Human intelligence

Human intelligence is the intellectual prowess of humans, which is marked by complex cognitive feats and high levels of motivation and self-awareness. Through their intelligence, humans possess the cognitive abilities to learn, form concepts, understand, apply logic, and reason, including the capacities to recognize patterns, comprehend ideas, plan, solve problems, make decisions, retain information, and use language to communicate. Human intelligence is the intellectual prowess of humans, which is marked by complex cognitive feats and high levels of motivation and self-awareness. Through their intelligence, humans possess the cognitive abilities to learn, form concepts, understand, apply logic, and reason, including the capacities to recognize patterns, comprehend ideas, plan, solve problems, make decisions, retain information, and use language to communicate. As a construct and measured by intelligence tests, intelligence is considered to be one of the most useful concepts used in psychology, because it correlates with lots of relevant variables, for instance the probability of suffering an accident, earning a higher salary, and more. According to a 2018 metastudy of educational effects on intelligence, education appears to be the 'most consistent, robust, and durable method' known for raising intelligence. A number of studies have shown a correlation between IQ and myopia. Some suggest that the reason for the correlation is environmental, whereby intelligent people are more likely to damage their eyesight with prolonged reading, while others contend that a genetic link exists. There is evidence that aging causes decline in cognitive functions. In one cross-sectional study, various cognitive functions measured declines by about 0.8 in z-score from age 20 to age 50, the cognitive functions included speed of processing, working memory and long term memory. In psychology, human intelligence is commonly assessed by IQ scores, determined by IQ tests. However, there are critics of IQ who do not dispute the stability of IQ test scores, or the fact that they predict certain forms of achievement rather effectively. They do argue, however, that to base a concept of intelligence on IQ test scores alone is to ignore many important aspects of mental ability. On the other hand, Linda S. Gottfredson (2006) has argued that the results of thousands of studies support the importance of IQ for school and job performance (see also the work of Schmidt & Hunter, 2004). She says that IQ also predicts or correlates with numerous other life outcomes. In contrast, empirical support for non-g intelligences is lacking or very poor. Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences is based on studies not only of normal children and adults, but also of gifted individuals (including so-called 'savants'), of persons who have suffered brain damage, of experts and virtuosos, and of individuals from diverse cultures. Gardner breaks intelligence down into at least a number of different components. In the first edition of his book Frames of Mind (1983), he described seven distinct types of intelligence—logical-mathematical, linguistic, spatial, musical, kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. In a second edition of this book, he added two more types of intelligence—naturalist and existential intelligences. He argues that psychometric (IQ) tests address only linguistic and logical plus some aspects of spatial intelligence. A major criticism of Gardner's theory is that it has never been tested, or subjected to peer review, by Gardner or anyone else, and indeed that it is unfalsifiable. Others (e.g. Locke, 2005) have suggested that recognizing many specific forms of intelligence (specific aptitude theory) implies a political—rather than scientific—agenda, intended to appreciate the uniqueness in all individuals, rather than recognizing potentially true and meaningful differences in individual capacities. Schmidt and Hunter (2004) suggest that the predictive validity of specific aptitudes over and above that of general mental ability, or 'g', has not received empirical support. On the other hand, Jerome Bruner agreed with Gardner that the intelligences were 'useful fictions,' and went on to state that 'his approach is so far beyond the data-crunching of mental testers that it deserves to be cheered.' Howard Gardner describes his first seven intelligences as follows: