Improving Fluid Intelligence by Training Working Memory

通过训练工作记忆提高流体智力

• 批准号: 0842446
• 负责人: John Jonides
• 金额: $ 31.23万
• 依托单位: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-10-01 至 2014-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0842446&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Improving; Fluid; Intelligence; Training; Working

Improving Fluid Intelligence by Training Working MemoryPrincipal Investigator: John JonidesUniversity of MichiganFluid intelligence (an important component of what is usually termed "IQ") is the ability to reason and to solve new problems independently of previously acquired knowledge, and so it is considered one of the most important factors in learning. Moreover, fluid intelligence is closely related to professional and educational success. There is considerable agreement that fluid intelligence is highly heritable, but this does not mean that it cannot be influenced by education and socialization. Recently, the research group of Dr. John Jonides at the University of Michigan published a widely acclaimed article in which they report evidence of transfer from training on a demanding working memory task to measures of fluid intelligence. Working memory is the system that is responsible for the short-term storage of information to be used in the service of higher-level cognitive processing. Individuals were trained on a working memory task that required simultaneously holding in mind spatial and verbal information that constantly had to be updated as the task continued. This working memory training effect is a surprising finding both because previous efforts to train IQ have thus far not been successful, and because it is all too rare to find transfer effects from any training task to another task that differs from the trained task in content. The transfer in question resulted even though the trained task was entirely different from the intelligence test itself. Furthermore, the results indicated that the amount of gain in IQ critically depended on the amount of training: the more training, the more improvement in fluid intelligence. The present NSF-funded project seeks to examine the brain basis of this training effect. It is based on the rationale that successful transfer from working memory to measures of intelligence must come about because there are brain mechanisms in common between the two. The project involves testing participants' fluid intelligence, training them for 5 weeks on a working memory task that has been shown to influence fluid intelligence, and then testing their fluid intelligence after training. Crucially, participants will be scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while they take intelligence tests, early and late in training on working memory, and then again when they take intelligence tests after training. The data should yield important insights about the brain regions that underlie working memory and fluid intelligence and whether these regions overlap between the two sets of tasks as expected. This research project is significant in several ways. First, understanding the relationship between working memory and fluid intelligence leads the way to developing training schemes to improve fluid intelligence. There can be little doubt that facilitating the intelligence of individuals can only yield benefits for society in its productivity and its intellectual approach to society's problems. Second, understanding the brain mechanisms that are shared in common between working memory and intelligence permits prediction about what cognitive skills will be lost after certain brain traumas and what remediations may be effective. Third, undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers who are engaged in the project will learn the fundamentals of scanning in the functional magnetic resonance imaging environment as well as experimental skills, thereby strengthening their scientific training.

通过训练工作记忆来提高流体智力（fluid intelligence）流体智力（fluid intelligence）是一种独立于先前获得的知识进行推理和解决新问题的能力，因此它被认为是学习中最重要的因素之一。此外，流体智力与专业和教育成功密切相关。有相当多的共识认为，流体智力是高度遗传的，但这并不意味着它不能受到教育和社会化的影响。最近，密歇根大学的约翰·乔尼德斯博士的研究小组发表了一篇广受好评的文章，他们在文章中报告了从高要求的工作记忆任务训练到流体智力测量的转移证据。 工作记忆是一种负责短时储存信息的系统，这些信息将用于更高层次的认知加工。个体接受了工作记忆任务的训练，该任务要求同时记住空间和语言信息，这些信息必须随着任务的继续而不断更新。 这种工作记忆训练效果是一个令人惊讶的发现，因为以前训练智商的努力到目前为止还没有成功，而且因为从任何训练任务到另一个与训练任务内容不同的任务的转移效果太罕见了。 即使训练任务与智力测试本身完全不同，也会产生上述迁移。此外，研究结果还表明，智商的提高主要取决于训练的量：训练越多，流体智力的提高就越多。 目前NSF资助的项目旨在研究这种训练效果的大脑基础。 它基于这样一个基本原理，即从工作记忆到智力测量的成功转移必须发生，因为两者之间存在共同的大脑机制。 该项目涉及测试参与者的流体智力，对他们进行为期5周的工作记忆任务培训，该任务已被证明会影响流体智力，然后在培训后测试他们的流体智力。 至关重要的是，参与者将在接受智力测试时使用功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）进行扫描，在工作记忆训练的早期和晚期，然后在训练后进行智力测试。 这些数据应该会产生重要的见解，关于工作记忆和流体智力的大脑区域，以及这些区域是否像预期的那样在两组任务之间重叠。这个研究项目在几个方面都很重要。 首先，了解工作记忆和流体智力之间的关系，有助于制定提高流体智力的训练计划。 毫无疑问，促进个人的智力只会给社会的生产力和解决社会问题的智力方法带来好处。 其次，了解工作记忆和智力之间共有的大脑机制，可以预测某些脑创伤后会失去哪些认知技能，以及哪些补救措施可能有效。 第三，从事该项目的本科生、研究生和博士后研究人员将学习功能磁共振成像环境下的扫描基础知识和实验技能，从而加强他们的科学训练。