What does it mean to be smart? Research and neuroscience concerning general intelligence

What is general intelligence g?

There is the concept of “being smart”.

It might be obvious to say so, but people with good grades in English generally have good grades in mathematics or social studies or science, and because people who are smart like this often have strong learning capabilities and are able to produce quality output in a short period after being allocated a job, many companies use academic achievements as a criterion for recruitment.

This so-called “smartness” was first proposed as a concept in the early 20th century and is known as general intelligence g.

In that case, what physiological element can this general intelligence g be found in?

The relationship between general intelligence g and the brain

The paper I discuss today is an outline summarizing research investigating what elements can explain this general intelligence g.

According to this paper, general intelligence g is, in concrete terms, information processing capacity, and can be shown by:

• information processing speed,
• working memory,
• the ability to control information, and
• learning ability,

and the physiological elements linked to general intelligence g include:

• brain size,
• cerebral cortex thickness,
• the bulk of the nerve fibers joining the cerebral cortex,
• the volume of the prefrontal cortex,
• the volume of the medial prefrontal cortex, which is the region in the prefrontal cortex relating to the sense of self,
• the volume of the anterior cingulate, which connects emotion and reason,
• the bulk of the nerve fibers exiting the anterior cingulate,
• the bulk of the nerve fibers exiting the temporal lobe, which relates to language, and
• the activity of the left lateral prefrontal cortex,

among others.

However, no indicator can fully explain general intelligence g on its own and their correlation coefficients are low, being able to explain little more than 25%.

Will you always succeed if you have a high general intelligence g? The relationship between general intelligence g and collective intelligence

Although it cannot be explained on its own, it appears that there is a sufficient relationship between the brain and general intelligence g, so does that mean that our intelligence—and in turn, our level of social success—is determined by our brain function?

Recent studies show that that is not necessarily the case.

Previously, I have mentioned the concept of collective intelligence.

Collective intelligence is an element relating to the productivity of a group, and it is known that oddly, collective intelligence is not related to the general intelligence g of the members, but rather it has the strongest relationship with the “ability to sense what others are thinking,” which relates to sociality.

The ideal would be to be smart and to be attentive to others, but working on your ability to sense what others are thinking might be important as well.

Reference URL: Cognitive and Neurobiological Mechanisms of the Law of General Intelligence