check out #23 !!!

You'll Never Guess What the Smartest City in America is
Gabriel Grand
in
Science
2 months ago
Mic


You'll Never Guess What the Smartest City in America is
© Wikimedia Commons


Lumosity recently conducted an extensive survey that ranked 478 U.S. cities by "average brain performance score" and found that Ithaca, New York is the brainiest city in the country.

Following close behind were State College, Pennsylvania, and Lafayette, Indiana. Do you notice a trend here? As Venture Beat points out, many of the top cities and towns on the list play host to prominent colleges and universities. Ithaca is home to Cornell University and Ithaca College, State College is home to Penn State, and Lafayette, IN is home to Purdue University.

Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

This result isn't necessarily surprising, but the reason behind it may go deeper than "people who go to college are smart." As Lumosity's data scientist Daniel Sternberg explained, "Neuroscience research has found that those who are engaged in learning and cognitively stimulating activities throughout the lifetime build up a 'cognitive reserve' that helps maintain and improve cognitive performance."

According to the Lumosity website, the study involved 2,417,530 participants nationwide. It tested their performance across five cognitive areas: memory, processing speed, flexibility, attention, and problem solving. Participants ranged from 15 to 85 years old.

Surprisingly, few of the country's largest cities ranked among the top 100 on the list. New York, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Houston and Chicago didn't make the cut.

Another interesting finding was that the list of the top 100 cities contains a great deal of geographical diversity, implying that intelligence is concentrated in pockets and not necessarily spread out over larger regions.

Spend some time exploring the interactive map of Lumosity's Smartest Cities in America or check out the list below to see if your hometown made the top 100.

1. Ithaca, NY
2. State College, PA
3. Lafayette-West Lafayette, IN
4. Iowa City, IA
5. Ames, IA
6. Ann Arbor, MI
7. Bloomington, IN
8. Madison, WI
9. Lawrence, KS
10. Pullman, WA
11. College Station-Bryan, TX
12. Appleton, WI
13. Champaign-Urbana, IL
14. Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford, VA
15. Charlottesville, VA
16. Boulder, CO
17. Provo-Orem, UT
18. Harrisonburg, VA
19. Rolla, MO
20. Houghton, MI
21. Muncie, IN
22. Corvallis, OR
23. Boone, NC
24. Logan, UT-ID
25. Stillwater, OK

WVAPPeer wrote:check out #23 !!!

You'll Never Guess What the Smartest City in America is
Gabriel Grand
in
Science
2 months ago
Mic


You'll Never Guess What the Smartest City in America is
© Wikimedia Commons


Lumosity recently conducted an extensive survey that ranked 478 U.S. cities by "average brain performance score" and found that Ithaca, New York is the brainiest city in the country.

Following close behind were State College, Pennsylvania, and Lafayette, Indiana. Do you notice a trend here? As Venture Beat points out, many of the top cities and towns on the list play host to prominent colleges and universities. Ithaca is home to Cornell University and Ithaca College, State College is home to Penn State, and Lafayette, IN is home to Purdue University.

Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

This result isn't necessarily surprising, but the reason behind it may go deeper than "people who go to college are smart." As Lumosity's data scientist Daniel Sternberg explained, "Neuroscience research has found that those who are engaged in learning and cognitively stimulating activities throughout the lifetime build up a 'cognitive reserve' that helps maintain and improve cognitive performance."

According to the Lumosity website, the study involved 2,417,530 participants nationwide. It tested their performance across five cognitive areas: memory, processing speed, flexibility, attention, and problem solving. Participants ranged from 15 to 85 years old.

Surprisingly, few of the country's largest cities ranked among the top 100 on the list. New York, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Houston and Chicago didn't make the cut.

Another interesting finding was that the list of the top 100 cities contains a great deal of geographical diversity, implying that intelligence is concentrated in pockets and not necessarily spread out over larger regions.

Spend some time exploring the interactive map of Lumosity's Smartest Cities in America or check out the list below to see if your hometown made the top 100.

1. Ithaca, NY
2. State College, PA
3. Lafayette-West Lafayette, IN
4. Iowa City, IA
5. Ames, IA
6. Ann Arbor, MI
7. Bloomington, IN
8. Madison, WI
9. Lawrence, KS
10. Pullman, WA
11. College Station-Bryan, TX
12. Appleton, WI
13. Champaign-Urbana, IL
14. Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford, VA
15. Charlottesville, VA
16. Boulder, CO
17. Provo-Orem, UT
18. Harrisonburg, VA
19. Rolla, MO
20. Houghton, MI
21. Muncie, IN
22. Corvallis, OR
23. Boone, NC
24. Logan, UT-ID
25. Stillwater, OK

DC ranked 154 so I really think this thing is rigged.

Case closed, NC.

Sean Price may have just knocked us out of the top 50.

Is there something wrong about making a judgement of smartest cities by basing it on people dumb enough to think they need to go to a web site to "work out their brain"?

Just asking!

Appsolutely wrote:Sean Price may have just knocked us out of the top 50.

If not, Kalik Barnes DEFINITELY did.

Maddog1956 wrote:Is there something wrong about making a judgement of smartest cities by basing it on people dumb enough to think they need to go to a web site to "work out their brain"?

Just asking!

I don't pay for their games, but they have a few free each day. Based on neuroscience research they claim, though that is the company talking to be honest. There is a "it or lose it" with the brain as with any muscle. There are other ways to work out their brain of course, but some of the activities are thoughtful and I could see useful for keeping the brain active.

I guess State College may be smart as long are you are not a pre-teen boy.