ. [A breather for average scorers]


Consequently, if you are using a person’s IQ as a genuine measure of

his intelligence when deciding whether to allow him to join a college

or to offer him a job against steep competition, then there is a fair

chance the best candidate gets overlooked.

Now let’s take a look at this question from a scientific standpoint.

A recent major scientific online study was carried out by Dr Adrian

Owen, the study's senior investigator and the Canada Excellence

Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience and Imaging at the

university's Brain and Mind Institute. The study concluded that the

test might not show exactly how smart someone is. Dr. Owen is

quoted as saying “When we looked at the data, the bottom line is the

whole concept of IQ -- or of you having a higher IQ than me -- is a

myth." He then went on to say, “There is no such thing as a single

measure of IQ or a measure of general intelligence." (Adrian 2015)

Over 100,000 people participated in the study and completed 12

cognitive tests online that examined reasoning, memory, planning

abilities and attention. Their lifestyle and background were also

investigated. At the end of all the testing, it was concluded that there

is no one specific level of intelligence. To accurately determine

someone’s level of intelligence, it was established that three


individual components go towards creating intelligence or a "cognitive

profile": short-term memory, a verbal component and lastly,

reasoning.

It was shown that using an IQ score would not prove to be an accurate

indicator of how well or badly a person might do in the test in

question. Only through very close analysis of varying areas of the test

were researchers able to predict anyone’s potential for success. For

some fellow scientists, this has proved to be a breath of fresh air. It

gets rid of the principle that there is only one way of measuring

intelligence and that, in fact, there are several ways of determining a

person’s intelligence.

Also, Scientists scanned participants' brains with a functional

magnetic resonance imager (fMRI) and identified that different

cognitive abilities were connected to different circuits in the brain.

This goes a long way to support the theory that different areas of the

brain are responsible for controlling certain abilities.

While the Stanford-Binet scale of intelligence, together with the

Wechsler Adult intelligence scale, are the principal forms of IQ testing

used, one of their major problems is the fact that whichever valid IQ

test has to be taken, it must be done so in a controlled environment.

This is not only impractical in many cases, but also costly to achieve.


The consequence of this is the resurgence of the Internet-based IQ

test, one which is easy to take and which can be taken at any time of

the day or night.

"We have shown categorically that you cannot sum up the difference

between people in terms of one number, and that is really what is

important here," Owen told CNC news at the time, continuing: "Now

we need to go forward and work out how we can assess the

differences between people, and that will be something for future

studies."

In relation to the validity and accuracy of IQ scores, the research did

reveal some additional interesting factors that affected certain

persons. Though the reason is actually unknown, those who regularly

played video games achieved better results for reasoning and short-

term memory sections of the IQ test. Also, it became clear that aging

was directly connected with a decline in reasoning and memory

abilities. Smokers did less well on short-term memory and verbal

elements of the test, though it has actually been proven that overall,

smoking, and particularly nicotine, is responsible for improved

intellectual performance, while those who suffered from anxiety did

not do well as a rule in the short-term memory test elements.


When it comes to the validity of an IQ score, one thing is crucial, and

that is that you take a legitimate IQ test. By legitimate, we mean an

approved test taken under test conditions. If you type “IQ Test” into

Google’s search engine facility, you will obtain thousands of results for

online IQ tests. However, these are not genuine tests.

Okay, so perhaps you are sufficiently intelligent to understand that

these are not the ‘real thing’ but are perhaps good enough to give you

an indication of how intelligent you are. After all, if we know that an

IQ of 100 is a score for someone with an average level of intelligence,

our first instinct is to see if we can beat that score.

Well, the bad news is you can’t even trust online IQ tests to be even

remotely accurate at gauging your IQ or level of intelligence.

How do we know this?

Because one curious British Guardian Science journalist, Dean Burnett,

decided to check out some online IQ tests, and the results were quite

surprising. However, it was not the level of his scores, which ranged

from between an IQ of 128 and 140 that was the problem. As Mr.

Burnett says “This shouldn’t really be surprising, I have Ph.D. in

neuroscience, am a university lecturer and tutor and a Guardian

science writer, how could I not have vastly superior intelligence?


According to the normal IQ distribution, an IQ of 133 means I’m in the

“very superior” category.

Only 2% of the population have an equivalent or higher IQ.

What was the surprise became clear when he owned up to how he

had been performing the tests. He had been guessing at the answers

and simply concentrating on finishing the tests as fast as possible. By

the law of averages, he would get 25% of the answers correct as they

were all of a multiple choice style. However the low number of correct

results did not seem to matter, and one particular result showed him

exactly how well he had done: “You got four questions right out of a

possible 15. You took 7 minutes to complete the test.

You got a bonus for finishing quickly. We estimate your IQ to be: 138.”

Even you can work out that only getting 25% of the answers correct

for a test doesn’t give you a genius level IQ!


Chapter 3

Have IQ Scores any Relevance in Today’s Academic and Working Environment?

As you have read, in the 1900s IQ played a very important role in the

challenges faced by many countries to assess the academic potential

of students, both young and more mature. Today there is still a great

deal of relevance placed on intelligence levels, even though the

original IQ system has now been replaced with more specific

intelligence tests.

The new intelligence tests still borrow from the original American

version of the IQ test - the Stanford-Binet test – and are used to assist

in assessing how well pupils are likely to perform in their classes and

beyond. Some scientists, including N. Brody, 1997; Gustafsson &

Undheim, 1996 and Sattler, 2001 carried out extensive research on

the correlation between IQ or intelligence level, and academic

performance, and proved that there was indeed a valid connection

between the two. It was determined that students with a higher IQ

achieved higher grades and spent more years in education, going on

to college from high school, etc.


However results from research can often only be used as a guide and

results are seldom if ever, set in stone. Despite all this research

proving that there is a correlation between IQ scores or intelligence

tests and academic achievement, there are three factors that have

also to be taken into account. First, having a high level of intelligence

is not in itself any form of achievement, and therefore having a high

IQ is no guarantee that academic results will also be high. In a way you

might more easily understand, just because someone is extremely

intelligent, it doesn’t mean they don’t have to study hard to succeed

and pass exams.

Second, there are always exceptions to every rule, and there are many

exceptions regarding IQ levels and academic performance. There are

countless incidents where pupils with a seemingly low level of

intelligence do well in the classroom, while others with a high level of

intelligence do not do well at all. You might suspect that these results

are connected with what we talked about in the paragraph above.

Might you deduce that the less intelligent pupils just worked

appreciably harder to achieve good results than those more intelligent

than them?

Third, if you are going to make predictions on academic achievement

based on intelligence levels, then tests on levels of intelligence should


be carried out at regular intervals. This makes sense if you think about

it. After all, a lot can change between the age of say ten and sixteen

where children are concerned, and levels of intelligence can change

over time based on some factors, including the standard of education

received.

This leads us to nicely to something that many may have heard of, and

every student in the United States dreads. SATs. When first introduced

in 1926 it was called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, after which it

became known as the Scholastic Assessment Test, then it became the

SAT Reasoning Test, before now simply being known as SAT.

Depending on where you come from and what formal education you

receive, entry into college or university can be achieved through a

wide variety of means. In India and Pakistan, certain tests have been

introduced at entry levels. In France and the UK, it depends solely on

the results of exams taken in specific subjects. In the USA it depends

on a combination of two separate elements, your GPA or Grade Point

Average for work done throughout the academic year, and your SAT

score. The SAT takes 3 hours 50 minutes to complete and tests critical

reading, mathematics, and reading. These are three topics which are

greatly influenced by your level of intelligence. As a consequence, the

joint combination of academic results together with a general

indication of your level of intelligence is deemed one of the most


appropriate and effective methods to assess whether a student will

succeed academically at a further education level.

Going beyond school and college, your IQ or level of intelligence can

also have both a direct and indirect influence on your working career.

It is a proven fact that people with a higher IQ tend to be more

confident, resulting in having better communication skills and a

greater ability to be sociable. Part of business success involves

networking and meeting people. Many jobs require meeting clients

and people face-to-face, so having that extra bit of confidence coming

from a higher level of intelligence can be a tremendous plus for you.

However, there are certain situations you may encounter where

having a high level of intelligence can be a disadvantage. In today’s

employment market having a university or college degree is no

guarantee that there will be a job waiting for you. In the interim, you

will likely consider any work purely to bring in an income and to get

used to ‘working for a living.’ Here you run the risk of being rejected

for many jobs on the grounds you are ‘overqualified.’ Basically what

you are being told is that for someone of your intelligence you will

become bored stupid within a short space of time and will be unlikely

to remain in the job for a long time. For an employer, the last thing

they want is to have to keep training new staff, so they will choose a


candidate with a level of intelligence that the job requires, but not a

level of intelligence appreciably greater than that.

Going back to what was discussed about exceptions to the rule where

IQ’s are concerned, you only have to look at some of the most

successful businessmen in your community, or throughout the world.

Not every one of them has a university degree or did phenomenally

well at school. However they were sufficiently intelligent to succeed

with their business, so where work is concerned, a lack of a university

degree is not a sign of lower intelligence. Most of you will have heard

of the entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson. There is no question that this

man is remarkably intelligent, yet he never even went to university

and struggled with dyslexia. Another surprise for you is that Bill Gates,

the founder of Microsoft, may have gone to Harvard University, but

he dropped out before graduating!

In fact, it is neither university degree nor a particular IQ level but

developing and utilizing different faculties embodied in a particular

way to succeed in life.


Chapter 4

How Brain Training Increases your Level of Intelligence?

In one sentence, the brain training can’t increase your intelligence…!

However, do not instantly dismiss this section of the book as

irrelevant as that is far from the case. We have previously referred to

the research carried out by Dr. Adrian Owen. One of the conclusions

he came to through his research was that training your brain to assist

you to perform better at a cognitive level did not help. "People who

'brain-train' are no better at any of these three aspects of

intelligence [short-term memory, reasoning, and a verbal

component] than people who don't," Owen stated.

To summarise, we have previously mentioned that those who play

video games get better results in the reasoning and short-term

memory elements of the tests carried out, age plays a factor in overall

results, and mental frailty – stress, anxiety, etc. – affect the results of

an intelligence test relating to short-term memory. However, the most

critical comment that Dr. Owen made was “We have shown

categorically that you cannot sum up the difference between people


regarding one number, and that is really what is important here.” In

other words, an IQ is not a true measure of someone’s intelligence.

If this is the case, then to a varying degree, our level of intelligence

could vary depending on what element of the three is concentrated

on. There would be a bias, and consequently, the results would give

an indication of your level of intelligence, but it would not be a true

reflection.

However there is an expression used in some areas in life, and that is

“Use it, don’t lose it.” This often relates to a certain skill or ability.

What the expression is saying is that if you don’t keep practicing a skill,

then your ability to use it successfully will decrease.

Now it will be quite interesting to transfer that phrase to relate to

intelligence. In simple terms, if you do not use your brain, then you

will not be able to get it to function at its maximum potential when

needed. As a simple example of this, let us take mental arithmetic and

adding up numbers. When you stretch beyond the basic 2+2 level, the

answer to which is often associated more with memory than having

the intelligence to work the answer out, the situation changes.


In most bars there is a till or cash register where you push a button for

every drink ordered and the total will be displayed. Now someone of

a reasonable level of intelligence who has worked at that bar for

several months will usually be able to add up the total cost of an order

of four or five drinks without having to go to the till or cash register

first. The ability to do mental arithmetic depends on two factors – the

basic ability to do mental arithmetic, and the experience of doing it

regularly. However, when a bar person starts for the first time, they

may struggle to perform successfully adding up to the cost of four or

five drinks in their head straight away. Allow them a few months to

get used to doing it, and then the results will be dramatically different.

However, that does not prove that the second person’s intelligence

has increased, it just means their potential has been maximised.

That is where brain training comes to the fore. It is hugely beneficial,

but not to increase your level of intelligence, it is to help you perform

at your best. To give you another example, many of you may have

heard of Usain Bolt, the fastest athlete on the planet. He has always

had the potential to be the fastest man on the planet and the body to

achieve such speed. However, if he never trained, then he wouldn’t

be at the peak of condition and run as fast as he could. The result is

that the ‘fastest man on the planet’ can retain that title until someone

runs the 100m faster. However, for now, he could stop training, never


win another race, but remain the fastest man on the planet, he just

wouldn’t be able to prove it again.

So the same applies to intelligence tests. If you are a very intelligent

person and take an intelligence test for the first time, the chances are

that you will not do as well as if you had taken 20 similar tests

beforehand. Doing that would enable you to understand what it is the

tests are actually trying to establish specific, as opposed to generally.

Doing trial examples will also help you to recognize types of questions

when they are asked and have a greater understanding of what is

being asked. Doing examples will also help to exercise those parts of

your brain that need to operate at their best when your intelligence is

being tested.

So to reiterate and as has been shown scientifically, brain training

doesn’t increase your level of intelligence. However using your brain

to its maximum capability on a regular basis will help to ensure that

when tested, you will achieve the best possible results to indicate your

personal level of intelligence.

What we can and will do to help you is show you what other influences

exist which can affect your perceived or maximum potential where

your intelligence is concerned. We will look at lifestyle, diet, mental


health and how you maintain your body to see what effect that will

have on your intelligence.

Once again, will it be a question that you can improve your level of

intelligence, or simply maximise it?


Chapter 5

What & How Diet Can Have an

Effect on your Mental Skills and Intelligence?

In the previous chapter we touched on the fact that to perform at their

best, athletes need to train and prepare for their event. If you think

about it, there should be no reason why the same won’t apply to how

you can ensure that you achieve maximum results when having your

level of intelligence assessed.

Once again we have to make the distinction clear. What you eat or

drink may not affect your intelligence in the short term, but it can

affect the results of any intelligence test. In other words, drinking the

night heavily before taking an intelligence test would likely mean that

you will score less than if you had gone to bed early and slept well.

However, drinking in the short-term does not make you less

intelligent, even if it is not a particularly intelligent thing to do just

before a test!

You will also note that when referring to drinking, we mention the

phrase ‘short-term.’ This is deliberate as it is known that if you drink


heavily from an early age this will have tremendous physiological

effects on your body, including your brain, and consequently your

level of intelligence.

It is also interesting to note that upbringing can also have a

tremendous effect on levels of intelligence. At a younger age, regular

sleep and a good healthy diet are contributory factors involved in

maximising a child’s intelligence. Exercise also plays an important role

– how many times have you heard the expression ‘a healthy body is a

healthy mind’? In an article published in America’s National Post, the

results of a study regarding junk food and intelligence revealed that

children fed processed food at the age of under three years are more

likely to be less intelligent by the age of eight than those who were

not fed junk food.

In a study carried out on children born in 1990 and 1991 in Bristol, UK,

researchers carefully examined the diets of 14,000 children. Their

parents were quizzed about their diets when the children were at the

ages of three, four, seven and eight and a half years old. The diets

were then given a scale of -2 for an extremely healthy one, to 10 for a

very unhealthy diet. It was seen that especially where children under

three years of age were fed ‘junk food,’ later on, their intelligence

level was noticeably lower. It was seen that even if the diet after the


age of three, up until the age of eight and a half, was changed for the

better, there was no phenomenal increase in the child’s IQ. In general

terms, for every increase of a point in the child’s diet scale, from

between -2 and 10, their IQ, when measured at the age of eight and a

half, was 1.5 points lower.

Doctor Kate Northstone stated that it is a well-known fact that a

human’s brain grows faster during the first three years of life than it

does at any other time in their life. Consequently, good nutrition not

only helps the brain to grow but the body, including the skull, to grow

as well, making it easier for the brain to expand. The findings of the

research carried out in Bristol have been published in the Journal of

Epidemiology and Community Health.

This type of research backed up similar studies regarding parents and

their diet during pregnancy. An additional study had proven that a

poor diet during pregnancy would likely lead to the birth of a child

with a lower level of intelligence than a child born to a mother who

ate a very healthy diet during pregnancy. In Psychology Today the

results of research concerning babies who were breastfed as opposed

to bottle fed showed that by the age of three, the breast-fed children

had an IQ of between 3 and 8 points higher than babies who were

bottle fed.


Though unrelated to diet but relevant all the same to what can affect

your level of intelligence, the results of research from

Delaware University in 1994 was quite dramatic. Linda S Gottfredson published a report that made it clear that between 40% and 80% of our intelligence is inherited.

In other words, you have 20% to 60% space for maximization of your

intelligence. Besides physical and brain exercises, you need to take

good diet at all age levels.

What about Nootropics?

According to Wikipedia, “Nootropics (/noʊ.əˈtrɒpɨks/ noh-ə-

TROPiks)—also called smart drugs, memory enhancers, neuro

enhancers, cognitive enhancers, and intelligence enhancers—are

drugs, supplements, nutraceuticals, and functional foods that improve

one or more aspects of mental function. Specific effects can include

improvements to working memory, motivation, or attention. The

word nootropic was coined in 1972 by a Romanian psychologist and

chemist, Corneliu E. Giurgea, from the Greek words νους nous, or

"mind", and τρέπειν trepein meaning to bend or turn.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nootropic

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nootropic


Chapter 6

Can You Benefit from Brain Training?

There are three areas in particular where brain training can be of

benefit.

First for those who want to ‘fine tune’ their brain, to get it working

and functioning at its best. This will usually be before an important

test or interview. It may be for a school exam, your SATs or when

applying for a job where you know that you will be required at some

stage in the interview process to demonstrate your skills and thinking

ability.

The second area where brain training can make such a difference is

with children and to some extent adults who have learning disabilities,

and also those who have suffered some form of brain injury through

an accident or illness, such as a stroke.

The third area where brain training can be of tremendous help is with

the elderly. Now that last comment may take you by surprise, but we’ll

tell you later why it is so useful.


Now let’s start with students who are looking to take their exams, let’s

take SATs as an example. Today, exams aren’t just about answering

questions based on memory. The understanding of a subject, together

with the understanding of the question being asked, has become

more relevant over the years. How many times have we all been told

“Read the questions carefully” when faced with taking an exam? Often

the answer can be hidden in the question – by that we mean that the

question is subconsciously guiding you towards the answer it wants

you to give. However, you have to be alert and your brain functioning

properly and at its best in such situations.

Some exams have practical elements, and the older you get in your

education, the more these experiments challenge your understanding

of a subject to the point that you have to work out for yourself what

to do to achieve a given objective. Now such demand doesn’t just rely

on your memory. It also relies on your brain’s ability to rationalize,

compute, calculate, and estimate. These are key intelligence

functions. As a consequence, if your brain has been trained to enable

you to perform at your best, then the results should translate into the

practical element of the exam you are taking.

Brain training also takes place with familiarisation. We have talked

before about how constant use of your brain to perform mental


arithmetic will make the task easier over time. Well, the same applies,

to a certain degree, with written examinations. When you reach the

more senior years in your education, exams will begin to play a far

more important part of your future. Now logically speaking, we are all

‘afraid’ of the unknown. By that we don’t mean scared silly, we just

mean a little apprehensive.

Well if you are about to take your exams, it is a well-known fact that

apprehension or stress can have a detrimental effect on your

performance. So one of the best ways to calm those nerves is to do

test papers and look at exam papers from previous years. Believe it or

not, that is a form of brain training as you are teaching your brain how

to deal with stress, and creating a situation where you will have more

confidence when taking your exams. It is a well-known fact that

confidence is one of the elements to success in life in general, and it

applies just as equally in the exam situation.

Depending on what career you choose, at certain times you may be

required to take an aptitude test. This is particularly common when

looking to join the armed services, especially in the USA. However, in

many situations, you will be faced with attending a job interview

which can often be in two parts. The first part will be a face-to-face

interview with your prospective employee or someone from the HR


(Human Resources) department. The second part of the interview can

take the form of a test to see what your level of mental agility is, or

being presented with a set of problems where you will be asked to

work out a solution to each problem.

Preparation for such an event is critical, and brain training is almost

essential to ensure that you represent yourself to the very best of your

ability. A prominent psychologist, Dr. Scott Kaufman, argued that

"thoughtful reasoning, divergent production, pattern detection,

learning" are all part of the creative process. He identified these as

being a part of what an IQ test measures. However, creativity is a skill

that is more obvious in some than in others. It was identified in an

article published in “Psychology Today” that creative people can

struggle with the IQ test, yet creativity can also be seen as a form of

intelligence. Research showed that this creative element can still be

identified based on answers provided in an IQ test as opposed the

score itself.

Then we come to the use of brain training for those who have suffered

a brain injury through either an accident or a stroke. When the brain

becomes damaged in certain situations, the ability to remember how

to do things, how to talk, how even to walk can be forgotten. Brain

injuries can be quite catastrophic, but depending on their nature, the

damage done can be repaired. However, unlike a physical injury, an


injury to the brain will not heal itself, and everything automatically

goes back to normal. Instead, you have to train yourself all over again

how to do even the most basic of tasks. As one progresses through the

physical aspect of retraining, so the mental side must also be

corrected. That is where the more traditional ‘brain training’ exercises

become so incredibly helpful and useful.

The more training the brain does, the more it remembers how to

operate and function as it used to. Intelligence can seem to be one of

the elements that are affected by a brain injury, yet it is just the

inability of the brain to work as it used to that is the problem. This is

not so much a case of brain training perhaps, but brain retraining.

We mentioned the expression “use it don’t lose it” earlier but in a

different situation to here and the elderly. However it is a recognized

fact that as you get older, so your intelligence begins to diminish. To a

degree, this will make some sense as often retirement will take you

away from an environment where you may have been using your brain

all day long. Instead, you are faced with reading the newspaper and

pottering around in the garden. However, a report in the Journal of

American Geriatrics Society revealed that research concerning brain

training in the elderly had indeed achieved considerably positive

results. Those patients who, at the time, had an average age of 73


showed improved mental ability ten years later if they performed

regular brain training when compared to those who did none. This was

not a small random sample either; the study group comprised 2,800

pensioners.

We are not big fans of brain training programs and software. However,

as per our own experience and of thousands of other clients, you may

visit this website to have HighIQPro, an IQ improving application.

http://d7393dp7om0kaz42m9v4wlza0t.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=IQBOOK



Chapter 7

Can Brain Training Improve your

Memory and Help you Concentrate Better?

While we may have established that brain training cannot improve

your IQ or level of intelligence. Memory and concentration are not

indicators of intelligence; they are traits or characteristics. They are

also skills, and as we have tried to make clear, the more you practice

a skill, the better you become at it. Over recent years there has been

a massive boost in the popularity of brain training games, and there is

no doubt that playing them is good for your brain. It is just not perhaps

in the way you had originally thought. Training your brain can help you

retain information in the forefront of your mind, but it cannot help

improve your ability to reason or solve problems.

Findings published in Psychological Science, a journal associated with

the Association of Psychological Science on this subject, are very

revealing. Psychological scientist and lead researcher, Randall Engle,

of Georgia Institute of Technology carried out extensive research on

the subject, and here we will try and simplify the results of his findings.


Engle refers to many claims that brain training improves your

intelligence. However, this fact is based on one supposition that is

basically untrue. Working memory capacity (WMC) is simply our

ability to retain information either in the front of our mind, or to make

it rapidly retrievable, particularly when distracted.

General fluid intelligence (GFI) relates more to the ability to identify

relationships, carry out complex reasoning, and solve problems that

are basically new. The supposition was that working memory capacity

had a direct effect on general fluid intelligence. Her results proved

that the two were independent of each other and, as a consequence,

brain training only influenced certain aspects of our brain’s function,

but not our level of intelligence. However, the good news is that one

of the elements of our brain’s function that is improved by practicing

brain training exercises is our memory and ability to retain

information for quick retrieval.

The other way of looking at the benefits of brain training to improve

your memory is to recognize what function memory plays in our life.

Unless you stop and think, you probably don’t realize that memory

plays a massive role in our life, yet it is something we take for granted.

Memory tells you how to dress in the morning, how to boil an egg for

breakfast and how to drive a car to work. Memory also allows you to


talk, to write and to read. Memory helps you in what we might

consider more obvious ways, like remembering to buy bananas when

you go shopping, remembering your sister or brother’s birthday, or

simply remembering to feed the dog or water the plants. So how does

brain training help us in all these activities?

The answer is that with an improved brain function, memory

improves. Brain training can help you to maximise the memory

capabilities of your brain, so ensuring that you don’t forget things. Ask

yourself how many times you have forgotten to buy something when

you have gone shopping? How many times you couldn’t remember

someone’s name – perhaps a celebrity or an author - or how many

times you left some of your belongings behind, like your bag in a shop

or you forgot to take your mobile phone or glasses with you when you

left the house? All these things are frustrating and annoying, but

regular brain training can help reduce the number of times these types

of incident happen.

Where concentration is concerned, that is a totally different matter. It

is quite funny when you consider that to train your brain you need to

concentrate, yet how do you train your brain if you are not good at

concentrating? There was a very interesting article published online

by the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) written by a journalist


who contacted a specialist in the USA to investigate whether her

powers and ability to concentrate could be improved. What she was

told at the onset by Dr DeGutis at the Boston Attention and Learning

Lab was that if your powers of concentration are reasonably good

anyway, brain training will be of little benefit. Caroline Williams, the

reporter, considered that she had a reasonable ability to concentrate

and so took an online test to demonstrate this fact.

She was shocked to discover that she scored just 53 points out of 100

when the average was 72 points. In addition, after several other tests

and an exchange of emails between herself and Dr DeGutis, she

reports that the cold hard truth had dawned on her, and particularly

with the following comment by Dr DeGutis: “Considering all your

results, it's very clear that you have issues with attention and

distractibility both in the lab and in daily life.” He wouldn’t say

particularly what was wrong, but he did make it clear that there was

significant room for improvement and as a consequence, he invited

the reporter to come over to Boston to undergo some specific brain

training.

Now what is interesting here is that up until now we had not

mentioned one particular illness where brain training could be of

benefit, and that is for those who suffer from ADHD (attention deficit


hyperactivity disorder). As the illness suggests, sufferers have a

particular problem with paying attention for any significant period to

one specific subject or task. Basically, as we would recognize the

problem, a sufferer’s mind just keeps wandering off onto thinking

about or wanting to do something else.

Well, the work of Dr. DeGutis would seem to indicate that for people

living with ADHD, there is some help available in the form of brain

training, as Caroline Williams discovered. What is also interesting to

note is that those who suffer from an inability to concentrate for long

periods of time and who are easily distracted have a bigger problem

today than they would have had twenty years ago.

Why?

Because today there are so many more distractions for us to heave to

deal with in our everyday lives. Most people have smartphones,

access to a PC or a tablet, so they have access to the Internet,

Facebook, Twitter etc. Even when working at a PC – perhaps as a

journalist, a writer, a web designer or whatever your job, there are a

hundred million websites out there waiting to distract you.


How many times have you gone to look on the Internet to find some

specific information, only to find you are still online half an hour later

looking at something totally unconnected? Now one of the tests

Caroline Williams took was called ‘Don’t touch Betty’, which is an odd

name for a scientific test. However, the idea was that facial images of

men would appear on her PC screen and when they did, she had to hit

the spacebar. The process had to be done instantly to avoid cheating.

However, when the image of a woman’s face appeared, she was not

to hit the space bar. Her results were terrible and well below the

average. As she put it, she could see that a woman’s face appeared,

but because the images were changing so swiftly, she couldn’t stop

herself hitting the space bar, even though she knew it was wrong.

Caroline took a barrage of other tests and trials without much success

and returned home to the UK. There, three times every day, she would

do a ‘Don’t touch Betty’ type test. This one involved a white coffee

cup on a white tablecloth. Whenever that appeared, she was to hit the

space bar, but if either the tablecloth or the coffee cup changed, she

was to leave the space bar alone. This test was combined with short

sessions of an electromagnetic pulse being targeted at the left side of

her brain to reduce its efficiency, allowing the right side – the part that

includes concentration - to work harder to compensate. She described


it as a bit like having your right arm tied behind your back to

strengthen the use of your left arm.

After three days of this intensive therapy, she continued to score at a

level that was borderline as poor as someone with ADHD or a brain

injury, the results being in the region of 20%-30% accuracy. Then, out

of the blue, her results suddenly jumped up to 70% correct. It was as

though a switch had been flicked as she had realized that even during

the test her mind had been wandering, but not to such a destructive

level. In psychology, being aware of what you are thinking about is

called ‘meta-awareness,’ and if you are aware of what is happening, it

allows you to refocus before you become too distracted. “Everyone

that the training has helped finds that they get to the stage where they

are a little more meta-aware,” Dr. DeGutis said, “They are doing the

task, and they see themselves thinking about other things.” Although

this is just one of many scientific tests carried out, it certainly goes a

long way to proving that brain training can help memory function.


Chapter 8

What Type of Brain Training Exercises Will you Find Useful?

There are two different approaches to brain stimulation (as opposed

to general entertainment) – one is brain training, and the other is

brain games. There is a fairly comprehensive difference between the

two which we will attempt to explain.

Brain games are more a genre of game which involves your brain to a

higher degree than many other games. The type of brain game we are

talking about includes crossword puzzles, Sudoku, anagram puzzles,

hangman, Scrabble, noughts and crosses, draughts, chess, etc. These

are all games which require a lot of thinking and, as a consequence,

are good for exercising your brain. However, they do not specifically

train your brain in any way. It is a bit like an athlete training purely by

running. It may help their stamina, but it doesn’t deal with other

specifics relevant to their chosen event.

Brain training exercises are more specific and challenge targeted areas

of your brain to get them to function at their best. Interestingly it was

the games console Nintendo DS and the company’s introduction to


‘Brain Training’ exercises that saw a massive market created for these types of exercise, something that today is a multi-billion dollar business.

The basic brain training exercises can involve solving simple

mathematical equations or memorizing a list of items, to then have to

identify which ones are missing when shown a new list or set of

images. Where the mathematical problems are concerned, these are

often combined with a time element to see not only how accurate you

are, but how many questions you can answer within a specific period.

What is also useful with some brain training programmes is that they

keep track of your scores, so you can see over a period if you are doing

better than when you first started.

Another simple brain training game is a reflex test. This usually takes

the form of clicking your mouse the moment an object changes color,

with a target time of 0.2 seconds being the optimum. Your time is

always recorded so you can keep track if you are improving. Hand-eye

coordination is another skill which requires mental agility as the brain

has to compute what the eyes see, and then convey a message to the

hands to react in a certain way. This type of test will often take the

form of a visual PC-based obstacle course which the player has to

complete. Once again time becomes a very relevant factor in this task,

so the more you practice hand-eye coordination exercises, the easier


they should become. (The HighIQPro offers training into reflex test

too)

We have touched on the simple type of memory test, but with brain

training, the intention is to stretch your mental capabilities to their

maximum level. A memory test is intended to use those parts of your

brain that not only store information, but that part involved in

retrieving it too.

A style of memory test will perhaps involve some levels where, to

begin with the amount of information you have to remember is

minimal. However, with each step, the amount of information

becomes greater. For example, in the first level you might be shown

an image of three oranges, and then once the screen is cleared, you

will be asked how many oranges you saw.

On level three you might be shown an image of three oranges, five

apples, and four bananas, then when the screen is cleared you may be

asked: “How many pieces of fruit did you see?” Now the clever part of

that type of question is the participant will be expecting a question

about the number of a specific fruit.




This type of question is used to stop the player guessing what the next

question is likely to be, and also stretches the use of his brain beyond

what was previously a more simple function. This type of brain

training is useful as it teaches your brain how to react when faced with

an unexpected occurrence.

Another test of your brain’s capacity to perhaps ‘think outside the box,

is the game of Hanoi, where you have some discs on a peg in

descending order of size. The game aims to move all the discs onto

another peg, but as you do it, you cannot place a larger disc on top of

a smaller one. All the discs must once again be in increasing order of

size. There is a minimum number of moves this should take. For three

rings, the number of moves is 7. For four rings, the number is 15, for

five it is 31, and for six it is 63. Now if you are very clever, the next

question is very similar to a question you would get in a brain training

test, or an IQ test. The question is, how many moves would it take to

move seven rings? The answer is 127. Now the reason you should be

able to work out that answer is to see the sequence that was created

with the addition of each new ring. For three rings the minimum

number of moves was 7. The sequence for each added ring then looks

like this: 7, 15, 31, 63. Do you notice anything about that sequence of

numbers? Well, the answer is that the next number in the sequence

is always double the previous number, plus one also. So there, with

http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex12/towerhanoi.htm

http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex12/towerhanoi.htm


one very simple and very old game, you have two forms of brain

training.

Brain stimulation is also an important part of a mental fitness regime.

As we have mentioned previously, athletes may go for a run just to

maintain their levels of fitness, but it may not be

sufficiently geared to their actual event, say

perhaps the 400m hurdles. Well, Sudoku is like

that run.

This image shows you a typical Sudoku puzzle. The challenge is to fill

in all the blanks. The only three

rules are that the numbers used must be between one and 9, that a

number can only appear once in any box of nine squares, and finally,

a number can only appear once in any line or column. Sudoku should

also come with a warning saying ‘Caution – Highly Addictive’!

Depending on how old you are, you may have come across the number

arranging game either as a handheld plastic game with numbers that

slid around on a grid, or more recently it is done on your smartphone

or PC.


The idea behind the game is, by using the one free space, you

rearrange all the numbers until they are in the correct order.

To a degree, this game was the precursor to the Rubik’s cube, which

was a tremendous test of skill, dexterity, mental agility and

intelligence. The intention of this game was simply to rearrange the

jumbled up colors of the cube until they were all the same on each of

the six sides, as can be seen below.

Believe it or not, but one of the very first ‘computer games’ ever

played was one called ‘pong,’ or

which others called TV tennis.

Very

simply it consisted of a ‘ball’ that

would travel across the screen

from left to right, and either

player had a slider or tennis racquet, they would slide up or down the


screen to stop the ‘ball’ getting past and instead of returning it to their

opponent’s side of the screen.

This type of brain exercise was again a combination of hand-eye

coordination and also strategy, which brings us on nicely to two of our

last favorite brain games. Scrabble and Chess.

Scrabble is an excellent brain exercising game and one that if played a

great deal, can help you increase your vocabulary tremendously.

However what this game requires is a certain level of knowledge of

your own language – it is available throughout the world. Secondly it

challenges you to work out anagrams as the seven letters you have on

your rack need to be re-ordered to create as long a word as possible.

The next element of your brain is that of memory – remembering if a

rarely used word is actually a word or just a figment of your

imagination. Finally, believe it or not, Scrabble requires an element of

strategy. Because certain parts of the board offer the chance for triple

letter scores and double word scores, you have to be careful where

you place a word, so you don’t give your opponent the chance to use

the high-scoring tiles.

Then finally we come to chess – the most strategic of all board games

known to humanity.


With various pieces able to move in varying defined directions, chess

is the ultimate mental challenge where the

true masters of the game can think up to

five moves ahead and devise strategies

intended to manipulate their opponents

into moving where they want

them to. Two of the greatest players of the game were Boris Spassky

a Russian, and Bobby Fischer, an American. Both were reported to

have an IQ more than 180 (the average person is 100 and anyone with

an IQ of over 130 being classed as highly intelligent). Interestingly,

another Russian Grand Master chess player, Garry Kasparov, was

registered as having an IQ of 194, which puts him in the world’s top

10 of people with the highest IQ.


Chapter 9

How Learning Influences Intelligence & IQ Scores?

The early IQ theorists supported the idea of “innate intelligence,”

claiming intelligence is a natural born ability. Their intelligence tests

were developed to measure core intelligence. They focused mainly

upon discovering how students can learn and perform within their

educational institutes. (Michael Howe, 1997)

The intelligence test has changed its shape over the years, yet it is used

to analyze students’ capability to learn and is also used to select the

smartest candidate for a given job. Interestingly, certain research has

concluded that all those countries where IQ tests were studied as an

educational subject, average IQ scores have increased! (Flynn, 1994).

This supports the opinion that understanding and knowing about IQ

tests can result in higher IQ scores for individuals. Here, the idea of

innate or natural born intelligence fades away if we assume IQ score

represents intelligence through a reductionist approach.


When you learn about your brain and understand what intelligence

actually is, you can develop a deeper insight into its capabilities and

consequently perform better during testing.

The relationship between IQ and actual intelligence has already been

discussed. It is clear that an increase in your IQ score does not

guarantee you have actually increased your intelligence. Intelligence

should be measured as an IQ in the given context to understand the

link between learning and understanding about intelligence and the

effect of this learning on IQ levels.

Robert Sternberg recently suggested a set of practical supplements to

conventional IQ tests showed that IQ levels could be increased

through educational interventions, and these results also clearly

demonstrate that IQ is not the sole product of natural-born ability. He

suggested that the traditional IQ tests should be used along with

supplemented performance-based tests, enabling us to measure the

more relevant, real-life, problem-solving intelligence level of an

individual (Robert Sternberg, 1998)

In 1998, Michael Howe presented the above statement that under the

appropriate conditions and given the opportunity, a person’s

intelligence can be increased considerably. A related example is the

Milwaukee Project, an initiative in the USA designed to improve the


academic achievement and IQ of children at risk and to analyze the

effects of intellectual stimulation through providing a better

educational and personal environment.

Many underprivileged black families were involved in the project.

They were inducted into the program beginning from a child’s birth

and ending with the start of traditional school education. Half of the

mothers of these families were provided with guaranteed work to

provide their children with a better living environment.

When the children started school, the ‘experimental group’ who

benefited from an improved environment had an average IQ of

120.7, whereas other group’s average was just 87.2, well below the

standard of 100. This extensive research proved that a better home

environment contributes to a higher IQ.

Recent research regarding the theories of cognitive development has

concluded that learning is enhanced or hampered by people’s

emotions while considering the fact that emotions drive learning and

improve memory. Thus mood and motivation are also connected to

intelligence. (M Boekaerts, 2002; Goleman, 1995).

They also support that competency related to social behavior and

emotions is quite crucial for effective learning; that’s why students


have a greater chance to succeed within a supportive and engaging

learning environment.

We have focused on the development of the skull and brain in children

from pregnancy to the age of three. However, it would be a complete

misconception to think that the structure of the brain is developed

solely during childhood, with little chance for further development in

adulthood.

Scientists have discovered in some studies that the human brain has

the wonderful capacity to change: people’s ability to process widely

varied information and complex new experiences with relative ease

can often be surprising. The brain’s ability to act and react in ever-

changing ways is known as neuroplasticity (Understanding What

Makes People Tick, 2009)

In fact, learning and intelligence are two highly interconnected

concepts. John Muir has rightly observed:

“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to

everything else in the universe.” — John Muir


When two concepts are highly interrelated, an understanding of one

helps with the understanding of the other, and vice versa.

Arthur Robert Jensen, a professor of Educational Psychology at the

University of California, suggested that there is no visible distinction

between the cognitive processes that contribute to individual

differences in the two “definitionally” different subjects of learning

and intelligence.

Learnability and intelligence are like a railway track, going ahead in

parallel, having a collective existence, keeping the train of brain

functionality on track.

How the learning process “influences” intelligence

When a person is exposed to interesting information, the interpreting

of information, combined with the occurrence of sensory events,

categorizes the information (i.e. as you place a document in the

related folder), scans the memory for familiar experiences and ideas

to which the information relates, and manipulates ideas, images, and

concepts.


However, a learner’s approach to perception, memorization, thinking,

and using any type of knowledge is inextricably linked to the patterns

of activity, communication, and social relations of the culture in which

that person is a member

The major requirement

for learning focuses on neurons.

Learning requires that these

components should grow more

from their existing state:

1. Dendrites (branch-like structure of neurons)

2. Synapses (a junction between two nerve cells, consisting of a

minute gap across which impulses pass by diffusion of a

neurotransmitter)

3. Neural Networks (the creation of which means new

knowledge)

These physical structures regarding knowledge do not just grow out

of nothing, but as a normal tree branch grows, it is either from another

existing branch or from the tree trunk (Cole & Scriber, 1974)


Hebb’s Law & the brain training aspect

“Cells that fire together, wire together”; this explains about the firing

of neurons and its positive relationship with the development of

neural networks. Hebb hypothesized earlier in 1949

What has since been proven again and again through research? Those

neurons which are repeatedly used, grow stronger synapses, and

more effective and efficient neuronal networks. The more they are

used, the more they grow out branches which seek new and useful

connections, (Hebb, 1949).

Thus the idea of brain training, or using your mind to improve brain

functionality, becomes more valid.

The idea of Attention Density

Attention density is defined as the number of observations per unit

time. Consequently, the higher the intensity of focus of attention, the

higher the attention density will be. Concentration and dense

attention enable humans to utilize brain memory more effectively,

while also strengthening neuron synapses. Just like a bodybuilder who

repeats barbell curves helps his muscle tissue to grow, the

functionality of both neurons and neural networks improve

considerably with concentrated use.


Hebb influenced Dr. Jeffery M Schwartz, as the doctor proposed;

attention density, focused attention and repetition helps neurons fire

solidly together, creating new learning, improved understanding, and

a better problem-solving ability! (Schwartz & Begley, 2003)

Several research projects into brain functioning and development,

especially about education, have concluded:

• Learning alters the physical structure of the brain.

• These changes modify the functional organization of the brain;

thus learning organizes and reorganizes the brain.

The concept of intelligence has changed in the modern age

The concept of intelligence from variable “G” (general intelligence)

has changed over the years. For example a more recent researcher,

Gardner did not agree with the traditional concept of “single”

intelligence. He devised his theory of multiple intelligence.

Howard Gardner, a professor at Harvard University, suggested

through his theory of multiple intelligences that learners or students

possess different kinds of cognitive structures of the mind, and that’s

why they learn, memorize, perform tasks, and comprehend in

different ways. He explained different intelligence as visual or spatial,


intrapersonal, interpersonal intelligence, etc. Many other recent

research projects have supported his opinion that in order to utilize

different skills, one learner needs to have the related type of

intelligence.

As all students learn differently, these differences, of course,

challenge education systems which assume that every individual can

learn from identical knowledge sources, in the same way, and they

believe in the sufficiency of a single testing method for them.

Thus there is a great need for a variety of assessments and tests for

students and learners!

In fact, all humans may possess elements of all forms of intelligence

to some extent. Some may have more of a specific intelligence type

than others. The most crucial fact to keep in mind is that doing

something specific usually requires the use of more than one type of

intelligence, and thus requires a related learning style.

Multiple intelligence and learning

Let us now gain an insight into the theory of multiple intelligence along

the approach of considering learning & intelligence as being on the


same plane. Although Gardner introduced us to seven types of

intelligence, I intend to discuss only a few of the most important ones

for the sake of conciseness.

Logical or mathematical intelligence

One of the major components of conventional IQ tests largely

depends upon mathematical intelligence. Mathematical intelligence is

the ability to use logic or reasoning through numbers. Learners

conceptualize with rational and logical patterns. They process

information through numerical patterns; developing connections

between bits of information. They are comparably inquisitive and

tend to perform experiments.

Interpersonal intelligence & the idea of ZPD

Learning is a social process. Humans learn through interaction with

others, both of the same age and of higher age and cognitive

developmental level. This process involves ZPD (zone of proximal

development).

The ZPD is the gap between what persons are capable of doing

individually, and what they can do with the support and help of

persons who are more skilled and knowledgeable than themselves.


Remember, the ability is assumed as intelligence. Interpersonal intelligence develops when people start to see reality

from others’ point of view, through a sense of empathy. This enables

them to understand how others think and feel!

When this intelligence is ’learned‘, people become better at sensing

the feelings, intentions, and motivations of others. In order to merge

into group thinking, people start to become manipulative too. They

get clever!

Intrapersonal intelligence

This type of intelligence overlaps with the idea of emotional

intelligence. Learners have a comparably better self-reflecting ability

and more accurate level of self-awareness. This enables them to

comprehend their strengths, weaknesses, inner desires, dreams,

feelings and their social relationships.

Neuroscience and brain research in the formative years of life

highlights the importance of early childhood development and its

effects on the later stages of life.

Research indicates that social and emotional competence is integral

to successful learning and that students are therefore most likely to


succeed within a supportive and engaging environment that ensures

a good level of education and wellbeing.

Developing learnability & IQ improvement

Learning is a skill in itself!

There are so many examples around us that clearly show that learning

something enhances further learning. Learning equips us with

problem-solving tools and further expands the cognitive set of

abilities.

Various research has already proved that learning, particularly

through academic means, improves IQ levels. The point here to

consider is that different individuals have different learning styles.

Better learnability paves the way for acquiring better problem-solving

skills. These skills may enable a person to achieve a higher IQ score

and an improved overall cognitive caliber. So what are the basic skills

which enhance the learning process?

Alain Mounier, in 2001, developed a framework regarding generic

skills, containing components such as:


Cognitive-based on general skills (for general educational

competence)

Technical—related to the performance of specific tasks (professional

skills)

Behavioural—related to the ability to perform in the context of

particular work relationships. These are generic skills, and most of

them can be learned; thus equipping the problem-solving ability of

human brain with effective tools.

A teacher’s lecture influences the knowledge of class participants

differently; some absorb more information than others. You might

think it must only be because of participants’ intelligence levels. Yes,

this can be so, but a more important factor than intelligence is the

compatibility of information source (or the way the information is

delivered) with an individual’s learning style. The more compatibility

there is, the better the synchronization of information from the

teacher to the student will take place.

Kolb (1995) introduced a continuum on which learning styles were

ranked as:

1. Concrete experience (Feeling- learning by experiencing a new

problem )


2. Reflective observation (Watching- reviewing & reflecting on

experience )

3. Abstract conceptualization (Thinking- reflection enables

conceptual layouts of an idea; they create theories to explain

observations)

4. Active experimentation (Doing- concluding & jumping directly

into doing it)

Learning theorists, Litzinger and Osif (1993), suggested four learning

styles are developed from the combination of two styles of Kolb’s

model. Most learners thus prefer one of these four styles

1. Accommodators (Concrete Experience + Active

Experimentation)

2. Divergers (Concrete Experimentation+ Reflective Observation)

3. Convergers (Reflective Observation+ Abstract

Conceptualization)

4. Assimilators (Active Experimentation+ Abstract

Conceptualization)


They arranged them along Kolb’s continuum. There is little need to

explain these types further as the subject would be of more relevance

to teachers.

What I am trying to say is that academic education positively

influences intelligence tests-related performance. Learners or

students can be guided to learn more effectively through identifying

their preferred learning style/styles and strengthening them through

the application of a learning cycle explained by Kolb and other

researchers.


Chapter 10

Interesting Facts about some of the

World’s Cleverest People

The three people with the highest ever recorded IQ are in third place,

Christopher Hirata (Born 1982) with an IQ of 225. At the age of 13, he

won a gold medal in the International Physics Olympiad. He then

completely bypassed middle school and by the age of 16 was working

for NASA to see if there was life on Mars. In second place is Terence

Tao (Born 1975) with an IQ estimated between 225 and 230. He is an

Australian mathematician who specializes in areas of mathematics

few will have even heard of - harmonic analysis, partial differential

equations, additive combinatorics, ergodic Ramsey theory, random

matrix theory, and analytic number theory.

Finally, the award for the person with the highest ever recorded IQ is

William James Sidis (Born 1898) with an estimated IQ of between 250

and 300. Sidis was definitely what is known as a child prodigy. He

studied at Harvard University when only 11 years old. He could speak

eight languages by the age of 8, including Latin, Greek, French,

Russian, German, Hebrew, Turkish, and Armenian.


Having covered the older generation, what about children who have

exceptionally high IQ’s and what they have managed to achieve at a

young age? Well, let’s start with Saffron Pledger from the UK who, at

the age of 3, has an IQ of 140 and is the youngest person to become a

member of MENSA, the club which only accepts members with an IQ

of more than 132 on the Stanford-Binet scale. Then there is Jacob

Barnett who, at the age of eight, started attending Indiana University-

Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Despite having a slight degree

of Autism, Barnett has not let Asperger’s Syndrome get in his way.

With an IQ of 170, which is greater than that of Albert Einstein,

Barnett has been taking advanced astrophysics classes and is hoping

to expand on Einstein’s theory of relativity as well as challenging the

Big Bang theory.

At the age of ten, Michael Kearney became the youngest ever

university graduate when he received a bachelor’s degree from the

University of South Alabama. At age 17 he obtained his second

graduate degree from Vanderbilt University, while by the age of 21 he

had managed to obtain four undergraduate degrees, and a year later

he was awarded a doctorate in chemistry.


At the age of three, Kim Ung-Yong started attending as a guest physics

student at Hanyang University in South Korea. By the time he was

eight, he had been invited by NASA to study in the USA. Born in 1962

he is listed as having an IQ of 210, and as a child prodigy he began to

speak at just four months old, and within two years he was able to

read in Japanese, Korean, German and English.

Of course, these are just contemporary children. Child prodigies

existed long before the IQ test was ever invented. Whether child

prodigies or not, we wonder what IQ levels the likes of Plato, Aristotle,

Galileo, Leonardo DaVinci or other notable names may have had. As

for child prodigies, well little could beat Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

By the age of three he could play the harpsichord and had written his

first musical composition by the time he was six, then his first

symphony at the age of eight and opera by 12. As a five-year-old,

Mozart successfully performed on the piano at the University of

Salzburg and the imperial court in Vienna the following year.


Conclusion

We have taken you hopefully on an enjoyable journey of discovery and

told you the fact that intelligence is not a static state. Yes, we’ve

identified that genetics can play a big role in a person’s intelligence,

but as we have shown you, there is so much more you can do to help

maximize your potential, and it doesn’t all involve burying your head

in books either!

We have shown how lifestyle can play a very important role in

intelligence, especially diet when you are at a very young age. Better

still, we have also shown that your mother can even have an influence

on your level of intelligence by the lifestyle she follows during

pregnancy. Exercise also plays an important role not just for your

overall health, but for your mind as well. Learning how to relax,

destress and switch off, all aspects of living that seem innocent can

actually have a tremendously positive effect on how well your brain

functions.

There is no doubt that to maximize your potential where intelligence

is concerned; you have to use your brain, almost in the same way

athletes train for a race. A good education is essential, not only

through what you learn, but it also teaches you how to learn. If, during


your education, you can understand what you are being taught, rather

than ‘learn’ just using memory, you will benefit tremendously. The

trick to maximising the use of your brain is to understand as much as

you can. This way you can use that knowledge to work out what the

likely outcome of various scenarios may be.

It is called wisdom…..!

When it comes to training your brain, a good cross-section of exercises

is always a good idea. For one it stops the training being boring if you

try different challenges, while secondly, it will use different parts of

your brain. Brain training is a fun way to keep your mind sharp and to

help you increase your capacity for learning and increasing your

intelligence. The question is, what sort of brain training appeals to you

the most?

Today, some people associate brain training and increasing your

intelligence with online tests and trials. However there are so many

other options available that have been with us, literally, for centuries,

and these have worked perfectly well for past genii!


What we are really trying to assure you is that increasing your

intelligence and maximising your potential doesn’t have to be all

about hard work.

Keeping your brain in first-class condition can be done whether it is

playing noughts and crosses, or chess. Whether you are eight or

eighty, there are no age restrictions on what age you need to be to

remain sharp and mentally alert.

We surely have explained a positive link between intelligence and IQ

scores. The people identified with extra-ordinary scores have done

miracles. The people with challenging low intelligence levels have

shown bad results on IQ scales. Still, you can’t take IQ scores

equivalent to your intelligence.

There are two most complex realities of this universe; the universe

itself and the human brain. We suggest taking more care while

measuring more complex objects and phenomenon. The universe is

being measured through unitary and quantitative approaches that are

impacting astronomy. But using units is not going to help you

understand your brain and intelligence. In other words, calculating

stars in a galaxy is easier than to measure what the humans are

capable of.


The bottom line is, intelligence level can’t be truly measured by IQ

scores. So, being restrictive and confine, inside “measuring

intelligence,” may hamper realistic and scientific approach. Instead, if

you keep in mind your strengths and limitation while confronting the

challenge score better IQ scores, you can perform better. The IQ

training can also impact your brain cells as weight lifting does to your

muscles.

Furthermore, there are various skills which help in improving learning

and problem-solving capabilities. Dexterity in these skills may pave

the path for more learning. The scientific evidences are abundant to

prove that learning helps you to shine your problem-solving

capabilities. Learning basic arithmetic, algebra, geometry, essay

writing techniques, grammar, inter and intra communications can

increase your capacity to understand information.

Brain training exercises, puzzles, quizzes, video games, chess, etc. can

boost your memory to handle information. You also get improved

your cognitive structure to apply rationale more effectively.

We can’t deny results of studies on exercises to improve the

concentration of focused attention. More interestingly, many useful


neural networks and neuron interaction are formulated in the

process.

In the end, if you ask, we can deliver you two words answer to your

quest. It is “effective learning.” It is possible only by adopting

learning style with compatible learning material. The assimilations,

experiments and practical exercises play a pivotal role to increase

your intelligence.


Resources for FREE Practice Tests

1- Wonderlic Test

2- Mechanical Test

3- Personality Test

http://realsimple.design/1tn8ud

http://realsimple.design/1tn8ud

http://realsimple.design/1cfqmw

http://realsimple.design/1cfqmw

http://realsimple.design/1j4aco

http://realsimple.design/1j4aco


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