What other things have you guys found that help improve cognition/memory/reasoning or found useful?

[TheQ17]

Personally, I have found piracetam be quite useful in helping me stay
alert and focused during long study hours or doing redundant tasks. I
also found that memorizing the latin roots, suffixes, and prefixes
also helped my comprehension and quicker memorization in school a
school setting (I am a science major).

I also found the game Memory Matrix from Lumosity to be neat. I don't
think it has the effect of dual Nback, but its fun and I could see how
it may enhance spatial memory.


Everyone's main reason for being here is to become more efficient
cognitively and intelligent. What other things have you found? I'm
talking about books, supplements, vocabulary lists, niche subjects,
games, websites, hobbies really anything you guys found interesting or
useful really.

[Gwern Branwen]

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On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 1:21 PM, TheQ17 wrote:
> Everyone's main reason for being here is to become more efficient
> cognitively and intelligent. What other things have you found? I'm
> talking about books, supplements, vocabulary lists, niche subjects,
> games, websites, hobbies really anything you guys found interesting or
> useful really.

- From http://code.haskell.org/~gwern/wiki/N-back%20FAQ.page :

'# What else can I do?

Forum members have recommended a number of other things for general
mental fitness:

- - Buddhist-style meditation has been recommended (there is a good
Vipassana textbook available online; see ["Mindfulness in Plain
English"](http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html), and the
website has been mentioned).
- - [Spaced repetition](!Wikipedia) programs such as
[Mnemosyne](!Wikipedia "Mnemosyne (software)") are very useful for
memorizing & remembering things
- - Crypto
[recommends](http://groups.google.com/group/brain-training/browse_thread/thread/8af44f3b20df9904)
[image streaming](!Wikipedia) as another mental exercise
- - UOchris1
[reports](http://groups.google.com/group/brain-training/browse_thread/thread/18eeddd23451f1f0)
very positive results while working through a mental exercise regimen
developed by an American performer from the 1920s who specialized in
doing multiple mental tasks simultaneously; he is using a Stand
Magazine article on Harry Kahne and Kahne's ["The Multiple Mentality
Course"](http://www.rexresearch.com/kahne/kahne.htm) as resources.
- - Exercise is right up there with nutrition and sleep!
- - In the realm of unusual supplements, one is [creatine](!Wikipedia);
while creatine is famous for its athletic uses, it turns out to boost
mental performance as well, and particularly performance while
fatigued. There is a
[thread](http://groups.google.com/group/brain-training/browse_thread/thread/fe4ee2f0c994e40e)
discussing the research on creatine. The results are a little mixed,
but Jonathan Toomim recommends it highly, claiming that "I'm more
confident that I've noticed effects [on mental performance] of
creatine than of DnB."'

- --
gwern
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[Rick Handel]

Here's what I do. This is an N of 1 with no control group though. :)

A) daily vocabulary building - I listen to "verbal advantage" on the way to
work and use vocabvitamins.com

B) Exercise - aerobic

C) supplements

D) Intentionally put myself into cognitively challenging situations
throughout the day (see James Flynn's - What is Intelligence? - A must read
for people here, imo).

E) Follow-up to D - cognitively demanding hobbies (e.g., jazz guitar,
chess).

F) Follow-up to D - avoid "fluff" reading - I try to read intellectually
demanding books only.

G) General semantics has helped me a lot in developing clearer thinking
skills.

http://www.generalsemantics.org/

Rick

[Rick Handel]

I forgot to include zazen (Zen Meditation) which I do daily. 30 minutes
per day before bed.

[childofbaud]

From what I know, there are currently two distinct ways to augmented
intelligence. Improving the biological HARDWARE (i.e. our biological
capabilities; our limits here seem to be dictated by genetic factors
and exposure to a certain early childhood environment, both of which
unfortunately we have no control over; proper nutrition, exercise and
nootropics help with possible (slight?) gains and maintenance in later
life; dual-n-back too, hopefully;). Then there's improving the
cultural SOFTWARE, which involves acquiring and synthesizing
knowledge.

As far as nootropics and mind-boosters go, there is an interesting
book called "Mind Boosters: A Guide to Natural Supplements that
Enhance Your Mind, Memory, and Mood" by Ray Sahelian. There are a few
good reviews of it online, and it seems a pretty good and up-to-date
overview of the cutting edge in terms of nootropics. The author has
tested all of them personally and refers to various studies as well.

In terms of SOFTWARE, one of the most effective (efficient/cheap/
independent of other variables) way to improve that seems to be
reading good books. Books are often the only way you can learn from
people you may not have the privilege to study under directly.

One of the better books to start with is "How to Read a Book" by
Mortimer J. Adler, which will enable you to acquire the information
from subsequent books more efficiently (this would be an example of
'metacognition', a term which refers to learning about learning). I've
been an avid reader since I was a child, but Adler's book elevated my
reading skills to a whole new level, and I can't recommend it enough,
especially for people who find themselves struggling to retain the
subjects you read about.

Software programs like Anki and SuperMemo which make use of spaced
repetition are useful if you have to memorize a vast amount of things
in a short period, but I find them mostly a hassle to use. The
'spacing effect' that all these software programs make use of is very
good to know about, however, even if you only apply it intuitively by
going over assimilated knowledge occasionally (more metacognition).

Studying Mathematical Logic will probably go a long way also, and find
all kinds of interesting applications in many different domains and
disciplines. A good book here is "Introduction to Logic" by Alfred
Tarski.

The late mathematician George Pólya has also written a very
influential book named "How To Solve It", which provides general
suggestions and heuristics for problem solving. This will likely have
a myriad applications in life, both academic and domestic.

Game Theory might be worth exploring for help with rational decision
making.

Cybernetics is another interesting field that seems promising, since
we are part of and surrounded by complex systems in our daily life.
There is a free e-book on the topic available called "An Introduction
to Cybernetics" by W. Ross Ashby, available from the Principia
Cybernetica web-site.

In addition to books, I've also found the videos from The Teaching
Company very helpful (http://teach123.com/). They have a number of
video lectures by great professors and lecturers available in their
catalogue on a variety of topics; this is almost as good as attending
a world-class university on the specific topic. Of course, it's very
important not to watch these lectures like you would a TV program;
have your notebook in hand, be ready to work along the problems and
think about and ask questions as you would from any lecturer (the
answers can often be found in books on the subject, or on Google or
wikipedia).

Your cultural "software" will also be determined by the people you
surround yourself with, since we tend to adopt each others habits
subconsciously. Surrounding yourself with people with similar goals
and ambitions will create a feedback effect and enable you all to
prosper.

[Curtis Warren]

For mental rotation, try
http://psych.hanover.edu/JavaTest/CLE/Cognition/Cognition/MentalRotation.html
.

On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 1:48 PM, blank<peisis...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Just to add a few clichés: learn a musical instrument (definitely
> worthwhile), foreign languages (programming code included), and
> juggling.
>
> Like dual n-back, training spatial reasoning has been observed to have
> generalized side effects:
>
> Psychon Bull Rev. 2008 Aug;15(4):763-71.Links
> Training generalized spatial skills.
> Wright R, Thompson WL, Ganis G, Newcombe NS, Kosslyn SM.
>
>
> ...The present study investigated whether intensive long-term practice
> leads to change that transcends stimulus and task parameters. Thirty-
> one participants (14 male, 17 female) were tested on three cognitive
> tasks: a computerized version of the Shepard-Metzler (1971) mental
> rotation task (MRT), a mental paper-folding task (MPFT), and a verbal
> analogies task (VAT). Each individual then participated in daily
> practice sessions with the MRT or the MPFT over 21 days. Postpractice
> comparisons revealed transfer of practice gains to novel stimuli for
> the practiced task, as well as transfer to the other, nonpracticed
> spatial task. Thus, practice effects were process based, not instance
> based. Improvement in the nonpracticed spatial task was greater than
> that in the VAT; thus, improvement was not merely due to greater ease
> with computerized testing.
>
> I use it as an excuse to play 3d tetris (http://www.3dtris.de/) and
> chess. If anyone has knowledge of a difficult mental rotation task I
> would be grateful.
> >
>

[argumzio]

If you find yourself at a high level of spatial ability, and have
already solved a 3D Rubik's cube, then have a swing with this:
http://www.superliminal.com/cube/cube.htm

There is a 5D version linked on the page as well. Their difficulty
will not be lost on anyone, I suspect. There are a number of other
puzzles there that you may wish to consider. (Note: I have not found
the time or the pleasure to attempt either of these, but I plan on
doing so at some point since I've been able to solve 3D cubes as a
bare minimum.)

Personally, I find Cognition Laboratory Experiments' setup far too
easy to be of value. But as the old adage says: to each his own.

[Mike L.]

Anyone seen those games over at Lumosity. Have any of those games
truly been proven to improve anything other than your skill at them?

[TheQ17]

I have an account there. The games are alright, but in my opinion the
Dual NBack is far superior to any of their games. The Memory Matrix
game was my favorite out of all of them and it turns out its free lol.

[Nocra]

I would recommend an e-book called memletics (www.memletics.com).
It's got some of the stuff that has been mentioned already plus a lot
about learning styles, memory techniques and more importantly which
ones to use under which circumstances. I found it to be very
complete.

On another note, has anyone actually gotten to the end of the Harry
Kahne exercises? I found the exercises to be extremely difficult and
to a degree somewhat unorganised.

[Pheonoxia]

Nocra, since most of us can't be bothered to spend $40, could you
please upload the Memletics manual somewhere for us to download for
free? Thanks.

[Curtis Warren]

That website looks like a scam.

[Nocra]

It's not a scam. The author is someone like us who is very
enthusiastic about improving his mind. He is just generating an
income from it. I've uploaded the memletics manual that I have, but
keep in mind that it is a year old and he may have put in some changes
to the new one. Also I don't have his speed reading manual, so if
anyone purchases that, could they upload it as well?

[Raman]

Is the author selling the Memletics manual? In that case I don't think
he will be very happy to see it uploaded here (and you should take it
off!)

[Raman]

I think he is selling the manual for $$$ so you should take it off
this site.

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[Tofu]

From my experience, I think juggling helps at least some aspect of
intelligence. Studies show that a few months practice can lead to a
3% increase in grey matter in the brain. I started juggling to see if
it had any noticeable effect on me and at the time I was also taking
calculus II course. I noticed my math skills were a little better so
I checked online which part of the brain juggling increases the size
of, and it happens to be an area of the brain (forgot the name)
related to math skills.

[Mike L.]

I've read some studies which claim that playing chess increases IQ and
that there is, otherwise, a correlation between the two.

http://www.auschess.org.au/articles/chessmind.htm

Not sure if any of the studies bare any validity or if the claims made
have been disproved by later studies so it'd be good to know.

On Jun 25, 1:21 pm, TheQ17 <jross3...@gmail.com> wrote:

[UOchris1]

Vinpocetine helps with alertness. Its really cheap at Vitacost.com

For those of you that haven't gone to cognitivefun.net, check it
out. I just learned about it from another thread but it is very
complimentary to brainworkshop.