Training location: Block Island, dining room.
Training conditions: Tired – no nap or exercise today. Late afternoon, alone.

Started on n=6. Went up to n=7 with one miss.  Seven hits, eight misses, back down to n=6. Six misses, down to n=5. Three misses. Four misses. Two misses, up to n=6. Seven misses. Five misses.

Resumed Thursday, July 31, 2008

Block Island, dining room, just had lunch, tired.

n=5 two misses, up to n=6. Just 3 misses, staying on n=6. Seven misses (felt better). Close call, 5 misses. 3 misses. Two misses, up to n=6. Six misses. Down to n=5.

Resumed Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Block Island, dining room, morning

n=5, five misses. Two misses, up to n=6. Five misses. Eight misses (which surprised me,) down to n=5.

Ending with mean n=5.5

Training location: Block Island, upstairs.
Training conditions: Tired – no nap or exercise today. Late afternoon, alone.

Started out with n=5, 6 misses. Not a good start!! No misses on n=4, back up to n=5.  One miss, up to n=6. Five misses, staying on n=6. Five misses again. Six misses, down to n=5.  Two misses, back up to n=6.  Followed by 11 misses!! (Wasn’t aware I was focused so poorly.)  Two misses on n=5, back up to n=6.  Four misses, staying on n=6. Five misses. Six misses, down to n=5. Not good – Five misses. Losing focus. Three misses. Three misses.

Had to stop.

Resuming on Thursday, early afternoon, no exercise, tired.

Five misses. Three misses (though I thought I had none).  Three misses.  Stopped and restarted again the next day.

Mean n-back = 5.3

Monday, July 14, 2008

Training location:
Home in Brooklyn – Downstairs

Training conditions:
Afternoon. Tired, but feeling positive after a hard swim in the morning. Plenty of coffee. Alone in the house but pressed for time.

Started with n=4. No misses. One miss on n=5, up to n=6. Five misses, staying on n=6. Nine misses, back down to n=5. Three misses, staying on n=5. Four misses.

Had to break off after 6 blocks…

Friday, July 18, 2008

Resumed training location:
Block Island (arrived yesterday)

Resumed training conditions:
Afternoon. Tired, but positive swam in the ocean this morning. Plenty of coffee. Alone in the house.

First block n=5, four misses. Then four misses again, followed by two misses – up to n=6.  Just 3 misses on n=6.  Followed by five misses.  Next, just two misses, up to n=7. (8 hits, 6 misses – not too bad.)  Followed by 7 misses on n=6, back down to n=5. (Same pattern again of falling off after a few good rounds.)  Just two misses, back up to n=6.

Having to break off again after 15 blocks…

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Resumed Again – Block Island, afternoon, upstairs, after nap.

First block n=6. Eight misses. Four misses on n=5. 7 misses, down to n=4. 5 misses on n=4. (Doing poorly, but it doesn’t seem to feel that way!!)

Finally finished this “session” with a mean score of n=5.3.

Training location:
Home in Brooklyn – Upstairs

Training conditions:
Afternoon. Tired from lack of sleep. Plenty of coffee this morning. Alone in the house. No exercise since Wednesday.

11 days since the previous training session. Curious to see whether the previous big gain will stick after this long a break.

Starting on n=4. No misses. 5 misses on n=5. 5 misses again. Definitely feeling a little rusty… With 6 misses on the next block, down to n=4. One miss, back up to n=5. 8 misses (lots of guessing!) and back down to n=4. 4 misses, staying on n=4. Two misses, back up to n=5. Five misses, staying on n=5. Five misses again. (This seems to be a wall today on n=5, vastly different from the previous two sessions.) Five misses again. Five misses again. Five misses again. Aha! Down to four misses, with 10 hits. And after that I’m really struggling to hold on to n=5 on the next block!!  I keep losing focus entirely.  8 misses!!! Down to n=4. Two misses, back up to n=5. One miss, up to n=6 for the first time this session.  Four misses, staying on n=6. (Now starting to remember the patterns more clearly than earlier in the session.) Six misses, down to n=5.

So, training breaks may consolidate gains, but longer breaks may erode previous gains.

Mean n=4.85

After seeing a big jump in my scores when I took a break of six days between sessions 20 and 21, I mentioned the phenomenon to Susanne Jaeggi. Here is what she said:

“this is an effect which is quite common in training literature – the spacing of the training gives the brain the opportunity to consolidate the learnt information (or processes). thus, a break from time to time is a good approach for the training.”

Recommendations for optimal use of the IQ Training Program

This gives us a couple of fascinating insights into how we can get the most out of the IQ Training Program.

1. Be aware that the brain may take a few days to consolidate the effects of the training — if you’re training for an important test, allow for a break of a few days between the end of the training period and the day of the test.
2. Jaeggi also shared the following fascinating hypothesis: “we don’t currently know what happens if participants train longer than 4 weeks in terms of training and transfer…. after the initial learning as you did, it could also be efficient enough to use the training as a short ‘booster’ every couple of weeks or so.”

   A recommendation well worth trying out.

Related posts from around the web…

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Boost Kids’ IQ By Simple Brain Exercise – Can mental training improve your intelligence? No video game or mental puzzle has convincingly been shown to work. But now a group of neuropsychologists claims it has found a task that can add points to a person’s IQ – and the harder …

Better IQ Needs Brain Training – US scientists have shattered the myth that innate intelligence cannot be improved. They have proven that it can be done with the right kind of training. In the list of things we regard as immutable, intelligence would rank very high. …

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Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Training location:

Block Island – Upstairs

Training conditions:

Morning. Some coffee in the morning. Just swam in the ocean.

Curious to see what happens after the big jump last time. Started with n=5, up to n=6. (6 hits, 7 misses.) Next round, 7 misses on n=5, dropping down to n=4. Bouncing right back up to n=6. 7 misses. Struggling today with n=6. No misses on block 9, up to n=6. 5 misses, staying on n=6. 5 misses again, staying on n=6. 3 misses, staying on n=6. 4 misses, staying on n=6. 2 misses, up to n=7. 7 hits, 7 misses, down to n=6. 10 misses! Down to n=5. 10 hits, 2 misses, back up to n=6. 4 misses, staying on n=6. 9 misses, back down to n=5. (6 misses, down to n=4 for start of next session.)

Mean n=5.55

Training location:

Block Island – Dining table

Training conditions:

Afternoon. Home alone. Some coffee in the morning. Nap in early afternoon. Feeling pretty good. (Just played the piano for thirty minutes.)

Since 6 days had elapsed from the time of my last training session, I was a little nervous about how I would perform. Started with n=6, and remarkably scored 11 hits and only three misses!!! Next block, only two misses!! Up to n=7. (This one felt like a fluke, much shakier.) n=7, 7 hits, 10 misses, back down to n=6. 7 hits, 7 misses. Down to n=5. 11 hits, 3 misses. Took a break to play the piano. 1 miss, up to n=6. 9 hits, 4 misses, staying on n=6. 7 hits, 7 misses, back down to n=5. 2 misses, up to n=6. (9 hits, 6 misses.) 2 misses on block 14, up to n=6. Just 5 misses, staying on n=6. 9 hits, 5 misses, staying on n=6. 7 hits, 7 misses, down to n=5. Starting to struggle on block 18… (n=5) Got by just with 5 misses. Next block, down to n=4 for the first time…

Mean n of 5.5 !!! (previous best, 4.55)

Allowing for the pick up from n=2 (the default starting point for a new profile) I scored about equal to session 19. ended with a mean n=4.4.

Training location:
Home, upstairs.

Training conditions:
Mid-afternoon. Caffeine in the morning. Woke up at 5am. Dragging this morning. Took a nap at 1pm. Feeling in an OK mood. Alone in the house.

Starting on n=4. One miss, up to n=5. For perhaps the first time, feeling very much on top of n=4. Felt good on n=5, but must have been confused! 8 misses. Two misses on n=4, back up to n=5. (6 hits, 7 misses: again feeling I was doing better than this.) Next n=4, 3 misses. Then 1 miss. Up to n=5. (7 hits, 7 misses: again the feeling that I was tracking this better) Getting a little distracted / unfocused on block 8. Two false starts. Took a break, came back with two misses, up to n=5 again. No misses!!! Up to n=6 for the first time. 6 hits, 9 misses… not too bad. 8 hits 8 misses on n=5, down to n=4. 4 misses, staying on n=4. 3 misses. 3 misses. Right on the brink. Took a break. Came back with 1 miss, up to n=5. Three misses, staying on n=5. (9 hits, 6 misses.) No misses on block 18, back up to n=5. 11 hits, 4 misses. Staying on n=5 for the last block of the last session of 19. Mean n of 4.55, by far the best ever, and the biggest inter-session jump (0.35) not counting the big jump after a sharp drop.