My latest column in the WSJ is now online. It's about a forthcoming PNAS paper on the n-back test and fluid intelligence:
A few additional notes: If you're interested in learning more about this research - but are too impatient to wait for a future edition of PNAS - I'd suggest checking out previous papers from Jaeggi, et. al. on fluid intelligence and the n-back test.
There are also plenty of apps that feature the n-back test. I will not be linking to those. I have not played them and the scientists have not endorsed them. Caveat Emptor.
I also think it's worth reiterating an important caution raised by Scott Barry Kaufman. Although the IQ test has been widely used for decades, we still have a poor understanding of what it actually measures. As a result, there's tremendous debate about it's overall importance and how much of the individual variation in life success IQ scores can explain. (As one scientist told me, "The IQ test matters. It just doesn't matter as much as people think.") So I think it's worth wondering if this significant increase in fluid intelligence will show significant effects out of the lab. Will it actually lead the children to do better on their algebra homework? Will it lead to more productive employees? Will it improve problem-solving across domains? None of those questions have answers.
Lastly, there's an interesting connection between the mental skills improved by the n-back test - the ability to control attention, and thus ensure our working memory is filled with relevant facts - and the ability to exert self-control. While we used to assume that self-control was about gritting our teeth, outlasting that damn temptation, we now know that self-control is really about "the strategic allocation of attention." If you're thinking about the ice cream in the fridge, you're going to eat the ice cream, which is why you need to think about something else. (Our willpower is so weak that the only way we can resist anything is by finding a way to forget about it, directing the spotlight elsewhere.) So I'm curious if the n-back test might also improve measurements of self-control. Will it allow us to better allocate the scarce resource of working memory? Will we get better at not thinking about that pint of Rocky Road? Because as Angela Duckworth has demonstrated, the only variable that's more important than IQ scores when it comes to predicting academic success is self-control.