#50.

A Summary of Smarter: The New Science of

Building Brain Power by Dan Hurley
newbooksinbrief.com /2014/01/14/50-a-summary-of-smarter-the-new-science-of-building-brainpower-by-dan-hurley/
The Book Reporter
Table of Contents:
i. Introduction/Synopsis
PART I: AN INTRODUCTION TO INTELLIGENCE, AND THE
BIRTH OF THE NEW SCIENCE OF BUILDING BRAIN
POWER
Section 1. An Introduction to Intelligence
1. Just What Is Intelligence, Anyway?
a. Crystallized Intelligence and Fluid Intelligence
b. What Is Intelligence Designed for?
2. On the Improvability (and Unimprovability) of Intelligence
Section 2. Attacking the Unimprovable Intelligence Paradigm:
From Neural Plasticity to Improving Intelligence through
Working-Memory Exercises
3. Michael Merzenich and Neural Plasticity

Smarter: The New Science of Building Brain

Power by Dan Hurley (Hudson Street Press;
December 26, 2013)

4. Improving Attention Span and Fluid Intelligence in Subjects with ADHD: Torkel Klingbergs Landmark
Experiment
a. An Introduction to Klinbergs Experiment
b. Working Memory
c. Klingbergs Experiment
PART II: THE RISE OF THE BRAIN-TRAINING INDUSTRY
5. The Brain-Training Industry
a. Cogmed
b. LearningRx
c. Posit Science
d. Brain Age and Lumosity
PART III: THE SCIENCE OF BRAIN-TRAINING
6. The Dual N-Back Experiment: Susanne Jaeggi and Martin Buschkuehl
a. An Introduction to Jaeggi and Buschkuehls Dual N-Back Experiment
b. The N-Back Task, and the Dual N-Back Task

c. The Results of Jaeggi and Buschkuehls Experiment

7. The Response to Jaeggi and Buschkuehls Experiment
8. The Science behind Commercially-Available Brain-Training Programs
a. Cogmed
b. LearningRx
c. Posit Science
d. Brain Age and Lumosity
PART IV: THE SCIENCE BEHIND OTHER BRAIN-BOOSTING INTERVENTIONS
Section 3. Mental Exercise: Learning a Musical Instrument or a Second Language, and Meditating
9. Music
a. Baby Mozart
b. Learning a Musical Instrument
10. Learning a Second Language
11. Meditation
Section 4. Physical Exercise
12. Exercise
a. Aerobic Activity
b. Resistance Training
Section 5. The Easy Routes to Building Brain Power: Diet, Pharmaceuticals, and Transcranial DirectCurrent Stimulation (tDCS)
13. Diet
14. Pills
15. tDCS
PART V: HURLEYS BRAIN-TRAINING PROGRAM, AND CONCLUSION
16. Hurleys Brain-Training Program
17. Conclusion
i. Introduction/Synopsis
The idea that we can boost our brain power through interventions of various kinds has been around a
long time. Over the years, numerous drugs, diets and other practices (including everything from
physical exercise to learning a new language or musical instrument to meditation to even zapping the
brain with electrodes) have been purported to pump up our mental strength. And lately, a new practice
has been added to this list: brain-training games and exercises. Indeed, in the past decade a whole
new industry has emerged around brain-training programs. Built on the premise that specific types of
mental activities can strengthen our cognitive skills and add to general intelligence, companies such as
Lumosity and LearningRx have convinced millions of paying customers that their product will give them
an edge in the brains department.

The more skeptical among us, however, may find ourselves wondering just what is the scientific basis
behind all these brain games and other interventions. It was just this thought that occurred to science
writer Dan Hurley; and so, following his skeptical sense, Hurley decided to investigate the matter for
himself. What Hurley found was a scientific field that, though young, is bustling with activity (and
controversy).
The new science of building brain power may be said to have truly kicked off in 2002. In that year,
Swedish psychologist Torkel Klingberg performed a study wherein he found that subjects diagnosed
with ADHD improved in both attention span and general intelligence after undergoing a brain-training
program that involved working-memory exercises (it was this very study that kick-started the brain
training industry).
The finding flew in the face of the long-accepted belief that intelligence simply could not be enhanced
through training; and therefore, it sparked a great deal of interest in the scientific community. Eager to
test the new finding, scientists from all over the world launched their own studies. While not all of the
studies replicated the results that Klingberg found, many did; and enough promising results were found
to draw even more interest into the field (while those who found negative results began setting up a
staunch opposition to the research).
Despite the minority opposition, the long-held belief in immovable intelligence was rocked, and
scientists began testing other kinds of interventions as well (including all of those mentioned above).
While many of the interventions tested were found to have no effect on cognitive functioning, some did,
and thus the new field gained even more momentum.
Wanting very much to get to the bottom of the matter (and the controversy) Hurley decided to check out
the studies himself, and also to interview the major researchers in the field (on both sides of the
debate). Based on this investigation (which is explored at length in the book), Hurley launched his own
brain-training experimenton himself. Specifically, Hurley took all of those interventions which he felt
had the best evidence behind them and incorporated them into a grand brain-training program to see
whether he could improve his intelligence.
The routine included the following: A boot camp program (that incorporated both aerobic exercise and
resistance training); Lumosity; learning a new musical instrument (the lute); mindfulness meditation; a
nicotine patch; coffee; and transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS). The results of the
experiment? They were mixed.
What follows is a full executive summary of Smarter: The New Science of Building Brain Power by Dan
Hurley.
PART I: AN INTRODUCTION TO INTELLIGENCE, AND THE BIRTH OF THE NEW SCIENCE OF
BUILDING BRAIN POWER
Section 1. An Introduction to Intelligence
1. Just What Is Intelligence, Anyway?
a. Crystallized Intelligence and Fluid Intelligence
Before we launch into an investigation of the new science of building brain power, we must first come to
an understanding of just what brain power, or intelligence, truly is.
Let us begin with the IQ test, as this is the most famous indicator of intelligence. What is important to
note is that the IQ test actually measures two general varieties of intelligence: crystallized intelligence
and fluid, or general, intelligence.

Crystallized intelligence includes your general store of knowledge, which (hopefully) increases over
time. As Hurley explains, standard IQ tests include measurements of crystallized intelligence, your
treasure trove of stored-up information and how-to knowledge, which just keeps growing as you age
the sort of thing tested on Jeopardy! or put to use when you ride a bicycle (loc. 216).
Fluid intelligence, on the other hand, is less about what you know and more about how you think. It
includes abilities like problem solving, recognizing patterns and manipulating information in your mind.
As the author explains, fluid intelligence is the underlying ability to learn, the capacity to solve novel
problems, see underlying patterns, and figure out things that were never explicitly taught (loc. 216).
When it comes to measuring crystallized intelligence in isolation, this is relatively straightforward, as
this simply requires testing general knowledge. Fluid intelligence, on the other hand, would seem to be
quite a bit more complicated to measure, as it involves several seemingly disparate skills. Still,
scientists have managed to design a number of tests that are quite good at measuring fluid intelligence,
with one test in particular standing above the rest: the Ravens test (loc. 358).
Each question in the Ravens test follows the same general pattern: you are presented with a 3 x 3
matrix with each square occupied by a symbol (except 1 of the squares). Your task is to read the
pattern that emerges from the 8 symbols, and use it to infer what symbol belongs in the empty square
(out of 6 multiple-choice options). In addition, the patterns become more and more difficult to decipher
as the test proceeds. As Hurley explains, anyone who has taken an intelligence test has seen
matrices like those used in the Ravens. Picture three rows, with three graphic items on each row,
made up of squares, circles, dots and other symbols. Do the squares get larger as they move from left
to right? Do the circles inside the squares become filled in, from white to gray to black, as they go
downward? One of the nine items is missing from the matrix, and your task is to discern the underlying
patternsup, down, acrossin order to select the correct item from one of six possible choices. While
at first the solutions are obvious to most people, they get progressively harder, reaching the point
where, by the end of the test, they baffle all but the brainiest (loc. 358). (You can check out sample
questions, and even take the Ravens test here: http://www.intershop.it/testqi/testqi1/iqtest2.htm.)
Just why the Ravens test is such an accurate measure of fluid intelligence may not be clear at first. But
the fact is that the questions require pattern-recognition, logic, and problem-solvingall of which are
very much at the heart of what fluid intelligence is. Hurley puts it this way: why matrices should be
considered the gold standard of fluid-intelligence tests may not be obvious. But consider how central
pattern recognition is to success in life. If youre going to find buried treasure in baseball statistics,
permitting your team to win games by hiring players unappreciated by other teams, youd better be
good at matrices. If you want to find cycles in the stock market to exploit for profit; if you want to find the
underlying judicial reasoning behind ten cases youre studying for law schoolfor that matter, if you
need to suss out a woolly mammoths nature in order to trap, kill, and eat ityoure essentially using
the same cognitive skills tested by matrices (loc. 365).
b. What Is Intelligence Designed for?
Importantly, this quote sheds light not only on what fluid intelligence is, but what it was designed for (by
evolution), and also what it is useful forwhich is to help the individual survive, thrive and reproduce.
And this goes not only for fluid intelligence, but crystallized intelligence as well.

*For prospective buyers: To get a good indication of how this (and other) articles look before
purchasing, Ive made several of my past articles available for free. Each of my articles follows the
same form and is similar in length (15-20 pages). The free articles are available here: Free Articles