Three ways to get smarter. Proven by Science

Physical exercises

Our society is a strange subject. On the one hand, we directly associate a person's success and good physical shape, linking fitness with intelligence. On the other hand, there is a stereotype that athletes are … let's say, not the most intellectually savvy people.

So does exercise help you get smarter? The answer is yes.

A number of experiments show that exercise directly affects mental performance.

A classic 1975 study, for example, found that older adults who play tennis or badminton tended to perform significantly better on cognitive tests than their non-athletic peers.

A series of 2010 studies showed that children 9-10 years of age who move more, have better memory and a larger hippocampus - this seahorse-shaped region of the brain that plays a key role in both short-term and long-term memory.

Over the past 10 years, at least four meta-analyzes have been conducted, based on officially published studies, that have come to one conclusion: physical fitness improves intellectual performance.

Read this paragraph again and realize the main thing: you can develop your intelligence and memory just by playing enough sports.

Music teaching

Several years ago, a study known as the "Mozart Effect" thundered all over the world. Scientist Francis Rauscher and her colleagues concluded that if parents play Mozart's music to their children, even when they are still in the womb, babies become smarter. One of the American governors even offered to allocate $ 105 thousand so that every child can listen to classical music from birth.

After some time, the study was crushed. One skeptic who said that "the Mozart Effect is complete nonsense" was psychologist Glenn Schellenberg of the University of Toronto.

And in 2004, it was Glenn who published a study report, the results of which stated: "Music lessons increase IQ." Young children were taught music for 36 weeks.

“After the term, children from music groups showed a significantly more significant increase in IQ,” concluded Schellenberg. He also noticed that it was not listening to Mozart (as Rauscher claimed) that raised IQ, but learning music and playing musical instruments.

This study was cited 363 times in other academic papers. In 2011, the scientist repeated a similar study, and the results were again confirmed. So far, no study has been published that refutes Schellenberg's findings.

Meditative concentration

The third way to get smarter is through meditation. How it works?

Psychologist Michael Posner, author of a good hundred scientific papers, conducted an experiment in which participants meditated daily. Michael admits that he hoped to get the effect of meditation in a few months or even years. But, oddly enough, changes in the white matter of the brain were detected after two weeks.

Scientists believe that meditation is one of the best ways to improve a person's cognitive abilities, increase attentiveness and concentration, and expand the volume of working memory.

Posner's research has been confirmed around the world. The Chinese scientist Yu-Yuan Teng achieved a serious effect of meditative concentration in just five days.

Posner and Teng continued to work together and found out:

Meditative concentration techniques not only make us smarter and more productive, but also allow us to relax, avoid depression, and be happier.

All of these ways to get smarter are good not only from a scientific point of view, but also from a common sense point of view, so exercise, meditate and buy yourself a harmonica!:)

Based on the book ""