What is "Intelligence"?

Ahnimus

The debate on ethnic differences in IQ testing has me wondering... At the beginning of the chapter on Intelligence in Schaffer's Fifth Edition Developmental Psychology he states:

Go out and ask five people to summarize in a single sentence what intelligence means to them, and then, to list up to five attributes characterizing highly intelligent people.

I would share my thoughts on this after reading the book, but I'll save that for later. Right now, I'd like at least five people to provide the above-mentioned criteria.

CorporateWhore

Ahnimus wrote:

The debate on ethnic differences in IQ testing has me wondering... At the beginning of the chapter on Intelligence in Schaffer's Fifth Edition Developmental Psychology he states:

Go out and ask five people to summarize in a single sentence what intelligence means to them, and then, to list up to five attributes characterizing highly intelligent people.

I would share my thoughts on this after reading the book, but I'll save that for later. Right now, I'd like at least five people to provide the above-mentioned criteria.

Intelligence is a property of mind that encompasses many related abilities, such as the capacities to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend ideas and language, and learn.

The capacity to:
1. Reason
2. Plan
3. Solve Problems
4. Think Abstractly
5. Learn

Bu2

Ahnimus wrote:

The debate on ethnic differences in IQ testing has me wondering... At the beginning of the chapter on Intelligence in Schaffer's Fifth Edition Developmental Psychology he states:

Go out and ask five people to summarize in a single sentence what intelligence means to them, and then, to list up to five attributes characterizing highly intelligent people.

I would share my thoughts on this after reading the book, but I'll save that for later. Right now, I'd like at least five people to provide the above-mentioned criteria.

Intelligence is the trait that allows one to absorb information in a clear and concise manner, and relate it back to fellow men in a clear and consice manner.

5 attributes:

Discernment
Questioning
Seeking
Striving
Testing

Ahnimus

CorporateWhore wrote:

Intelligence is a property of mind that encompasses many related abilities, such as the capacities to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend ideas and language, and learn.

The capacity to:
1. Reason
2. Plan
3. Solve Problems
4. Think Abstractly
5. Learn

Good answer, thank you.

So there is no General Intelligence. But rather Intelligence is a general term for a sum of independent characteristics?

Ahnimus

Bu2 wrote:

Intelligence is the trait that allows one to absorb information in a clear and concise manner, and relate it back to fellow men in a clear and consice manner.

5 attributes:

Discernment
Questioning
Seeking
Striving
Testing

Thanks Bu, good answer.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you are going with the idea of General Intelligence, that these attributes reflect a General Intelligence trait and the attributes are not individual traits themselves?

Bu2

Ahnimus wrote:

Thanks Bu, good answer.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you are going with the idea of General Intelligence, that these attributes reflect a General Intelligence trait and the attributes are not individual traits themselves?

I was talking about the CIA.

Bu2

I have no idea what the f*ck you mean by General Intelligence but I know intelligent people when I read their posts.

Ahnimus

Bu2 wrote:

I have no idea what the f*ck you mean by General Intelligence but I know intelligent people when I read their posts.

General Intelligence is the idea that things like inductive reasoning, spatial reasoning, problem solving, etc... are attributable to one trait called intelligence. A more generally intelligent person will thus be better at all things and perhaps only minor specialization occurs.

Bu2

Ahnimus wrote:

General Intelligence is the idea that things like inductive reasoning, spatial reasoning, problem solving, etc... are attributable to one trait called intelligence. A more generally intelligent person will thus be better at all things and perhaps only minor specialization occurs.

and pass by the "mumbo jumbo" and get to the heart of the thoughts behind the writing of it. But I can't change the oil in my car.

Does that make me more intelligent than my mechanic at the local Exxon station?

catefrances

intelligence is knowing what to do with knowledge. also known as wisdom.

sponger

It's how many pieces of information can be squeezed into a single thought. The average is 6-7 pieces of information. Geniuses can get like 11-13 into a single thought.

deadnothingbetter

I am very intellegent.

Austicman

The ability to absorb and understand information at a faster rate than the average human being.

Purely answering the question of what makes a person 'highly intelligent'. What makes a person a good teacher, student or human being is another question in it's self. I know plenty of very smart people that cannot relate to your average person and that has very little to do with how smart they are.

gue_barium

Intelligence = Design - Design x 2

deadnothingbetter

intelligence is the ability to comprehend. i know, easy answer. but there are also different levels of intelligence... the more intelligent the person, the more he/she can comprehend. I think General Intelligence is basically another word for common sense.

here are my 5.
1. Reason
2. Analyze
3. Adjust
4. Discern
5. Predict

btw, if nobody got it, i purposely mispelled intelligent and said that I was "intellegent".

gue_barium

gue_barium wrote:

Intelligence = Design - Design x 2

Q: that's kind of clever.
A: Yeah, kind of. I was wondering, though, what if I gave one of the designs a small "d" and one a large "D" thereby making them unequal?
Q: hmmm.

Heatherj43

I had a professor who said that no one knows everything. He said people who are intelligent know this and the key is that they know where to get the information, when needed, that they don't know.
I agree with him.

OutOfBreath

Heh, not even psychologists can agree to that. It is a fuzzy term, to describe a fuzzy quality. But I can provide 5 associations to the term like this:

Reason
Creativity (synthesizing, applying things in new ways)
Planning
Discrimination
Social (knowing one's way around other humans. We are flock animals after all)

Peace
Dan

inmytree

Ahnimus wrote:

The debate on ethnic differences in IQ testing has me wondering... At the beginning of the chapter on Intelligence in Schaffer's Fifth Edition Developmental Psychology he states:

Go out and ask five people to summarize in a single sentence what intelligence means to them, and then, to list up to five attributes characterizing highly intelligent people.

I would share my thoughts on this after reading the book, but I'll save that for later. Right now, I'd like at least five people to provide the above-mentioned criteria.

have you read The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould...?

If not, do so...it may shed some light on this thing we call "intelligence"

here is a review posted on Amazon:

Amazon.com
How smart are you? If that question doesn't spark a dozen more questions in your mind (like "What do you mean by 'smart,'" "How do I measure it," and "Who's asking?"), then The Mismeasure of Man, Stephen Jay Gould's masterful demolition of the IQ industry, should be required reading. Gould's brilliant, funny, engaging prose dissects the motivations behind those who would judge intelligence, and hence worth, by cranial size, convolutions, or score on extremely narrow tests. How did scientists decide that intelligence was unipolar and quantifiable, and why did the standard keep changing over time? Gould's answer is clear and simple: power maintains itself. European men of the 19th century, even before Darwin, saw themselves as the pinnacle of creation and sought to prove this assertion through hard measurement. When one measure was found to place members of some "inferior" group such as women or Southeast Asians over the supposedly rightful champions, it would be discarded and replaced with a new, more comfortable measure. The 20th-century obsession with numbers led to the institutionalization of IQ testing and subsequent assignment to work (and rewards) commensurate with the score, shown by Gould to be not simply misguided--for surely intelligence is multifactorial--but also regressive, creating a feedback loop rewarding the rich and powerful. The revised edition includes a scathing critique of Herrnstein and Murray's The Bell Curve, taking them to task for rehashing old arguments to exploit a new political wave of uncaring and belt tightening. It might not make you any smarter, but The Mismeasure of Man will certainly make you think. --Rob Lightner -

CorporateWhore

OutOfBreath wrote:

Heh, not even psychologists can agree to that. It is a fuzzy term, to describe a fuzzy quality. But I can provide 5 associations to the term like this:

Reason
Creativity (synthesizing, applying things in new ways)
Planning
Discrimination
Social (knowing one's way around other humans. We are flock animals after all)

Peace
Dan

Wow. So you think if I am really good at playing the saxophone but I can't read, I have some intelligence? (creative)

Or if I can interact well at a party but can't multiply 1 and 1, I have intelligence?

To me, these things have absolutely nothing to do with intelligence and they certainly should never be included in an IQ test.

gue_barium

CorporateWhore wrote:

Wow. So you think if I am really good at playing the saxophone but I can't read, I have some intelligence? (creative)

Or if I can interact well at a party but can't multiply 1 and 1, I have intelligence?

To me, these things have absolutely nothing to do with intelligence and they certainly should never be included in an IQ test.

I agree with you. The pinnacle of human intelligence is called "genius". But, what is genius if it is not recognized by other genius? Is it even genius? The same with intelligence. We call ourselves intelligent creatures because it distinguishes us from other creatures. And that's about the sum of it, to me.