Improving verbal intelligence

[Lumos]

Hello everybody, I would like nothing more than to increase my verbal
fluency. I am simply not good with words. I fumble with my words, I
misuse certain words sometimes, the sentences I speak are sometimes
unclear, and my mind can easily draw a blank when I'm speaking OR
listening for that matter. This wasn't always the case. And I've ruled
out any potential physical causes like thyroid problems.

I guess we should define what verbal fluency is in the first place. By
verbal fluency I mean one's ability to understand and manipulate the
english language. A person with high verbal fluency will not only be
able to understand and remember complex instructions that are given
verbally, they will be able to hold those items in their mind, juggle
them, and use them. By that I mean they'll be able to draw inferences
and conclusions from them. Here's a more exhaustive list of traits:

Verbal tasks involve skills such as:
The ability to listen to and recall spoken information;
Understanding the meaning of written or spoken information;
Solving language based problems of a literary, logical, or social
type;
Understanding the relationships between language concepts and
performing language analogies or comparisons; and
The ability to perform complex language-based analysis.
I would also add the ability to think and express yourself clearly and
with "ease"

It doesn't help that I was in a state of "severe" depression for about
four years. I cut off all social contacts, dropped out of school, and
did nothing mentally stimulating for that long period of time.

So anyways, now I'm trying to reverse the effects of that period. But
I need suggestions on what to do to help increase my verbal
intelligence. Here are the main things I'll be doing:

On the physical side of things, I want to improve my overall alertness/
energy levels (I notice that I'm very sluggish in general, and I have
a difficult time concentrating).

1) Exercise- Running 20 minutes a day, and I will be starting the P90x
program in a few weeks. When I was younger and sharper I would play
sports at least two hours a day.
2) Proper Nutrition -- I will be reading this book on sports
nutrition. I do know the general principles of good nutrition, but
then there are scientists and sports psychologists whose careers are
based on squeezing out the most energy out of elite athletes. This
should help with the alertness and energy problems I have.
3) Brain Supplements -- I will be taking Omega 3 capsules, Ginko
Biloba, Co enzyme 10, Phosphatidyl Serine, a great multivitamin
supplement in general.

The only problemn with 2 & 3 is that I don't have the dough to buy a
lot of the things suggested in each. I don't even have enough money
atm to buy that sports nutrition book!

On the mental side of things, I would love to hear a few suggestions
from you guys.
1) I've started to study logic. "Introduction to Logic by irving
copi". I've read reviews that give me a glimmer of hope. "After
reading this book you will be able to use language with the precision
of a geometer.[sic]". After I'm finished with the introduction I plan
on studying analytic philosophy. I will be hiring a grad student to
correct my essays and to have discussions with me afterwards. They are
surprisingly cheap! Grad students, especially philosophy ones are
usually short of money and desperate for work :D But yeah logic and
philosophy are probably the most language intensive and demanding
subject out there.

I'll also start studying math once I have time.
2) Improv- I'm taking improv classes already. I can't say they're
really helping that much but maybe after a few months of this training
something will kick in for me.

3) Free style rapping -- Weird choice huh? I've started to free style
rap. It's not structured or anything but I hope to actually join a
class of some kind in the future.

4) Brainworkshop-- I'm hoping this will have some sort of residual
effect. At the very least it's helping me to improve my attention
span.

What do you guys think of the little plan I've devised for myself?

[milestones]

It is possible to have high verbal comprehension ability and lower
verbal fluency (and vice versa); verbal comprehension correlates very
much with academic success or what is known as crystallized IQ,
particularly performance on standardized tests (about.7 with the SAT
combined math and verbal compared to .4 with fluid IQ). While it's
true high fluid intelligence will improve academic or analytical
ability, it is less important than crystallized intelligence which
will facilitate mastery in the areas where
one seeks to master. The best thing to do to gain verbal power is
increase your

[Pontus Granström]

All things you suggested will benefit you especially omega-3 and dnb. But why not try imusic's peakread combined with alot of reading.

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[milestones]

To continue...

The best thing to improve verbal comprehension abililty is to increase
your vocabulary and general knowledge base...this may help your
fluency as well but probably not nearly as much as comprehension
ability. Improving WM will make you "sharper" and more on point and
this might help with fluency. I view crytstallized IQ as power and
fluid intelligence more related to speed...learning logic is a good if
you want to gain in intellectual power (conceptual comprehension
prowess) but likely won't help fluency that much. My guess is working
memory training will help verbal fluency more than learning by way of
education by buidling vocabulary and so forth. I posit this because
verbal fluency is a product more of wm and fluid intelligence as well
as a special talent (it appears somewhat separate from general
intelligence whereas comprehension is highly correlated with it).
Gardner failed to differentiate between verbal fluency and
comprehension (only offered "linguistic intelligence) but Thurstone
did before him and labeled them as such: "verbal comprension" and
"verbal fluency" as 2 out of his 7 factors of intelligence or primary
mental abilities.

Note that high fluency can be an enemy to abstract thought and
abstract thought can be an enemy to fluency -- especially when
abstract thought is highly developed by dint of education. It takes a
special person to speak fluently even if one's ideas lie in opposition
to what is being said -- the plight of almost every talk show host and
politician out there. People with high levels of verbal fluency tend
to excel in lateral thinking and often are highly creative which is
hard to train (it is pretty innate), but it can be honed by practice.
You don't need much of a formal education or high brow interest to
hone it...being socially aggressive helps.

Also, and this is important, you will need to "practice" throwing
verbal crap to the world if you want to improve in fluency and be
admired for it. This is the only way...it is likely you will be
branded shallow and glib -- which is the negative aspect of high
verbal fluency. Thoughtful people with high verbal comprehension will
often look down their nose at people who flaunt high verbal
fluency...this is something else to consider. One needs to consider
context of when to show off talent and when to be more reflective.
It's best to have fluency "work for" verbal comprehension but this is
very difficult to pull of in real time because deeper thought kills
the in-the-moment mot juste.

[Lumos]

Milestones, you make a very interesting point here. There are
scientists and thinkers with verbal intelligence coming out the wazoo
but then there are comedians who can probably talk circles around
them. I'm thinking Stephen Colbert lol (Even though he himself is
quite intelligent).

You're definitely spot on about making a distinction between verbal
fluency and verbal intelligence. I would think that doing activities
that exercises verbal intelligence would increase verbal fluency but
not as much as doing activities that increase verbal fluency itself
does. Improv and free style rapping comes to mind.

So what are a few other activities that increase verbal fluency? One
of the things I'm having trouble with is just being present in the
moment and paying attention to my current thoughts, bodily sensations,
and feelings and just articulating them.

I think SLAM poetry or whatever you call it would also be helpful and
extremely interesting.

[J S]

Pontus I trust your opinion alot so I just wanna know. You really think Imusic works? I bought their brainamp program a few years back and used it for about a month before chucking it in disdain. Should I have given it more time?

Lumos one thing you can do is to start setting aside time in the day to go out and talk to people. Call me a geek/freak but I spent alot of freetime learning "game" what I noticed though was that my verbal skills, especially my verbal reaction time. Set aside some time in your day and just go out and talk to people. The more uncomfortable you feel with the person the more beneficial it is.

I would definitely work on your vocabulary as well. This is something everyone can benefit from, but alot of the miscommunication in communication comes from hearing a word you don't understand and wasting time trying to understand it as the convo goes on. This is really more important when it comes to reading, but some people can't help but throw word bombs at you.

As to the supplements you plan on taking I suggest you add bacoba brahmi to the mix. It has had very mixed results in studies, but who knows it could work for you. 

You mention depression I immediately think of meditation, and the best book on meditation I have read in the past few months has been a book called Mindsight. I would highly suggest you pick it up and begin to study from it, because the book is golden. 

On nutrition I would def suggest focusing on fruits and vegetables. If you are worried about getting adequate protein I would toss some hemp protein into the mix, it is a plant based protein which is very easy to digest, tastes like earth though :/ 

Also check out a book called body by science, I won't go into much detail here except that this book is like crack for any scientific minded athlete. You won't look at p90x after you read it. Bodybyscience.net is the website/blog of the guy who wrote it, some good information over there.

Another good book to have would be hardwired for fitness. The book isn't even out yet but I would highly recommend you pick it up when it is out. John Ivy wrote the book and he is def one of the authorities on sports nutrition. 

Here are some other things to think about before I decide this post is way to long (finger dexterity waning)

-Juggling- I think has some useful applications for brain training, I'm an athlete so i'm biased towards anything that improves my hand eye coordination, but juggling has a bunch of crossover benefits. Juggle on top of a balance board and you will see what I mean :D

-Ambidexterity- Something again which i'm biased towards due to its applicability to sports, but nonetheless this def will make some changes in your brain and is simply an awesome skill to show off to bewildered right handers. Wholebrainpower is a great book on the subject. 

-Sports- Get into some kinda sport I surf and train MMA. Not because I want to beat people up or surf to my neighbors PR and CUBA. But because it makes you feel good, has great benefits and is simply awesome.

OK hope that was enough for now :)

[Pontus Granström]

Well I do not use it regulary, I use imusic recovery everytime I've been working out though (and the canadian olympic team does as well). I usually note  "mood lifting" from brainamp but sometimes I question it's effects. If you like it use, if not do not :-)

I currently use brain sync products and they are great, truly. Placebo or not it helps me :)

[J S]

Thanks :D Your always so informative.

[polar]

Hi, I would agree with what was already said, that there's a
difference between verbal intelligence (actually you even dont need to
speak for that), and verbal fluency, which means speaking fluently.
The latter is usually measured by exercise like "how many verbs
beginning with 're-' can you produce in one minute". So to improve you
verbal *fluency*, i would suggest to give image streaming a try
(speaking out loud everything what comes to your mind for 20 minutes).
In a broader sense, anything which lowers your self-control (...) in
favour of spontaneity is good (more like painting than logic). Maybe
you can consider speaking shorter sentences, and learn to risk less-
than-perfectly-precise results ;)

[jttoto]

Testosterone improves verbal fluency but lowers spatial skills.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2000/apr/15/juliahartleybrewer2

This could explain why higher testosterone men tend to be more
extraverted (based on my observations), partially due to better verbal
aptitude. Women also tend to respond to verbal expressions of
intelligence rather than spatial (humor is a big one), possibly due to
its cue of higher circulating testosterone.

[Pontus Granström]

By the way, try word bubbles at lumosity.com it's really funny!

[Lumos]

@Pontus. I just cancelled my subscription with lumosity because I'm
broke. But I played word bubbles pretty much every single day for a
month or so. The way I would play it is I would try and sound a word
out ALOUD first before typing it in. I think word bubbles could
definitely help out with verbal fluency if you did it everyday, maybe
even multiple times a day. I would subscribe to lumosity just for that
game and their D NBACK alone.

@Polar: Interesting exercise you have there. I do something kind of
similar already. On my phone I have this "random topic generator"
bookmarked on my browser and right before I go to bed I take whatever
topic pops up and I talk about it without saying uh, or stalling. It
doesn't matter if I know absolutely nothing about it I will say what
comes to mind anyway. I do this only for 2-3 minutes however and I
only do a few topics.

Another similar exercise is my free style rap lessons. Usually I will
go on youtube, search for some sort of beat, and then just rap,
terribly, about whatever comes to my mind. And I'll do that for 5
minutes. I found this technique to be helpful:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxrKWS-6kZE&playnext_from=TL&videos=RiN-TN1Piok

"Triple threat technique". Basically you pay attention to all the
sensations in your body and your imagination and you rap whatever
comes out. There are common themes popping up in all these "verbal
fluency" activities. Improv, free styling, image streaming, seems to
be all about paying attention to everything inward, outward, and
staying in the "present".

> > brain-trainin...@googlegroups.com<brain-training%2Bunsubscribe@go­oglegroups.com>

[otto]

Weird... I've also studied analytic philosophy, taught logic to
undergraduates, do improv and write and record raps as well as some
freestyling...
And I also want to improve my verbal fluency.
However, my intentions are to improve my verbal fluency (and working
memory) to improve my improv and rap skills rather than the other way
around.

Have you (or anyone else) checked this:
http://www.wikihow.com/Improve-Verbal-Memory
?

The author doesn't provide any scientific evidence for his approach.
However, in his book he provides some anecdotal "evidence" that
sparked my interest. However, I didn't do enough training to add my
own experiences with it.

I do advise you to keep playing dual n-back. I have experienced some
improvements in my verbal skills when I regularly played dnb. I think
it might have helped my improv as well as rapping. Again, anectodal
"evidence".

Some notes on freestyling:
It's really hard, especially if you're overly critical.
I've found that its essential to allow yourself to get into it. I
sometimes just start with "rapping" random vowels, then they become
words, then they become phrases, then sentences ... sometimes.
I also think that its best not to try to hard to rhyme. Either the
rhymes pop up by themselves or you're too stressed looking for rhymes,
which often prevents your flow. You will reach moments when you will
be able to rhyme without effort. If it takes effort, don't do it.
It might also be good to have a topic beforehand or tell a story (you
already know) to simplify it in the beginning.

I think good working memory might help quite a lot with freestyling.
One Example: The second line of a rhyming couplet is often the more
prominent, the potential punchline. So advanced freestylers sometimes
construct the first line of a rhyming couplet with the second line
already in mind. E.g. the second line should end on "goosebumps", so
they construct a first line that ends on "loose jumps" (whatever that
might be...). I guess good working memory is pretty valuable for that
kind of thing.

Some friends of mine and I have a little game: we improvise an
instrumental with drumcomputer, guitar, synth etc. for 3-5 minutes.
Then we write raps only as long as an instrumental is playing. But we
still try to come up with complete verses. Then we immediately record
them without preparation. This certainly teaches you to be less
critical of what you write and how you record it. And its fun.
Here are some tracks (in german): http://www.myspace.com/fettundfertig
As said they are totally raw. Every mistake is in there.

[Ben Epstein]

I was an award winning debate team member in High School and College. I was able to defeat opponents because I not only read a lot, but I spoke a lot. I watched speeches, and practiced new vocabulary often. When preparing, I would speak what I read and would read what I spoke. When I'm thinking, I'm usually always engaging in a running dialogue as if I was writing an essay about my thoughts. I'm not sure if this is a good thing however, as I now have to practice meditation every day to stay sane =D I believe I won, not only because my arguments were logically solid, but because I was able to articulate them clearly. Usually my opponents would defeat themselves.

Really, like most skills (including creativity), fluency takes patience and practice. Studying logic is great and all, but logic does not attend to the ability to articulate, only to maintain strong lines of logical deduction and soundness of argument. If you want to speak good, speak often. Record yourself, and review your mini-speech and figure out whether or not you would clearly understand yourself if you were...not yourself :)

I have a feeling that you are better able to communicate than you give yourself credit for; obsession about "verbal intelligence" and articulation is common among individuals with above average intelligence. We can't stop thinking about whether we're smart, whether we sound smart, and whether we are and sound not only smart, but smarter than them.

[Ben Epstein]

Oh, and if you think creativity is innate and not learnable, check out Edward DeBono's book Lateral Thinking. It's the science of creative thought, and it is incredibly useful. Creativity is not something you are a born with, it is something that is developed, usually out of need.

[J S]

Yeah creativity is certainly learned. I think michael michalkos books are better though.

On Fri, Apr 2, 2010 at 1:17 PM, Ben Epstein <beneps...@gmail.com> wrote:

Oh, and if you think creativity is innate and not learnable, check out Edward DeBono's book Lateral Thinking. It's the science of creative thought, and it is incredibly useful. Creativity is not something you are a born with, it is something that is developed, usually out of need.

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[Lumos]

Hey Otto, it's like you're exactly like me except everything is
backwards.... Wait a minute... In fact, if you spell Otto backwards,
you get...OTTO!!!

Anyways, that`s pretty damn cool how we're sort of on parallel paths.
I actually wanted to learn German at one point so I could read
bernhard riemann's seminal papers on geometry. Well then, you`re
multilingual, you`ve taught analytic philosophy, you`re in improv and
you freestyle rap.... You must have very good verbal fluency indeed.
Tell me, has doing any of those activities made any discernible
difference in your verbal fluency?

What are you doing personally to increase your verbal fluency then?

Oh and also, I`m beginning to think that verbal fluency is only about
50% important in spoken language. I think how musically the words roll
off your tongue is much more important:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxsOVK4syxU
I guess it really does depend on the context in which you're speaking.
If you are singing, or persuading, or leading then delivery is 90%.

@Ben Epstein:
Now we're getting somewhere! Yet another activity I would love to dip
my toes into. It's too bad most debating clubs are university-
exclusive clubs. Great tips. Have any more golden nuggets that you can
share?

[jttoto]

So does anyone have any studies on how to improve verbal fluency?

So far, the only proven (and still not conclusive) thing that could
work is taking a low-dose steroid. We need to look for evidence that
goes beyond speculation.

On Apr 2, 9:15 am, jttoto <jtdem...@uncc.edu> wrote:
> Testosterone improves verbal fluency but lowers spatial skills.http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2000/apr/15/juliahartleybrewer2

> > What do you guys think of the little plan I've devised for myself?- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Smartas]

Try Toastmasters, its helping me well. There is no one magical
solution. Its going to be a journey of sum of all parts :)

[jttoto]

Here is a very small study, but it does show promising results.
Videophone conversations improve verbal fluency in the elderly.
http://jtt.rsmjournals.com/cgi/content/abstract/14/4/215

This suggests that the simple act of conversating, which is mentally
stimulating when you think about it, can improve fluency scores. This
also explains why extraverts score higher on fluency tests, presumably
because they get more practice.

Another study shows that exercising while playing music improves
fluency. Although I want to see the paper on this one.
http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/hartsong.htm

> > - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -

[milestones]

> This suggests that the simple act of conversating, which is mentally
> stimulating when you think about it, can improve fluency scores.  This
> also explains why extraverts score higher on fluency tests, presumably
> because they get more practice.

As that proto-interdisciplinarian humanist Francis Bacon put it:

"Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtile;
natural philosophy, deep; morals, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to
contend."

Of all the areas mentioned by Bacon, logic and rhetoric seem to
involve the most perspiration by way of having to cogitate on one's
feet.

Rhetoric taken by itself may not seem so much of a solo mental sport
(and thus not the province of the introvert). However, introverts can
do quite well when they are primarily listening to their own voice
without interruption -- teachers, professors, even certain types of
lawyers can be introverted and seem to be extroverted. I had a
professor in graduate school who said he rarely talked to other people
but bottled everything up for his speed lectures in which he vomitted
forth his knowledge in an impressively tangential manner. This leads
to an interesting distinction of verbal fluency in real life: there's
this one type of fluency where one has command over an audience and
has "the floor" so to speak, as with a comedian delivering an act to
an audience, and then the more interactive fluency where one must
"contend." A lawyer, for instance, may enter law school as an
introverted bookworm and yet, when graduating, might become a trial
attorney whereby his or her personality (or even cognitive style) will
change and so will be more extemporaneous, more assertive. I think the
true difference between an introvert and extrovert though, is not what
you do when you're at work but what you do when you have the leisure
time. This tends to define the personality -- if you're writing,
reading, solving problems in your head for recreation (instead of say,
debating politics with a friend), chances are you are an introvert.
Obviously most of us are really both, but one usually edges out the
other. It is possible to be a master of logic and rhetoric and not
contend in the world i.e. Wittgenstein, (his poker at poker at Popper
notwithstanding) and it is (or at least, was) possible to be a more
politicized public philosophical figure like say W's mentor, Bertrand
Russell. Inclination and unique talents directs fate to a decent
degree, but I think individual decisions to push oneself out of what's
comfortable or familiar are always worthwhile as long as one does not
abandon or look down at the
things one does well naturally. Some low self esteem people even
define "intelligence" in opposition to what their talents are, while
others define it in keeping with what they're good at. "X is a genius
at Y and I suck at Y therefore I'm an idiot and X is a genius" versus
the equally flawed "I am a genius at X therefore I'm a genius since X
correlates the best to general intelligence."

I view intelligence as a necessary but insufficient condition to
learn, and even master, various things, and the same is true for
willingness to achieve excellence in something. Intelligence and
willingness to practice guarantees nothing but they do provide
equipment for whatever mountain one wants to climb. Hiking other minor
routes imo, actually will help the main one you want to climb, which
is one of the cool things life offers to most of us (as the Bacon
quote points out).

[Bryan]

Hi,

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but Toastmasters
International is perfect for you. It is an international public
speaking organization where you are paired with mentors who will help
you improve your delivery. Every meeting there is an event called
"Table Topics" where you are given a subject and must immediately
stand up and create an ad hoc speech on that topic in front of
everyone.

The second thing you might want to look into is the Pick Up Artist
community. A lot of the experts there emphasize having a routine of
going out 4+ nights per week and opening up sets of girls (or mixed
groups) you don't know and starting conversations. You might want to
work on 15 sets per night, 3-4 nights per week, for a while. Stay in
the set until you either get blown out, or you have an amazing
connection with a girl and have her number. You'll get a tonne of
practice that way.

Bryan