Brain Games Don’t Make You Smarter!

Or do they? They do something, that’s for sure, but do they actually increase your intelligence level as they claim when you see tag-lines such as “become smarter!” and similar implied benefits? And the question of the day is… with the actual benefits of brain games, does it really matter if taking part in them technically increases your intelligence level even though that’s what you were aiming for to begin with?

This article will aim to address all of those issues, and also provide you with some helpful resources where you can find some free brain and mind games, commercial alternatives that are backed by neuro-scientific research, and even show you where you can test your IQ if you really want to know if these games actually do increase your intelligence level… which, surprisingly, you may not want to after reading this article.

Benefits of Brain Gaming

It has been debated as to whether brain games actually increase your IQ, and contrary to past beliefs on this subject, brain games do in fact help to increase your fluid intelligence. Research disproved the previous theory that fluid memory is determined at birth and inevitably declines with aging, with no chance for an increase past your original “birth level”.

Brain Gaming has, however, proven to provide at minimum the following benefits, given you are playing a variety of games that work out all parts of your brain:

Possible mood elevation (though I’m sure this highly varies from person to person)
Increase your short and long-term memory capacity (memory improvement is obviously very helpful when it comes to remembering names, numbers, directions, blocks of text, etc.)
Likely to improve your alertness, awareness, and basic motor functions
Improved concentration leading to clearer, quicker thinking habits

And a plethora of other benefits which, at the very least, contribute to one’s perceived intelligence level, even if it doesn’t make you an “official” genius when it comes to IQ testing. And honestly, all egos aside, I’d personally much rather have the benefits of overall increased brain power listed above over just simply being perceived as an “official” genius because the IQ test said I was.

Perception vs. Reality

So now that you know some of the major, proven benefits that brain games can provide you with, do you really care if they increase your actual IQ level when tested? It seems like that with all the benefits listed above, particularly the ability to think quicker and clearer, and improve memory, even if your IQ score doesn’t increase significantly, it’s safe to say that obtaining the previously mentioned benefits would in fact cause others, and more importantly, yourself, to perceive you as being more intelligent, or just very intelligent in general.

“Being smart” these days is less a measure of your actual IQ, and more a measure of the benefits that brain games provide (memory capacity, thinking speed, etc.). So unless you’re a strict technical thinker, becoming “smarter” is actual more perception than anything and with that being said, it’s safe to say that brain games do in-fact make you smarter.

However, as with anything that has to deal with developing and conditioning your mind, consistency is key, and in the case of brain games, so is efficiency. So just make it a point to take part in playing brain games every day, and be sure to include a variety of games that will work out different parts of your brain. You wouldn’t go to the gym and only work out one arm right?

Where to Find Brain Games

Now that you know the benefits of brain gaming and want to increase your fluid intelligence, I’ll direct you to four different places you can go. Two are completely free, one is commercial, and another has both free and paid options.

Free Brain Gaming Resources

The down-side to free brain games is that once your brain gets used to the games, the difficulty doesn’t increase as your brain’s “skill” level does because your progress isn’t being tracked. Also, most free brain games are not backed by scientific research and don’t train the different brain areas as accurately as the ones that are developed with the help of neuro-scientists.

Free games, however, are highly recommended for those experimenting with brain gaming, and are trying to see how they can incorporate it into their schedule and lives.

Commercial and Semi-Commercial Brain Game Services

Conversely, commercial brain games are definitely worth the usually small price tag if you do plan to make brain training part of your everyday routine, and of course, if your budget permits. Commercial alternatives can be thought of as the nice gym that someone would go to for a good workout using weights that are specifically engineered for that purpose whereas the free options would be equivalent to someone getting a workout doing manual labor, or lifting sandbags.

Not only do the commercial options provide a more efficient training experience, most paid services track your progress, increase the difficulty based on your personal skill level, and can accurately train specific parts of your brain, thus enabling you to get a full-brain workout if you choose to do so.

Lumosity – Probably one of the most well-known commercial services that is actually very affordable and even offers a free trial to see if it’s for you before you decide to pay for it. Like many others within this topic, this isn’t actual brain training software you download to your computer, you access everything directly from your web browser which is very convenient.
FitBrains – This website allows you to play their games for free (probably some of the most interesting games I’ve seen in terms of brain fitness), but to access the standard features available to other commercial brain training services (personal stat tracking, skill levels, etc.), you have to upgrade to their paid option.

Testing Your IQ

For those of you who just can’t resist, and want to measure your IQ to see if brain games actually do increase your IQ scores, I’ve come up with a short list of places that provide pretty good IQ tests. Sure it’s easy to do a Google search and find a million, but when I did that it looked like most were absolute ad-ridden crap.

If you decide to do this, I’d take a test at both sources above and possibly any others you can find to get your average IQ before you decide to start your brain game routine. I’d hold-off on retesting and assessing your IQ until you’ve consistently played brain puzzles and other games for at least a month or more.

For those of you who decide to test your IQ before and after starting a brain improvement routine, I’m very interested in hearing about your results! Please post them as a comment and if I get enough people reporting their results I’ll make a post detailing them.

With all said and done, the bottom line is, just like every other muscle in your body: exercise helps the brain so go get a brain workout and dedicate yourself to a routine.

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