Printing presses were used in Asia for hundreds of years before Johannes Gutenberg, a professional goldsmith, developed new processes for using typeface and ink to bring printing to the West. Comparable to the invention of writing, or, more recently, the Internet, as a force for change in society, the Gutenberg printing press augured in an age of increasingly widespread literacy and dissemination of knowledge. This trend has gone on unabated ever since, leading to a shift of more and more jobs into the realm of information and information processing.
Today many of us work extensively with data and information. On a daily basis we use creative problem-solving skills and exert focused mental energy to move the economic wheel with our minds rather than our hands, making brain-power the most valuable commodity in the modern workplace. Ironically, meetings and conference calls, e-mails and instant messages divert and dilute our focus and attention, disrupting the brain's ability to form memories and stimulate learning. Our jobs may actually prevent us from developing and deepening the skills we need to succeed.
As ever, it seems that science will provide the escape route for its own maze. Researchers have shown that even adult brains can grow and change under the right conditions, demonstrating that we can improve our ability to solve problems by employing the right kind of brain training.
In April of 2008, a group of scientists from the Universities of Michigan and Bern proposed that a training method which strengthened visual and aural working-memory with a single exercise could bring about a transfer gain in a person's fluid intelligence. Training for just thirty minutes per day for nineteen days the subjects in the study increased their working-memory and fluid intelligence by at least forty percent more than those in a control group. This kind of jump in our thinking power can do wonders for our job performance.
Rather than working longer hours or buttering up the boss, we can make ourselves more valuable or more marketable by making ourselves smarter. Generally speaking, jobs that require more intellectual heft provide greater economic reward.
But before you go looking to snap up a brain training program, make sure that you purchase a product that will work. The scientists developed an extremely efficient and effective training protocol called "dual n-back." No other brain training method has produced results even remotely as dramatic. (In the interests of full disclosure, I should mention that I was so convinced of the broad benefits of this training that I use the same training method in my company's brain training program, Mind Sparke Brain Fitness Pro.)
In a downturn like this with unemployment on the rise and salaries stagnating, it makes sense to increase the value of your most valuable asset. This new training method can help us do just that.
Today many of us work extensively with data and information. On a daily basis we use creative problem-solving skills and exert focused mental energy to move the economic wheel with our minds rather than our hands, making brain-power the most valuable commodity in the modern workplace. Ironically, meetings and conference calls, e-mails and instant messages divert and dilute our focus and attention, disrupting the brain's ability to form memories and stimulate learning. Our jobs may actually prevent us from developing and deepening the skills we need to succeed.
As ever, it seems that science will provide the escape route for its own maze. Researchers have shown that even adult brains can grow and change under the right conditions, demonstrating that we can improve our ability to solve problems by employing the right kind of brain training.
In April of 2008, a group of scientists from the Universities of Michigan and Bern proposed that a training method which strengthened visual and aural working-memory with a single exercise could bring about a transfer gain in a person's fluid intelligence. Training for just thirty minutes per day for nineteen days the subjects in the study increased their working-memory and fluid intelligence by at least forty percent more than those in a control group. This kind of jump in our thinking power can do wonders for our job performance.
Rather than working longer hours or buttering up the boss, we can make ourselves more valuable or more marketable by making ourselves smarter. Generally speaking, jobs that require more intellectual heft provide greater economic reward.
But before you go looking to snap up a brain training program, make sure that you purchase a product that will work. The scientists developed an extremely efficient and effective training protocol called "dual n-back." No other brain training method has produced results even remotely as dramatic. (In the interests of full disclosure, I should mention that I was so convinced of the broad benefits of this training that I use the same training method in my company's brain training program, Mind Sparke Brain Fitness Pro.)
In a downturn like this with unemployment on the rise and salaries stagnating, it makes sense to increase the value of your most valuable asset. This new training method can help us do just that.
About the Author:
Oxford-trained scientist, author, and technologist, Martin G. Walker is a member of The British Neuroscience Association, Learning and The Brain, and MENSA. His company Mind Evolve Software publishes free information on the field of neuroscience and brain training as well as effective and affordable brain training software under the brand name Mind Sparke.
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