SCI-ART LAB
Science Simplified!
JAI VIGNAN
All about Science - to remove misconceptions and encourage scientific temper
Communicating science to the common people
'To make them see the world differently through the beautiful lense of science'
Intelligence Redefined
A science student recently asked me an interesting question. He said, "Ma'am", I want to do research in Molecular Biology. But I have an average IQ. Will I be able to succeed in getting my Ph.D. and proceed further to become a scientist and shine as one?"
My immediate reaction was 'what has high IQ got to do with research in science?' And I told the student, " Forget about your IQ. The fact that you have already developed a capacity for appreciating science to such an extent that pursuing science has become a motivating force in your life is proof enough that your intelligence is sufficient. My advice is that you stop worrying about your intelligence, and instead focus on determining whether or not you are doing all that you can to make use of your intelligence. Achieving your goals will ultimately take hard work, careful planning and a consistent commitment to expanding and refining your knowledge and skills. If you are passionate about science and research, creative enough to connect things and have a will to succeed, go ahead and chase your dreams".
The student was so convinced with my advice that he actually decided to follow it!
Now science has provided evidence for my argument. Click on the link below to know what it is
what-leads-to-academic-success-according-to-science
And I am happy to say very early in my life I was able to not only de-link IQ with a career in science but also link it with passion, creativity and a will to succeed.
Because several times I felt although I cannot work or do things in a given time frame - like doing the IQ tests in the given time because of the cognitive load on my brain as I work in several fields and will be thinking about one problem/issue or the other all the while - I am in no way inferior to the 'prodigies'.
Now I found support to my argument in the form of this book and research of several other scientists:
Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined
The truth about Talent, Practice, Creativity, and The Many Paths of Greatness
by
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465025544/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d0_i...
Briefly, it says: Child prodigies. Gifted and Talented Programs. Perfect 2400s on the SAT. Sometimes it feels like the world is conspiring to make the rest of us feel inadequate. Those children tapped as possessing special abilities will go on to achieve great things, while the rest of us have little chance of realizing our dreams. Right?
In Ungifted, cognitive psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman—who was relegated to special education as a child—sets out to show that the way we interpret traditional metrics of intelligence is misguided. Kaufman explores the latest research in genetics and neuroscience, as well as evolutionary, developmental, social, positive, and cognitive psychology, to challenge the conventional wisdom about the childhood predictors of adult success. He reveals that there are many paths to greatness, and argues for a more holistic approach to achievement that takes into account each young person’s personal goals, individual psychology, and developmental trajectory. In so doing, he increases our appreciation for the intelligence and diverse strengths of prodigies, savants, and late bloomers, as well as those with dyslexia, autism, schizophrenia, and ADHD.
Combining original research, anecdotes, and a singular compassion, Ungifted proves that anyone—even those without readily observable gifts at any single moment in time—can become great.
The IQ test is just a brief assessment of one trait. It doesn't say anything about a person's past or future potential! It is only used to match a person to an intervention. Each person has numerous opportunities to demonstrate their intellectual prowess. A single test score certainly has no impact on a person's chances of success in life.
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So true! I cannot perform these IQ tests well in a given time frame. But does that mean I am intellectually challenged? Definitely not. I was just an average student while I was at school! Does that mean I will be an average person all through my life? Definitely not! ( I got all top ranks in the university in my post-graduation exams !) If people ask me a question, I cannot give a 'good' answer immediately without taking time to think. Some questions even fail to get registered properly on my mind sometimes! This is because of the reasons I gave above. I even make mistakes while performing simple tasks. Does that mean I am stupid? Definitely not! If I am not intellectually talented how could I excel in several fields that need lots of grey matter working non-stop for years and years?
Intelligence is defined by different people differently. One person's intelligence may not be intelligence to others. We use the word intelligent to describe people who are able to acquire useful knowledge, and who can solve consequential problems using some combination of logic, intuition, creativity, experience, and wisdom. These terms that are used to describe an intelligent person are themselves are vague. Moreover, learning opportunities, cultural differences, familial differences, and personality differences in conscientiousness and openness to learning do have effect on all these aspects.Therefore, a correct definition is not always possible.
The problem of intellectual diagnosis can in no way be successfully dealt with until we have exact knowledge of the general nature of intelligence itself. The value of IQ tests is determined more by what they correlate with than what they measure. A person's IQ has nothing to do with his/her ability to think critically. It's a person's ability to think critically that is the true display of his/her intelligence, not what one can recite from memory as in an IQ test! IQ tests are outdated and fail to measure many other factors regarding intelligence.
Not all fields require the same talent. A scientist requires a different talent ( like numerical reasoning based on information gathered systematically) from that of an artist or a writer ( reasoning based only on his/her day to day personal experiences). A business person might require a different talent altogether ( reasoning based on psychology of the people around him) from the ones possessed by scientists, artists and writers! Again a sports person's talent is completely different! The way one uses his or her brain power or muscle or body power defines the talent of that person. ( A person asked me after reading this, " Dr. Krishna, as a polymath working in various fields, how do you describe your intelligence?" ). I am still thinking about it! I will answer the Q when I get the answer myself.
{But another person described a polymath's intelligence like this: The polymath is restless, inquisitive and driven to explore, and potentially master, a range of diverse subject areas. They easily shift between rational and experiential/intuitive thinker. The rational system is analytic, logical, abstract, and requires justification via logic and evidence. In contrast, the experiential system is holistic, affective, concrete, experienced passively, processes information automatically, and is self-evidently valid. This ability to not be confined by either and embrace both is at the core of the polymath and a very unique trait. Their behaviors are seen as quirky, unique and unconventional because they can draw knowledge from various fields to analyse things creatively. They are able to successfully utilize diverse knowledge and skills to provide new insights and creative solutions. The profound nature of these insights and solutions distinguishes the level of skill the polymath possess.}
Based on their perceptions, different people give different definitions to it and categorise intelligence into various subunits whose numbers vary vastly! I will not mention all of them but two descriptions caught my attention: fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence.
Fluid intelligence is defined as the ability to solve new problems, use logic in new situations, and identify patterns. When you go to a new place, how you negotiate different roads and streets to find an address denotes it. One way you can think of fluid intelligence is that you'll use it slightly differently each time you're in a new situation, so it's flexible and adaptive - like water in its fluid form.
Crystallized intelligence is defined as the ability to use learned knowledge and experience to solve problems , using logic and to find patterns. When you're learning a new language, you memorize the new vocabulary words and increase your vocabulary over time. You also learn the theory behind solving algebraic equations, or how to do division, or the general rules of grammar when using a sentence. Crystallized intelligence is like water as it turns into ice, or a solid form. Over time it gets more and more stable, like a crystal.
Then intelligence is different from intellectualism. Intellect is considered to be related to "facts" in contrast to intelligenceconcerning "feelings". Feelings can sometimes screw up your mind and that is why even intelligent people make mistakes. Intellect refers to the cognition and rational mental processes gained through external input rather than internal. Intellect refers to the ability of the mind to come to correct conclusions about what is true. Intellect is often considered to be a branch of intelligence reflecting mainly its logical and rational side. Because of the lack of emotional and sensitive engagement, intellect is sometimes considered to be strictly limited to facts and not going beyond mere raw knowledge. You have to defeat your conditioning of mind by religion, emotions, culture, politics etc. and strictly depend on facts and evidence to do Critical Thinking (please click on this link and read the article) and come to a conclusion to become an intellectual. Intellectuals rarely make mistakes while thinking. So intellectualism is a better and higher form of mind matters.
An intellectual is more intelligent than an intelligent person!
On the other hand, one who takes their time to think deeply on matters before deciding on a conclusion is better described as a thorough thinker. This pertains more to personality than intelligence, as we have these people spread across the intelligence (in terms of IQ) spectrum.
The IQ tests should not be used as the only measure that defines people's fate or future. Language and other cultural barriers cause intelligence tests to produce underestimates of intelligence. No psychological or academic test measures anything to the same degree in all children. It is true that well-designed tests of abstract reasoning reduce the need to have specific content knowledge. However, the process of engaging in abstract reasoning is itself learned and very much influenced by culture. Ancient Greek culture was very strange in its appreciation for abstraction (though not unique—India is the cradle of many an abstraction and Arabic scholars, with their placeholding Arabic numerals, gave us the ultimate tool for managing abstractions: algebra.). Peoples' capacity for abstract reasoning is a recent innovation on the evolutionary time scale.
Many people who do these IQ tests very well fall on the way side during the life's journey without reaching the heights their IQs would have taken them to. And several others with low IQs reach unimaginable heights.
Some examples : Richard Feynman , the brain behind Manhattan Project. A Nobel Laureate and distinguished physicist. Guess his IQ? It's 125. That's pretty low for a person who is likely to be a Nobel Winner. They are generally 140+! Richard Feynman had great interest in the field of maths and physics from a tender age. If it wasn't for passion, we would have never known a person like him.
Heard of William James Sidis? He lived from 1898 to 1944 and is reputed to have had a “ratio IQ” between 250 and 300. No doubt that he had an extremely fast aptitude for learning anything. By his 20s, he was able to speak in over 40 languages, and claimed to be able to learn one in a day. He invented his own language, called Vendergood, which was a mishmash of Ancient Greek, Latin, and about 8 other European languages. J. R. R. Tolkien did the very same thing with Elvish, and spoke at least 30 languages. But we don’t think of Tolkien as having an IQ above 250, and yet he wrote a lot more than Sidis, and Tolkien’s literature is popular. Sidis invented a rotary calendar that would always be accurate even to the leap year. But why is that important? We already have working calendars. With a 300 IQ, it’s a shame he didn’t invent the time machine or a real lightsaber. He squandered his natural talents on the trivial. Einstein reached the heights of his greatness with “only” a 186. What could Sir Isaac Newton have done with a 300? Perhaps the phrase should be, “Cogito, ergo sum. Facio, ergo recordaremur.” “I think, therefore I am. I do, therefore I will be remembered.” (3)
( I must mention here that although several quotes are attributed to Einstein, there is no evidence that he actually said those things. And the opposite, i.e., that he didn't say these things too is controversial. However, according to some people, the quote can be traced to a well-established allegory involving animals doing impossible things, used to illustrate the fallacy of judging someone by a skill or ability that person (or animal) does not possess. There is no way of knowing whether Einstein mentioned it or not in his life time now. We don't even know why it was attributed to him. So I leave it to readers discretion. You can decide whether the attribution can be accepted or not. The quote 's used just to make my article attractive like journalists and artists do, and there is no other motive to it.)
Pic source: Google images
So it doesn't matter who said these words, You still can't judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree or a bird by its ability to swim underwater.
For more than a century our intelligence quotient (IQ) has been used to measure how clever people are and Mensa, the society for the intellectual elite, has even used the test to weed out sub-par applicants.
But now the scale has been dismissed as a "myth" by scientists who found that our intelligence can only be predicted by combining results from at least three tests of our mental agility.
Different circuits within the brain are used for different thought processes, the researchers showed, meaning separate tests of short-term memory, reasoning and verbal skills are needed to measure someone's overall intelligence.
Their landmark study was based on the results of an online intelligence test which was launched by the New Scientist sometime back, and attracted more than 110,000 responses.
According to the scientists who conducted this research, when you come to the most complex known object, the human brain, the idea that there is only one measure of intelligence had to be wrong. We can all think of people that have poor reasoning and brilliant memories, or fantastic language skills but aren't so good at reasoning, and so on. Now once and for all we can say there is not a single measure such as IQ which captures all the intelligence that you see in people.
Following up their findings, the scientists scanned the brains of 16 volunteers while they completed the same tests and found that the three key types of intelligence relied on different circuits within the brain.
Writing in the Neuron journal, the researchers also observed that regularly playing "brain training" games appeared to have no effect on people's overall performance.
But people who regularly played computer games scored significantly higher in reasoning and short-term memory tests, while smokers and anxiety sufferers had weaker short-term memory scores (4).
Some even try to link IQs of people with genes, races and what not to degrade people. But these arguments have no genuine evidence at all (5, 6).
Some IQ facts: It was found that children with IQ more than 140 have no better careers than their siblings
Current consensus: diminishing returns above IQ 115 - 130.
Some hard work facts: Both top scientists and average scientists work for more than 40 hours a week. Top scientists did not spend more hours on work. Main difference was in how they spent their time. Having some relaxation time with interesting hobbies and interests works wonders.
The four odd habits of successful scientists:
1) Not trying to be a lonely genius. Collaboration brings more success. 2) Ideas follow knowledge, not intelligence. 3) Focusing on ideas. 4) Following one's fascination with passion.
Intellectualism, the higher form of mind matters, is what allows us to learn from our experience, analyse people and situations, overcoming preconceived notions that influence our judgement, critical thinking, making inferences, the ability to learn and communicate and understand complexities, to gain insight into life, to juggle multiple demands. Apart from our daily experiences, with the internet these days, information is everywhere. But intelligence is how we make sense of all that information. Several factors play a key role in this. This vast field of cognition cannot be fit into a few tests and a time frame.
Even if your genes don't make you score very high in IQ tests, your hard work with grit and determination can make you a great person! Your life's experiences, unique talents developed along the way, your reasoning through life's ups and downs, your education, your passion, and environment can play major roles too!
It is time we redefined intelligence and intellectual capabilities! And the scientific community has taken note of this, and is trying to erase the false definitions coined earlier and giving it a new interpretation.
Like one article on SA (1) says:
Imposing extreme time pressures on an IQ test forces people to draw almost exclusively on their limited capacity/ working memory capacity, whereas giving people more time to think and reason gives them more of a chance to bring to the table other cognitive functions that contribute to their intellectual brilliance.
This is true in my case!
Not only me, I have seen several intellectuals who look and say dumb things normally in the public are really quite intelligent in doing complex things in their private lives! I created an art work based on this theme too:
( The mind of a Scientist/genius/polymath - source: http://www.kkartfromscience.com
Whenever I do my research or any other complex work, I make a few silly mistakes sometimes while doing ordinary things outside my lab/studio & later on after realizing my mistakes I feel bad about them. My cousins consoled me several times by telling a story about a famous scientist. It seems the scientist had two cats-one kitten & its mother. The scientist built a house for his two cats. He left two openings to the house – one small (for the small cat) & one big (for the big cat). It didn’t occur to the scientist at that time – who 's considered as a genius – that one big opening was enough for both the cats!
Another story: Norbert Wiener, an American mathematician, was known for his absent-mindedness. He used to drive to work at Harvard in the morning and come back home in the evening. One day there was to be a change in the routine. The Wieners had sold their house and were moving to the new residence that day. His wife had spared him all the details of the transaction and simply told him that they had sold the house and were moving to another that day, so he must remember to come back in the evening to the new address, which she gave him along with instructions on how to get there. Of course, Wiener forgot and, like on every working day, came back to the old house which he found locked. He could not figure out why. Then he saw a young girl standing near the gate and asked her if she knew where the Wieners had gone. The girl replied: “Yes, daddy! I will take you there. Mummy had told me to bring you when you returned here from work.” :)
A scientist’s/genius's/polymath's mind will be completely drowned in his/her thoughts & work most of the time. It doesn’t take notice of other things that happen around it & doesn’t think about normal things! So scientists/intellectuals/polymaths behave in weird & stupid ways sometimes! They make lots of mistakes while doing ordinary things. It doesn’t mean that they are stupid or weird. They just don’t care about mundane things & don’t want to waste time by thinking about them & do them very casually as their priorities lie elsewhere. Unless & until they cut off the world around them and completely immerse their minds in their work, they cannot find solutions to the complex & difficult problems they deal with. They have to decrease the cognitive load on their minds by removing small and unimportant things from their minds.
Several of my scientist friends too support me by saying, " If you are not making any silly mistakes, your mind is not working hard enough!" That might lead to a burn out for some, but a polymath mind relishes it.
So I painted a scientist’s/genius's/polymath's mind fully drowned in waves of thoughts about his/her work. )
But I am still wondering about my intelligence!
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Network neuroscience theory best predictor of intelligence, study finds
Scientists have laboured for decades to understand how brain structure and functional connectivity drive intelligence. A new analysis offers the clearest picture yet of how various brain regions and neural networks contribute to a person's problem-solving ability in a variety of contexts, a trait known as general intelligence, researchers report.
The study used "connectome-based predictive modeling" to compare five theories about how the brain gives rise to intelligence.
To understand the remarkable cognitive abilities that underlie intelligence, neuroscientists look to their biological foundations in the brain. Modern theories attempt to explain how our capacity for problem-solving is enabled by the brain's information-processing architecture. A biological understanding of these cognitive abilities requires 'characterizing how individual differences in intelligence and problem-solving ability relate to the underlying architecture and neural mechanisms of brain networks'. Historically, theories of intelligence focused on localized brain regions such as the prefrontal cortex, which plays a key role in cognitive processes such as planning, problem-solving and decision-making. More recent theories emphasize specific brain networks, while others examine how different networks overlap and interact with one another.
Strong connections involve highly connected hubs of information-processing that are established when we learn about the world and become adept at solving familiar problems. Weak connections have fewer neural linkages but enable flexibility and adaptive problem-solving. Together, these connections provide the network architecture that is necessary for solving the diverse problems we encounter in life.
With the cognitive tests and fMRI data, the researchers were able to evaluate which theories best predicted how participants performed on the intelligence tests.
We can systematically investigate how well a theory predicts general intelligence based on the connectivity of brain regions or networks that theory entails. This approach allowed the researchers to directly compare evidence for the neuroscience predictions made by current theories.
The researchers found that taking into account the features of the whole brain produced the most accurate predictions of a person's problem-solving aptitude and adaptability. This held true even when accounting for the number of brain regions included in the analysis.
The other theories also were predictive of intelligence, the researchers said, but the network neuroscience theory outperformed those limited to localized brain regions or networks in a number of respects.
The findings reveal that "global information processing" in the brain is fundamental to how well an individual overcomes cognitive challenges.
Rather than originate from a specific region or network, intelligence appears to emerge from the global architecture of the brain and to reflect the efficiency and flexibility of systemwide network function.
Investigating cognitive neuroscience theories of human intelligence: A connectome-based predictive modeling approach, Human Brain Mapping (2022). DOI: 10.1002/hbm.26164
Another important article that says - The Thinking that IQ Tests Miss are the difference between rational and irrational thoughts ( 2)
Why smart people sometimes do dumb things
“What I write is smarter than I am. Because I can rewrite it” says Susan Sontag
But I think I am smart too! Because I can re-invent myself! - Krishna
Update:
I am giving this answer based on recent scientific research. A recent study found that critical thinking skills are a better predictor of one’s ability to make wise, effective life decisions than intelligence or IQ score. IQ tests don’t take critical thinking abilities into consideration!
People measure IQ to say whether a person is intelligent or not. It measures intelligence for handling abstract content. But researchers say that “critical thinking” – the ability to make judgments dispassionately without jumping to false conclusions – is a separate ability. According to them, critical thinking ability might be important for real-life outcomes, perhaps even more than IQ.
A highly qualified person can be intelligent, solve the problems using the knowledge he earned or things he learned but can still behave stupidly!
Neutral reasoning and rationality - taking only facts into consideration - not emotions and beliefs - makes a person an intellectual. An intellectual makes very few mistakes and therefore is the smartest of all!
References:
1. http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/2014/01/22/work...
2. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/rational-and-irrational-t...
3. http://listverse.com/2013/05/19/8-reasons-the-iq-is-meaningless/
4. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/9755929/IQ-te...
5. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10539-014-9428-0
6. https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=1RXSBwAAQBAJ&...
PS: And I found another book recently which again agrees with my view points.
Beyond IQ: Scientific Tools for Training Problem Solving, Intuition, Emotional Intelligence, Creativity, and More Paperback – July 22, 2014
http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Scientific-Intuition-Intelligence-Crea...
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
First of all there are various measures of intelligence, so before you're too proud / miserable about your score, we highly recommend getting in a second opinion by doing a different IQ test, because of a) test specific measuring error and b) IQ-tests as the WAIS-IV only measure a subset of all IQ testable abilities. There are three abilities (verbal, numerical, visual) in four categories (creativity, speed, memory and processing capacity) = 12 IQ-Test abilities.
Broadly speaking IQ measures the MHz-Speed of your brain processor. It doesn't tell you anything about the quality of your processing, and this exactly where the sub-abilities come in. Further, some forms of intelligence are currently not testable with a paper&pencil test, e.g. emotional intelligence, which you need to test using the Assessment center method. That said, a high score in pure processing capacity speed (the MHz) as best measured by Raven's Progressive Matrices is the best predictor for a high(er) score in all other areas as well.
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One of the best empirically proven facts about human mating is that we can only have a long-term relationship with someone of the same IQ-level (+/- 1 standard deviation).
We like the MHz metaphor because your problem is that your processor is constantly running at 4 GHz, while everybody else's is running at 1 GHz. Because your processor is so much faster than everybody else's, you will become impatient with others and come across as arrogant and patronizing. In short this mismatch causes a huge amount of stress when seeking friendships and or business relationships.
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You need to learn ASAP how to down-clock your processor. My PhD advisor was a highly popular person because his brain-processor operates by default on an IQ of 80. Only when somebody with a higher IQ comes across he will clock up until the top-speed of 160 IQ. So he always operates at the same speed of the other person. High IQ people who haven't learnt this trick will end up as Charles Tips has described it with his cautionary words.
https://www.quora.com/Whats-it-like-to-have-a-150-IQ-Is-life-easier...
https://www.quora.com/What-does-an-IQ-of-160-mean
What does an IQ of 160 mean?
Sep 22, 2015
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
“Exceptionally talented people”. That is mostly media hype.
If you go through their stories, they depended on others’ earlier work. Some of them did very strange things when they could not find answers to their problems.
Einstein: The Forgotten Life of Einstein's First Wife
She was a physicist, too—and there is evidence that she contributed significantly to his ground-breaking science.
The Overlooked Genius of Mileva Marić, Einstein’s First Wife
Newton: He somehow lost his way. Here is what happened to one of the good scientists , when he replaced "I don't know" with "Goddidit":
Sir Isaac Newton explained the orbits of planets around the sun and of moons around their planets. However, he could not explain how a complex system like our solar system, where all the bodies are tugging at each other all the time, could stay stable. Being a very religious person, he asserted that the only way such a system could stay stable is if the hand of God intervenes from time to time to keep things stable.
Satisfied with that answer, he spent the rest of his life on useless stuff, like occult studies, looking for hidden coded messages from God in the bible and alchemy, for example his recipe for the Philosopher's Stone, which he believed could be used to turn lead into gold.
Why did science deviate from philosophy ?
Niels Bohr's work is considered
fundamentally good and foundational for quantum mechanics, revolutionizing atomic theory by introducing quantized energy levels, but his specific Bohr model is incomplete and "wrong" by modern standards, failing for multi-electron atoms and lacking full quantum description, yet it was a crucial stepping stone that explained hydrogen spectra and guided future quantum developments.
What is wrong with Bohr’s atomic theory? Why was it not accepted by...
I think these people were good, no doubt about it, but their minds were conditioned by the times they lived in. And they couldn’t come out of the holes they lived in.
They lived in developed countries and therefore their contributions were marked as very good.
There are several ‘exceptionally good scientists’ whose work saved millions of lives. But the media never mentions them.
You don’t rate scientists like the media does in our field. All scientists are good as they contribute something to the knowledge bank.
Intelligence Redefined
Genes are only partially responsible. It is mostly hard work, the right mind set.
You can't judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree or a bird by its ability to swim underwater.
Dec 23, 2025
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa
May 17