The Intelligence

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The Intelligence

The concept of intelligence has always been a subject of controversy. Can a single concept account for all of the intellectual faculties of an individual? Can these faculties be separated and measured? And in particular, what do they show and predict about the cerebral functioning of an individual and about social behaviour?

The notion of intelligence evokes “skills”, whether they are verbal skills, spatial skills, problem-solving skills or the very elaborate skill of dealing with complexity.

However, all of these aspects neglect the concept of “potential”. Yet, neurobiological research on learning and cognitive functions clearly shows that these processes undergo constant evolution and are dependent on a number of factors, particularly environmental and emotional ones.

This means that a stimulating environment should offer each individual the possibility to cultivate and develop his/her skills.

From this point of view, the many attempts to quantify intelligence using tests (such as IQ measurements or others) are too static and refer to standardised and culturally (sometimes even ideologically) biased faculties.

Based on a priori assumptions, intelligent tests are restrictive and therefore problematic. Based on this “intelligence calculation” or the debatable assignation of individuals to different levels of intelligence, what should be concluded for the practices or even the choices related to career orientation?

"Understanding the Brain: The Birth of a Learning Science", 2007, page 27