Can Dual N Back Exercises Make You Smarter?

Intelligence is one factor that is prized by a lot of people, and honing this is the only way for individuals to grow smarter. Even those who have been blessed with intelligence need to take initiative if they want their intelligence to grow. One method that they can use in order to develop their intelligence is through the dual n back method.

How can dual n back training enrich your brain?

Before taking a look at dual n back, it’s important to understand what n back training is in the first place. The first set of exercises was developed by Wayne Kirchner in 1958. The activity was developed in order to train the brain’s working memory in order to expand it. Scientists have long theorized that working memory is directly related to intelligence. In fact, there are even some researchers who propose that working memory is equivalent to a persons fluid intelligence, effectively making it equivalent to intelligence quotient (IQ). As such, training the working memory can improve IQ. This is where the n back test comes in. A person is instructed to identify recurring elements in a sequence of stimuli. The test is so called because the person will need to remember the cues an n number of times back. For example, the test taker will signal to the examiner if the cues (say, the appearance of the letter A) matches the required criteria (ex. two letter As two positions away from each other). N back exercises are usually orally administered.

While n back (and subsequently dual n back) are used in clinical settings or even in neuroimaging in order to stimulate brain activity of test subjects and patients, you can also find an n back game in stores that can be purchased by those who want to have fun while training their brains. There are different variants of the game. You can even find free versions of this (as well as dual n back exercises) on the Internet.

What makes dual n back different from the n back exercises?

Dual n back was developed by Susan Jaeggi and her team in 2003. A variant of n back, this test not only asks participants to remember a sequence of letters that are orally read to them, they will also be required to remember the sequence of positions of a diagram shown to them. The two levels in these exercises is the reason behind the name of this activity.

The reason behind the creation of the dual n back exercises is that Jaeggi and her team believe that the two tasks can trigger more activity from the brain, making it work more, thus making it more likely to expand the capacity of the load of the working memory as compared to the single-layer tasks in the n back exercises.

There are two kinds of dual n back exercises:

• 1 back. In 1 back exercises, the test taker is asked to correctly identify if the letters are the same as what was presented to them in the previous round. At the same time, they will be asked if the position of the square in the diagram presented to them is at the same position or not.
• 2 back. 2 back exercises are designed to be more challenging than 1 back exercises. Instead of asking the test takers to remember the stimuli presented to them in the previous round, they will now be asked to try to remember the letters as well as the diagram presented to them two rounds ago. The 2 back exercises have been discovered to be more effective than 1 back exercises when it comes to developing working memory and improving concentration.

Like the n back, there are also game versions of dual n back for those who want to have an educational toy around the house that they can use to stimulate their brains.

How effective is dual n back in training the brain?

According to some studies that have been conducted using the dual n back as a tool to check for brain activity, the prefrontal activation is able to increase continuously thanks to the demand on memory load of these exercises.

Of course, the dual n back does have its own share of critics. Some people argue that the amount of activity brought by the dual n back is essentially the same as the n back, while there are those who say that repeating the n back exercises frequently will essentially produce the same results that are promised by the dual n back activities. Even so, those who have already tried these exercises have given their personal testimonials that they have noticed their brains working more effectively and efficiently ever since they’ve started doing dual n back tests.

Those who want to improve their cognitive abilities and memory capacity will need to exert extra effort if they want to achieve their goals. One way they can do this is by using dual n back exercises in order to test themselves and improve their cognitive abilities. For more information on Dual n back, please visit http://www.lumosity.com/.