Are we being dumb about intelligence?

People laugh at the clumsiness of an academic doing sport, while the phrase ‘dumb jock’ is commonly used in a derogatory way for people excellent at sport.

Someone can be called a genius, but only in academic terms. Is this because the academics have defined the scale, and the measures, and that high IQ only considers some of the elements of intelligence? Yet you also hear of child prodigies as musicians etc.

Let’s dig deeper.

IQ, or Intelligence Quotient, is a common term to indicate how intelligent someone is, yet the numbers bandied around do not make sense on their own e.g., 150 IQ. This is because the meaning of IQ, and how it is calculated has changed over time, and there are many different tests. It isn’t even a true quotient anymore.

IQ was initially a person’s mental age divided by their chronological age and multiplied by a hundred (IQ = (Mental Age/Chronological Age) x 100. The quotient being the ratio or comparison between these two measurements.

Tests today are based on standardised scores using distribution rather than ratios. Tests are designed so the average score is 100. How far the scores spread out around this central mean is the distribution or standard deviation.

In a test where the mean is 100, and the standard deviation is 15 e.g., Weschler intelligence score, 68% of people will be with 85 to 115 (plus or minus 15 points or 1 SD). 95% of people will score between 70 and 130 (plus or minus 30 points or 2 SD).

Another term used is percentile. This indicates how many people scored below a certain score. As 100 is the middle, then this is the 50th percentile i.e., 50% of people scored below 100. The first standard deviation, 115 with SD 15, would be the 84th percentile, and the second standard deviation, below 130, would be the 98th percentile, meaning that 98% of people scored below 130 and the top 2% of people above.

The problem is that not all tests follow a standard deviation of 15, and tests do not cover the same aspects of intelligence. So, if someone stated they have an IQ of 131, without telling you the test and the standard deviation, then you do not know how that really compares to the IQ scores others are providing, except in a very general sense.

What is Intelligence?

In its simplest form, intelligence is described as the ability to learn, understand, and apply knowledge. This, however, oversimplifies intelligence. The aspects given require the use of cognitive abilities, and intelligence is the outcome of the use of these abilities.

The following are the sixteen Stratum Two, or Broad Abilities, documented in the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) Theory of Cognitive abilities (the Stratum One, or Narrow Abilities can be seen HERE):

1. Fluid reasoning: The use of deliberate and controlled focused attention to solve novel “on the spot” problems that cannot be solved solely by using prior knowledge (previously learned habits, schemas, or scripts). Reasoning that depends minimally on learning and culture.

2. Short-term working memory: The ability to encode, maintain, and/or manipulate auditory or visual information in primary memory (while avoiding distractions) to solve multiple-step problems. The mind’s mental “scratchpad” or “workbench.”

3. Long-term storage and retrieval: The ability to learn, store, consolidate, and retrieve information over periods of time measured in minutes, hours, days, and years.

4. Processing speed: The ability to control attention to automatically and fluently perform relatively simple repetitive cognitive tasks. Attentional fluency.

5. Psychomotor speed: Psychomotor speed is the speed and fluidity with which physical body movements can be made.

6. Reaction and decision speed: The speed at which very simple perceptual discriminations or decisions can be made.

7. Comprehension-knowledge: The depth and breadth of declarative and procedural knowledge and skills valued by one’s culture. Comprehension of language, words, and general knowledge developed through experience, learning and acculturation.

8. Domain-specific knowledge: The depth, breadth, and mastery of specialized declarative and procedural knowledge typically acquired through one’s career, hobby, or other passionate interest. This domain is likely to contain more narrow abilities than are currently listed in the CHC model.

9. Reading and writing: The depth and breadth of declarative and procedural knowledge and skills related to written language or literacy.

10. Quantitative knowledge: The depth and breadth of declarative and procedural knowledge related to mathematics. This domain is likely to contain more narrow abilities than are currently listed in the CHC model.

11. Visual-spatial processing: The ability to use mental imagery, store images in primary memory, or perform visual-spatial analysis or mental transformation of images in the “mind’s eye.”

12. Auditory processing: The ability to perceive, discriminate, and manipulate sounds and information received through the ears. Includes the processing of auditory information in primary memory and/or the activation, restructuring, or retrieval of information from semantic-lexical memory based on phonemes.

13. Olfactory abilities: The ability to detect and process meaningful information in odours. Perceiving, discriminating and manipulating odours. This domain is likely to contain more narrow abilities than are currently listed in the CHC model.

14. Tactile (haptic) abilities: The ability to detect and process meaningful information in haptic (touch) sensations. Perceiving, discriminating and manipulating touch stimuli. Currently there are no well-supported narrow haptic cognitive ability factors.

15. Kinesthetic abilities: The ability to detect and process meaningful information in proprioceptive sensations. Perceiving, discriminating and manipulating sensations of body movement. Currently there are no well-supported narrow kinesthetic cognitive ability factors.

16. Psychomotor abilities: The ability to perform skilled physical body motor movements (e.g., movement of fingers, hands, legs) with precision, coordination, or strength. This domain is likely to contain more narrow abilities than are currently listed in the CHC model.

More on IQ Testing

Common IQ tests include the Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and the Standford-Binet (SB5). The limitations of these tests are shown in which of the 16 Broad abilities are tested:

WAIS:

• Crystallized Intelligence - Verbal comprehension and acquired knowledge.

• Fluid Intelligence - Reasoning and problem-solving with novel tasks.

• Short-Term Working Memory - Holding and manipulating information.

• Visual Processing - Spatial and perceptual reasoning (especially in WAIS-V).

• Processing Speed - Speed of performing cognitive tasks.

SB5:

• Crystallized Intelligence - Verbal comprehension and acquired knowledge.

• Fluid Intelligence - Reasoning and problem-solving with novel tasks.

• Short-Term Working Memory - Holding and manipulating information.

• Visual Processing - Spatial and perceptual reasoning.

• Quantitative Reasoning - Mathematical reasoning and number concepts.

Mensa UK use the Cattell III B scale and the Culture Fair scale tests, designed to minimise cultural and language bias. This also lowers cost as WAIS and SB5 require licensed psychologists to administer and is administered to an individual. Mensa UK administer to groups under controlled environments. Their tests map to the 16 broad abilities as follows:

Cattell III B and Culture Fair Intelligence Test (CFIT):

• Fluid Intelligence - Ability to reason and solve novel problems.

• Inductive Reasoning (a sub-aspect of Fluid Intelligence) - Pattern recognition and logical inference.

• Visual-Spatial Processing - Understanding and manipulating visual patterns.

To score in the top two percent of the population you would need 148 on the Cattell B test or 132 on the Culture Fair test. To be in the top one percent it would be 155 on Cattell B or 135 on Culture Fair.

See where the confusion lies?

Connected Thinking and Intelligence

Now that we know more about intelligence, how does it impact the world around us. Consider each of the follow topic areas, and how they can be impacted positively through a change in thinking.

Education

In a world where knowledge is readily available, perhaps it is time to move from having children memorise facts. I remember challenging a teacher at my school when we had to memorise the periodic table. “What lab in the world does not have a periodic table to hand?”.

Instead, we could understand natural ability and help children, continuing into adulthood, to understand how to make use of their abilities in a variety of ways. Add an ability to analyse information presented to them by any means which leans into neurodiversity and different learning styles e.g., solitary, social, kinesthetic, visual etc.

Who knows, perhaps we will find less common cognitive abilities that can be brought to bear.

Recruitment

Current recruitment is based on an ever-changing list of job titles with varying descriptions. Individuals must try and demonstrate how they meet the title and description using their CV or resume, with the most successful being those that have done that exact role in the exact industry required, ignoring those with the potential to take the role in a new direction.

Recruitment methods have been the same for decades – post a job role, receive CVs, various filters which inevitably include some excellent people, and interviews/presentations.

If you consider that someone applying to fulfil the role playing an instrument is judged entirely on their ability to play said instrument, just as a dancer is judged on their dancing, then you can see how the general approach is to test the ability to do the current act of the role.

Yet business roles are changing more rapidly now than ever before. Surely, we need to assess a person’s adaptability and how they can analyse new information and accept new methods.

Work

The workplace has changed and will continue to change as organisations find their new place in the world. Knowledge services will never be the same, as AI absorbs information and spits it back out in a style requested by the user.

However, AI is excellent at spotting patterns, breaking down information, and presenting it back in what might seem to be new ways, yet cannot account for context, emotion, or intuition. These are elements that are not part of intelligence as it is understood today. Without them, created content can remain dispassionate and flat, missing purpose or meaning.

Society

How many of the billions of people in the world have a life that is better than satisfactory. Not one that is mundane and affords the basics in exchange for a large portion of a person’s existence, but a life that is fulfilling and rewarding?

After a prescribed journey through education, if you are lucky, you are left to your lot in life. Attempting to keep up with changes, battling the eternal struggle to earn money that you immediately pass to someone else.

Could we introduce cycles where people return to education, not as it is today, but as a state sponsored refresher of our understanding of the world, and our culture.

Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Technology

As with our own Intelligence, we focus on singular items without considering the whole when it comes to our use of technology. This removes much of the context of an action lowering ability to singular tasks. The ability to balance objective and subjective, sometimes considered as thought and feeling, is missing. Emotions are emulated, making interaction transactional.

Could we review artificial intelligence in a more balanced way?