ANN ARBOR, Mich., June 6 (UPI) -- University of Michigan postdoctoral fellows suggest that at least one aspect of a person's IQ can be improved by training a certain type of memory.
Susanne Jaeggi and Martin Buschkuehl, both visiting scholars from Switzerland, said most IQ tests attempt to measure two types of intelligence -- crystallized intelligence, which draws on existing skills, knowledge and experiences to solve problems using long-term memory; or fluid intelligence, which draws on understanding relationships among concepts, independent of any previous knowledge.
Jaeggi, Buschkuehl and Walter Perrig of Bern University in Switzerland and Jon Jonides of the University of Michigan reasoned fluid intelligence relies on short-term memory, or "working memory," -- the same type of memory people use to remember a phone number. Working memory also refers to the ability to both manipulate and use information briefly stored in the mind in the face of distraction.
The researchers trained four groups of volunteers using their working memories. For each training period, researchers tested participants' gains in fluid intelligence and compared them against a control group.
While the control groups made gains -- presumably because they had practice with the fluid intelligence tests -- the trained groups improved considerably more than the control groups and the longer the participants trained, the larger were their intelligence gains.
