The Mozart Effect - Does it incease your IQ?

The Mozart effect is the theory that simply hearing classical music, typically Mozart, can increase your IQ or boost certain parts of your intellect. It all began with Alfred Tomatis who conducted simple experiments where he attempted to use Mozart symphonies as stimulus to cure a variety of different disorders. A later experiment was conducted where Mozart was used on students to try and increase the IQ by 8 or 9 points.

Another study was conducted where children of 3 and 4 were given 8 months of piano tutoring then given IQ tests. They typically scored 34% higher on tests of spatio-temporal reasoning than the other control groups who were given singing lessons, computer lessons or no lessons at all.

While the results and effects of the Mozart effect may have been blown out of proportion and gained a large amount of weight in the media, it is still an interesting and significant finding and shows that the IQ can be increased temporarily simply by activating certain parts of the brain passively.

Toys that increase your IQ!

Lego & Meccano

By playing with constructive toys like Lego and Meccano your brain is learning how to utilize different skills. Fitting together different shaped blocks and using subtle techniques that you might take for granted like which shapes fit where and how to make something look good actually employs your analytical and spacial awareness skills. Essentially you are having fun while learning how to increase your IQ! Why not steal your kids collection for a few days and construct a Lego masterpiece or start a new Meccano project to develop your creation skills and thought processes.

Boardgames

Boardgames like Boggle and Backgammon are perfect for jogging your math and literary skills and forcing you to learn new words and sums. Just about any board game involves some degree of skill which in turn requires you to think and plan. Games like scrabble are a perfect example, where you are forced to use memory and association. Even humble Monopoly forces you to make business decisions and keep track of your incoming and outgoing assets while trying to stay ahead.

Yo-Yo or Diablo

Yo-Yo's are an almost annual fad. Most years for a few brief weeks or months there seems to be a Yo-Yo craze and then they suddenly die out again. Well fortunately Yo-Yos are pretty cheap and fascinatingly learning how to use them and do different tricks activates and improves your hand-to-eye coordination and your motor functions. Learning to do some simple tricks or using two Yo-Yos at once will activate both hemispheres of the brain at once and really give your brain a jolt. Likewise the Chinese Yo-Yo or Diablo (pictured) is a unique toy whose roots began in Carnivals and festivals. You can buy one for $30 dollars or so on e-bay and after just a couple of weeks practice you can pull off some impressive tricks. A half hours practice per day will work out the alignment of your brain and also help to improve coordination skills.

2 Free IQ Tests Reviewed

Bergmans IQ test
This test claims to be similar to the Mensa test. However it's very short and can't really be very accurate with such a small sampling. None-the-less it's one of the better free IQ tests and offers no hype, just questions. Unfortunately they try to sell you "3 complete IQ tests including solutions and a Helper to solve Mensa problems. The price is $19 for all of it." afterwards, but since the first part is free, it's worth trying.

Enigmadness.com
This is a really cool site with links to a whole bunch of free IQ tests available. One of the better, short ones was The Oracle Exam which had 15 good questions and didn't take very long but was fun to do. Enigmadness has a good list of tests though, and usually tells you roughly how long they'll take too.

If you want to do better in free IQ tests then consider reading the rest of the posts on this site, they will show you how to engage your mind and increase mind power.

Free IQ Tests Experiment

I've always had a kind of mild obsession with being seen as intelligent and outsmarting people, which I think most of us have to some degree, even if we don't admit it. So I tried out a little experiment. I looked back on my list of free IQ tests and picked a few of the better ones. I took an hour or two out of my day and did each of the 3 free IQ tests I had picked, making sure not to cheat and to try and get a really accurate gauge of my IQ. One of my results was 107 (although slightly above average, I wasn't too happy), another was 121 (not bad) and the last of the free IQ tests rated me at 118 (again, not too bad). While I knew that I was likely to get 3 completely different results, I didn't have any idea what they would be. I can't say I was happy or sad, I just took it at face value and wrote my results down with the average (which was 115).

Anyway, fast forward a week and I decided to spend some of my hard earned dollars and buy the ominous sounding IQ Brain Power Boost (which I now recommend from my site). I wont try to sell it, but it was a pretty good read. I didn't expect much because the sales page was horrible, but I just wanted to put my money where my mouth was and actually try out a product to see if it would have any benefit. The other 4 books included turned out to be useful to me too.

Anyway, fast forward another 3 weeks (I meant to do it sooner but such is life) and I visited 3 completely different free IQ tests. I chose 3 different ones because I knew from experience that I'd score higher if I went back and took the original 3 (because taking the same IQ test twice always yields a higher score the second time round). However, I made sure they were similar to the ones I had tried previously and made sure they took roughly the same amount of time, and had the same amount of questions. Can you guess what happens? Of course you can, it worked! I doubted it from the start to be perfectly honest, so I was genuinely surprised when the first IQ test came back 130, even more shocked when the second came back 134 and almost as happy when the third came in at 121 (again). That's an average of 128, 13 whole points more than my previous average.

Now while I accept that free IQ tests are not 100% reliable (I'm the first to admit it), I genuinely feel that reading and following the book, and trying out different methods to try and boost my brain power actually worked and as a direct result of my effort I gained those extra IQ points. If and when I have time I'll verify this with a real life IQ test but in the mean time I recommend getting a hold of some good material and trying the examples provided.

3 Ways To Improve Your IQ You Know About But Don't Do!

I regularly post unique and interesting ways to engage your body and mind at the same time and improve your IQ. I like these because they're fun to try and usually really simple, and new activities that you haven't tried before are always going to engage new lesser used parts of your brain. However, I think it's important to go back to basics and take a look at the obvious ways to improve your IQ that most of us already know about but don't take seriously or don't bother with.

1. Sleep better

We all know that when stay up all night and stay in bed til 2pm the next day our brains are functioning at minimal capacity. We also know that horrible feeling of not getting enough sleep and having to go a full day on emergency backup levels, droning about like a zombie. There's a lot to be said for an honest nights sleep. While the amount of sleep we need to feel fully refreshed varies from person to person, it's generally recommended that you get 7 or 8 hours per night. Developing a regular routine is also very good for your brain, hence why people who get up early are always more productive than people who sleep in. Don't worry about when you need to go to bed, your body will be sure to let you know. Instead, focus on trying to get up at the same time every day, even on the weekends. If you feel you could be doing better, get up a half hour earlier for a week, then increase it another half hour. By focusing on when you wake up rather than when you go to sleep, your body will learn that it can't negotiate and you'll soon lose the urge to lie in snooze mode when you wake up.

2. Get More Exercise

We've heard it a million times "A Healthy Body Equals A Healthy Mind!" So why don't we pay attention? There is irrefutable evidence that healthier people who work out regularly are more productive, most organized and most importantly, more intelligent! Your fitness level DOES equate with your intelligence level. The reason being that as a healthy individual you can circulate more oxygen through your blood and keep your brain "pumped". You're also fighting diseases easier and digesting and absorbing vitamins and minerals easier and faster. Vitamins and minerals which are essential to growth of body and brain!

3. Eat Right

Which brings us onto the third and final thing we know but always forget to act on: eating healthy. Maintaining a healthy diet is one of, if not THE key factor in maintaining intellect. Numerous studies have been conducted where kids in school grudgingly had their meals replaced with healthier alternatives and almost overnight their progress and work showed better results. There are thousands of brain foods out there waiting to be eaten. Blueberries and wild foods are packed with nutrients while oily fish and flaxseed contain high levels of Omega 3 (which essentially lubricates the brain). While these unique food products will help, the most essential part is a healthy, well balanced diet just as the brain and body were designed to consume. Stick to the infamous food pyramid(pictured) and watch your IQ grow.

High IQ's? - Haiku's!

Your brain will awaken,
Like a ray of morning sun,
As you try haiku!

The properties of high literacy and writing relating to the brain are already known and documented. Lesser known to many is that Haikus and other forms of poetry go one step better than traditional methods of writing and force you to obey rules and criteria which prompts your brain into complex problem solving action while simultaneously focusing on creativity and artistic values, thus using both sides of your brain.
A Haiku is a traditional form of Japanese poetry which requires 3 lines, the first should have 5 sounds (syllables in Western culture), then 7, then 5. Usually Haikus relate to nature, but they can even be funny and witty.

Use your power of mind,
To create something fresh, unique.
Your brain will love you!

To the pub for a round of IQ points chaps!

The pub is an intellects dream. It's choc full of number games- Darts, dominoes, etc. and they're all free!

If you've ever watched darts players on the T.V. you'll know just how good at maths they are. They even know their 13 times table! This is because they are forced to do subtractions in their head while weighing the best numbers to go for and while trying to coordinate their hand to eye movements too- truelly a brain work out.

Dominoes, while not requiring much physical skill, does involve numbers and abstract concepts like bluffing and so works out the brain much the same way a game of poker would.

Then there's the pool table. Playing pool requires you to stay one step ahead of your oponent and to utilize your hand to eye coordination. As with the others, you'll probably need to juggle around a few numbers in your head too. Stay away from the bar though, alcohol has a detremental effect on various parts of your brain- especially your ability to reason! And of course we all know that alcohol kills brain cells.

Finally though, after a game of darts, a round of dominoes and a hustling at pool, what better way to end your brain stimulating night out than with the pub quiz? Questions that test your general knowledge are known to stimulate your mind more than those which you may be specialized in. Not only that but you might make some money!