According to new research, strategic thinking enhances intellectual capacity. In a recent study, gist-reasoning training has shown to be beneficial in normal and clinical populations.

A data-driven perspective article from the Center for BrainHealth at The University of Texas at Dallas showed that strategy-based cognitive training may be able to enhance cognitive performance and provide real-life benefits. The article was published in the open-access journal Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience.

Sandra Bond Chapman, MD, founder and chief director of the Center for BrainHeath and Dee Wyly Distinguished University Chair at The University of Texas at Dallas, said in a statement, “Our brains are wired to be inspired.”

She continued, “One of the key differences in our studies from other interventional research aimed at improving cognitive abilities is that we did not focus on specific cognitive functions such as speed of processing, memory, or learning isolated new skills. Instead, the gist reasoning training program encouraged use of a common set of multi-dimensional thinking strategies to synthesize information and elimination of toxic habits that impair efficient brain performance.”

The study involved eight to 12 sessions that were delivered over one or two months within 45 to 60 minute time periods. The focus was on three cognitive strategies: strategic attention, integrated reasoning and innovation. These study strategies are inherently hierarchal and can be generally applied to many complex daily life mental activities.

Chapman said, “Cognitive gains were documented in trained areas such as abstracting, reasoning, and innovating.” She explained, “…benefits also spilled over to untrained areas such as memory for facts, planning, and problem solving. What’s exciting about this work is that in randomized trials comparing gist reasoning training to memory training, we found that it was not learning new information that engaged widespread brain networks and elevated cognitive performance, but rather actually deeper processing of information and using that information in new ways that augmented brain performance.”