Intelligence tests

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When taking tests of intelligence, "thirteen of your mental abilities are measured, and separate scores for each are computed. These abilities are: Visual Apprehension, Spatial, Arithmetic, Logical, General Knowledge, Spelling, Rote Utilization, Intuition, Short Term Memory, Geometric, Algebraic, Computational Speed, Vocabulary".

But why they call this thing intelligence? Intelligence, as I see it, is the intellectual capacity to cope with your environment, ecological and cultural. Ecological in the sense that you have to solve the problems of your ecological niche. If you are an hawk and you have poor sight your capacity is fatally impaired. Cultural in the sense that, being an hawk you must know, understand and interpret the occasions and dangers of your particular environment and for this you may learn from other's individual experiences; these may be taught or may be stored in cultural deposits.

Finally “intelligence”, as it appears to be the case for autism, may have much to do with an instinctive capacity to read emotional cues in other individuals and also to be able to communicate one’s own emotion in times and ways appropriate.

So I think that this whole business of intelligence tests as it presented in our “pseudoculture” of achievement in Western societies should be assailed and demolished.

A lot has been written about this. You might enjoy reading “Multiple Intelligences: New Horizons in Theory and Practice” by Howard Gardner . Whole public schools are now run on this concept. It has received much attention as an alternate approach (and a politically correct one) since it has become clear that certain racial groups cannot ever meet the norm of the traditional IQ measurement system based on linguistic/mathematical/spatial criteria (“The Bell Curve” q.v.).

I've just been looking at the different definitions of intelligence, out of interest, and they vary a lot from 'marbles' (I like that one. I lost my marbles years ago, lol) to this:-

I thank Kit for signalling Howard Gardner, whose idea of multiple intelligences looks very sensate. I will try to get hold of some of his books.

Paolo,
You are very welcome. You might also enjoy “Inevitable Grace” by Piero Ferrucci. He’s a psychosynthesis psychologist and a wonderful writer. He is internationally known and has written many books. He has more works in Italian than English.

PS I like your Munch avatar very much, but I prefer his “Madonna.”