What is intelligence anyway?

[R00k]

What Is Intelligence, Anyway?
Isaac Asimov


What is intelligence, anyway? When I was in the army, I received the kind of aptitude test that all soldiers took and, against a normal of 100, scored 160. No one at the base had ever seen a figure like that, and for two hours they made a big fuss over me. (It didn't mean anything. The next day I was still a buck private with KP - kitchen police - as my highest duty.)

All my life I've been registering scores like that, so that I have the complacent feeling that I'm highly intelligent, and I expect other people to think so too. Actually, though, don't such scores simply mean that I am very good at answering the type of academic questions that are considered worthy of answers by people who make up the intelligence tests - people with intellectual bents similar to mine?

For instance, I had an auto-repair man once, who, on these intelligence tests, could not possibly have scored more than 80, by my estimate. I always took it for granted that I was far more intelligent than he was. Yet, when anything went wrong with my car I hastened to him with it, watched him anxiously as he explored its vitals, and listened to his pronouncements as though they were divine oracles - and he always fixed my car.

Well, then, suppose my auto-repair man devised questions for an intelligence test. Or suppose a carpenter did, or a farmer, or, indeed, almost anyone but an academician. By every one of those tests, I'd prove myself a moron, and I'd be a moron, too. In a world where I could not use my academic training and my verbal talents but had to do something intricate or hard, working with my hands, I would do poorly. My intelligence, then, is not absolute but is a function of the society I live in and of the fact that a small subsection of that society has managed to foist itself on the rest as an arbiter of such matters.

Consider my auto-repair man, again. He had a habit of telling me jokes whenever he saw me. One time he raised his head from under the automobile hood to say: "Doc, a deaf-and-mute guy went into a hardware store to ask for some nails. He put two fingers together on the counter and made hammering motions with the other hand. The clerk brought him a hammer. He shook his head and pointed to the two fingers he was hammering. The clerk brought him nails. He picked out the sizes he wanted, and left. Well, doc, the next guy who came in was a blind man. He wanted scissors. How do you suppose he asked for them?"

Indulgently, I lifted by right hand and made scissoring motions with my first two fingers. Whereupon my auto-repair man laughed raucously and said, "Why, you dumb jerk, He used his voice and asked for them." Then he said smugly, "I've been trying that on all my customers today." "Did you catch many?" I asked. "Quite a few," he said, "but I knew for sure I'd catch you." "Why is that?" I asked. "Because you're so goddamned educated, doc, I knew you couldn't be very smart."

And I have an uneasy feeling he had something there.

[Captain]

Good read, thanks :lub:

[MKJ]

as with all definitions and theories, it's not in figuring out what something *is*, it's figuring out what something is *not*

plained is not intelligence, eg

[DTS]

Nice.

[plained]

no u

[obsidian]

After reading that, I feel smarter already.

[R00k]

Yea, I feel like you're smarter too.

I hope it's permanent.

[Underpants?]

Nice find, man

[R00k]

Yea I liked it too. He pretty much described my life up to college.

Then, BAM! You're not quite the super-genius that you thought you were, are you?

Totally unprepared to actually have to *work* at being smart. lol

Free-ride scholarships are only deserved by those who have the discipline to keep them.


And yet, despite only having a year of a mechanical engineer's education, I'm surprisingly intelligent in a lot of areas. Including the ones that involve working with my hands. So I'm pretty fortunate.

But now that I have the discipline I lacked before, the opportunity to freeload off the system and be a full-time student is out the window.

Ain't life interesting? :icon32:

[Foo]

So anyway, the purpose of any intelligence test worth its salt lies in dividing test material which does not rely on verbatim/specific knowledge of specific subject matters.

This is the concept of General Intelligence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_in ... nce_factor

The bit about the mechanic is cute, but I don't see the suggestion of an inherent relationship between intelligence and not falling for tricks, especially unannounced or unexpected ones.

I guess this post looks like sour grapes, but the whole thing is just a bit 'durr socking it to the educated types harr', and it doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

[Foo]

u fkn fag

[R00k]

Don't be such a pedant, there is still a valid point to be taken from it.

Here in the US there is a test called the ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery). When we were in high school, we all took it in the library.

I, of course, being the seminal mark of human intelligence that I am, scored in the 99.9 percentile on this test.

Later, I took the ACT (you may have heard of that one in the UK, not sure). On this test, I scored a 34 (out of 36 possible, I believe).

This score was enough to land me a full, free-ride scholarship -- the same scholarship that our salutatorian received, to the same school. It's a very important test (second only the SAT according to many).

The point is, I have always been phenominally good at these types of tests. Now, just because I did so well on these tests, doesn't necessarily mean that I would be a good choice for a college -- it doesn't even necessarily mean I know what I'm talking about (although I generally did - I was very interested and curious in school). The only thing it means, is that I did very well on a test - i.e. I was a perfect subject according to whatever group created the test.


Now, these tests of course use the term 'aptitude' and not 'intelligence.' But I think you'll agree that disregarding Asimov's meaning due to the disparity in terms is a little pedantic.

[MKJ]

Now, just because I did so well on these tests, doesn't necessarily mean that I would be a good choice for a college .

this is very true.
according to multiple tests, i have an average iq of 140. i also suck at the structured learning model schools offer me.
I often lose focus because they tend to dwell an hour on the same thing while I got it after 10 minutes, and because of that fail to pick up some details that got mentioned in the remaining 50 mins.
I'm autodidactic and therefore prefer to learn stuff on my own pace, not that "hour maths", "hour chemistry" bullshit.

[Foo]

Now, these tests of course use the term 'aptitude' and not 'intelligence.' But I think you'll agree that disregarding Asimov's meaning due to the disparity in terms is a little pedantic.

I'm not discounting it on the basis of how it's worded. Read my post ffs.

[R00k]

I did. I wasn't talking about your post -- that was a preemptive block.

*jet li move w/ kung fu sound effect*

edit: that's why i said "i think you'll agree." if i were talking about your first post, you obviously didn't agree.

[R00k]

u fkn prick

[R00k]

Now, just because I did so well on these tests, doesn't necessarily mean that I would be a good choice for a college .

this is very true.
according to multiple tests, i have an average iq of 140. i also suck at the structured learning model schools offer me.
I often lose focus because they tend to dwell an hour on the same thing while I got it after 10 minutes, and because of that fail to pick up some details that got mentioned in the remaining 50 mins.
I'm autodidactic and therefore prefer to learn stuff on my own pace, not that "hour maths", "hour chemistry" bullshit.

I do fine in hour-long classes, as long as there is enough new stuff to keep me interested. But an irrelevant tangent, or re-hashing old information clicks my brain off like a naked Kathy Bates clicks off my sex drive.

[Foo]

u gnmn black person

[MKJ]

Now, just because I did so well on these tests, doesn't necessarily mean that I would be a good choice for a college .

this is very true.
according to multiple tests, i have an average iq of 140. i also suck at the structured learning model schools offer me.
I often lose focus because they tend to dwell an hour on the same thing while I got it after 10 minutes, and because of that fail to pick up some details that got mentioned in the remaining 50 mins.
I'm autodidactic and therefore prefer to learn stuff on my own pace, not that "hour maths", "hour chemistry" bullshit.

I do fine in hour-long classes, as long as there is enough new stuff to keep me interested. But an irrelevant tangent, or re-hashing old information clicks my brain off like a naked Kathy Bates clicks off my sex drive.

eggsackly.
and school tends to rehash things a billion times over for the retarded kids.
maybe i was just in the wrong classroom. that would explain the crayons

[Wabbit]

I can see MKJ's business card:

MKJ
Souper Jenius

[plained]

theres more genius every day in this new day and age

i think it explains why so many people know everything

[Wabbit]

But don't you just love knowing everything Plained? I know I do.

[plained]

how you even figure or even presume about me?

yea you dont.

[Nightshade]

The point is, I have always been phenominally good at these types of tests.

:icon26:

[Wabbit]

how you even figure or even presume about me?

yea you dont.

:icon10:
http://www.answers.com/topic/facetiousl ... e-in-cheek