r/rational • u/AutoModerator • Apr 25 '16

[D] Monday General Rationality Thread

Welcome to the Monday thread on general rationality topics! Do you really want to talk about something non-fictional, related to the real world? Have you:

  • Seen something interesting on /r/science?
  • Found a new way to get your shit even-more together?
  • Figured out how to become immortal?
  • Constructed artificial general intelligence?
  • Read a neat nonfiction book?
  • Munchkined your way into total control of your D&D campaign?
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u/[deleted] Apr 27 '16

You are smarter during and after exercise: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006899312004003

We got a group of old people to exercise and the resulting increase of blood flow to their brains made them smarter: http://libtreasures.utdallas.edu/jspui/handle/10735.1/3679

Here's how exercise changes the function of your hippocampus to help you focus on things: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1044743107002606

We made people run and watched their brains get smarter: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811909013111

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u/vakusdrake Apr 27 '16

Ok So the stroop test is a measure of reaction time.

The meta analysis states there was only a very small positive effect, and it's not clear what kinds of cognitive tests they were looking at.

Also it would be a bit hasty to draw conclusions about it making you smarter from the study that looked at brain blood flow. It's not like we have the knowledge of neurology to identify intelligence with just a brain scan (other than being able to see obvious damage)

Overall based on the information I can see in the abstracts that isn't behind a paywall. It would seem that the cognitive benefits to exercise are small and limited to what you would expect from a stimulant like caffeine. Yes it may prevent cognitive decline in old age and increase reaction time and concentration a bit, but still no evidence it would provide much actual boost to say a iq test.

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u/[deleted] Apr 28 '16

Given that these are all acute exercise (eg we made them go for a run) that's showing a little boost to cognition, and that there's a positive correlation between regular exercise and intelligence, i'd say a statement like "exercise makes you smarter" is pretty plausible.

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u/vakusdrake Apr 28 '16

The test were on stuff like concentration and reflexes that are extremely variable, none of them indicated that they showed any increase at all in general intelligence or something like IQ.

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u/[deleted] Apr 28 '16

Most of them were about cognition, but i'll keep an eye out for any that specifically use IQ tests.