How long to train Dual N-Back

by George
(UK)

Thanks for website, lots of good stuff. One question in regard to the Dual N-back game. You state that it needs to be done 20 minutes per day. Does that mean to get the benefits you have to do it for 20 minutes every single day forever?

Doug's Reply. According to the Jaeggi research study, the more successive days you engage in Dual N-Back training, the greater the improvement in your intelligence.

From the study's conclusions:

"Furthermore, we demonstrate that the extent of gain in intelligence critically depends on the amount of training: the more training, the more improvement in Gf (fluid intelligence). That is, the training effect is dosage-dependent."

Of the groups in the Dual N-Back study, the longest trained for 19 days. That group enjoyed the biggest increase in intelligence.

Also, some researchers have found that if you stop Dual N-Back training, you still retain the benefits for a period of time. That means even if you cease training for awhile, your IQ will still be higher than before you started training. And when you start up training again, you won't begin again from your initial lower level, but somewhere higher along your original path of progress.

So, I would not say that you "must" train every day forever. But it does seem that the longer you keep going, the more your IQ is likely to increase.

No doubt there is some sort of limit, but scientists have not identified it yet. The 19 days tested in the study is certainly nowhere near the limit, as is obvious from the graphs published in the study, which show the participants' IQs going steeply up and up throughout the entire testing period.

Best regards,
Douglas
Memory-Improvement-Tips.com