The Origin of Intelligence

PRESENTATION

The Origin of Intelligence

by Point/Counterpoint

Lesson Standards

• 9.1(A)
• 9.2(A)
• 9.2(B)
• 9.2(C)
• 9.3
• 9.4(B)
• 9.4(C)
• 9.4(F)
• 9.5(C)
• 9.5(D)
• 9.5(G)
• 9.5(H)
• 9.7(E)(i)
• 9.8(A)

What will our learning look like today?

Learning Intention

Lesson Objectives

Language Objective

• I will explore the fascinating topic of intelligence and its origins.
• I will examine different theories and discuss the impact of intelligence on individuals and society.

After an initial reading and discussion of the essays, students will be able to identify key ideas and cite details that support those key ideas.

I will practice academic vocabulary and language structures when discussing the origin of intelligence.

Success Criteria

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:

• Define intelligence and identify its key components.
• Compare and contrast various theories on the origin of intelligence.
• Explain the influence of both nature (heredity) and nurture (environment) on the development of intelligence.

Do Now:

• What does intelligence mean to you?
• Where do you think it comes from?
• Jot some thoughts in the chat!

Introduction

Intelligence is a very desirable trait, and one of the best predictors of everything from good grades to earning potential. Your intelligence is at least partially determined by your genetics, but are there other factors? Can a child born with a low or average IQ become a genius with just the right set of influences and choices? Both essays present strong opinions about whether our intelligence is locked in by nature or determined over time by our environment. Which do you find more persuasive? *watch StudySync video

Background

• Alfred Binet was commissioned by the French government to develop a test to identify students who would have difficulty in school. Working with Théodore Simon, Binet developed the Binet-Simon Scale in 1905, which is generally considered to be the first intelligence test.
• Binet worried that IQ tests were an inadequate measure of intelligence because they failed to measure creative or emotional intelligence. Similarly, modern psychologists like Howard Gardner and Robert Sternberg argue that IQ tests reveal little about an individual’s potential for growth, creativity, or ability to solve practical life problems.
• IQ tests have sometimes been used to discriminate against ethnic and racial groups. In the early 1900s, for example, psychologist Carl Brigham argued that there were racial and ethnic differences in IQ. Later researchers have worked to refute this idea.

The dark history of IQ tests

The Origin of Intelligence: Is Intelligence Something You Are Born With? Point: Intelligence: It’s All in the Genes Charles Darwin believed that Photograph of Charles DarwinPhotograph of Charles Darwin. Caption reads: Charles Darwin (1809–1882) was a naturalist, geologist, and biologist whose revolutionary book, On the Origin of Species, serves as the foundation for modern evolutionary theory. Charles Darwin (1809–1882) was a naturalist, geologist, and biologist whose revolutionary book, On the Origin of Species, serves as the foundation for the modern evolutionary theory. his own intellectual capabilities were innate and that education and environment had little effect on basic intelligence. In Darwin’s opinion, intelligence evolved over time, and the ability to learn was a key attribute of natural selection. If you could not learn, you could not survive, and thus those who learned best survived to pass on their genes. When I look around today at the families I know, Darwin’s ideas, though limited, seem logical. Most of the students who perform best in my high school come from families where both parents and children are highly accomplished and obviously intelligent. If one student takes an AP class, you can expect that his or her siblings will also take that class as they move through the grades. Extrapolating outward, you can predict a correlation between parents’ intelligence and that of their children.

Now, you may notice that if this were 100 percent true, we would never see a first-generation college student or a child who succeeds in life at a level far beyond his or her parents’ abilities. I am the first to admit that genetics is not the whole story—but it is indisputably crucial. It is not a life sentence, but it is a very good predictor. The Heritability of Intelligence It appears from the science that has taken place to date that there is no one set of genes that determines intelligence. Instead, it is likely that a complex combination of genetic factors has an effect. It is difficult to differentiate genetic effects from environmental effects in human studies, but a 2014 study of chimpanzees found that general intelligence, spatial memory, and communication ability were clearly inheritable. If we could eliminate variables such as books in the home, economic stability, and quality of day care from human studies, we would doubtless reach the same conclusions about people that the 2014 study reached about chimps. Heritability is a measure of the proportion of observed differences in a trait that are due to genetics. Estimates by scientists who have studied the genetics of intelligence range between 60 and 80 percent for the heritability of intelligence. (Some recent studies say 50 percent, but they are too recent and untested to include here.) The heritability of height is also about 60 to 80 percent, and like intelligence, height is controlled by multiple genes. Correlations and IQ Tests There are many varieties of tests, but amazingly, results on most of those tests correlate very well. For example, a test-taker who performs well in a verbal test is likely to perform well on a spatial or memory

test. A test-taker who performs poorly on a spatial test is likely to perform poorly on a memory or verbal test. So even though people may say, “Oh, IQ tests are not valid because people have different intelligences and are good at different things,” it seems clear that even if you believe that you are visually intelligent and do best on non-verbal tests, the odds are good that if you do well on those, you will also succeed on other forms of tests. If you take one of the many standard IQ tests, you will find that it includes a variety of types of tests whose scores are put together to make up your IQ score. So not only are you given a test that examines multiple intelligences, but you are also given a test whose various components correlate well. Why It Matters As Darwin suggested, intelligence deals with our ability to learn from experience and to adapt our behavior accordingly. Those of us with “good” genes—parents and grandparents with high IQs—arrive on the planet with an advantage. Whether or not we make the most of that advantage is, of course, up to us. However, if we choose to ignore the heritability aspect of intelligence, we will simply continue carelessly to pour money into over-educating people who may never accomplish the goals we seek, forcing them into failure and breaking their spirit. Counterpoint: Your Childhood IQ Does Not Limit You Whether intelligence depends on nature (heredity) or nurture (environment) is a point hotly debated by researchers and scientists. Recent brain studies indicate that the brain is malleable over time. It grows and develops and matures, just as the rest of the body does. For that reason, it is important to create an environment in which the brains of children and young people can flourish, reaching their highest achievable potential.

How many times have you heard a friend sigh, “I just can’t get this, I’m not smart enough”? That self-defeating attitude is all too common, but it assumes a fixed level of intelligence that is belied by history. If you were born “not smart enough,” was Einstein born a genius? Considering that Einstein was slow to speak as a child and was thrown out of school at one point, it certainly does not seem that he was. If your level of intelligence were fixed at birth, why couldn’t you read or drive a car as a toddler? Research on Children Research on related children who did not grow up in the same environment shows that while genetics may set the baseline for intelligence, it does not determine potential. A 2015 study looked at brothers raised in different families and found that those who grew up in families with more educated parents had IQ scores 4.4 points higher than their siblings raised in more impoverished environments. Twin studies do indicate a higher correlation between the IQs of identical twins than of fraternal twins, which might imply that intelligence is mainly genetic. However, studies of adopted children show that adoptees show some similarity in IQ both to their adoptive parents and to other children raised in the same household who are unrelated to them. In fact, a French study showed that transferring babies from impoverished households to wealthy ones improved childhood IQ scores by 12 to 16 points. So, socioeconomic status has a strong effect on intelligence. It is possible, then, to improve intelligence by offering the kinds of enriching opportunities to disadvantaged children that more advantaged children automatically expect. For example, some US studies showed that students from households with low resources and parents with low IQs improved their IQ scores dramatically when they received high-quality day care from the age of three months on. It is true that such a manipulated study does not reflect the real-life experiences of most children from impoverished backgrounds. However, it does

indicate that change is possible, even if implementing change on a large scale might be difficult to do. The Flynn Effect A fascinating study that supports the notion that nurture affects intelligence is the 1980s Flynn study, which found that IQ was steadily increasing around the world at an average rate of 3 IQ points each decade. Ulric Neisser of Cornell University posited that the so-called Flynn effect was due to the way humans are inundated with visual images on television, in video games, and in ads. He thought that these images assisted people in solving the sorts of visual puzzles found on IQ tests. In other words, do not worry about all that time your kid brother spends playing Minecraft—it may be helping to boost his IQ!

Why It Matters You may wonder why it matters that intelligence is not fixed at birth. It turns out that IQ correlates with many positive things, from good grades to income to personal satisfaction and happiness. If you assume that the intelligence assigned to you at birth is all you can ever achieve, you are condemning yourself to a life in which your income and happiness are preset as well! That sort of predetermined life sounds dreary and sad to me, as it should to anyone who hopes to achieve great things. People who believe strongly that intelligence is genetic have used comparative IQ scores to argue that one group of people is superior to another. Such an argument is not only racist, but it is also hopeless. Surely it is preferable to assume that we can affect intelligence by offering rich educational experiences in children’s early years and by providing young people with varied opportunities to stretch and grow their brains. We may not all develop into Einsteins, but given the right environment, we will surely all develop, and achieve, and succeed.

Summary

Charles Darwin believed intellect was fixed at birth, because those able to learn were able to survive and pass on their genes. The author agrees, because in his school, the best students come from the smartest parents. He believes this is important because to ignore the heritability of intelligence could lead to spending money trying to educate people who can never reach the goals set out for them. The counterpoint argues that, since the brain is malleable, intelligence can be developed. For example, the author notes that Einstein was slow to talk and was even thrown out of school. Further, studies support the idea that in a nurturing environment, a child’s IQ score will increase regardless of genes or socioeconomic status. Therefore, it is important to give children the opportunity to grow their intelligence.

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