Is intelligence variable? Can it be gained or lost?

This is a great question, @Mariah ! I have wondered that as well. I know one can increase one’s reasoning skills, but I don’t know if there’s a cap. I tend to think so, but I don’t know what studies to cite…

“What do you think intelligence is, and is it a variable quality?”

The etymology of the word intelligence involves the ability to discern valuable information from worthless information for any given notion at hand.

Useless information for one notion may be extremely useful for another. Intelligence is understanding which information is applicable to any given situation.

Experience increases potentiality for making these judgments. But it in no way guarantees it.

My personal interpretation of intelligence is having a brain similar to a computer’s hard drive with great storage capacity. The reason for this is when I was in school, I would along with my classmates understand how a formula for solving a math problem works but later on, I just could not remember all the steps and the subsets of the steps to be taken to get to the right answer. My brilliant classmates always do.

I think intelligence is definitely variable.

I highly recommend The Element by Sir Ken Robinson for this very subject.
It comes in an audiobook format too, and he reads his own book. It’s brilliant.

As a teacher of young children, I have learned that it is essential for many children (and their teachers and caregivers) to believe that intelligence is variable. This is especially true for children with social and emotional insecurities that make it more difficult for them (at least in a traditional school environment) to learn. Psychologist Carol Dweck has studied why some children persist in the face of failure while others give up. She has determined that those children who give up do so because they believe that they are just “not smart enough” (i.e., they have a fixed view of intelligence). Those who persist believe that they will “get smarter” through persistence (i.e., they believe their intelligence is variable). There’s a nice explanation of her work here.

Interestingly, children with a fixed view of their intelligence tend to shy away from challenges. They will opt for an easier project in order to get an A, because they believe that failure will provide proof of their low intelligence. Success means everything to them, because to them it provides proof of their high (fixed) intelligence. On the other hand, students who believe their intelligence is variable and can grow incrementally will seek out challenges, because they believe their intelligence can be increased by effort. I have realized the truth of this research first hand when working with academically insecure students. Praising their intelligence (e.g., saying “You’re so smart! I know you can do this!”) has little to no effect and in fact sometimes causes them to shut down even further, because deciding not to do the assignment at all is preferable to trying and failing (thereby, in their eyes, proving that they aren’t smart at all). In contrast, praising their effort (e.g., “Remember how hard you worked on this yesterday? That was amazing! I know you can do the same thing today”) boosts their confidence and inspires them to try.

I teach at an elementary school where our motto is “Think You Can! Work Hard! Get Smart!” It sounds simple but it embodies this idea of intelligence being variable and hard work leading to “getting smart.” It makes a huge difference in the classroom. I quote it to my students every day.

Sweet holy moly, I see intelligence as one’s ability to process the information into a usable workable situation or process. You can somewhat measure how well a person does that by IQ test but the flaw I see In that is a lot of IQ test goes off stuff you simply remembered and not had to work through. If you had a PC how intelligent it would be would depend on how the programmer fo the program running on it was able to figure out and resolve a problem. Such as Spell Check, it was told if I spelled a word like leason produce alternatives such as lesson, etc incase that is the correct wording I wanted. The memory storage capacity of information that the PC has would not make a difference. The only thing that would do is determine how much the computer could remember to draw from in solving the problem. Intelligence is like wisdom with a tangible or scientific footing. A problem solved by wisdom may not have a tangible or measurable outcome but to me intelligence usually does.

Intelligence is making good use of knowledge. You can increase your intelligence with practise but mostly it is an ability you are born with.

IMO the smarter you are the dumber the stuff you will do. I don’t know why that is but the more I think about it the biggest boner moves I have seen in my life were by very smart people!! Why is that??

I think it does vary a bit since I have seen people with a lot of knowledge who I would not consider intelligent since they have a mental block against learning anything new. There is an element of “use it or lose it” which, combined with the fact that memory often declines with age, means that we generally do get dumber with age.

@Cruiser The guys I studied nuclear propulsion with in the Navy were among the dumbest people I ever met. I think it may be that the more mind you have, the more warps will be in your mind.

@jerv you and I are on the same page here it seems…don’t go doing anything I wouldn’t do! ;)

I’m living proof that it can be lost, that’s for sure. I used to be smarter, I swear!

I do think a certain amount of intelligence is already in you at birth (and that the amount varies from person to person), but your environment and experiences can definitely either enhance or detract from the starting point. It’s nature and nurture, both, like so many things.

Oh pish, @augustlan you’re brilliant, and we lurve you. ^

Psh, yourself. And thanks. ;)

@augustlan : I know when I had a child, my intelligence took a downturn. Guess I just passed it on to KatawaGrey!

@JilltheTooth So true, and I had three of them.