James-Watson

Is Intelligence Innate and Fixed?

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iq test, intelligenceGiv­en the recent James Wat­son “race and IQ” con­tro­ver­sy, I took on to read Stephan Jay Gould’s clas­sic book The Mis­mea­sure of Man, in which he debunks IQ (and the under­ly­ing “g”) as mea­sure of defined, innate, “intel­li­gence”. Fas­ci­nat­ing read­ing overall, very tech­ni­cal in some areas.

The key take-away? In the last chap­ter, A Pos­i­tive Con­clu­sion, he writes that

- “Flex­i­bil­i­ty is the hall­mark of human evolution…In oth­er mam­mals, explo­ration, play and flex­i­bil­i­ty of behav­ior are qual­i­ties of juve­niles, only rarely of adults. We retain not only the anatom­i­cal stamp stamp of child­hood, but its men­tal flex­i­bil­i­ty as well…Humans are learn­ing animals”

He then relates this sto­ry from T.H. White’s nov­el The Once and Future King

- God, he recounts, cre­at­ed all ani­mals as embryos and called each before his throne, offer­ing them what­ev­er addi­tions to their anato­my they desired. All opt­ed for spe­cial­ized adult fea­tures-the lion for claws and sharp teeth, the deer for antlers and hoofs. The human embryo stepped forth last and said: Please God, I think that you made me in the shape which I now have for rea­sons best known to Your­selves and that it would be rude to change. If I am to have my choice, I will stay as I am. I will not alter any of the parts which you gave me…I will stay a defence­less embryo all my life, doing my best to make myself a few fee­ble imple­ments out of the wood, iron, and the oth­er mate­ri­als which You have seen fit to put before me..” “Well done”, exclaimed the Cre­ator in delight­ed tone. “Here all you embryos, come here with [Read more…] about Is Intel­li­gence Innate and Fixed?

Clint Eastwood’s fountain of Youth: Learning

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See this inter­view today.

Quote: “By 76, most direc­tors have put their heavy lift­ing behind them, their pace slow­ing, the qual­i­ty of their films wan­ing. Not Clint Eastwood.”

Clint East­wood: “My father always said you’ve got to keep learn­ing, keep expand­ing or you will decline the oth­er way. I’ve always adhered to that.”

Wise words. I would add that the jour­ney of life means con­stant learn­ing. That is what our brains need.

See some brain images that explain the process of learn­ing a new skill, from what hap­pens when we first encounter it, to what is going on while we are inter­nal­iz­ing it in a tran­si­tion mode, to what hap­pens once it is famil­iar thanks to practice.

And what is Learn­ing? you may enjoy this inter­view with neu­ro­bi­ol­o­gist and edu­ca­tor Dr. James Zull. Good night!