bryan roche
The Science behind SMART Intellectual Skills Training
Dr. Bryan Roche and Dr. Sarah Cassidy have worked as scientists for many years in the development of the SMART brain training method. The RaiseYourIQ approach to brain health is based on Relational Frame Theory – a modern theory of cognition that our team has helped to develop over the past two decades. Dr. Roche was the co-editor of the two seminal texts on this theory. Dr. Cassidy was the leading researcher behind the first demonstration of IQ gains resulting from relational skills training.
RaiseYourIQ offers the only brain training system in the world that is based on tried and tested systems of intellectual skills interventions used in the clinical setting (for example the methods of Applied Behaviour Analysis), and that has been shown in published scientific research to lead to real, large, and objectively measurable gains in general intelligence (IQ). No other method benefits from even a single study, showing large and reliable IQ gains as a result of training.
Our SMART system has achieved the holy grail of brain training across several different published
studies. That is, we have achieved what scientists call evidence of “far transfer”. This means that
increased scores on an IQ test have been proven to result from training on skills that are not
directly assessed on the IQ test. In other words, the benefits of our SMART training have been proven
to transfer far into intellectual areas that we do not train directly in our system but which are
assessed in general intelligence tests (e.g., vocabulary, verbal comprehension, analogical reasoning,
numeracy, and so on). This makes SMART training truly unique and revolutionary in its approach to
intellectual skills enhancement.
Some of the other tools that we have made available here to schools or clinics (SMART for Dyslexia,
KidStarter, FAST emotional flexibility training) are also based on Relational Frame Theory concepts,
or on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) methods, which are heavily conceptualised in terms of
Relational Frame Theory.
The SMART Brain Training course from RaiseYourIQ is developed and run by education leaders and published
psychologists. The founders of RaiseYourIQ are Dr. Bryan Roche and Dr. Sarah Cassidy who have used
scientific evidence gathered from over 10 years university research to create this online brain training
platform. Numerous published studies have proven that the better your relational skills, the higher your IQ
will be. Several other published studies have shown how we can best teach relational skills. Published
experiments have also shown that relational skills training like SMART brain training are followed by very
significant increases in IQ (at least 10 points) that last for several years. These sorts of IQ rises are enough for
a slow learner to be re-classified as normal, or for a normal individual to be reclassified as above normal.
SMART brain training from RaiseYourIQ is based on established principles of learning that have been proven to underlie intellectual development across a wide range of areas (reading, problem solving, reasoning, and so on). The skills that have been identified as underlying most intellectual abilities, are called “relational skills” and our founders (Doctor Bryan Roche and Doctor Sarah Cassidy) have played a key role identifying how “relational skills training” impacts a person’s intellectual ability. We then devised the SMART brain training system to teach people these crucial learning skills. Dozens of published studies from several independent laboratories have highlighted on the development of relational skills as they key to intellectual development. RaiseYourIQ have also published over four in-depth experimental studies which show that IQ can be increased by a large amount using our method – something no other brain training game has done.