Can one change their own IQ?

[Thaumaturge]

I’m thinking that anything that cannot actually increase the amount, speed and/or efficiency of neurons in the brain would have a limit to as to how far it could bump up IQ. Our minds are our brains. You can only get so far without having to change the machine.

As an analogy, good coding can make your computer faster, but only so much faster before you hit a wall. (This is like training your mind for an IQ test. Rewiring the neurons into better code)Then you need to upgrade the hardware. Of course computers are far simpler, and it’s far easier to hit the wall, but the correlation is obvious and valid.

Unless you beleive in deux ex machina, in which case you might as well stop trying to understand the mind and join a monastary.

[Zenenofeus]

@Thaumaturge

I’m thinking that anything that cannot actually increase the amount, speed and/or efficiency of neurons in the brain would have a limit to as to how far it could bump up IQ.

As you practice a task more and more, nuerons develope collateral branches that make doing the task easier the next time, thus the neurons efficiency sending the impulse to its destination increases.

[Thaumaturge]

That would only make the brain more efficient at that particular task. Not at tasks in general. Yes,the neural connection that represents the practiced task becomes stronger, and more efficient, but there is still a limit to how much stronger and more efficient it can get. Eventually you would reach a limit, based upon factors beyond your control, such as what species you are and the exact nature of your grey matter and its constituents. It’s not like you can infinitely strengthen the connections.

I was more refering to changing the basic properties of the brain and neurons, and the effects on overall IQ.

[Zenenofeus]

Yes i’m sure there is a limit to what the brain can achieve but we do only use on average i think 10% of our brain’s potential. So 90% is still ALOT.

[Thaumaturge]

Nah, the 10% of our brains thing is an old busted myth. fMRI shows that we pretty much use all of our brains, at one time or another.

Which makes sense, considering our brains use 20% of our body’s energy supply ( blood, oxygen), get constitutes 2% or less of its mass. Something that wasted 18% of our body’s energy woudn’t evolve anyway, those who used what they had would quickly outcompete the gross energy wasters. If we only used 10% of our brains, our brains would be 10% their current size.

[Achernar]

For your reference: Do we really use only 10 percent of our brains? by Cecil Adams. Basically it just agrees with Thaumaturge, though.

[drhess]

@brainfizz

There was a test done on London taxi drivers to establish whether continual use of one part of the brain (in their case the lower brain which deals with navigation) would increase the size of that part of the brain. The test showed that the taxi drivers had hugely increased brain mass in their lower brain (probably at the expense of the “knowing when to shut up” part of the brain).
Thus continual use of brain functions and practice at all of the things that encompass an IQ test will enable you to perform better at those tests.

Seems unlikely. Your brain doesn’t grow with use as an adult. Then again I took physio psychology classes 15 years ago.

[Geek_Mecha]

@conczepts

I have heard this in my psychology classes as well, and it only reinforces my belief that IQ tests are not useful for measuring anything other than how well you do on an IQ test.

A prof of mine said that your IQ is not the best indicator of how you’ll do in school; the best indicator of that is your peformance in previous grade levels. How well you’ll do in post-schooling life depends on the skills you acquired throughout your schooling (organization, time management, memory, critical thinking, etc.).

[xash]

Achernar, watch your tone.

Desmostylus, watch your language.

You have both been warned. Failure to adhere to the rules of GQ will cause your posting privileges to be removed.

-xash
General Questions Moderator

[xash]

Moved to GD. Keep it civil or this thread will be locked.

-xash
General Questions Moderator

[Khadaji]

@Colinmarshall

Is it possible, by any reasonable method (no brain surgery), to make a dramatic change to your own intelligence quotient? I ask this because I’ve never been quite sure as to whether an IQ is reflective of some innate, fixed level of ability or something that grows with development.

There are a number of books by authors who think that you can improve your IQ. One that I read was called the Einstein Factor. It had some interesting ideas, but I thought some of its science was specious. I believe that there is a book that is recently popular called “How to Think Like Da Vinci.” But I haven’t read it.

[don_t_ask]

Feel free to experiment with copious amounts of drugs and/or alcohol and get back to us.

[Epimetheus]

@drhess

Seems unlikely. Your brain doesn’t grow with use as an adult. Then again I took physio psychology classes 15 years ago.

Actually it doesn’t “grow,” but neural pathways are created, though at a slower rate, all through your life. Even 60 year olds can, with practice, get better at something. This would not be possible if the human brain didn’t create new pathways and “grow” as adults.

I think things have changed quite a bit in the last 15 years, do you keep current on neurobiology?

[WernhamHogg]

@Achernar

Raising your IQ requires the same thing. Any psychologist will tell you that if you take an IQ test over and over, that test will no longer be reflective of your actual IQ.

There’s no such thing as an “actual IQ.” All the IQ is is your score on an IQ test. You can replace it with SAT to get a similar statement. “Any psychologist will tell you that if you take the SAT over and over, that test will no longer be reflective of your actual SAT score.”

Or do you mean the same test? Obviously, if you take the same test over and over, your high scores won’t predict a much higher score on a test you haven’t taken.

[dal_timgar]

Most Idiot Quotient test involve reading and understanding the problem to be solved. Since there is a time limit on the test if a person can increase his reading speed and comprehension he will increase his IQ SCORE. Is that an increase in intelligence?

This can be considered part of the cultural bias of the tests. Children that grow up in an environment where they are encouraged to read probably score higher. Depending on what they are encouraged to read, they can know more.

That is why I’m promoting sci-fi for grammar school kids. Not much physics in Shakespeare.

Dal Timgar

@Colinmarshall

Is it possible, by any reasonable method (no brain surgery), to make a dramatic change to your own intelligence quotient? I ask this because I’ve never been quite sure as to whether an IQ is reflective of some innate, fixed level of ability or something that grows with development.

[Aldebaran]

I never found a way to make my one functioning braincell multiply.

Don’t know if that has something to do with IQ though.

Salaam. A

[II_Gyan_II]

I’ll go off the literal tack and assume the OP is asking about increasing intelligence and using IQ as proxy.

I would say, yes. But, it’s pretty difficult. As an infant, you have a LOT more synapses, but which get pruned due to lack of use. As time goes by, everything incoming gets filtered by the existing synapses. So, your ability to comprehend and imbibe new concepts or information is intricately linked to what your existing synaptic connections are. In other words, the new things you learn are understood in terms of your current understanding. I think it would take some shocking experiences or insights to “improve” your basic intelligence, or to activate new pathways. Practically, there would be limits to how much change the brain can accomplish. But theoretically, it should be possible to an extent.

[Lamia]

@dal_timgar

Most Idiot Quotient test involve reading and understanding the problem to be solved. Since there is a time limit on the test if a person can increase his reading speed and comprehension he will increase his IQ SCORE. Is that an increase in intelligence?

This can be considered part of the cultural bias of the tests. Children that grow up in an environment where they are encouraged to read probably score higher. Depending on what they are encouraged to read, they can know more.

Actually, IQ tests require very little reading. Instructions are given orally by the test administrator. Since one of the primary purpose of IQ tests is to identify and categorize people with learning disabilities or mental retardation, many of whom cannot read well or at all, a test that was reading-based would be largely useless.

[Tigers2B1]

@dal_timgar

Most Idiot Quotient test involve reading and understanding the problem to be solved. Since there is a time limit on the test if a person can increase his reading speed and comprehension he will increase his IQ SCORE. Is that an increase in intelligence?

You’re right about the time limits but IMO you seem off base in regards to your assertion that there is significant reading, or reading which makes a significant difference, in IQ testing.

The proctored IQ test I took a little over a year ago had very little reading involved. The instructions for each element were read to you. The only part that I recall that involved reading was the vocabulary and the ‘recall’ sections and the reading was minimal there. The vocabulary section had about 50 questions and started with very simple words and ended with some challenging ones. The ‘recall section’ (no, I don’t recall the real name ) included an essay which lasted about 10 minute and which was read to you. About 45 minutes after you answered about 25 short questions directly and indirectly related to the essay. Under the ‘recall’ section there were also a few pictures that were shown to you than taken away, immediately after which you answered factual questions about the pictures. In some of the sections you were asked to determine similarities and differences among groups of pictures. There were also sections where you were required to select what the pictured object would look like if viewed from different angles or folded into different shapes. While each element of the test was timed, giving you barely enough time to finish, there were clearly a couple of sections devoted to speed only. One involved adding up sets of single digit numbers and the other involved clicking a mouse whenever a dot appeared on a screen.

[Ee-At-Oes]

I just took an IQ test last week. Sat in a room for 4 hours and solved puzzles and such. I scored in the top 1% but not because I am more intelligent than anyone else, just that the test happened to all be in the areas of things I knew about.

As I took the test I thought about the different areas of thought it was asking me to use. For example one test ask me to sort. The tester would quickly say something like 5,g,1,k,9,w,r,t,3,6 and I was supposed to repeat back in alphabetical order then in numeric order and everything was being timed of course. So quickly I’d say g,k,r,t,w,1,3,5,6,9 and he’d record the accuracy and time I took.

I loved this lil exercise and thought its a good thing to be good at so my partner and I began testing each other on this in the car with the idea that it might help us sort task in life if we practiced this a lot.

Sure enough after a few days of this my daily life tends to be much easier to organize in my head. So I didn’t become more intelligent I just exercised part of my brain I wasn’t using before.

Being in grad school for psychology I get to take a lot of these tests and I always score very high. I know that it is not because I am brighter than the other 99% but I choose to accept the good news and use it to my advantage in my belief about myself.

The first one of these test I took when I was 8 and I really feel it helped shape my life because I scored at genius level and went through my youth acting as a genius might, reading what a genius would read and keeping a 4.0 as I figured a genius should. This is called the Pygmalion effect and you can read about it here.

http://www.hrzone.com/articles/pygmalion_effect.html

So YES you can up your IQ scores. The real question is; Can we up our intelligence? I think we can, by taking on task that are nearly impossible for our brain to comprehend and refusing to stop thinking about them. If it’s hard for your brain to think about…then think about it.

-Mocara