START PLAYING MIND GAMES

3 FUN WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR BRAIN!

Learn more about how your mind works and what you can do to make it work better! Easy to understand facts about the human mind and tips to train and stimulate your intellect.

BR Publishing

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CONTENTS

Introduction What is intelligence? Measuring intelligence Developing intelligence Improving intelligence - The fun way Lumosity Mensa Brain Trainer Fit Brains Conclusion References

 BR Publishing 2013. All rights reserved. www.brainreference.com

INTRODUCTION:

The human brain is one of the most amazing and mysterious organs in our body and also the most complex. Since the beginning of modern medicine, the brain has puzzled scientists of all types who have tried to figure out its secrets. Even today, with all the scientific data gathered on mental and physical processes in the brain, there are still many unknown processes and interactions that are only now being discovered and understood. We are just beginning to understand the way our minds work and discover all the complex processes that lead to solving problems or making connections even before we are aware we are doing so. And of course, once we understand how something works, we immediately start to think about making it work even better! This is what has leaded us as a species so far: our constant desire to evolve, improve and discover. And our brains are no exceptions! We can, in fact, improve our mental capacity through specific and targeted training that scientists have developed after years of research and improvement.

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WHAT IS INTELLIGENCE?

According to the Enciclopaedia Britannica, human intelligence means the mental quality that consists of our abilities to learn from our experiences, adapt to new situations, understand and handle abstract concepts, and use knowledge to manipulate ones environment. In fact there are many theories around the exact definition of our complex intelligence and the fact of the matter is that it is indeed so complex there is no exact definition for it. Over the past century there have been extensive studies around it and numerous researches have dedicated their lifes work to its study. We have come a long way since the 1900s, when our knowledge of the human brain and intellect was basic and mostly wrong. After more than a century of dedicated and ample research, there is still much and more still unknown about the way our brains and minds work, but we do understand that each end every one of us is different although similar. There are several approaches in understanding intelligence, some more popular among scholars then others. What becomes obvious when confronting the different theories on intelligence is that it is so complex that there can be no exact definition to it and it comes from a number of genetic (inherited), environmental, and cognitive factors, that include memory, attention, reasoning, spatial imagery, and general knowledge. One theory developed by Howard Gardner states that it is impossible to exactly measure human intelligence and that the human brain operates with a multitude of abilities. So an individual might be more prone towards one or more such abilities, thus possessing a specific type of intelligence. This theory proposes 9 different types of intelligence:

Naturalistic Intelligence refers to those nature smart individuals or people that tend to
be more sensitive regarding the natural world.

Musical Intelligence refers to an increased sensibility toward sounds that most individuals
may not be aware of. People with musical intelligence easily recognize tone, rhythm, timbre, and pitch.

Logical-Mathematical Intelligence is the ability to calculate and carry out

mathematical operations as well as consider hypotheses and propositions. 3

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Existential Intelligence or spiritual or moral intelligence refers to those individuals

especially prone to ponder the more spiritual aspects of life and death, and generally have a more philosophical approach on things.

Interpersonal Intelligence is possessed by people smart individuals, meaning those

who can easily interact with others, communicate effectively through verbal and nonverbal means or sense, and understand with ease various moods or intentions of others.

Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence refers to the capacity to use a range of physical skills

with great coordination. Those that possess bodily-kinesthetic intelligence have good sense of timing and their movements are almost faultlessly coordinated with their thoughts.

Linguistic Intelligence involves the human capacity to communicate through spoken

and written language. This particular kind of intelligence allows an individual to appoint complex meanings and express them using language. Linguistic intelligence is, of course, the most wide-spread type of intelligence, but there are those more gifted than the rest. This is the case for novelists, journalists, or poets.

Intra-Personal Intelligence refers to the ability of an individual to acquire a deep

understanding of ones self and in general of the human condition and put that knowledge into practice. Such people tend to be spiritual leaders, philosophers, psychologists, or writers.

Spatial Intelligence means the capacity to view things in three dimensions, manipulate
images, spatial reasoning, and graphic or artistic skills. People with spatial intelligence tend to be really creative.

Another theory regarding intelligence is that of Charles Spearman, who proposed a general intelligence factor (g), which underlies all intelligent behavior. Many scientists still use this factor to estimate specific abilities, but it does not account for individuals with high scores in certain abilities and very low in others.

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A newer theory was developed by Robert Sternberg, who proposed a triarchic theory of intelligence. It distinguishes three aspects of intelligence that can altogether be an effective measurement of intellectual capacity. These are:

Componential intelligence: the one assessed by intelligence tests; Experiential intelligence: the ability to adapt to new situations; Contextual intelligence: the ability to function effectively in daily situations.
These are only a few theories regarding human intelligence, making it apparent that they only come to common ground regarding the complexity of the human mind and intelligence and the fact that each individual is different.

MEASURING INTELLIGENCE

So am I smart or not? Am I smarter than the average? Theres nothing we like more than feedback, particularly the positive type. So how do we find out just how smart we really are? By comparing our own smarts to those of others, of course. As previously said, intelligence is an elusive concept and the scientific community has yet to come to a conclusion regarding its exact definition. So how do we measure intelligence if were not even sure what it actually means? Of course, some brilliant minds have already thought of that problem and everyone has probably heard about IQ. The intelligence quotient, or IQ, is a notion first thought of by German psychologist William Stern and it refers to the score obtained by an individual when taking a standardized test that measures intelligence. In an IQ test, the median raw score is defined as IQ 100 and scores each standard deviation (SD) up or down are defined as 15 IQ points greater or less. So according to this standardization, around 95 percent of the population has an IQ score between 70 and 130. There are several tests that measure spatial, mathematical, verbal, and analytical skills, or reaction or recognition time to a visual stimulus; some of the tests measure a combined number of skills. The majority of the scientific community believes that this kind of testing does indeed yield a general statistical factor (g) that is a general measurement of an individuals intelligence. IQ scores are used to predict a persons educational achievement, type of job, and income, and are used to correlate intelligence with other factors like social status for example.

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DEVELOPING INTELLIGENCE

Well by now youve probably taken an IQ test and know just how smart you are. How did you get to bet this brilliant, you ask? As it turns out, a persons intellectual capacity is determined by a complex set of factors, the most important being the characteristics inherited from their parents and environmental factors. So, it would seem that our upbringing has a lot to do with our intelligence as adults. Developing motor, language, social, and cognitive skills in children is highly important for their mental development as it helps form certain connections between neuron in the brain. The more connections the child makes, the more they are used and it becomes more likely that the child will develop a high intellectual capacity. Some studies suggest that 50 percent of an adults intellectual capacity is formed by the age of four, and by the age of eight 80 percent of their adult capacity is formed. Beyond that age it would seem that mental abilities can be improved by maximum 20 percent. This doesnt mean that children should be force-fed information; this might actually just make their childhood less happy with no visible results on their intellect later in life. The young childs brain in not yet prepared to deal with abstract notions, so things like algebra or physics notions in preschool classes may not really be useful. If the childs brain is not ready for such information, it will only be forgotten along the way. There are ways to help a childs intellect develop and stimulate their mental processes. Motor skills can be improved through physical activities such as walking, running, jumping, skipping, or climbing. This will improve coordination, balance, and muscle strength. Fine motor skills are developed when grabbing, coloring, writing, and reading; such tasks will lead to hand-eye coordination and muscle control development. Exercising language is also important, as it helps the child form communication skills. Family outings or any kind of social interaction will also encourage emotional and social development of child. Some games will also help cognitive abilities and increase mental capacity. Such games include sorting games, pattern matching games, or guessing games.

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IMPROVING INTELLIGENCE - THE FUN WAY

But what if youre not as smart as youd like to be? So is adulthood an intellectual deadend? Those of us who have reached a certain age will know from their own experience that this is not the case. So it turns out childhood plays a crucial role in the development of our adult intellect. But this really doesnt mean we have to stop growing on an intellectual level once were grown up. Scientific studies have showe d that, when aging, our brain and mental capacity suffer many changes, but not all of them are for the worse. It seems some mental functions decline while some improve; for example, vocabulary improves while the speed which we carry out certain tasks slows down. Well, its no secret that we become slower with age, but maybe you didnt know it was because youre losing brain cells And youre not getting too many new ones. The good news is that the remaining ones can adapt and learn new things. So we can use larger parts of our brains to do a certain task. This means performance, yes; the speed will never be what it used to be when you were in your twenties, but we just have to deal with it.

It turns out that when living in a stimulating environment our brains at middle-age may actually act like those of young adults and form new connections. This means we perform well on our tasks, although maybe not as fast. A challenging environment might mean physical activity on a regular basis or regular mental exercise. The idea that cognitive exercises improve mental capacity is of course still under some debate. Some argue that this kind of exercise only improves the ability it trains for a determined period of time, while others regular mental exercises improve overall cognitive abilities over long periods of time.

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So this is good news after all. You can maintain and improve you cognitive abilities even as an adult and all you have to do is play! Regular physical and mental exercises help keep your mind young and learning! Here are some of the most popular brain games available on line at this time:

LUMOSITY
Lumosity is a brain training program that consists of several different training games. Lumos Labs is the company that developed Lumosity, in collaboration with leading scientists in bioinformatics, cognitive psychology, and neuroscience. The program is addressed to people of all ages, but is mainly focused on children. It consists of a number of different mini-games that focus certain cognitive abilities and increase in difficulty as users become more experienced. The interface is very user-friendly and easily accessible to everyone. Each game is preceded by a tutorial on how to play and the minigames aim to improve skills like speed, cognitive control, memory, and attention. You can even register for free and try the program before purchasing full access. There are daily programs for each cognitive skill to be developed, but only three of the five are available in the free version. Overall, Lumosity is a very popular program for cognitive enhancement and is easy to see why: its fun and easy on the eyes; its very easy to navigate through and the games are really challenging and fun to play!

MENSA BRAIN TRAINER

Mensa Brain Trainer is another program meant to improve intellectual performance. The game is developed and sold by British Mensa, founded in 1946 as a society for people with a high IQ. The Brain Trainer is addressed to adults that wish to increase their intellect through daily exercises and is available on a portable platform sold by various suppliers. It focuses mainly on improving learning, memory, and attention capacities and has been periodically improved to include recent finds in the area. The program consists of a total of 9 games with different levels of difficulty, that challenge spatial orientation skills, numeric reasoning, and language skills. The game is pretty reliable since its developed by the world renowne d Mensa Organization and includes years of 8

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research in the field. It is also an inexpensive and fun way to challenge your brain and if you dont really like it, you can return it in 28 days after purchase.

FIT BRAINS
Fit Brains is another brain enhancement program offered by Vivity Labs, Inc, a gaming company that focuses on brain games. The program also consists on a number of minigames that focus on developing language, memory, and focus skills. The interface is intuitive and relatively easy to use and the visual graphics are pretty fun. One of the advantages of the program is that it may also be suited for adults and children alike. The Fit Brains program also uses a measurement method that monitors daily progress and offers feedback on the overall progress since first starting the program. There is a free trial, where you can play several games and see you daily evolution in each field. In the full version, more statistics are available and you can see your evolution in time and compared to others.

All three programs have developed apps available for Apple and Android users and the fees are considerably smaller then for the online versions of the game. The mobile versions are certainly more accessible that the full versions and they have become widely popular. As shown in the graph below, Lumosity is the incontestable leader when it comes to user preferences.

User Preferences

Lumosity
Fit Brains

Mensa Brain Test

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CONCLUSION

So there you have it: now you probably know what kind of intelligence you have, possibly your IQ, and, more importantly, what you can do to improve yours and your childs mental performance. The important thing is to remember to always exercise both physically and mentally and lead a healthy life so your brain will always receive the optimum amount of essential nutrients and stimul ation. This doesnt have to be difficult; programs like those presented above make it easy, fun and challenging to do a complete work out of your mind. Physical games like basketball, tennis, and mostly any outdoor activity will keep your oxygen and serotonin levels up, thus keeping your brain fit, fed, and happy. Its all up to you and now you have some more knowledge to help you make it happen. Well, youre probably a little bit smarter just for reading through this!

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References:
www.brainreference.com www.fitbrains.com www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/289766/human-intelligence http://articles.familylobby.com/78-intellectual-capacity-and-the-young-child.htm http://yourbrainatwork.org/the-nine-different-types-of-intelligence www.sparknotes.com/psychology/psych101/intelligence/section1.rhtml www.brainfacts.org/across-the-lifespan/youth-and-aging/articles/2012/aging-changes-inintellectual-capacity/

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