Do you know what fluid and crystalline means?
April 29th 2008 22:49
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Well sure I do, you drink a fluid and eat a crystal ( like in sugar cubes) and yes they're those things that girls like to play with and make into necklaces and things. So what gives?
Well you're not wrong in what you say, but here we are talking about intelligence.
Fluid intelligence is used for new cognitive tasks and was previously thought to be hardwired, at birth, whereas crystalline intelligence refers to the knowledge acquired throughout life.
Now they are working on research to try to establish how working memory assists fluid intelligence and some success has been claimed this way.
However, some doubt the findings finding fault with the methodologies used and factors affecting the results.
It had been thought that training the brain for one task equipped it only for better performance at that task and could have no effect on performance of a different specific task, which would require its own specific training.
But it is now being shown that enhancing memory of one task learned can enhance performance with another and results as high as a retained 40% improvement are being mooted.
And more and more evidence for the benefits of brain training programs is being gathered.
Improvements increase as the training increases or so it is claimed and the study techniques are in themselves reliable but sometimes there are factors that are overlooked or that inadvertently sneak into the trial conditions.
But of one thing you may be certain, this idea of training the brain with certain programs will persist with many chasing the big $'s thought to be available to leap into the brain games owners pockets.
Personally, I limit just how much money I am prepared to invest and I do have my doubts about the benefits.
Certainly I think it sharpens the mind in certain ways, geared more to a declining brain, than to the inherent ability of any one person's individual brain capacity.
But now the trend has been so firmly established you may be certain it will be full steam ahead in this area with the parameters of the research findings being more stretched than justified.
But it does no harm to sharpen up your wits and put yourself to the test as work alone does not always challenge, and I would say it rarely does, those thought patterns that encourage the necessary neural sprouting, as much work, once learned, taxes the brain only to continue to perform with the skills necessary for that job and does not extend one's thinking capacity to the degree necessary to keep it fertile.
And with many employers just wanting workers to perform rather than think and to spend too much of their valuable time devoted to his hip pocket rather than enhancement of their own skills, it remains beneficial to take on board some of the recommended practices.
And education and variety and one's innate capacity will need to be taken into account, as we have known, since early on in life, and it needed no-one to tell us, that we are not all created equal.
Personally I know that my brain will never catch up to that of Condaleesa Rice and Einstein certainly had the edge on his nearest most intelligent academics.
Just some thoughts for the day on which you may like to think.
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