People Trained To Experience an Overlap In Senses Also Receive IQ Boost

Zothecula writes Tasting lemons when they see a number seven, regarding a certain letter as being yellow in color. Not a great deal is known about why some people experience an overlapping of the senses, a phenomena known as synesthesia. But a new study conducted at the University of Sussex has suggested that specific training of the mind can induce the effects of the condition. The study even suggests that such training can boost a person's IQ.

Comments

The biggest news was left out

[mr_mischief]

Is the 12-point boost in IQ permanent or does it fade over three months like the primary effects of the training?

Re:The biggest news was left out

[bluefoxlucid]

Intelligence is largely similar between all humans: we don't have actual boundaries. The normal intellectual boundary is artificial; even physical limits are artificial.

One of the most famous examples of the human artificial boundary phenomena is running. For the longest time, a four-minute mile was considered physiologically impossible. When the record was broken, it was swiftly broken again by another bloke a month later. Within a few years, everyone was running four-minute miles. It's now a standard, and the record is much lower than four minutes.

What held humans back from breaking the four-minute mile was not believing they could run a mile that fast. By not believing in the possibility, they trained themselves to assess those last precious seconds as the best they could do; they would push themselves, find difficulty, and assume this was as good as it gets. They wouldn't push themselves further because the exertion was interpreted as some sort of dangerous violation of what is possible, safe, or sane: it's hard because it can't be done, so the pain and exhaustion mean it's time to stop here.

In modern times, Olympic records are broken every year; mental mathematics are continuously improved; and humans at the World Memory Competition continuously break previous records for memorizing lots of shit in little time. Typists type faster, bicyclists bicycle faster, and IQ tests follow a sliding scale such that Einstein was kind of dumb and we've repeatedly revamped the Culture Fair and changed the baselines for the Wechsler. People are of the mind that anything that can be done can be done slightly better, and continue to progress by degrees over their predecessors.

What makes this progress possible--and what impedes it--is the form of practice taken. Time spent practicing has little to no impact on skill; it is the mode of practice that matters most. K. Anders Ericsson published a theory of Deliberate Practice: that a person practices in a goal-oriented manner with a focus on technique, folding in constant, continuous feedback to improve upon his deficiencies. In short: a person who simply tries repeatedly to memorize a deck of 52 cards will make small gains; while a person who reviews and notices himself confusing or slowing on specific cards will target those cards, correct the issue, and make rapid gains both small and large.

All of this brings us to a head about intelligence, and about the permanence of training.

Intelligence is a matter of creativity: a person must be able to apply knowledge to solve problems, rather than repeat back rote facts. Creativity is, in turn, a matter of knowledge: invention and inventory are the same; you invent by reassembling the inventory of your mind into new forms, dividing a problem into recognizable components and adjusting solutions to similar components so as to produce a solution. Knowledge is, of course, a matter of memory: you cannot know what you do not remember.

Memory is improved by technique. The primary considerations are meaningfulness: information is best memorized when it is organized (grouped) and attached to well-understood ideas. Images are immediately well-understood, and so visualization is used to convert complex thoughts into meaningful representations of known topics (i.e. a running duck--both "running" and "duck" are meaningful--can be visualized). Attaching sounds, smells, and actions makes a more vivid, accessible, memorable image; and complex techniques and systems such as linking, story forming, and mind palaces further aid in recall by providing indexing or association.

Synesthetes make concepts meaningful by attaching other concepts. Sound forms its own imagery, or numbers have their own smells. The mimicry of this is a core technique in memory improvement: speed card participants attach playing cards to images, emotions, smells, sounds, textures, and whatever else they can; while numeric memory is aided by a PAO system, converting numbers into people, actio

Re:The biggest news was left out

[Bengie]

Tasting lemons when they see a number seven, regarding a certain letter as being yellow in color.

When I read this, I didn't think of this "Memory is improved by technique.". It made me think that they're talking about an overlap in perception, not consciously trying to make associations. The only reason I thought about this is because I get an "overlap" with several of my senses with my vision.

If I am working with something new to me or something happens unexpectedly, I "see" stuff. I can "see" sound, I can "see" touch, I can "see" my thoughts. I actually have a hard time reading story books because of this. When I read, I visualize what is going on and this conflicts with my ability to read. If I am allowed to listen, like someone reading to me, I am free to visualize. I can't remember passages in books, but I can tell you what I "saw". I have very vivid visual memories. The really strange thing is I may not remember something being described, like say a "fireplace", but when I think of the memory, I will "see" the fireplace, making me question if it was actually mentioned in the book or I just added it myself.

I also process new information this way. I find that I listen better or "think" better when I'm looking at the ground, where nothing is going on. Walking and thinking can be dangerous for me, I can get disoriented as I switch between the world around me and the world in my head. I can start to lose my balance as I lose my orientation. Typically disorientation is more of an issue if I am thinking of a form of navigation than thinking of abstract ideas.

Re:The biggest news was left out

[turing_m]

Intelligence is largely similar between all humans: we don't have actual boundaries.

You do know what a bell curve is? Sure, most people tend towards a mean but the difference between either end is immense, with very real implications. It separates hedge fund managers from janitors. Different races and ethnicities also tend towards different means. Half a century of trying to eliminate "the gap" between blacks and whites (about a standard deviation in IQ) has been a dismal failure. Billions of dollars has been thrown at this money pit with nothing to show for it. We will see commercial fusion reactors, strong AI, heck, even mass-market-popular commercial flying cars before the gap has been eliminated.

IQ tests follow a sliding scale such that Einstein was kind of dumb and we've repeatedly revamped the Culture Fair and changed the baselines for the Wechsler.

I am definitely on the right side of the bell curve, I was born a lot later than Einstein, and modern physics is still one of the hardest subjects I've taken, if not the hardest. I call BS on this one. If Einstein did not so great on an IQ test, it says more about the particular IQ test than Einstein's IQ. I suspect that there were questions on the IQ test where Einstein was right and the IQ test was wrong, and/or the IQ test was only calibrated to be accurate near the mean and not where Einstein's IQ was. You can take a hundred cram school attendees who have managed to ace the SAT through sheer bloody-mindedness and still not get the intellectual output of one Einstein.

Attaching sounds, smells, and actions makes a more vivid, accessible, memorable image; and complex techniques and systems such as linking, story forming, and mind palaces further aid in recall by providing indexing or association.

I know the technique of mind palaces and find them utterly unwieldy. Why use a mind palace to remember a fact when you can just write it down or google it?

Re:IQ is not a simple measure

[Chrisq]

It's an interesting result, but nobody should pretend they really know how to interpret it.

Green with a hint of ginger

Re:IQ is not a simple measure

[king neckbeard]

My first guess would be that because you have different sections of the brain being used together, you are essentially.getting higher throughput. If that's the case, then recent studies on psilocybin might suggest that if we were to learn to use them properly, we might be able to become much more intelligent creatures.

Re:simulate it?

[bluefoxlucid]

LSD will induce it. I don't recommend this. Psilocybin will do it as well; I also don't recommend this, but it may be safer than LSD. Some research suggests LSD is safer. Both are poisons. My understanding of LSD is it allows far too much neuroplasticity: traumatic experiences when on LSD can reform the brain such that a later trigger may cause a drug state, which can be disastrous (i.e. high while driving, decide you're a bird and leap out a window, etc.). There is dispute over this being an actual possibility.

Interesting but small sample

[LibertyMark]

This study is interesting, but I suspect it needs to be taken with a grain of salt. The sample group is tiny, and the IQ increase is huge. I think an interesting and fairly easy-to-answer question is: how does the average IQ of large numbers of synesthetes compare to the population at large? I've had the most common form of synesthesia (letters-colors) from my earliest memories. I don't think it was induced by environmental factors like colored magnetic letters. The phenomenon for me is not actually seeing a floating yellow 'A' like on a fridge. It's that 'A' simply IS yellow. Think of it this way: when you perceive the color yellow, you have an aesthetic experience. I have the same aesthetic experience when I perceive the letter 'A'. I enjoy having this condition and it has been helpful to me.

Re:neat tricks

[bluefoxlucid]

You too?

I can't offload--at least not that I'm aware of--but I can simulate anything and everything in my head. I've hit physics problems that I didn't understand purely by moving objects I'd assembled in my head and getting unexpected results; an hour of experimentation--in my head--allowed me to figure out what was going on in the system. I use the same facilities to model economics and human societal behavior on a large scale, which is why I have so much trust in markets, but why I also firmly challenge what markets will and will *not* do; the invisible hand isn't magic. (As a general rule, the powerful abuse the weak; most market-solvable problems make it advantageous to be abused, e.g. businesses draining the poor dry for a permanent welfare stipend will absolutely supply the poor with housing and food, as those are the first two things the poor will buy, and thus the best way to take their money.)

I've read Joshua Foer's stuff. It was entertaining. Kenneth L. Higbee's book, "Your Memory: How it Works and How to Improve It," is also enlightening.

As for why these things aren't popular:

"The cognitive boost, although provisional, may eventually lead to clinical cognitive training tools to support mental function in vulnerable groups, such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity (ADHD) children, or adults starting to suffer from dementia,” says Dr Daniel Bor, one of the study's co-authors.

Ethical Calvanism. Drugs are bad, unless you need drugs. Similarly, this therapy that makes people intelligent... should be reserved for the retarded, so they can be normal. You don't need it, and giving it to you gives you an unfair advantage over the retarded.

In truth, the retarded are just punted back a few dozen meters. Provided they're educable in the most basic sense, they can be trained to be normal; and, once normal, they can use the training to become hyper-intelligent. Any normal person can use the same training to become hyper-intelligent, and so is on even ground with the retarded. The argument works better for drugs: people don't want ADHD drugs or nootropics in the hands of normal people, because they make autistic people normal and normal people hyper-intelligent (they don't, really, but that's the theory).

I've been trying to assemble the lot of this into an education plan to fix the school systems, but it's difficult. America has two problems: first, we don't like to step backwards, and instead want to abandon anything old--the Soroban, old mathematics techniques, the teaching of Latin and Greek, old memory techniques, all the things which found the skillful use of the mind are abandoned in favor of computers, calculators, and modern education curriculum. Second, John Dewey's progressive education programs have destroyed our favor for memory, and it is considered a terrible thing to memorize. Both of these poor beliefs must be broken before we can move forward.

You should learn to introspect. Write down how your mind works when you offload. It's difficult, and your first tries will be inane and useless rambling; keep them, and write more. Do it two or three times a week. Fill a 192-page ruled A5 journal with writings about your mind. Review them as you go. In the end, review them in full and take new notes for a structured discussion. Believe me, we would like to know how you do this; even if you can't give meaningful direct instruction, a relatable description provides the path just as it does with the teaching of meditation (dafuq does 'relax your mind" and "don't think or attempt to not think" mean?).

Re:simulate it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Psilocybin is rather safe (regarding lethality, not commenting on behavior while under the influence).

The median lethal dose when consumed orally is 280 milligrams per KG of body weight. From the link below:
"1.7 kilograms (3.7 lb) of dried mushrooms, or 17 kilograms (37 lb) of fresh mushrooms, would be required for a 60-kilogram (130 lb) person to reach the 280 mg/kg LD50".

Given common dosages are 1-3 grams (up to 5 grams for heavier users) of dried mushroom there is very little risk. I'm not sure if one could consume 3.7 pounds of dried mushrooms without vomiting a lot (I grind them up and put them in capsules, they taste awful and it helps with accurate dosing). As for eating 37 pounds of fresh ones, physically impossible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...

I take them about once a year, it is refreshing but a little overwhelming. My favorite time is coming off of them (about 4 hours after consumption), the world is surreal but though processes are very clear. Insights gained can be incredible, and the way you view the world is changed afterwords. Alice in Wonderland is an awesome movie...