The Nature and Nurture of High IQ

Notes by Howard Gardner

It’s long been known that as one gets older, the genetic contribution to measured intelligence (IQ) is higher. Put concretely, the IQ of the 70 year old is more likely to resemble the IQ of his/her parents and grandparents, than the IQ of the 10 or 20 year old. But this study adds a new page to this chapter. It turns out that individuals with higher IQ actually have a longer period in which non –genetic (environmental) factors are significant, than those with lower IQs. As such, the study raises an intriguing possibility: Anything that we can do to raise IQ in young persons is likely to increase the length of time in which the effects of the environment (e.g. peers, mentors, experiences) are significant. And since we know that measured IQ has gone up a huge amount in the past century (see the Flynn effect), these results are a very hopeful sign.

To read the article in its entirety click here.

Are Spatial Skills an Early Sign of Creativity?

Notes by Howard Gardner

The findings of this study indicate that, in addition to linguistic intelligence and logical intelligence, a separate factor which we could call spatial intelligence contributes additionally to creativity. A point for MI theory! But note that the measures of creativity are technology, engineering, math, and science, the so-called STEM areas. This is all well and good. But one does not have to do the study to know that creativity in music, drama, sports, sales, dance, would call on yet other intelligences.

To read the article in its entirety click here.

Imaging Conflict Resolution

Notes by Howard Gardner

This interview, of one of the most creative psychologists of her generation, illustrates the way in which psychological and neurological evidence becomes more differentiated over time. Fifty years ago, there were few scholars who believed that the processing of social/human information differed informatively from the processing of information relevant to inanimate entities. The situation began to change when David Premack and other scholars pointed out the specific characteristics of thinking about minds, especially other minds, and posited the emergence, in most humans around the age of four, of a ‘theory of mind.’  More popular writings, like Dan Goleman’s work on ‘social intelligence’ and ‘emotional intelligence,’ and my introduction of ‘interpersonal’ and ‘intrapersonal’ intelligences, supported the notion that thought about the human sphere is distinctive in many ways from thought about nonhuman or inanimate entities.

Rebecca Saxe updates this thinking by reporting that there are probably half a dozen or more structures that are dedicated to the processing of information about the social-psychological world.  And she speculates that a deeper understanding of how we think about other persons might suggest powerful and effective routes toward a world that is more just and perhaps free of conflict.

To read the interview in its entirety click here.