Welcome to Psychology Today's Newest Blog: "Smarter"

Growing up in the 1960s, I was labeled a "slow learner." By the beginning of third grade, I still couldn't read. And yet a few years later, in sixth grade, I was a straight-A student and went on to become a science journalist writing for The New York Times, Discover magazine, The Washington Post and Psychology Today.

Did I actually get smarter? For a hundred years, psychologists who study intelligence claimed that IQ is forever, that nothing you or I do can increase our capacity to learn, comprehend, analyze and make sense of things.

That myth was shattered in 2008 when a major study by researchers at the University of Michigan found that computerized training of working memory for just a few weeks could significantly increase the fluid intelligence of college students. Since then, nearly a hundred more studies have found that all kinds of training regimens—from learning a musical instrument to increasing physical strength—can improve cognitive abilities.

Of course, some continue to insist that you can do nothing to stretch your intellectual limits. A recent article by an Associated Press reporter quotes a couple of the skeptics who say that all the studies of cognitively training are flawed.

But as an excerpt of my book shows, these skeptics are outliers in the scientific community; hundreds of researchers are now pursuing research in the area. Most provocatively, the U.S. military is leading the funding of research to improve the cognitive abilities of service members.

In this new blog for Psychology Today, I will alert you to the latest studies and strategies for improving cognitive abilities. Some of the studies and techniques are aimed at helping people with disabilities, including traumatic brain injury, regain the level they once had. Others seek to extend the upper end of abilities for high achievers.

I will welcome your questions, your doubts and your tirades. Perhaps, together, we can all get a little smarter.