How to increase IQ? Look for the science and use your critical thinking

How to increase IQ? Look for the science and use your critical thinking.

Can you identify with any of these three scenarios? 1. You are a student preparing for a college admissions test. 2. You have graduated from college and are faced with the prospect of having to take a challenging job aptitude test to be interviewed for a competitive job. 3. You are a professional dealing with the pressures of a demanding career who feels the need to sharpen his cognitive performance. The common element in these scenarios? A pressing need for a high level of intelligence. You go to the Web for help and Google the keyword phrase: ‘how to increase IQ?' The top ranking site advises the following: watch less TV, read more, use your nose and take a whiff of rosemary, listen to music with a good rhythm and beat, eat carbohydrates and proteins and believe in yourself because "if you believe you are more intelligent, you become more intelligent." Site number two on the list advises you to inhale the scent of rosemary, write, listen to Mozart, speed read, talk more, do something you enjoy, and – once again – "believe you are smarter, and you'll become smarter." Other sites on the first page of your search offer similar advice.

Although these recommendations may sound reasonable, the reality is that they are not based on fact. As a cognitive neuroscientist with expertise in the science of IQ and methods to increase intelligence, I have made it a personal mission to increase awareness about misinformation about intelligence on the web. Smelling rosemary does not improve your intelligence. Nor does listening to music, nor eating more protein.  Of course eating protein is important for brain function just as it is vital for the functioning of every organ in the body, but eating MORE protein doesn't help your IQ. Confidence and belief in yourself is important for taking intelligence tests because anxiety can impair performance, but increasing your self-belief doesn't make you more intelligent. And the same goes for reading, writing or talking, nor doing something you enjoy, nor watching less TV.

So what advice can I give you if you have a need to improve intelligence and increase IQ and want to know what to do about it? Start off your inquiries with a skeptical attitude and always look carefully for the science that backs up a claim. Consider adopting the following information processing strategies.

Five strategies to help you steer clear ‘how to increase IQ' misinformation.

1. Recommendations need to be backed up by facts. Be suspicious of personal recommendations where there is nothing else to corroborate them. Many ‘IQ improving' methods are promoted with a wealth of user recommendations to create a wave of enthusiasm and self belief - and the intention is that you will get caught up in this and spread the word. Recommendations grab our attention and can appear persuasive and trustworthy. But they can mislead us. How can you tell that the recommendations are genuine and not made up? And many recommendations are simply the result of an uncritical positive thinking. Recommendations can of course be a good source of information in your investigation – but only after you are convinced by the hard facts underlying someone's ‘increase IQ' claims. And what substantiates those facts? The answer is science.

2. A scientific journal article for every claim. Always ask yourself: Where is the scientific research  article – published in a reputable journal - that an ‘increase your intelligence' claim is based on? Where are the references to the research articles on the site? Where – for instance – is the journal article that demonstrates scientifically that Mozart makes you smarter? Where is the research paper that demonstrates that smelling Rosemary gives you an IQ increase? They don't exist. It's usually pretty obvious if a claim is based on published research. Take the time to look at the references. If there is no reputable journal article backing up an IQ related claim, then don't trust it.

3. Who is the author and what are his or her credentials? Take a good look at who is responsible for promising ways to ‘increase IQ' or ‘improve intelligence'.  Is the information written anonymously or by someone who is prepared to put their name to it? And is the author a qualified cognitive psychologist, or neuroscientist - working at a reputable university, with a PhD? If the author is not a professional scientist – not an expert - why trust the claims he or she makes?

4. Intelligence, or something else? Does the technique improve intelligence specifically or some other cognitive skill - like attention, or memory for a list of words, or the ability to do arithmetic? There are lots of 'brain training' exercises on the market that improve performance on the task that is practiced - but not intelligence which can be applied to any task or any problem. Intelligence is very hard to change. You cannot ‘practice' getting smarter, like you can practice to getting better at a Nintendo game. IQ test scores benefit from practice a little it's true – but this doesn't mean that the intelligence they are designed to measure increases as well. It doesn't.

5. Self belief is a double edged sword. The more you believe you are intelligent as a result of some technique that has been promised to increase IQ, the less critical you may become in the face of evidence that your IQ has not changed. Without being aware of it, you may be constantly looking for signs of your improved intelligence, ignoring the counter evidence. Psychologists call this the ‘confirmation bias' and we are all subject to it. Unchecked positive thinking can distort your objectivity, and charlatans can get away with selling you something that doesn't deliver on its promises. Don't get caught up in a wave of enthusiasm and lose your critical thinking. Yes - positivity, confidence and a ‘can do' attitude is very important for cognitive performance, but it is not effective in itself for improving IQ. You need a lasting change in your brain circuitry to actually increase your intelligence, not positive thinking.

Conclusion.

With a pressing need to improve something as empowering as your intelligence ensure that you find information that is accurate and – if you are looking for them – brain training exercises and brain supplements that can be scientifically proven to work. Take the time to research the topic with a skeptical attitude. Value scientific facts over gushing recommendations, look for reputable journal articles that back up the claims, be skeptical if the author is not a brain scientist or psychologist, and try to determine what  cognitive skill exactly a recommended technique is aiming to improve.