IQ research guides
Last updated 1 August 2026
Most writing about raising IQ is repeating a claim rather than checking one. These guides take the common questions and answer them from the primary literature, with every study named and linked so you can go and read it yourself.
Where the evidence says something works, it says so. Where it does not, it says that too. Both answers appear below.
The guides
- Does brain training increase IQ?Near transfer, far transfer, and why the games get easier while nothing else does.
- Does dual n-back work?The 2008 result that started it, and what the placebo-controlled replication found.
- Does education increase IQ?The one intervention with strong evidence: 1 to 5 points per additional year.
- Why does my IQ score change?Practice effects, confidence bands, and why two results rarely match.