Below we will see 20 curiosities about this construct, as well as some interesting facts about people who, in one way or another, have been known to have great cognitive abilities.
1. Tests do not measure intelligence in absolute terms
Unlike what many people believe, Intelligence questionnaires are not an unequivocal indication of a person’s intelligence They measure intelligence in relative terms.
When answering them, there may be influences from factors such as mood, what was eaten that day or fatigue that can impair performance when answering the items that comprise them.
2. Intelligence may not be one-dimensional
According to Howard Gardner’s proposal, it would not be one but several the intelligences that the human being possesses
This conception, called the Theory of Multiple Intelligences, defends that there are several intelligences depending on different types of problems that one has to face.
Thus we would talk about up to eight intelligences: linguistic-verbal, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, corporal, intrapersonal, interpersonal and naturalistic.
Since its formulation, this theory has been highly questioned, but there are other explanatory models of intelligence that distinguish between various groups of cognitive abilities, while not denying the existence of a basic form of unitary intelligence.
3. Intelligence is usually stable over time
Practicing always helps to improve and master a certain skill, such as playing chess, or knowing a lot about a topic as complex as quantum physics. However, this does not mean that the person’s IQ increases.
We can develop skills and acquire new knowledge throughout our lives, but What we will not be able to do is modify our intelligence much and quickly which tends to remain stable.
The belief that intelligence is something that is due to one or more genes is not uncommon. This corresponds to a very unitary vision of intelligence. But intelligence, in itself, is nothing more than a social construct and, therefore, It is not possible to find a single biological factor behind it
Rather, it would be the result of a set of processes, related to the development of different brain areas, their effectiveness when working, having been exposed to environmental elements that influence IQ…
5. The smartest person alive
The most intelligent living person on record is Terrence Tao, with a 230 IQ
He is a mathematician, and he is working at UCLA, having the honor of being the professor who started working at the institution with the youngest age of all, at 24 years old.
6. The smartest person of all time
Till the date, The person to whom the highest IQ score in history has been attributed is William Sidis (1898-1944), who would be the most intelligent person of all time.
In 1933 he was administered an intelligence test and, based on later estimates, an IQ of between 250 and 300 points has been attributed to him.
7. White people are not smarter
From very racist perspectives, ancient science tried to prove that white people were significantly more intelligent than those of African, Asian or Native American races. These statements were made based on the anatomy of the skull according to race, cultural differences and, of course, the fact that whites were the masters and blacks were the slaves in countries like the United States.
During the last century, intelligence questionnaires were found to indicate that black people had, on average, between 10 and 15 points lower in IQ than white people, giving strength to the above statements.
However, Subsequent reviews of the questionnaires used showed that they had a marked cultural bias making them invalid to apply them to people raised in environments significantly different from those of white people.
After correcting these errors and reapplying these same questionnaires, no differences have been found between races in relation to intelligence.
8. Left-handed people are not smarter than right-handed people
Given that great figures in history, such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin and others were left-handed, it has always been believed that having the left hand as the preferred hand could be related to genius.
However, it has been seen that this is not the case, and it has been possible to address it scientifically. A study carried out at the University of Adelaide, with a sample of 5,000 people, analyzed the academic development of school students to see if there were differences between left and right handed people
No significant differences were found to show that left-handed people were more intelligent. Furthermore, it was observed that there was a belief that left-handed people were less successful in their studies, although this was not true either.
In the last 100 years, women’s IQ has increased significantly when answering intelligence questionnaires.
This is not because there has been a real increase in their cognitive ability, but rather, similar to the case of race differences, the questionnaires were made by men who developed them with a marked gender bias.
Women did not receive the same type of education as men and if we take into account that the questionnaires incorporated aspects traditionally taught to men, such as mathematics, it is logical to understand this.
As tests that are less biased by these types of aspects have been developed, the performance in this type of tests between men and women seems to have progressively equalized.
10. Mind games do not increase intelligence
There is a general idea that entertainment that uses ingenuity, such as sudoku, crossword puzzles or similar games, increases intelligence.
This is really not so. Just by doing 20 sudokus in a row, your IQ will not magically increase by 10 points.
However, these types of games They are quite useful for people who want to spend time testing their intelligence Furthermore, it is especially recommended for those people who suffer from some type of dementia or brain damage.
11. Breastfeeding slightly improves intelligence
Differences in IQ have been found between people who were breastfed as babies, that is, fed their own mother’s breast milk, compared to those who were bottle-fed.
According to various research, in some cases breastfeeding and not breastfeeding would result in differences of about 4 IQ points.
12. Diets with processed food
Diet, as an environmental factor, seems to influence IQ
It has been seen that diets that include foods that have been processed and include artificial flavors lead to poorer performance when answering intelligence questionnaires.
13. Albert Einstein’s brain
Although it is not a curious fact about intelligence itself, it does have to do with one of the most intelligent people in history, in addition to having a great influence during the first half of the last century.
When he died, Einstein’s brain It was kept in a jar by a pathologist to see anatomical characteristics of this organ and relate them to genius of the scientist in life.
Albert Einstein’s brain weighed 1,230 grams, weighing about 10% less than the usual weight for a human brain, which is about 1,400 grams. In any case, the neuronal density of the scientist’s organ was higher than average.
14. Savant syndrome
Savant syndrome, also called savant syndrome, is a condition in which the person, according to Darold Treffert who coined it, has a remarkable intellectual talent but, sometimes, it does not have to have a real practical application
Among these skills you can find photographic memory, learning languages very easily or remembering all the tiles that make up a street.
15. Are savants by birth?
Many savants are savants from the moment they were born, however, others may be savants due to having suffered some type of craniocerebral trauma that, fortunately, gave them outstanding intellectual ability instead of having a serious clinical symptom.
16. Brain plasticity and intelligence
Although it is true that intelligence is a construct that remains more or less stable throughout life, this does not mean that the brain cannot modify its structure throughout development or that new neurons cannot be generated.
This clashes with what was believed until relatively recently, given that It was argued that neurons could no longer reproduce after reaching a certain point
The human brain has plasticity, which allows it to acquire new learning throughout the subject’s life, through changes at the neuronal (neurogenesis) and structural level, although slight.
17. The myth of the Mozart effect
If you do a quick search on platforms like YouTube and put classical music in the search engine, such as Mozart, Beethoven or Vivaldi, you will see that many videos will appear in which it is claimed that listening to them increases intelligence.
This is because, according to the Mozart effect, listening to classical music, especially that of this 18th century Viennese artist, improves memory and concentration, and if listened to while pregnant increases the IQ of the future baby.
All of this is terribly false. Mozart, without taking away from what a great musician he was, He did not create symphonies that had the magical power to change aspects on a cognitive level although it is advisable to listen to it.
18. We don’t use 10% of our brain
In films like ‘Lucy’ by Luc Besson (2014) it is said that, normally, human beings only use 10% of their brain and that, if this percentage were increased, they would achieve a much higher intellectual capacity.
This is not like this. If brain scans are analyzed, using neuroimaging techniques, it is possible to see that brain activity is clearly higher than a mere 10%, even while asleep
19. Flynn Effect
The Flynn effect is the increase in IQ, continuously and year by year, seen in most countries in the world especially those who have jumped on the bandwagon of socioeconomic development.
Since the 1930s, in the United Kingdom there has been an increase in the IQ of the population of between 2 to 3 points every ten years.
This is associated with better nutrition, accompanied by smaller families and better control of children, in addition to improvements in educational systems and living in healthier environments.
20. Dehydration affects intelligence
It is not that being dehydrated decreases intelligence in the strict sense of the word, but it does make us perform less efficiently when solving problems of any kind.
It is enough to become 2% dehydrated for them to appear difficulties in completing tasks that require attention, psychomotor skills and working memory
It never hurts to carry a bottle or canteen full of water with you. Lest we become less intelligent for a while…
