What does intelligence mean?

And happy 2025!

Jan 06, 2025

Hey Rewire Collective,

Welcome to the first newsletter of 2025! We’re talking about IQ’s and intelligence - can they be changed? And more importantly, why do we want to change them?

Different types of intelligence and their associated brain areas. Created in https://BioRender.com

What is IQ?

IQ – or intelligence quotient – is a standardized test score meant to represent human intelligence. IQ tests, which are meant to assess an individuals IQ in comparison to similar people, were originally developed in France to help identify students who needed extra help in school. They were then taken up by the US government to asses if people were qualified to go into battle. Two major takeaways here: (1) IQ scores are only comparable between people of the same age, nationality, etc., and (2) different IQ tests will have different purposes and assess different parts of intelligence. So, one score does not define you.

Different types of intelligence can be measured with IQ tests, and these different types of intelligence appear to use different brain areas. There’s crystallised intelligence, which will be fact-based and depend on your own personal knowledge. Like – who was George Washington? Then there’s fluid intelligence, which is based on a persons ability to use logic and reason to solve problems. Like, if I rotate this triangle, which point will face up next? People who score higher on fluid intelligence questions are using the left side of their brain more, which is responsible for spatial awareness and visualisation, and their frontal lobe more, which is all about reasoning and logic¹.

But IQ tests only focus on ‘on the spot’ thinking, and they account for only some aspects of a person's potential. Scott Barry Kaufman has defined something called ‘personal intelligence’², which is how a person's interest and natural ability combine to help them work towards a goal. Sure, IQ is helpful, but what is it without self-control? Executive function describes a person's ability to focus their attention, maintain self-control, and problem-solve. This function is driven by a person's executive control network, which we see is active during IQ tests and fluid intelligence tasks.

But again, what about thinking that isn’t ‘on the spot’, like daydreaming? And what about creative intelligence? We know that daydreaming is driven by the default mode network, and a lot of studies propose that the default mode network works in opposition to the executive control network. Meaning, we can’t daydream and focus our attention. But, research in 2015 by Kaufman shows that actually, creativity requires both networks to be active at the same time³.

In summary, there’s many types of intelligence, and intelligence is only part of the story of success. We need self-control, determination, and something called Grit.

Grit

Grit was coined by Angela Duckworth, and is meant to describe a combination of passion and perseverance, which regardless of intelligence, is predictive of success⁴. Although there is some controversy around how predictive grit is of success⁵ it reminds me a lot of the idea of growth mindsets, and how success is also affected by how we view challenges and setbacks.

What is EQ?

Guys, we haven’t even talked about emotional intelligence yet! Emotional Intelligence is the ability to recognize your own and others emotions, and to reason and problem-solve based on this^6,7. You might be really good at knowledge-based test questions, but without emotional intelligence, you might find it difficult to manage stress and emotions come exam day. IQ and EI work best when they build on one another.

Research by Tasha Eurich⁸ has found that despite 95% of people thinking they are self-aware, only 10-15% actually are. This can cause problems in the workplace and with friends and family. Ultimately, it boils down to EI. People with higher EI are more innovative and have higher job satisfaction⁹.

Now this is something we might want to change, and a lot of evidence suggests that EI is a skill that can be harnessed¹⁰.

Ways to do this are:

Recognizing our emotions and naming them when we feel them.
Asking for feedback from managers, colleagues, friends, and family.
Read! Studies show that reading about others in complex situations with complex emotions can help us better understand others¹¹!

Is Intelligence fixed?

I think the true answer to this question is, we don’t really know. We know that hosting a growth mindset intervention appears to improve test scores in school children¹². And we know there are techniques to improve emotional intelligence. But with so many different types of intelligence and ways of processing and thinking, it is hard to see one singular intervention that improves IQ¹³.

And maybe, if I can be really bold here, why do we care¹⁴? There is no one measure of intelligence (re: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences¹⁵), and not even intelligence alone is predictive of success. Things that will allow one person to be successful in their career would not allow another person to be successful in their own. There are 8 billion humans, not all of our brains are going to work the same way and do exactly the same thing. Plus, we all grow up in different environments surrounded by different people with different abilities. If you want to be successful in life, find where your natural strengths lie. And then persevere. Keep at it. Keep practicing. Try and fail and try and fail.

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Until Next Week,

Nicole x

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