Intelligence is the mental capability to reason, solve problems, think abstractly, learn and understand new material, and profit from past experience. In tomorrows world intelligence will be increasingly important in determining where our children and grandchildren will find their place in our global society. For the past century we have measured intelligence in IQ, or Intelligence coefficient. As parents and grandparents we need to take an active role in shaping the intelligence of our current and future children and grandchildren. It is currently believed that IQ is affected by two factors; inherited genes and family environment.
History of Measuring Intelligence
Intelligence tests date back to the late 19th century; the works of Sir Frances Galton explored the difference in the accomplishments of generations of the English aristocracy. Alfred Binet expanded on Galton's work to develop a test to be administered to French children to assist in predicting their academic success. American psychologist, Lewis Terman modified Binet's test in the early 1900's to make it applicable for adults and establishing standards for performance relative to age. He also developed a scoring system which he called the intelligence quotient or
IQ.
Today's IQ tests no longer compute scores using the IQ formula. Today's tests give a score that measures the participant's performance relative to the average performance of others of the same age who have taken the test referred to as “ratio IQ” others are based on a mathematical transformation of a raw score on the IQ Test based on the rank of that section in a normalization sample referred to a “deviance IQ score”. Under the “deviance method” the average score is arbitrarily set at 100, thus those scoring above the average of 100 are considered more intelligent up to genius and those who score below 100 are considered less intelligent.
The two scoring methods yield similar results near the middle of the bell curve, but the older, “ratio IQs”, yielded far higher scores for the intellectually gifted — which explains how Marilyn vos Saeant achieved a “ratio IQ” score of 228, a score that is unattainable under the “deviance method” of scoring.
Recent Findings on Influancing Intelligence
Over the past 100 years, IQ scores have increased at an average rate of three IQ points per decade in most parts of the world. This has been explained by better nutrition, smaller families, better education, and heredity. It is believed that 50% to 70% of a childs intelligence is attributable to the childs parents and the genes that they passed on to the child. Studies of twins raise apart substantiate these beliefs.
Vocabulary size, for example, is more effected by heredity than by environment even though every word that one knows has to be learned. In our society words are readily available to everyone and the number of words that we learn has more to do with our genetic predisposition to learn then the vocabulary of the people around us.
However, social economic conditions do have an effect on developed IQ. Within an impoverished family up to 60% of variance in IQ can be attributed to environment while the contribution of genes is zero. On the other end of the social economic spectrum the opposite is true; family environment has little to do with IQ variance while inherited genes are the primary determining factor of IQ.
A recent study, April 2008, at the University of Michigan and Bern suggests that intelligence can be altered and changed over time through the use of challenging activities thus producing changes in gene expression patterns of the brain. If this proves to be true it would be contrary to prior held beliefs about the development of intelligence.
Studies conducted in Scotland of 11,282 individuals between 1950 and 1960 support the belief that people with higher IQ's live longer, tend to not suffer from sever depression, schizophrenia or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. More recent studies, 2004, show that tests of lower cognitive ability at a young age can serve as an early predictor of a propensity for the development of Alzheimer's and dementia in a persons later years.
The current consensus is that general human intelligence is based on the volume and location of gray matter tissue in the brain. It is believed that the frontal lobes, specifically the lateral prefrontal cortex, are critical for fluid intelligence. A 2006 study of 307 children which measured the size of their brain then measured verbal and non-verbal skills indicated that there is a relationship between IQ and the structure of the cortex.
An Active Role in Our Future Generations
For centuries in Eastern and Middle Eastern societies parents and grandparents have taken an active role in choosing their children's mates. In most cases this practice was followed to maintain or improve social-economic position. With our increasing understanding of the development of intelligence choosing a mate based on intelligence may become a more widespread practice in the future. In Western societies we have tended to marry those that we attend school with, work with and socialize with. We have chosen our mates based on looks, common interests , sexual attraction and compatibility. It would be wise to add IQ score to this list.
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