Intelligence is “the capacity for learning, reasoning, understanding, and similar forms of mental activity.” (dictionary.com) As humans, our intelligence is derived from and developed through nurture: our surroundings, environment, and experiences. Our intellect is developed throughout our lives, with assistance from our early childhood development, our families, and through schooling.
Firstly, our early life experiences and childhood development contribute greatly to our intelligence. Throughout pregnancy, and immediately after birth, new mothers are faced with the infamous question: Whether or not they will breast-feed?
Breast-feeding provides immunity to diseases and infections, aids in overall growth, and most importantly, promotes brain development. On average, children who are breast-fed score 6-7 points higher on IQ tests than those who are not. Breast milk exclusively, contains DHA and ARA, which are fatty acids that help promote brain development. Dmitri Christakis, a paediatrician at Seattle’s Children’s Hospital explains “There are nutrients in breast milk that don’t really exist anywhere else, and we don’t fully know why.” Scientists and clinicians are unable to find a substitute for breast milk that contains DHA and ARA, as they are solely found in breast milk itself.
Furthermore, what we are taught at young ages, helps to develop our overall intelligence. Children whose parents read to them on a daily basis have a higher IQ than those whose don’t. Reading helps teach children essential language skills, as well as the ability to recognize words and letters, which will encourage them to learn how to read and write by themselves.
Moreover, toys can greatly improve a child’s intellect. There are however many toys and ...
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The theory that Zajonc and Markus proposed was that the birth order of children was closely related to their intelligence ranking. Through their research they began to decipher and support this theory. Zajonc and Markus also presented the idea, “that as family size increased, the average intellectual climate of the family decreased.” In other words, the subsequent children are influenced differently than a first born, so their intellectual stimulation is more lacking, causing a decrease in the overall family confluence score. The researchers organized an experiment to explain this concept. The experiment consisted of two parents who each started out a value of 100 and each infant received a value of 0. As more babies were born, the family’s average intellectual value went down up until the fifth child where it picks back up again because the cognitive value of each child goes up as they get older.
A Harvard graduate, Howard Gardner is a Psychologist who came up with the multiple intelligence. Regarding arts and education, Gardner recounted the curious dearth of literature that obtained at the time
Long-term benefits1 of breastfeeding for a child’s cognitive health may result from the fact that maternal milk is a rich source of fatty acids and other bioactive components essential for the brain development of infants. Breast milk is ideally the perfect food for infants. The carbohydrate in breast milk is lactose which enhances calcium absorption and is easy for the infant to digest. The content of calcium in breast milk is ideal for infant bone growth. It also helps protect the infant from infection by preventing the binding of pathogens. The lipids in breast milk is the infant’s main source of energy. It contains the most abundant fatty acid in the brain called DHA, which is also present in the retina of the eye. Studies show that DHA during development can increase cognitive function. Part of one of the reasons infants who are breastfed have a higher intelligence. The protein lactoferrin in breast milk helps absorb iron into the infant’s bloodstream, keeps intestinal bacteria from getting enough iron to grow out of control, and kills certain bacteria. Breast milk contains certain nutrients that helps protec...
Loehlin, John C., Lindzey Gardner, and J.N. Spuhler. Race Differences in Intelligence. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman and Company, 1975.
Intelligence is, according to the Oxford dictionary, “the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills”. Flowers for Algernon, a short story, talks about Charlie who struggles with being mentally retarded, but what he lacks in the brain department, he makes up for in the emotional department. The excerpt from The Future of the Mind by Michio Kaku, is about Einstein and his brain, and the surprising fact that Einstein's brain is average and has only slight differences with other people’s brains. An argumentative article, Is Personal Intelligence Important?, by John D. Mayer, Ph. D, is his explanation of the intelligences and why they are important. There are multiple types of Intelligence, despite popular
Human intelligence is an eel-like subject: slippery, difficult to grasp, and almost impossible to get straight [3]. Many scientist and psychologist have made numerous attempts to come up with an explanation for the development of human intelligence. For many years, there has been much controversy over what intelligence is and whether it is hereditary or nurtured by the environment. Webster's dictionary defines intelligence as "the ability to acquire and apply knowledge; which includes a sensing an environment and reaching conclusions about the state of that environment [7]. In this paper I am going to examine the factors, which make up ones intelligence. I will be investigating whether or not intelligence is fostered by genetic heritance or nurtured by ones environment.
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Most researchers believe that we are born with a certain intelligence or potential intelligence. They also believe that the intelligence we are born with is difficult to change. Psychologists use short-answer tests to assess one’s intelligence (Gardner papers). It was believed that intelligence was a single inherited thing. Human beings start out initially as a blank slate and could be trained to learn anything, provided that it was presented in an appropriate way (Multiple Intelligences and Education). Currently an “increasing number of researchers believe the opposite. Gardner defined intelligence as: “the ability to create an effective product or offer a service that is valued in culture; a set ...
On the ‘nature’ side of the debate is the psychometric approach, considered to be the most dominant in the study of intelligence, which “inspired the most research and attracted the most attention” (Neisser et al. 1996, p. 77). It argues that there is one general (‘g’) factor which accounts for intelligence. In the 1880s, Francis Galton conducted many tests (measuring reaction times to cognitive tasks), (Boundless 2013), in order to scientifically measure intelligence. These tests were linked to the eugenic breeding programme, which aimed to eliminate biologically inferior people from society. Galton believed that as intelligence was inherited, social class or position were significant indicators of intelligence. If an individual was of high social standing, they would be more intelligent than those of a lower position. However he failed to show any consistency across the tests for this hypothesis, weakening his theory that social class correlated with intelligence. Nevertheless, his creation of the intelligence test led many to continue to develop...
“Variation in IQ is accounted for by variation in home environment to the extent of not more than 4 percent; 96 percent of the variation is accounted for by other factors” (Leahy).
Spinath, F., Spinath, B., & Plomin, R. (2008). The nature and nurture of intelligence and motivation in the origins of sex differences in elementary school achievement. European Journal of Personality, 22(3), 211-219
The ongoing debate on whether nature or nurture is responsible for intelligence seems to be a never-ending argument. There will probably be no definite answer to this argument any time soon, but answers such as Dr. Bigot's prove how intolerant of other opinions people can be. To say intelligence is entirely based on genetics, or one's environment, for that matter, is utterly extremist. An interaction of both nature and nurture is responsible for intelligence.
The Oxford Dictionary defines intelligence as “the ability acquire and apply knowledge and skills.” Many people are born naturally intelligent, able to grasp and understand concepts easily, with little work. In children, it is easy to separate those born with higher intellectual ability from the rest, because they easily excel in learning. This skill is often lost by those born with it, and through a great deal of work others attain it. In order for an individual to have true intelligence into her adult years, she must foster what gifts she is given, and strive to better her self academically. Even as early as elementary school, many who are born with natural talent begin to fall behind intellectually. These students are often not