5 things you didn't know about human intelligence

The concept of human intelligence remains, even today, the subject of controversy within science. Theorists and researchers cannot agree on what it is and how it can be measured.

However, there is some consensus that intelligence is related to the ability to seek and use in our benefit the information we need to be able to solve the problems to which we we face.

• Related article: "Theories of human intelligence"

Curiosities about human intelligence

Let's now look at five things you probably didn't know about human intelligence.

1: Tests do not measure intelligence in absolute terms

Along the history, many tests have been developed to measure the cognitive abilities inherent to intelligence. Two of these instruments are the Weschler Intelligence Test, and the Raven Progressive Matrices Test. Both have the particularity that they have a wide scientific literature that supports them and also have a good correlation with each other. The latter means that whether they take one test or the other, the two will show very similar results.

On the contrary, those tests that are often offered by current affairs magazines or that circulate on Facebook or some websites to check how smart we are, have not been scientifically studied, and therefore do not have any value.

However, no test is used to measure our intelligence in absolute termsbut in relative terms. This means that what the result shows is how intelligent we are in relation to the rest of the population of our same age group; that is, it compares us with others and positions us within a hierarchical scale.

2: Intelligence is associated with working memory

At the beginning of the 20th century, the English psychologist Charles Spearman proposed through an exhaustive analysis factorial that people's intellectual capacity is subject to what he called the G factor of intelligence.

According to his hypothesis, the G factor would represent a basic and specific component for general intelligence, dependent on brain integrity and capable of being measured by means of tests.

More recent research has also found a correlation between Spearman's G factor and the working memory index.

Working memory can be defined as the set of mental processes that allow us to temporarily manipulate the information that we need for the correct performance of cognitive tasks such as reading, mathematical skills and even understanding the language. A classic example is when we go to the supermarket and decide to carry out an approximate mental calculation of what we are spending as we add products to the shopping cart.

That is, the greater the amount of items or information that a person can keep circulating in their working memory, the greater your intellectual capacity. This makes sense, since in order to effectively solve any problem, we will need to be able to contemplate and mentally manipulate the largest number of variables involved in it.

• You may be interested: "Work memory (operational): components and functions"

3. There are scientists who propose that intelligence is not a one-dimensional concept

I am aware that this statement contradicts the previous point, but the truth is that the Theory of Multiple Intelligences, proposed by psychologist Howard Gardner, basically maintains that someone who is intelligent in one sense may be a complete fool in another.

This researcher defends the idea that there is no specific thing called "intelligence", and that on the contrary, the intelligence of people can manifest itself in many different ways.

According to the definition we gave at the beginning, someone who makes a living by skillfully playing the piano or playing basketball cannot Tell yourself precisely that you are not intelligent because you lack mathematical abilities or are not very good at problem solving logical.

"If someone like Lionel Messi makes millions thanks to his skill with the ball, the last thing we can say about him is that he is stupid," Gardner could tell us without flinching.

This concept has gained a lot of popularity among people because it essentially proposes that we are all potentially smart for something. However, there are scientists who criticize it, claiming that certain personal qualities cannot be considered synonymous with intelligence, but rather Good performance “areas”.

Some researchers have even concluded that at the base of the different disciplines that make up the "multiple intelligences" is the factor G that we talked about earlier, as a kind of foundation or hard core on which multiple intelligences are built according to differences individual. That is, the G factor would be in this case the common denominator to the different types of intelligence that Gardner proposes.

4: Intelligence tends to be stable over time

We all know that when we exercise a certain skill a lot, like playing chess or solving crossword puzzles, eventually we ended up becoming experts in that particular skill. It is true that practice makes perfect, but being very good at a particular discipline should not be confused with general intelligence.

Of course, the quantity and quality of information that we acquire throughout life will be what finally configures our body of knowledge. But regardless of how much we study, how many languages ​​we learn, how many sports we practice, the intelligence factor G tends to remain more or less unchangedWhether we are 20 or 60 years old.

In other words, specific learning is restricted to its area of ​​action in particular. They are not extrapolated or generalized.

It is precisely this characteristic that makes some intelligence assessment instruments reliable, such as those mentioned at the beginning.

5: There is no intelligence gene

To the date no gene has been detected that is entirely responsible for human intelligence as we know it. And this makes sense, since brainpower rather seems to be the result of many different processes that interact with each other, which in turn require the involvement of lots of genes.

Just as when we listen to a symphony we cannot affirm that the quality of the music that reaches our ears is the result of a particular instrument, it does not make sense to think that intelligence is the result of a single factor.

Nor can we separate intelligence from the culture in which we are immersed. We do not live isolated in a glass bell, but in a complex world configured by infinite variables. From the moment we are born, or even before, we are exposed to an environment that interacts and permanently shapes our genetic predisposition.