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Intelligence

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GalaxyDreamer90

Senior Member
Lately Ive been wondering if intelligence is something that is predetermined by our genetics or something that can be improved and its been driving me crazy. I use to be a strong believer that intelligence is determined by genetics and is something you have or dont, but lately Ive been wondering if intelligence can actually be improved through learning. I really need to know the truth about intelligence. Oh and dont just reply saying that intelligence is either determined by genetics or able to be improved. I need you to also post articles backing up your idea. Sorry for being demanding but i just got to know the truth. Thinking about this is really starting to drive me insane.
 
I guess i could but google just leaves me confused. Theres so many articles saying one thing then so many saying another. Im starting to think im better off some how doing an experiment to see which is true. Just one problem how do you measure intelligence. Im starting to doubt iq test since they say my iq is average.
 
GalaxyDreamer90 said:
I guess i could but google just leaves me confused. Theres so many articles saying one thing then so many saying another. Im starting to think im better off some how doing an experiment to see which is true. Just one problem how do you measure intelligence. Im starting to doubt iq test since they say my iq is average.
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I've recently read about neuroplasticity.

Neuroplasticity: The brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life. Neuroplasticity allows the neurons (nerve cells) in the brain to compensate for injury and disease and to adjust their activities in response to new situations or to changes in their environment.​

I'd say that that the IQ isn't fixed. It can be improved, or disproved, depending on how you use your brain, thoughts and actions.

Do you consider your IQ to be higher or lower than the test showed?
 
I have heard of neuro platiscity but never though much about it. As for the iq test i just dont like the idea of being average. Average seems kind of boring to me. Id rather be a genious but i kind of doubt that i am.
 
Your question reminds me of an extremely rare medical case that was discovered in Marseille, France.

A young man, finishing his PhD in Mathematics, checked in at the Timone hospital (if I remember correctly) because of constant headaches.

When they performed a MRI, they realized that his skull was full of liquid, and probably for a long time, since his brain had shifted to being a layer of grey cells of around 8mm thick on the inside surface of his skull. The cause was a childhood-disease, when he had liquid forming up in his skull. They placed a drain inside to derive the liquid out of the brain, but it must have gone blocked and the liquids pressured his brain to the boundaries of his skull.

I am afraid I do not have access to Google to find a link to this case, but to the best of my knowledge, 3 cases have been identified in Marseille. It is, to me, one of the most clear example of how the brain’s size and structure probably has little to do with « intelligence » as we know it!

On a side note, I know that another lead followed by some scientists is related to the « astroglie » (please forgive me, i only know the french term:D) which forms a parallel network with neurons in the brain.

And regarding intelligence and IQ, I find IQ tests to be such a pale indicator of one’s abilities. They don’t test Emotional intelligence, or language-learning abilities, or artistic abilities, which are also a very important part of our intelligence. I remember a classmate at school when I was 9, who was always refered to as « the special kid » by teachers because he had huge trouble reading, writing and assimilating lessons. And yet, when we played in the woods, he displayed tremendous ability to navigate the forest, never got lost, and had a near-photographic memory of places he had visited. He is now a very gifted forest manager, and to hell with tests that labeled him a « special needs child ».

A small quote I like on the subject:
Albert Einstein wrote, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” The question I have for you at this point of our journey together is, “What is your genius?”


So much yet to be discovered, what a fascinating time it is for humankind
 
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"The whole of cognitive or intellectual abilities required to obtain knowledge, and to use that knowledge in a good way to solve problems that have a well described goal and structure." I was of course interested in seeing what cognitive decline my brain injury caused and made my first venture outside the hospital to be tested at my request. That is how important it was for me back in the 1970's. A neighbor boy of mine while growing up had a photographic memory and high IQ who skipped a grade in school, but had no 'common sense' or social skills. When in my thirties I was also involved with a woman with an IQ of 160 or more that had very little concept or ability to play, she asked me to teach her which stunned me.

I like the (Amos E. Dolbear?) Einstein quote above and agree. IQ seems to just be a speed measure of recall and/or assimilation of information, rather than to actually being denied the ability. And, as those I mentioned, there usually are other traits/abilities that suffer.

To respond to your question of whether or not you chose it yourself, I think that each of us decide those things before birth, but that's just my opinion.
 
I always thought people with high iqs were more social. Growing up i was given the impression that introverts are stupid while extroverts are smart so it surprises me to hear of people who have high iqs but lack social skills. I always thought a lack of social skills was an indication of low iq. Now im suddenly thinking about what i learned about the theory of muliple intelligence which suggest there are certain things we are smart at like logic but others we are not so smart at such as socializing. Still growing up I was given the impression that logic smarts and social smarts were connected. But I guess they are not and the neighborhood boy you grew up with is an example of that. Still I always hated the idea of having weakness. I guess because i always wanted to be like a super hero. But then again super heroes have weakness too like superman being weak to kryptonite.
 
Why don't you try some of these free online IQ tests?



Top 5 Free IQ Tests Online
  • Free IQ Test Online at SeeMyPersonality.com.
  • Free IQ Test at 123Test.com.
  • Free Online IQ Test at Free-IQTest.net.
  • Free IQ Test at PsychTests.com.
  • FunEducation.com.
  • FreeIQTest.info.
  • Memorado.
  • IQTest.com.
The 5 Best Sites to Take a Free IQ Test - BrainTraining101.com
https://www.braintraining101.com/the-five-best-sites-to-take-a-free-iq-test/



Also:

While only Mensa has the keys to their exact questions, we've assembled a free 50 question, 12-minute online IQ test that you can use to practice for the official Mensaexam and give you an idea if you're Mensa material. ... You have already completed the test. This test is limited to once per person.

Mensa IQ Test Practice (FREE) | IQ Test Prep
https://iqtestprep.com/mensa-test-practice/
 
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I doubt that im a genius. But i guess i could take the IQ test though they'll probably say im average. I guess i just got to be okay with being average.
 
I don't think that having a high (higher) IQ will necessarily make anybody happy (happier). But, from what I've read, having your brain tested for weakness, then trained with appropriate exercises can yield spectacular results.

This is a great article: http://sunilreddy.com/the-brain-does-not-change-itself-the-self-changes-its-brain/

You can look up "neuroplasticity" with google or on youtube. Check names like Paul Bach-y-Rita, Norman Doidge, Barbara Arrowsmith, ...
 
I did a multiple intelligence test and it said my strongest intelligence was visual intelligence, which kind of makes sense since im into art. I forget which one it said was my weakest but one of them was interpersonal intelligence but it wasnt my weakest. Im not entirely sure weaknesses can be improved though. But Ill see if I can improve on my interpersonal intelligence.
 
This is a paragraph from dr. Doidge's book "The Brain That Changes Itself":

The Arrowsmith approach, and the use of brain exercises generally, has major implications for education. Clearly many children would benefit from a brain-area-based assessment to identify their weakened functions and a program to strengthen them—a far more productive approach than tutoring that simply repeats a lesson and leads to endless frustration. When "weak links in the chain" are strengthened, people gain access to skills whose development was formerly blocked, and they feel enormously liberated. A patient of mine, before he did the brain exercises, had a sense that he was very bright but could not make full use of his intelligence. For a long time I mistakenly thought his problems were based primarily on psychological conflicts, such as a fear of competition, and buried conflicts about surpassing his parents and siblings. Such conflicts did exist and did hold him back. But I came to see that his conflict about learning—his wish to avoid it—was based mostly on years of frustration and on a very legitimate fear of failure based on his brain's limits. Once he was liberated from his difficulties by Arrowsmith's exercises, his innate love of learning emerged full force.

The irony of this new discovery is that for hundreds of years educators did seem to sense that children's brains had to be built up through exercises of increasing difficulty that strengthened brain functions. Up through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries a classical education often included rote memorization of long poems in foreign languages, which strengthened the auditory memory (hence thinking in language) and an almost fanatical attention to handwriting, which probably helped strengthen motor capacities and thus not only helped handwriting but added speed and fluency to reading and speaking. Often a great deal of attention was paid to exact elocution and to perfecting the pronunciation of words. Then in the 1960s educators dropped such traditional exercises from the curriculum, because they were too rigid, boring, and "not relevant." But the loss of these drills has been costly; they may have been the only opportunity that many students had to systematically exercise the brain function that gives us fluency and grace with symbols, For the rest of us, their disappearance may have contributed to the general decline of eloquence, which requires memory and a level of auditory brainpower unfamiliar to us now. In the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 the debaters would comfortably speak for an hour or more without notes, in extended memorized paragraphs; today many of the most learned among us, raised in our most elite schools since the 1960s, prefer the omnipresent PowerPoint presentation—the ultimate compensation for a weak premotor cortex.​
 
I'm not sure education plays a roll on your IQ.. if it did only the educated would have high IQ's.. I only went to 10th grade at school.. I have great difficulty comprehending complicated written words.. by words I mean sentences with big words on subjects I have no knowledge about.. I cannot read those things so I can educate myself from them.. never have had the ability..But I have had two IQ tests .. When I look at the questions within the test many times I instantly see a pattern and the answer comes easily to me.. as a result I have a reasonably high IQ.. So for me an IQ test is all about how quickly you can see the patterns.. nothing to do with education.. Maybe there are other types of IQ tests but these are the ones I have done to test me my abilities to perform at a level required
 
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Ive always been good at English and am able to comprehend what im reading, but Im also a reluctant reader. I have no idea how Im able to read a book and understand most of what Im reading. I have always been a reluctant reader and though Ive been able to read since about 4 years old I would always prefer to do it at my own pace and when i want to. Part of the reason is because Im very energetic and because of that staying still is sometimes hard. However, when I find a book I like I will read it though it might take me a while to read it because I dont always like staying still. I highly believe that education is no indication of IQ. I remrmber there were some very stupid people in my class who ended up graduating with me. If education is not an indication of intelligence then what is? Also what is intelligence and how can we measure it?
 
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