HOW TO DEVELOP AND IMPROVE INTELLIGENCE: 11 PRACTICAL TIPS - GEOGRAFÍA - 2025

In this article I will guide you through a few simple steps to develop and improve intelligence in children, adolescents, adults and the elderly. Yes, even if you are an adult, you can continue creating brain connections that make you smarter and more creative.

Newton's biography is full of very important discoveries and contributions to science that, although we currently conceive of them as simple and essential, they occurred to no one but him. How is it possible that nobody came up with them before the seventeenth century?

The answer is intelligence, a characteristic that goes far beyond the word ability. Something so difficult to define and conceptualize that psychology has been pursuing this goal for two centuries and continues without achieving consensus.

For many years, the claim that intelligence is a static characteristic has been considered dogma. This has led to atrocities and scientific errors such as the eugenics movement. Fortunately, today we know that intelligence is malleable (it can be improved and worked) ³.

Tips to develop and improve intelligence

1-Know yourself

With what type / s of intelligence do you feel identified? ¹ Which / which ones would you like to promote?

• Logical-mathematical intelligence: consists of the skills of detecting patterns, deductive reasoning and logical thinking.
• Linguistic intelligence: it implies having a mastery of languages. This intelligence includes the ability to manipulate languages ​​effectively to express oneself rhetorically or poetically.
• Spatial intelligence: referred to the ability to manipulate and create mental images for problem solving. This intelligence is not limited to the visual domain.
• Musical intelligence: includes the skills to recognize and compose music.
• Kinetic-corporal intelligence: consists of the use of mental capacities to coordinate body movements.
• Interpersonal intelligence: reflects the understanding of the interpersonal feelings and intentions of others.
• Intrapersonal intelligence: ability to understand one's feelings and motivations.

All the intelligences discussed above have been shown to be rooted in human biology as means of problem solving. Furthermore, they are interrelated with each other (Frames of Mind, 1983) ².

Let's put it into practice

Take a few minutes to make an outline that includes those experiences in your life, hobbies or interests that could be related to any of the previous intelligence categories.

You probably fit into several categories or include the same item in different categories; first step to realize that, in reality, they are not independent of each other.

2-work hard

"Genius is 99% perseverance" (Thomas Edison).

In his book "Outliers: The Story of Success", Malcolm Gladwell proposed the 10,000 hour rule of practice. He established this number of hours as necessary to achieve mastery in a specific domain.

Although it sounds unrealistic, practicing a skill will develop automation skills in problem solving and reasoning skills that go far beyond the task at hand.

This is why, for example, it takes a computer with great power in brute force of calculation to beat a human being playing chess. This has been possible in 1996, although yes, with a slow pace of play.

The mind of an expert does not work by brute force, but uses strategies that require little cognitive effort and that can only be acquired with the continuous learning and exercise of a skill.

Let's put it into practice

Pick one of the hobbies, interests, or experiences from your list. Now think about what activities you could do to exploit your full potential.

An example could be reading. Do you like to read? What kind of books?

Reading will allow you to work on various dimensions of intelligence at the same time depending on the theme you choose. Saving learning time is also a skill that falls under the category of logical intelligence.

3-Develop self-efficacy

Self-efficacy refers to self-reported judgments of ability to perform a specific behavior or action ⁵.

According to Albert Bandura, the first author to discuss this concept in 1977, self-efficacy is the perceived ability to cope in specific situations, the conviction that one can successfully carry out the necessary behavior to produce the desired results.

It has been shown that people with the same objective capacity for a task present different performances depending on whether they judge themselves capable or not of carrying it out ⁵, the latter being better in the former.

However, another study showed that self-efficacy in very complex tasks does not predict differential performance ⁶. From this it is concluded that self-efficacy is of great help but, if we talk about complex tasks, training and practice are the key.

Again, to practice constantly and not give up the first time, self-efficacy will help you develop internal motivation to achieve everything you set your mind to.

Let's put it into practice

Anecdotally, I will refer to the very powerful role of self-efficacy propaganda in, for example, the Spanish soccer team. Everyone cheered "we can" and the success was imminent and indisputable. Another example is the slogan "Yes we can" in Obama's election propaganda.

Bandura listed the conditions necessary to increase self-efficacy:

1. Expose yourself to successful experiences by setting achievable goals.
2. Expose yourself to appropriate models of achievement. With models, Bandura was referring to people who can serve as a reference. That is, examples of people who have achieved what we want to achieve.
3. Give yourself verbal persuasion. How? For example, remind yourself: "if I want, I can", "I will not give up".
4. Manage your physiological activation through an appropriate diet, stress reduction strategies, and exercise programs that increase your strength, stamina, and coping ability.

Self-efficacy beliefs influence thoughts, motivation, performance, and emotional state (Pervin, 1998).

4-Exercise your mind: the role of working memory

Different studies have proven that working memory training contributes to the improvement of intelligence ^7,8. Furthermore, Jausovec has been able to demonstrate in the year 2000 the brain changes underlying this improvement ⁷.

Working memory is a theoretical construct related to cognitive psychology that refers to the structures and processes used for the temporary storage of information and its manipulation.

The results of the aforementioned study and others agree that there is a negative correlation between intelligence and brain activity. This means that the higher the intelligence, the lower the recorded brain activity.

How can this be possible?

Less brain activity means less effort and fewer cognitive resources required to perform a certain task.

Let's put it into practice

As Jausovec has indicated, one of the keys to improving your intelligence is working memory training.

Currently there are numerous apps and games that are aimed at exercising working memory. An example of this is the popular game "Brain Training" for the Nintendo DS, although there are many more free online options.

Attractive right? Having fun while improving your intelligence is an ingredient that, without a doubt, you cannot ignore.

Here are several practical activities:

• Games to exercise the mind.
• Games to train memory.

5-Music to open your mind

Human beings cannot live without music, something has to seduce and attract us. We can adopt two positions in the face of music, listen to it passively or produce it actively by playing an instrument.

Now, did you know that it only takes 20 days of training with a musical instrument to improve your intelligence? ⁹

This is precisely what Moreno and collaborators have shown in 2011. 90% of the people who participated in the study improved in different measures of intelligence and various cognitive abilities that had nothing to do with music after a musical training of just 20 days.

As if that were not enough, they also managed to prove an improvement in brain plasticity in the participants.

Now one can only wonder,… What instrument do you like the most? In this article you can see more benefits of music.

6-Be creative, your best ally is innovation

From psychology it is defended that intelligence and creativity go hand in hand since there is always a correlation between the two: the most creative are more intelligent and vice versa.

But what is the reason for this correlation?

In 2014, Benedek and colleagues found the answer: innovation ¹⁰. These authors understand innovation as renewal, that is, being creative does not imply having incredible ideas but consists of accepting all your new ideas without fear of failure.

The innovation of the openness factor of the personality, explained most of the correlation between creativity and intelligence.

Let's put it into practice

A powerful tool that you could implement is known as "brainstorming" or brainstorming. Every time you want to perform a task, start by putting your mind to create and put on paper all those ideas that come to mind, no matter how absurd they may seem.

You could set yourself a time to do it or just exhaust all your possible ideas. Once you finish, do a rereading of your options, surely you will find new relationships between them and new possibilities arise.

We are all creative, what sets us apart are the limits we set ourselves.

In this article you will learn how to be creative.

7-Practice mindfulness

According to Hurley ¹¹, a prolific author and researcher in the field of intelligence, "the ability to focus and turn off the world is very important."

This author proposes mindfulness meditation to achieve the state of mind that, he claims, "allows physicists to make incredible advances and solve complex problems."

Let's put it into practice

The author proposes the following routine:

Sit back, relax, and focus on your breathing. When your thoughts start to skyrocket, gently make them disappear.

When you start to remember those things you need to do, refocus on your breathing. If you do this for 20 minutes a day you can see incredible results.

As a note of humor, he adds, "this will have especially dramatic results if you are an office worker who checks Facebook every 20 minutes."

8-Expand the limits of your mind: mens sana in corpore sana

Another tip that Hurley describes in his book "Smarter: the new science of building brain power" ¹¹ is to exercise your body progressively thanks to cardiovascular exercise to expand the limits of your mind.

The idea is to accustom your mind to exceed the limits of what it is used to doing. Thus, if you always do the same amount and type of exercise, you will fall into conformism, the worst enemy of your intelligence and open-mindedness.

9-Ask yourself 5 times "why" each time you have to solve a problem

An automatic human tendency is to worry about problems when they arise (or even before!). However, as you may have already seen, worrying is never a solution in itself but leads to frustration and mental blockage.

Every time a problem appears in your life, force your mind to search for solutions effectively. Ask yourself 5 times why and find 5 possible solutions to the problem.

10-Read a lot of books and articles

Some of the most influential people today like Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Warren Buffett and many others are great readers, not only of fiction books (novels), but also non-fiction books; science, technology, history, etc.

No matter how good genes you have, if you don't read you won't be able to acquire new knowledge, relate to each other and have new ideas.

Here is a list of books of all kinds that you can start reading.

11-Dispense with technology when possible

Probably like you, I am a big fan of technology and it accompanies me in every second of my life.

Technology makes the world much easier and tasks easier. However, as my father always tells me "that is going to rot your brain." And he is right.

For example, try going on a trip without using a GPS (spatial intelligence) or do your everyday calculations without resorting to a calculator (mathematical intelligence).

What is intelligence?

The first psychological theories about intelligence, conceived it as a unique and measurable ability. The definition of intelligence was referred to as that which is measured by IQ tests, the factor or general factor of intelligence.

Despite satisfaction with the measure, alternative theories soon emerged that alluded to that not only does a general intelligence exist, but in reality, there are multiple intelligences and each person possesses one or the other (Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences ²).

A third conceptualization of intelligence distinguishes between crystallized and fluid intelligence. While the first refers to the knowledge acquired, the fluid implies the use of our resources for problem solving, adaptation to the environment or decision-making.

While I consider all conceptions of intelligence to be important and informative, if the objective is to improve intelligence in a practical way, the best option is to focus on exercising fluid intelligence and to build on the pragmatic theories of multiple intelligences.

Why? Every person is a world.

“If someone doesn't keep up with their teammates, maybe it's because they hear a different rhythm. Let him be governed by the type of music he listens to, whether it is measurable or not ”(Henry David Thoreau).

References

1. Brualdy, AC Multiple Intelligences: Gardner's Theory. ERIC Digest. ERIC Resource Center.
2. Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of Mind: The theory of Multiple Intelligences. New York: Basic Books.
3. Haywood, H. Carl; Switzky, Harvey N. (1986). The malleability of intelligence: Cognitive processes as a function of polygenic – experiential

   interaction. School Psychology Review, Vol 15 (2), 245-255.

4. Gladwell, M. (2011). Outliers: The Story of Success. Back Bay Books.
5. Jausovec, N. (2000). Working memory training: improving intelligence - Changing brain activity. Brain and Cognition 79, 96-106.
6. Jaeggi, SM, Buschkuehl, M., Jonides, J., & Perrig, WJ (2008). Improving fluid intelligence with training on working memory. PNAS, 105,

   6829-6833.

7. Moreno, S. (2011). Short-term music training enhances verbal intelligence and executive function. Psychological Science, vol. 22 no. 11 1425-1433
8. Benedek, M. (2014). Intelligence, creativity, and cognitive control: The common and differential involvement of executive functions in intelligence

   and creativity. Intelligence 46, 73-83.

9. Hurley, D. (2014). Smarter: the new science of building brain power.