Elder tree.
Too Much
Crystallized Thinking Lowers Fluid Intelligence
Christopher Bergland
How can you improve fluid intelligence in an era of
crystallized intelligence?
In a digital age—that puts a premium on facts,
figures, and data—crystallized intelligence
has become disproportionately valued over fluid
intelligence. A wide range of new studies
are finding that motor skills, hand-eye coordination,
aerobic conditioning
and daily physicality are important for maintaining
working memory and fluid intelligence.
Fluid intelligence is the capacity to think logically and
solve problems in novel situations, independent of acquired knowledge. Fluid
intelligence involves the ability to identify patterns
and relationships that underpin novel problems and to
extrapolate these findings using logic.
On the other hand, crystallized intelligence is the
ability to utilize information, skills, knowledge,
and experience in a way that could be measured on a
standardized test.
Crystallized intelligence represents your lifetime of
cerebral knowledge,
as reflected through your vocabulary, general explicit knowledge
and Trivial Pursuit types
of declarative memory of people, places, things...
Although there is some controversy and debate on the best
ways to improve fluid intelligence,
studies are showing a strong link between
non-academic pursuits and improved fluid intelligence.
I have written a wide range of Psychology Today blog
posts about improving cognitive function through: physical activity,
playing a musical instrument, making art, improving motor skills, meditation,
daydreaming, getting a good night's sleep...
he ultimate goal of The Athlete’s Way is to
identify daily habits that optimize
the function of the brain, body, and mind throughout a
person’s lifespan.
Many experts believe that one of the backlashes of
overemphasizing standardized testing
as part of ‘no child left behind’ is that young Americans
are gaining crystallized intelligence
at the expense of their fluid intelligence. As the father
of a 6-year-old, I am determined
to encourage my daughter to flex both her crystallized
intelligence and fluid intelligence
every day and would encourage other parents to
do the same.
I hated school when I was growing up and did terribly on
standardized tests.
My SAT scores were barely above average. My older sister,
on the other hand,
literally got double 800s on her SATs and was a national
merit scholar.
Throughout my childhood the unspoken family
framework was that my older sister had the ‘book’ smarts, and I had the
‘athletic’ smarts. I never had a chip on my shoulder because
I didn’t like reading books or being in school. I wanted
to be outside playing, listening to music
or just hanging out with friends. How was your
"intelligence" categorized by your parents
and teachers when you were growing up?
My father was a neuroscientist and a neurosurgeon and
often got frustrated with me
for not flexing my ‘cerebral’ muscle. Once I got really
into sports and decided to become
a professional athlete he would regularly say things to
me like
“Chris, there’s a big part of your brain that you’re
forgetting to flex and it’s going to shrink.”
In my dad’s eyes, the cerebrum was the seat of cerebral,
or intellectual thinking and the cerebellum was the seat of ‘cerebellar’
implicit knowledge and muscle memory.
If I didn’t flex my prefrontal cortex and gain new
explicit knowledge he believed that my cerebrum would lose volume and
connectivity. To a degree he was probably right.
I realize now the ideal is to maintain a healthy balance
of all 4 brain hemispheres by creating daily habits that engage both
crystallized and fluid intelligence throughout your lifespan.
Hampshire College: Non Satis Scire
The main reason I went to Hampshire College is that they
don’t have tests or grades.
The second reason I went to Hampshire College
was because with
my SAT scores I didn’t get in anywhere else.
I applied to Hampshire because I didn’t think it would
require much cerebral muscle...
What I realize now because of all the research I do on neuroscience and
peak performance
is that at Hampshire the neural volume and connectivity
of my cerebellum was benefitting
from all the running, biking, swimming, meditation, yoga
and art making I was doing regularly. The fact that I never had to cram my head
full of crystallized facts actually fortified my fluid intelligence. Yes,
because I never had to take a test or memorize anything my crystallized
intelligence
is far below average but my fluid intelligence is
probably above average.
The motto of Hampshire College is ‘Non Satis Scire’ which
means “to know is not enough." The philosophy is that
crystallized intelligence doesn’t really get you that far in the real
world—especially in the age of Google. Hampshire wanted to teach us fluid
intelligence
and emphasized the importance of every individual
filtering crystallized information
through his or her very unique lens and connecting the
dots in new and original ways.
Fluid intelligence is directly linked to creativity and
innovation.
The book smarts of crystallized intelligence can only
take a person so far in the real world.
Depriving children of recess and forcing them to sit
still in a chair cramming for a standardized test literally causes their
cerebellum to shrink and lowers fluid intelligence.
My dad published a book called “Fabric of Mind” in the
1980s.
I knew that of all his accomplishments, publishing a book
with Viking was the one
he boasted about the most. I knew that the key to getting
a book deal was to get a good agent,
so I set out to find an agent. Jonathan Cane, who got me
started as a competitive athlete
back in the 80s—and is my founding co-partner at City
Coach—was working on a book
with an agent named Giles Anderson and connected me with
the Anderson Literary Agency.
Giles is an amazing agent and got me a book deal with St.
Martin’s Press to write
"The Athlete’s Way: Sweat and the Biology of
Bliss."
My father was SO impressed that I had gotten a book deal
with a major publisher
and it really changed our relationship. Finally, for the
first time in my life I had earned his approval. There’s something really sad
about that....
How much did it take to make me worthy of love and
belonging in his eyes?? Ack. but anyway...
Over the next two years my father and I spoke almost
every day and I picked his brain for everything that he knew about
neuroscience. It was a perfect father-son partnership
because my athletic perspective on everything actually
informed his thinking
and we came up with the idea of shifting the focus of
left brain-right brain to a new model
of up brain-down brain between the cerebrum and
cerebellum. The cerebrum being the ‘conscious’ book brain, and the cerebellum
being the ‘subconscious’ muscle memory brain.
At the time, I was trying to say that ‘left brain-right
brain’ was wrong and that the salient divide
in the cranial globe was not east-west, but north-south
between the 'up brain' (cerebrum) and 'down brain' (cerebellum). I realize now
I may have been half right ... My hypothesis now is that all four hemispheres
need to work together to optimize brain connectivity.
Again, this seems so obvious. I don't know why it took me
so long to connect the dots.
The most recent neuroscientific research has confirmed
that there really is a difference between
the left and right hemispheres. But I believe the goal
for optimal brain connectivity isn’t
just across the corpus callosum of the cerebral
hemispheres. Optimal brain function needs to include connectivity of the
cerebellar hemispheres via the vermis (which divides the cerebellum)
and the midbrain which connects the "big brain"
(cerebrum) with the "little brain" (cerebellum).
Beyond that I have a hunch that when the two hemispheres
of the cerebrum
and the two hemispheres of the cerebellum become a
‘superfluid’ entity with zero friction
and zero viscosity your mind breaks free to another
dimension of consciousness. When every cell of your brain, body, and mind are
acting in perfect unison you are in a state of what I call superfluidity.
That split-brain model became the foundation of The
Athlete’s Way. A few years later
when I was working on a book proposal for a book called
“Origins of Imagination”
I started to notice that creative greats tended to make
some type of physical activity
a part of their daily routine. I also noticed that the
‘eureka’ moments often happened
when the researcher, artist, writer... had stepped away
from the microscope, canvas or typewriter. The ‘a-ha’ moments happened when a
creative person was moving
or doing something that used implicit, cerebellar memory.
I also knew that as a writer I was similar to Joyce Carol
Oates in that when I ran,
I could visualize and rework entire paragraphs, structure
subheadings, and connect new ideas
in a way that I couldn’t when I was just sitting still.
But what was the neuroscience of this?
I was kind of stumped until one day I was walking home
and bumped into my friend Maria
on Commercial street in Provincetown. Maria is a poet and
I was telling her about all the research
I was doing on the daily habits of creative people and
how physical activity was a key
to creating ‘superfluidity’ of thinking.
Without missing a beat, Maria looked at me and said, “I
ride the elliptical trainer for at least 40 minutes everyday. When I start
moving my arms and legs back and forth the poetry just starts
to come out of me.” As she moved her arms and legs to
emulate riding the elliptical
suddenly I realized that the bipedal motion was engaging
all four hemispheres
and that connectivity optimized brain function and led to
fluid intelligence.
I ran home and drew this diagram of the two hemispheres
of the cerebrum and the two hemispheres of the cerebellum working together in
what I call a "Super 8 Fluid Intelligence Loop." When you bring the
cerebellum into the creative or 'intellectual' process,
crystallized thinking becomes more fluid (or superfluid
on a good day).
Fine-Tuned Motor Skills Linked to Fluid Intelligence
On December 23, 2013 researchers in Switzerland announced
that they had discovered
that humans with a higher “motor excitability”—which is
linked to fine-tuned motor skills—
have a better working memory, which is linked to
improved fluid intelligence.
Researchers from the Psychiatric University
Clinics (UPK Basel) and the Faculty of Psychology in Basel have found that the
excitability of the motor cortex is directly linked
to improved working memory performance.
"The motor cortical excitability can be easily
studied with transcranial magnetic stimulation,"
says Nathalie Schicktanz, doctoral student and first
author of the study.
In the present study, that included 188 healthy
young subjects, the scientists were able to show
that subjects with a high motor excitability had
increased working memory performance as compared to subjects with a low
excitability. "By measuring the excitability of the motor cortex,
conclusions can be drawn as to the excitability of other cortical areas,"
says Schicktanz.
Over the past few years I have had my antennae up for any
research that could prove this hunch.
It’s been very exciting to wake up every morning and see
cutting edge research confirming the link between physical activity, motor
skills and improved cognitive function.
I am still putting the pieces of this puzzle together but
this new study from Switzerland
is one more piece towards solving this riddle.
The new study titled “Motor Threshold Predicts Working
Memory Performance in Healthy Humans” was published December 2013 in Annals of
Clinical and Translational Neurology. The research
was conducted by scientists from the Transfacultary
Research Platform at the University of Basel.
By measuring the
motor excitability, were able to measure general cortical excitability
and related working memory and cognitive performance.
Conclusion: The Importance of Maintaining Working Memory
Throughout Your Life
My first book was published a few months before my father
passed away in 2007.
He died of a heart attack reading the New York Times in
a reclining chair. When my sister and I
went to Florida to empty out his house we found stacks
and stacks of my hardcover book in his study and copies of the book were
scattered throughout the house.
I felt a sense of peace knowing that my father died
knowing that I had published a book.
I believe that nobody should ever feel a ‘need for
achievement’ or drive for perfection
in order to feel worthy of love and belonging. This is
one reason I object to crystiallized intelligence standardized test scores
dictating education. It's also why I make sure my daughter understands
that making an effort and pouring your heart into
something that you love is all that really matters regardless of if you get a
gold medal, an A+ or no recognition at all.
Interestingly, since my dad's death I feel as if he
'passed the torch' to me and I have such a joyful passion about carrying on his
legacy as a neuroscientist. I wake up every morning eager to see
what researchers around the world are discovering about
how the brain works and sharing that
with the general reader. As a neuroscientist, my father
grew frustrated with the limitations of
bran imaging technology. Although there is still a long
way to go,
he would be thrilled to see the advances made by things
like the connectome project.
People of all ages need to keep their working memory
strong in order to maintain fluid intelligence. In a sedentary digital age full
of standardized testing, crystallized intelligence is monopolizing
our brains and causing some regions to shrink and become
disconnected.
It causes me great concern for myself and my daughter's
generation that people
—especially children—are totally out of balance between
crystallized and fluid intelligence.
The book proposal I’m working on now is called “SUPERFLUIDITY:
Daily Habits That Optimize Brain Connectivity for a Lifespan of Health, Happiness, and
Personal Bests” and is geared towards
upping the fluid intelligence quotient for people from
all walks of life and generations.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201312/too-much-crystallized-thinking-lowers-fluid-intelligence
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