Improving intelligence: a literature review

Abstract

Intelligence is associated with performance on a wide range of cognitive tasks and is a reliable predictor for educational and professional success. Therefore, the development of effective training regimens that aim to improve intelligence is of high interest. In recent years, there has been accumulating evidence that certain interventions have a positive impact on intelligence. The aim of the present paper is to provide a literature review on such studies. Despite promising results, we conclude that there are still many unknown variables and that the mechanisms that underlie improvements in intelligence are not well understood. More work is needed in order to disentangle these involved processes and to further refine existing training regimens.