Positively Smarter

Science and Strategies for Increasing Happiness, Achievement, and Well-Being

Marcus Conyers, Donna Wilson

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781118926109, 9781118926093
• eBook ISBN: 9781118926154
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Positively Smarter brings together seven principles for connecting the science of neuroplasticity to practical strategies for enhancing the synergy of happiness, achievement, and physical well-being. Moving beyond common myths, the text builds an evidence-based paradigm to empower readers to take practical steps to move forward.

• Brings together current research on cognitive psychology, education (learning), and implications of neuroscience to suggest powerful ways to enhance the kind of cognitive function and productivity that leads to happiness and success
• Applies implications of current research showing that happiness is a skill and that positive affect can lead to higher levels of creative problem solving, productivity, achievement, and well-being
• Shares research and strategies for supporting physical activity and nutrition that may enhance neuroplasticity, cognitive performance, and positive affect
• Puts learners first and then brings in the science, presenting creative or adaptive strategies that can be applied in the real world
• Includes action assessments to guide readers in taking concrete steps to achieve the goals they set for themselves
• Identifies deeply held assumptions that innate talent, genes, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity mean that a significant percentage of the population lacks the neurocognitive potential to achieve at higher levels
• Draws on the authors' research from a broad range of fields in order to maximize the positive impact of a synergistic approach

1
Building a Smarter Brain

“Brain plasticity is the stuff of life. As long as you're alive, it's with you as a precious exploitable asset. Don't neglect to take full advantage of it.”

—Michael Merzenich¹

No matter what your age or current abilities, you have the potential to improve the knowledge and skills you need to develop to achieve your goals—in the form of your brain's amazing ability to change in response to learning. Recent research is overturning longstanding assumptions about the capacity of the human brain to change and improve. We now know that people, with the exception of some of those who have suffered traumatic brain injury, dementia, or other brain disorder, have the capability to change and grow their brains, especially those areas of the brain associated with attention, memory, and problem solving. These are the very areas we associate with becoming smarter. The term neural plasticity or neuroplasticity refers to how our thoughts, actions, and sensory input (what we see, hear, say, and touch) change the structure and function of the brain and how reinforcing that learning through repetition and practice strengthens those neural connections. When we focus our attention on information and engage in learning activities, the neural networks associated with those activities grow denser and larger, leading to what Fotuhi describes as “enhanced brain performance.”² In fact, these physical changes in the brain can be so significant that they can be seen by the human eye on MRI scans—and these changes can happen in weeks and months, rather than years.

Neuroplasticity in Action

In a regimen unlike any other in the world, London cabbies in training spend years memorizing their city's 25,000 streets and thousands of landmarks within a 6-mile radius of Charing Cross train station. Some of them take the Knowledge of London Examination, known simply as “the Knowledge,” a dozen times, and only about half ultimately earn an operating license from the Public Carriage Office.³ Neurologists Katherine Woollett and Eleanor Maguire conducted MRI brain scans of 79 taxi trainees and a control group before the training began and again three or four years later after they had completed their exams. Of the three groups during the second round of testing—trainees who had earned their licenses, trainees who had not passed the exam, and control participants—the scans detected an increase in gray matter volume in the posterior hippocampi, the area of the brain associated with spatial memory, of the first group, but not the other two. The researchers concluded that “specific, enduring, structural brain changes in adult humans can be induced by biologically relevant behaviors engaging higher cognitive functions.”⁴

The cabbie research is among a number of studies conducted in recent years that show how the brain changes in response to learning. German scientists conducted brain imaging scans of medical students three months before their medical exams and immediately following the tests and compared them to scans of a control group of students. The brains of the medical students showed increased volume in areas of their parietal cortices and the posterior hippocampi, regions of the brain associated with memory retrieval and learning.⁵ Another study compared the brains of professional musicians who practiced with their instruments at least an hour per day to the brains of amateur musicians and non-musicians. The scans showed significant increases in gray matter volume in brain regions associated with motor, auditory, and visual-spatial functioning of the professional musicians in comparison with the other groups; amateur musicians also showed more development in these regions than non-musicians. The researchers concluded that those differences reflect the impact of “long-term skill acquisition and the repetitive rehearsal of those skills.”⁶ These studies demonstrate neuroplasticity in action as the brain changes in response to learning new knowledge and developing skills. They also disprove long-held assumptions that adult brains cannot build new neurons.

Other research challenges the notion that IQ is unchangeable—that we are born with a certain level of intelligence and cannot “move the dial” on our intellectual capacity. As it turns out, that notion may be wrong on both counts: Research now suggests that we can increase our intelligence throughout life and that heredity may account for only a relatively small portion of our cognitive potential. By conducting DNA analysis and comparing IQ test results from people tested at age 11 and again when they were 65 to 79, Scottish researchers concluded that only about 24 percent of intellectual development is determined by genes; the rest owes to one's experiences and environment throughout life.⁷ In another study, 33 adolescents ages 12 to 16 took IQ tests and underwent brain scans in 2004 and then repeated the tests three or four years later, now at ages 15 to 20. There were no cognitive interventions or tests between the two periods; in fact, the teenagers were not even told they would be invited back for further testing. The researchers' aim was to measure whether intellect, as measured by the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for children and adults, would change and to see if IQ changes would be reflected in brain structure. They discovered significant shifts up and down in IQ—ranging from a drop of 20 points for one participant to a gain of 23 points for another in verbal IQ, a range of –18 to +17 in performance IQ (nonverbal skills, including spatial reasoning and problem solving unrelated to language), and a range of –18 to +21 in full-scale IQ—along with corresponding changes in gray matter density and volume in the brain scans.⁸

Scientists have varying opinions about what IQ tests tell us about people's intellectual capacity. These differences of opinion are evident in debates over what causes the “Flynn effect,” the steady rise in IQ levels around the world since the 1930s, which was first identified by New Zealand political science professor James Flynn. Are today's students really smarter than their grandparents, or are they just better test takers? Some social scientists attribute these IQ gains to the wider availability of public education, the increase in years spent in formal education, and even on improved nutrition. Others suggest that IQ tests evolve with each generation to emphasize the skills most prized during that era. Still others argue that this trend calls into question the reliability of IQ tests in measuring “pure” intelligence.

As we will explore in more detail later in this chapter, intelligence is multifaceted—and people have the capacity to improve many aspects of their intellectual functioning, including creativity, analytical problem solving, recall, and mental agility. In sum, then, the conclusion we can draw from this research on the mind and brain, notes Edward Hallowell in his book Shine: Using Brain Science to Get the Best from Your People, is that “we can all get smarter and wiser and happier the longer we live. The conventional, dreary wisdom that people can't change is scientifically incorrect.”⁹

Your Brain at Work: A Continual Construction Zone

As the control center in charge of all aspects of operating a living creature—from controlling basic functions such as heart rate and breathing to accepting and interpreting input from the senses to facilitating thought and experiencing emotions—the brain is understandably complex. As we explore the role of the brain in our efforts to improve our positive outlook, knowledge, skills, and well-being, we will present research findings on the workings of the cerebral cortex and the limbic system. The cerebral cortex is the outer surface o...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 Building a Smarter Brain
• 2 Why Happiness Matters
• 3 Stop Daydreaming and Start Thinking Your Way to Higher Levels of Happiness
• 4 Working Toward Achieving Your Goals
• 5 Working Smarter with Practical Metacognition
• 6 Better Together
• 7 Building a Smarter Body–Brain System Through Exercise
• 8 Fuel Your Body–Brain System for Peak Performance
• 9 Bringing It All Together, Putting It into Practice
• Appendix: Positively Smarter Action Assessment
• Index
• About the Authors
• EULA