Improving Fluid Intelligence by Training Working Memory

通过训练工作记忆提高流体智力首席研究员：约翰·乔尼德密歇根大学流体智力（通常被称为“智商”的重要组成部分）是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就密切相关。人们相当一致地认为，流动智力是高度可遗传的，但这并不意味着它不受教育和社会化的影响。最近，密歇根大学（University of Michigan）约翰·乔尼德斯（John Jonides）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工作记忆任务的训练到流体智力测量的转移证据。工作记忆是负责短期存储信息的系统，这些信息将用于更高层次的认知处理。受试者接受了一项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，随着任务的进行，这些信息必须不断更新。这种工作记忆训练效果是一个令人惊讶的发现，因为之前训练智商的努力到目前为止还没有成功，也因为从一个训练任务到另一个与训练任务内容不同的任务的转移效应实在是太罕见了。即使训练任务与智力测试本身完全不同，也会产生这种转移。此外，研究结果表明，智商的提高程度很大程度上取决于训练的数量：训练越多，流体智力的提高就越多。目前由美国国家科学基金会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：从工作记忆到智力测量的成功转换必须实现，因为两者之间存在共同的大脑机制。该项目包括测试参与者的流动智力，对他们进行为期5周的工作记忆训练，该任务已被证明会影响流动智力，然后在训练后测试他们的流动智力。最重要的是，参与者在进行智力测试时，在工作记忆训练的早期和后期，以及在训练后进行智力测试时，将使用功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）对他们进行扫描。这些数据将对工作记忆和流体智力背后的大脑区域以及这些区域是否如预期的那样在两组任务之间重叠提供重要的见解。这个研究项目在几个方面意义重大。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方案。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，可以预测在某些大脑创伤后哪些认知技能会丧失，以及哪些补救措施可能有效。第三，参与项目的本科生、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，加强科学训练。

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.