Intelligence: the dividing factor

The level of intelligence varies from person to person. So, we are endowed with highly intelligent people like Albert Einstein and William Shakespeare. On the other hand, we have idiots and buffoons whose intelligence level is extremely low. Although both intelligent and unintelligent people serve God, intelligence per se can mean different things to different people.

It is generally agreed that intelligence is the ability to learn, understand and make judgements or have opinions that are based on reason. So, we have intelligence tests to find out whether a particular person has a high, average or low intelligence.

In the past psychologists assumed that there was a single general factor for mental ability. They called it "g" or the "g-factor". It was thought to underlie performance in every aspect of intelligence. In fact, intelligence tests have been designed to measure the "g-factor".

Although ordinary people view intelligence as a unitary entity, recent research in psychology shows that it is a multi-dimensional concept that includes different types of intelligence.

Some of us are good at information processing capabilities, logical reasoning and memorising facts and figures. They are good at solving crossword puzzles and knotty problems. According to psychologists, they are gifted with what is called "fluid intelligence." Those who juggle with statistics and figures use their "fluid intelligence" to the maximum. I feel that my "fluid intelligence" is very low because I did not do well in my Arithmetic paper in the senior school certificate examination!

On the other hand, some people have the capacity to accumulate information and various skills. They apply this crystallised intelligence in problem solving. Those who are gifted with this type of intelligence have the ability to recall information from their long-term memory without much trouble. Elderly people retain their "crystallised intelligence" quite easily. However, they show declines in "fluid intelligence" as they grow old.

Some of our villagers and fisherfolk show remarkable abilities although nobody seems to have gauged their intelligence using modern methods. For instance, a farmer knows when it would rain and a fisherman knows when he should avoid going to the sea. Even the ancient Trukese who used their own system of navigation did not have access to complicated navigational tools. But they were exemplary navigators.

Although we take intelligence for granted, psychologists have been dissecting it for many decades. Psychologist Howard Gardner who developed a theory of multiple intelligences divided intelligence into eight parts which are inter-dependent. In addition to the eight types - musical, bodily kinesthetic, logical mathematical, linguistic, spatial, inter-personal, intra-personal and naturalist - Gardner said there could be even more types of intelligence.

Where is intelligence located? Using brain-scanning methods, psychologists have found that intelligence resides in certain areas of the brain. Although the areas cannot be demarcated precisely, the area above the outer edge of the eyebrow is supposed to be critical to juggling many pieces of information and solving problems.

In our day-to-day dealings we come across people gifted with practical intelligence. They have the presence of mind to take a crucial decision. Such people generally live happily because they know how to deal with mundane problems. Sometimes practical intelligence may not be related to one's education. That is why we have professors who cannot solve minor domestic problems.

Very often we come across people of high IQ (Intelligence Quotient) floundering while those of modest IQ do surprisingly well. Daniel Goleman in his ground-breaking book Emotional Intelligence shows the factors at work such as self-awareness, self-discipline, and empathy that add up to a different way of being smart. He says that emotional intelligence is not fixed at birth. It can be nurtured and strengthened throughout adulthood. The book gives us an entirely new way of looking at the root causes of many of our problems.

The late Dr. Abraham T. Kovoor who was a rationalist and iconoclast in one of his lectures said, "We are born with brains without any intelligence." He compared the brain to an empty pocket. Constant learning would fill the brain with intelligence, he said. I do not think any psychologist would agree with this view.

Psychologists, however, debate whether intelligence is fixed at birth or whether a person can improve it through learning. Entity theorists believe that no amount of life experience or hard work can change a person's intelligence. On the contrary, incremental theorists say that intelligence is something flexible and variable.

The fast growing literature on intelligence is something we can look forward to with abiding interest. After all, it is intelligence that separates the wheat from the chaff.