Smarter People Tend to Possess Enhanced Working Memory
Even in adults enhancing one’s working memory skills can increase intelligence.
Posted May 20, 2026 | Reviewed by Lybi Ma
Wouldn’t we all like to be smarter? No matter how intelligent we actually are, we always know someone who at least appears to be smarter than we are (or so we believe).
Whether or not intelligence can be increased as one matures has long been the subject of speculation and controversy . Is intelligence something we are born with, like eye color, which cannot be changed? Or is intelligence modifiable and, if so, how does one go about increasing intelligence?
Prior to answering these two questions, it’s useful to ask a more fundamental question: What is intelligence?
According to one not very helpful definition, “Intelligence is what intelligence tests measure.” But defining what you are trying to measure by referencing the measuring instrument is a circular and flawed approach. Nonetheless, estimating a person’s intelligence based on their performance on IQ results remains firmly entrenched in our culture, where we’ve been conditioned to believe that:
To what extent can lifestyle modifications actually make a person smarter? Of course, a person can learn more, attend school longer, and associate with highly intelligent people in the hope that some of it will “rub off.” But do these lifestyle modifications actually make a person any smarter?
One of the ways to explore this is to identify traits commonly recognized to be associated with intelligence. These include:
Each of these five components can be strengthened and thereby make distinguishable increases in mental functioning. But that doesn’t necessarily lead to an increase in intelligence. The more we learn, the more knowledge we may have at our command, but that doesn’t necessarily enable us to employ that information intelligently. Speed also has obvious limitations on intelligence based on age. How many people over 65 years of age have you seen on Jeopardy?
This leaves fluid intelligence, thinking in abstract terms, and memory as the three areas that, when enhanced, can improve one’s intelligence. Especially important is the memory category known as working memory.
Working memory requires the maintenance of attention , the suppression of irrelevant information, and the simultaneous coordination of separate mental operations. Here is an example:
Bring to mind the Presidents of the United States, from Trump to John F. Kennedy. Now name them from Kennedy to Trump and then backwards from Trump to Kennedy. No great problems doing that, right? But now name only the Democratic presidents, followed by the names of only the Republican presidents. Still no great difficulty. But now name them in alphabetical order. Not easily done.
To accomplish that, you have to remember the names and mentally shuffle them into alphabetical order. Notice that what was started as a test of crystalized intelligence (remembering the presidents) shifted to a test of fluid intelligence based on working memory. Try the same exercise with the names of the players on your favorite sporting teams.
According to intelligence researcher James R. Flynn , IQ scores have increased over the past 100 years in the world’s industrialized countries as a result of changes in thinking. Modern thinking is more abstract, symbolic, and scientific.
Most striking is the ability to store information in working memory for later use. Since working memory is primarily carried out by the frontal lobes, and those areas are especially vulnerable to atrophy secondary to disuse as we age, it’s vital to do everything we can to enhance working memory skills, which, as a by-product, increases fluid intelligence.
Here is probably the most effective exercise, used by psychologists to gauge working memory. It can be done mentally, but it’s much more fun to use a deck of cards. First, shuffle the deck and place it face down on the table. This is the draw pile. Next, decide on two suits to be the trigger cards—say, the Queens and the Tens. Now turn the cards over one at a time from the draw pile and place it on the discard pile. Whenever you draw a trigger card (a Queen or a Ten), name the card turned over two turns earlier. If you find this easy, continue drawing cards until you turn up another trigger card, but this time try to remember the card that was three cards back.
It’s rare for anybody to remember more than five previously dealt cards. But card counters in casinos have no trouble doing that, so it’s possible to build up to that performance and beyond by practice. Bridge also helps build working memory, as well as favoring players who already possess heightened working memory capabilities (keeping in working memory the cards that have already been played, along with the cards yet to be played). However many cards you learn to recall via practice, this exercise will serve the dual purpose of enhancing working memory and maintaining prefrontal and frontal lobe function , two key factors in increasing one’s intelligence.
Richard M. Restak, M.D.
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Richard Restak, MD , is Clinical Professor of Neurology at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and the author of The 21st Century Brain.
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This article is part of the Bringwise Psychology Journal — daily insights on human behavior, mental health, and personal growth.