IQ Test Labs Monthly Newsletter

Contents

1. Puzzles and teasers
2. Studies
3. In the news
4. Article: The Brain - a work in progress
5. Quotes and trivia
6. Site of the month: Games for the brain
7. Word of the month: Rusticate
8. Memory tips
9. Games

Puzzles and Teasers

Brain Teaser - If you had a 5-litre and a 3-litre bowl and access to water. How would you measure exactly 4 liters?

Riddle: How many bricks does it take to complete a building made of brick?

Solutions

Studies

The connection between intellectual ability and net worth - IQ scores do not predict financial well being. Even though higher IQ individuals may earn more money, lifestyle factors usually even out major differences in net worth.

Baby talk may result in poor language skills - Simple sentences can slow language development. By avoiding baby talk, children are likely to imitate their parents and are challenged to learn complex language skills.

Gender Differences In IQ Smaller Than Believed - Studies show that on average, women underestimate their IQ scores by about five points while men overestimate their own IQs.

In the news

Deliberate practice and not innate ability is more likely to bring success. - As the American inventor Thomas Edison put it: “Genius is 1 per cent inspiration and 99 per cent perspiration.”

The Brain - a work in progress

by: Robert Ringer

Cognitive science is the study of the brain mechanisms responsible for an individual’s thoughts, moods, decisions, and actions. Cognition refers to everything that takes place in an individual’s brain that helps him understand the world around him. To accomplish such an understanding involves mental processes such as concentration, memory, conceptualization, creativity, and emotions.

In his book The New Brain, Dr. Richard Restak uses the term “plasticity of the new brain” to refer to the capacity of the brain to transform itself. This is an incredibly exciting notion, and one that has endless positive ramifications.

Read More..

Quotes and trivia

There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun. - Pablo Picasso

Truly great madness cannot be achieved without significant intelligence. - Henrik Tikkanen

The adult human brain is about 2% of the total body weight.

During development, the brain creates 30,000 synapses per second for every square centimeter of cortical surface. (Source: Rose, S., The Future of the Brain. The Promise and Perils of Tomorrow's Neuroscience, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.)

Site of the month

Interactive games that train mind and memory. Features an interesting selection of word games.

Word of the month

To go to or live in the country.

For the longest time, we're stuck in a cabin hewn out of the ground in a parcel of woods as the boys hide and mend; for another, we rusticate on a farm bounded by fields that must be tilled by the hard labor of man and beast. -- Stephen Hunter, "When Johnny Doesn't Come Marching Home", Washington Post, December 17, 1999

Memory tips

Information is memorized more easily if learning periods are spaced out rather than crammed into a few study sessions. More material will be memorized if learning is spaced out and frequent breaks are made than if the same information is repeated over and over again in one study session.

Games

Button Mania - Set all the buttons to zero.

Silversphere - from Miniclip.com. Get the Silver Sphere in to the Blue Vortex before the time runs out. This game can become addictive! If you want to start from level 15 (this is about as far as I went) you can load the level 'confusion'

Puzzles and teaser solutions

Brain teaser - Fill the 5-litre bowl and overspill water to the 3-litre bowl, which you empty afterwards. From the 5-litre bowl overspill the 2 remaining liters into the 3-litre bowl. Refill the 5-litre bowl and fill in the 3-litre bowl (with 1 liter) so 4 liters remain in the 5-litre bowl.
Riddle - Only one, the last one

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