A new study has found that it may be possible to train people to be more intelli

A new study has found that it may be possible to trainpeople to be more intelligent, increasing the brainpower they had at birth．

Until now，it has been widely assumed that the kind of mental abilitythat allows us to solve new problems without having any relevant previousexperience—what psychologists call fluid intelligence—is innate and cannot betaught（though people can raise their grades on tests ofit by practicing）．

But in the new study，researchers describe a method forimproving this skill，along with experiments to prove itworks．

The key, researchers found, was carefullystructured training in working memory—the kind that allows memorization of atelephone number just long enough to dial it．This type of memory is closely related to fluidintelligence，so the researchers reasoned that improvingit might lead to improvements in fluid intelligence．

First they measured fluid intelligence ofvolunteers using standard tests．Then they trained each in a complicated memory task—the child’s cardgame，in which they had to recall a card they saw andheard．During the course, they needed to ignoreirrelevant items, monitor ongoing performance，managetwo tasks at the same time and connect related items to one another in spaceand time．

The four groups experienced a half-hour oftraining daily for 8, 12, 17 and 19 days, respectively．To make sure they were not justimproving their test-taking skills，the researcherscompared them with control groups that took the tests without the training．

The results, published Monday in TheProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences，were striking．Improvement in thetrained groups was a lot greater．Moreover，the longer they trained, the higher their scores were．All performers，from the weakest to thestrongest，showed significant improvement．

“Our results show you can increase yourintelligence with proper training．” said Dr Jaeggi, a co-author of the paper．“Noone knows how long the gains will last after training stops,” he added, “andthe experiment’s design did not allow the researchers to determine whether moretraining would continue to produce further gains．”

1..The researchersthought the key to improving the intelligence was ______________．

A.memorizingtelephone numbers        B.improving workingmemory

C.training inconcentration                             D.recallinga card

2..The followingaspects of the training help increase intelligence EXCEPT___________．

A.ignoringirrelevantitems                             B.monitoringongoing performance

C.managing twotasks at the same time                   D.usingprevious experience

3..When theexperiment was conducted, the researchers______________．

A.trained the fourgroups for the same period of time

B.only madecomparisons between the four groups

C.compared thefour groups with control groups

D.trained the fourgroups together

4..By writing thearticle，the writer intendsto ______________．

A.inform thereaders of a new study

B.call on peopleto be trained to increase intelligence

C.prove one’s bornbrainpower can be improved

D.tell people the improved intelligence willlast forever

试题答案

【答案】

1.B

2.D

3.C

4.A

【解析】略