What is Intelligence?

[grip]

Who do you call smart?

Is an IQ test really accurate? I find everyone knows something, either thru experience or learning that others don't. Even children have wisdom. But what is considered really being a smart individual - education, memory, problem solving, critical thinking, quick wit, maturity, street smarts, shrewdness, common sense, general knowledge, wisdom, imagination, intuitive insight, artistic ability etc?

One of the most impressive skills I've seen is for someone to take a subject, especially a complicated one, and reduce it in simple layman terms to its central point. To do that, I believe you need a balance of all or most the traits listed above. Many of us have an amalgamation of these characteristics in varying levels, which gives us each our own unique intellect.

I sense that many believe that to simply accumulate information is equated with knowledge, analysis and intelligence, and though you need a certain amount, much of the unnecessary details of subjects can be found as quick as a Google.

Intelligence has been defined in many different ways such as in terms of one's capacity for logic, abstract thought, understanding, self-awareness, communication, learning, emotional knowledge, memory, planning, creativity and problem solving. It can also be more generally described as the ability to perceive and/or retain knowledge or information and apply it to itself or other instances of knowledge or information creating referable understanding models of any size, density, or complexity, due to any conscious or subconscious imposed will or instruction to do so.

Intelligence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Rainman05]

Pretty much what wikipedia said and that means... the last option on your chart.


There are many kinds of intelligence and each one has to do with ones capacity to handle stuff. And a person can be intelligent in multiple ways.
So people who are "artistically intelligent" can handle artistically stuff.
People like me who are more analytic and more logical can handle that sort of stuff.
etc.

It's basically how your brain is wired.

 

[grip]

Pretty much what wikipedia said and that means... the last option on your chart.


There are many kinds of intelligence and each one has to do with ones capacity to handle stuff. And a person can be intelligent in multiple ways.
So people who are "artistically intelligent" can handle artistically stuff.
People like me who are more analytic and more logical can handle that sort of stuff.
etc.

It's basically how your brain is wired.

I don't believe people realize how much overall intelligence also relies on the imagination. Einstein's IQ was supposedly 160, while the chess player Bobby Fischer's was 187. One had much more of an impact on the world than the other. Much like comparing Steve Jobs with Sharon Stone, though they had roughly similar IQ's. People's ability to apply their smarts in a field of expertise and have greater success isn't always an accurate measure.

I agree though that how we're wired or genetic traits, combined with drive, experiences, emotional stability and other characteristics has a lot to do with it. I've always believed that there were many people, who lived average lives, that may have had exceptional abilities that were never brought to light as a result of circumstances.

 

[Rainman05]

I don't believe people realize how much overall intelligence also relies on the imagination. Einstein's IQ was supposedly 160, while the chess player Bobby Fischer's was 187. One had much more of an impact on the world than the other. Much like comparing Steve Jobs with Sharon Stone, though they had roughly similar IQ's. People's ability to apply their smarts in a field of expertise and have greater success isn't always an accurate measure.

I agree though that how we're wired or genetic traits, combined with drive, experiences, emotional stability and other characteristics has a lot to do with it. I've always believed that there were many people, who lived average lives, that may have had exceptional abilities that were never brought to light as a result of circumstances.

Yeah, that last part is especially true.



It's actually the norm. Most people I think, never realize what they want to do in life.

 

[celticwar17]

Intelligence is nothing but potential...someone who is intelligent has the potential to be "smart".
Intelligence is reasoning skills and focus...what is considered fluid and crystallized intelligence. IQ score does help measure intelligence but NOT formal education.... formal education gives you "smart"s/knowledge, nothing can give you intelligence....

 

[grip]

Yeah, that last part is especially true.



It's actually the norm. Most people I think, never realize what they want to do in life.

One of the smartest people I ever knew, hid it on purpose. Much the opposite of many people who show off their knowledge. I asked him why he didn't express his intellect more and he said, "it's to my advantage for people to underestimate me."

Intelligence is nothing but potential...someone who is intelligent has the potential to be "smart".
Intelligence is reasoning skills and focus...what is considered fluid and crystallized intelligence. IQ score does help measure intelligence but NOT formal education.... formal education gives you "smart"s/knowledge, nothing can give you intelligence....

Another good observation. Potential never realized is probably applicable to most people who've never been challenged properly to excel, especially in today's easier living standards.

Seems the answers are as variable as the definition to the question.

 

[USViking]

OP completely missed what is by far the best answer:

NATURE and NURTURE

i.e. the intelligence you are genetically endowed with plus (or multiplied by) the intelligence you gain from experience.

There are no other horses in the race.

It is a ridiculous omission. OP doesn't need to be starting any more polls if he is going to leave out something this big.

 

[Flamethrower]

Whatever you think intelligence or "g" is understand that from adoption studies intelligence is about 80% inherited and 20% a product of environment.

Minnesota Transracial Adoption Study - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Minnesota Twin Family Study - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I rest my case.

 

[USViking]

Whatever you think intelligence or "g" is understand that from adoption studies intelligence is about 80% inherited and 20% a product of environment.

Minnesota Transracial Adoption Study - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Minnesota Twin Family Study - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I rest my case.

Inheritance/environment are another way of expressing nature/nurture and genes/environment.

And you had better not rest your case until the geneticists can shed a lot more light on the nature/genes side of the equation.

 

[sangha]

Who do you call smart?

Is an IQ test really accurate? I find everyone knows something, either thru experience or learning that others don't. Even children have wisdom. But what is considered really being a smart individual - education, memory, problem solving, critical thinking, quick wit, maturity, street smarts, shrewdness, common sense, general knowledge, wisdom, imagination, intuitive insight, artistic ability etc?

One of the most impressive skills I've seen is for someone to take a subject, especially a complicated one, and reduce it in simple layman terms to its central point. To do that, I believe you need a balance of all or most the traits listed above. Many of us have an amalgamation of these characteristics in varying levels, which gives us each our own unique intellect.

I sense that many believe that to simply accumulate information is equated with knowledge, analysis and intelligence, and though you need a certain amount, much of the unnecessary details of subjects can be found as quick as a Google.

AFAIK, IQ has never been defined with much clarity but IMO, it's a lot like pornography - I know it when I see it, and I like both

 

[Van Basten]

I'd like to pick all of the above, since that partly covers the gist of it, but IQ tests are archaic.

 

[Flamethrower]

Inheritance/environment are another way of expressing nature/nurture and genes/environment.

And you had better not rest your case until the geneticists can shed a lot more light on the nature/genes side of the equation.

There hasn't been any broad DNA-linked intelligence studies done in recent years beause of racial prejudice.

These tests are just as taboo in the PC World as eating human flesh and raping small children.

 

[USViking]

There hasn't been any broad DNA-linked intelligence studies done in recent years beause of racial prejudice.

These tests are just as taboo in the PC World as eating human flesh and raping small children.

What part of your anatomy did you pull that out of?

Googling "scientific study intelligence dna" indicates study in the field is ongoing and extensive. See this, for example dated 17 April 2012:

Searching for Intelligence in Our Genes

(from link, emphasis added):

A massive genetics study relying on MRI brain scans and DNA samples from over 20,000 people has revealed what is claimed as the biggest effect yet of a single gene on intelligence – although the effect is small...

Following a brain study on an unprecedented scale, an international collaboration has now managed to tease out a single gene that does have a measurable effect on intelligence. But the effect – although measurable – is small: the gene alters IQ by just 1.29 points. According to some researchers, that essentially proves that intelligence relies on the action of a multitude of genes after all...

"It seems like the biggest single-gene impact we know of that affects IQ," says Paul Thompson of the University of California, Los Angeles, who led the collaboration of 207 researchers. "But it's not a massive effect on IQ overall," he says...

The variant is in a gene called HMGA2, which has previously been linked with people's height. At the site of the relevant mutation, the IQ difference depends on a change of a single DNA "letter" from C, standing for cytosine, to T, standing for thymine...

After the researchers had established that HMGA2 affected overall brain size, they looked in more detail at a subset of 1642 volunteers from a twin study in Brisbane, Australia, who had all taken standard IQ tests. From that analysis, they were then able to measure the effect of the C on IQ. When people inherit C-variants from both parents they enjoy double the effect: a rise in IQ of about 2.6.

Here is something from the WSJ, dated 2/15/13:

A Genetic Code for Genius?

(from link, emphasis added):

more than 100 powerful gene-sequencing machines are deciphering about 2,200 DNA samples, reading off their 3.2 billion chemical base pairs one letter at a time. These are no ordinary DNA samples. Most come from some of America's brightest people—extreme outliers in the intelligence sweepstakes.

And here is an older one dated 10/08 from the venerable Scientific American:

Searching for Intelligence in Our Genes

(from link, emphasis added, caution' paywall):

In Robert Plomin’s line of work, patience is essential. Plomin, a behavioral geneticist at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, wants to understand the nature of intelligence. As part of his research, he has been watching thousands of children grow up...

So it appears that the field is alive and well.

 

[Flamethrower]

What part of your anatomy did you pull that out of?

Googling "scientific study intelligence dna" indicates study in the field is ongoing and extensive. See this, for example dated 17 April 2012:

Searching for Intelligence in Our Genes

(from link, emphasis added):


Here is something from the WSJ, dated 2/15/13:

A Genetic Code for Genius?

(from link, emphasis added):


And here is an older one dated 10/08 from the venerable Scientific American:

Searching for Intelligence in Our Genes

(from link, emphasis added, caution' paywall):


So it appears that the field is alive and well.

Sorry, but these tests avoid the taboos of testing a broad sampling of distinct racial groups. One just studied twins from Austrailia.

Any geneticist can tell you that it isn't one magical gene that gives extra intelligence---but many factors.

If there is a broad-based test that studies the IQ's of radomized major ethnic groups using uniform parameters like digit span tests, MRI's of the subjects and their DNA profiles---

---then let me know.

 

[USViking]

Sorry, but these tests avoid the taboos of testing a broad sampling of distinct racial groups. One just studied twins from Austrailia.

My first citation is bylined California which is about as multi-racial a place as there is. With a California sample size of over 20,000 they could not avoid obtaining representative data if they wanted to, and I would think the people conducting the research would make sure about the overall integrity of the sample, unless they are just quacks, or something.

Any geneticist can tell you that it isn't one magical gene that gives extra intelligence---but many factors.

Many researchers believe, or at least used to believe that there is a large general intelligence factor "G" in addition to specific types of intelligence. This seems at odds with the conclusions of the first link I posted, and it is an uncertainty of the type I had in mind when I said "you had better not rest your case until the geneticists can shed a lot more light on the nature/genes side of the equation."

If there is a broad-based test that studies the IQ's of radomized major ethnic groups using uniform parameters like digit span tests, MRI's of the subjects and their DNA profiles---then let me know

Mitochondrial and Y-chromosone DNA are now used to identify ancestry, including racial ancestry, with a high degree of confidence (the concept of Race remains contentious, however). My mere three google sites indicate that many thousands people are continuously under DNA/intelligence study now, and it will not be possible to hide the racial identification of the study subjects, as long as findings and data shared as they should be.

 

[Cryptic]

AFAIK, IQ has never been defined with much clarity but IMO, it's a lot like pornography - I know it when I see it, and I like both

I think the past lack of clarity was an over emphasis on IQ scores. Intelligence seems to have two components:

- "Engine horse power" (Raw IQ score)
- "Transmission", the ability to apply the IQ score (ability to focus, self discipline, drive, orgainization, inituition, and in some cases, social skills etc.)

but IQ tests are archaic.

I agree.

In the 1980s, IQ tests were the rage. They identified people with high horse power engines, but they could not answer why a fair number of people with high IQ scores had relatively mediocre performance in their chosen fields (poorly geared transmissions). Likewise,they failed to allow for the fact that a very efficient transmission can compensate to some degree for a relatively lower IQ score.

In the past say 15 year, the definition of true intelligence then seems to have been broadened to include having horse power and an efficient transmission. Thus, IQ tests have been de-emphasized. Aside from MENSA types- and I suspect more than a few of them have in-efficient transmissions, nobody really pays alot of attention to them anymore.

 

[Hicup]

I don't know if anyone has stated this, but to me intelligence is the ability to solve problems. The degree of problem solving is directly related to one's level of intelligence.

Tim-

 

[Objective]

IQ from my observation is how quickly the human brain can process information as well recognize complex patterns that may be relevant in our environment. Psychologists used heavily in the past to predict ones future success in society, but IQ alone has proven to be not very accurate.

I'd imagine having a photographic memory with an IQ of 120 would be more beneficial in today's society than an IQ of 130 with a average memory.