My Idea - combining N-Back with Image Streaming

[Rotem]

Hi
I thought about times where you don't have access to N-back.
You can close your eyes, relax and let images/ ideas flow to your
mind. Now in regular image streaming session you have to describe them
out load, with all the senses.
How about doing that, AND also remember each object/idea - try to hold
as much as possible.
Maybe at first you can go for 3-back, so for example you start your
session and you begin to see an apple, you describe it and as soon as
the next image appears, for example a car, you describe it again and
remember it, then a rose etc., the next image, maybe an abstract
memory of somemone (for example), you remember but now you "forget"
about the the apple.

Maybe in this training, your mind will get used to hold as much ideas/
thoughts in your head and as a result WM increases.

Maybe it can increase creativity, because you describe abstract stuff
but forces your mind to remember recent abstract stuff as well...

what do you think?

[Gwern Branwen]

I've suggested in the past a combination of meditation & n-back:
http://groups.google.com/group/brain-training/browse_thread/thread/1dc53aa5f88e5c81

I enjoy it, although there is of course even less evidence for this than n-back.

--
gwern

[milestones]

While image streaming has intrigued me, I see it as somewhat
antithetical to meditation because with image streaming one is
verbalizing visual data streams, a lot of which is sheer randomness.
Meditation seeks to acknowledge but wipe away the senory noise. I
think IS might be beneficial for those who veer toward low idea
generation whereas meditation might help those who tend to generate
more than they can effectively organize. High WM is obviously a boon
to organization but is not a remedy for absolute focus, which is a
precursor to strong WM. But there are scattered ADD-types with strong
working memories and poor focus (do well on academic standardized
tests, for instance, but have weak academic performance) and likewise
those with great focus and weak WM. There is probably a high
correlation between focus and WM but the two are not isomorphic/
interchangeable. One person claims that their IQ went down
significantly as a result of image streaming over several months but
then returned and rebounded improving from baseline after quitting IS
and engaging in more anaytical activities -- puzzles, etc. However,
one thing Wenger has pointed out is that IS is not just about
streaming but evaluating the streaming process after you''ve done it.
This left brain analysis then completes the "pole bridging" theory he
posits as that which is special to IS. Yet I remain skeptic about
image streaming, not because it doesn't do something -- I'm sure it
does -- but what does it do exactly? That it might make scattered
people more scattered seems one potential pitfall. On the other hand,
it might be a great help to those who are
blocked in some way. That said, the dichotomy of types I've outlined
might not suggest which activity is best because it is not clear that
IS raises IQ, raises creativity, or simply exhumes more sensejunk for
the conscious mind to play with, or does something else..?

[polar]

This is interesting idea, we talked about it before (
http://groups.google.com/group/brain-training/msg/69db7d25456d4977 ),
but has anyone tried it actually for at least few days in a row?