WHAT MAKES SOME BRAINS SMARTER THAN OTHERS?

 

Albert Einstein said: "The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination." "I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing," said Socrates. For centuries, philosophers have tried to define intelligence. To some, intelligence is the ability to acquire new information and to adjust to new circumstances, while others regard the skills to solve complex problems as more important. So many theories have emerged. The most famous theories are: The Theory of General Intelligence, The Theory of Primary Mental Abilities, The Multiple Intelligences Theory, and The Triarchic Theory of Intelligence. 

The theory od General Intelligence is the oldest theory proposed by the British psychologist Charles Spearman. In this theory, he said that if somebody who received a high score on one IQ test usually scored high on all other IQ tests, and vice versa. 

 

In 1938, American psychologist L. Thurstone suggested that intelligence is composed of seven independent factors, which he called primary mental abilities: verbal comprehension; verbal fluency;  mathematical ability; memory; speed of perception; reasoning skills and spatial visualization.

Similar to Thurstone’s theory the Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner has in 1983. He proposed the existence of seven intelligences, which are independent from each other: lingustic intelligence; logical-mathematical intelligence; spatial intelligence; musical intelligence; bodily-kinesthetic intelligence; interpersonal intelligence and intraperonal intelligence.

Finally, there is The Triarchic (three-part) Theory of Intelligence by R. Sternberg. He said that there are three different types of intelligence. The first one is analytic intelligence which is the ability to reason. The other is the creative intelligence or the ability to draw upon previous experience in order to solve new problems. The last part of intelligence is the practical intelligence, which reflects one’s ability to deal with every situations.

In conclusion, no unified theory of intelligence has been proposed yet. Until that happens, the debates on what intelligence really is and if the intelligence comes from genes or comes from the environment are bound to continue.