We’ve mentioned before purported benefits of the N-Back Task on fluid intelligence:
In this case, subjects trained on a complex version of the so-called ‘n-back task’ – a difficult visual/auditory memory test – improved their scores on a set of IQ questions drawn from a German intelligence measure called the Bochumer Matrizen-Test. (The Bochumer Matrizen-Test is a harder version of the well-known Ravens Progressive Matrices).
Initially, the test subjects scored an average of 10 questions correctly on the IQ test.
But after the group trained on the n-back task for 25 minutes a day for 19 days, they averaged 14.7 correct answers, an increase of more than 40 percent. (A control group that was not trained showed only a very slight performance increase.)
Buschkuehl’s team postulates that the n-back task improves working memory – how many pieces of information subjects can keep in their head – as well as the ability to control the brain’s attention. Fluid intelligence tests require those types of thinking, and the training improved performance in these underlying skills.
Grinding points out two applications you can use to practice n-Back Tasks on your own:
Web based N-Back test (requires Microsoft Silverlight)
hback (for Linux)
June 11, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Just a note on the soak your head application (http://www.soakyourhead.com/N-Back.aspx). It’ll work on Macs, PCs and (eventually) linux. Also, the task is really hard, and since it scales, it stays challenging. But after a while, it becomes addictive 😉
July 4, 2008 at 6:55 pm
And for anyone who wants a deluxe downloadable version of the dual n-back training (allowing you to save profiles, view your history, train while disconnected from the internet), you can get the IQ Training program — a faithful representation of the Jaeggi method. Not free, but very affordable.
As Erik says, it’s addictive!!