What Is Intelligence?
A Kid’s Perspective
When people want to show appreciation for my kids, they often tell me and my husband Nick how smart they are, how creative and curious they are, how imaginative and inventive they are. We try to take their compliments graciously while broadening them to others—remarking how rich their learning environments are or acknowledging the efforts of the grownups in their lives that include them in their activities. We do this, because we know that our kids aren’t a trio of Harry Potters. They aren’t magical wizards that were born inherently superior to all their peers. They’re just kids who are privileged enough to have grownups providing them the undivided attention and unconditional love that feeds their souls. They may not have everything they want, but they have everything they need.
Recently, I began thinking about how my kids see intelligence when it dawned on me that they are with Nick and I nearly every time we hear these compliments. So, on a drive back home from school one day, I asked them: “What is intelligence?” And then: What does it mean when someone says you’re intelligent?” One of my kindergartners spoke up and said it’s like when you know how to do something. The other agreed and said you can do something and show your brother how to do it. I nodded and then clarified what I construed from their answers: that it’s about figuring things out and learning, and then if you feel like you know it, then maybe you can teach others too. They affirmed with their own examples of things that they are passionate to learn together and pass on to each other and their friends.
A Scientist’s Perspective
When I was their age, I thought about intelligence very differently. I saw it as some inborn quality. I certainly didn’t think of it as a process or as something you got from sharing ideas with other people. It wasn’t until I started researching genetics and learning that intelligence doesn't work that way because our genes and brains don’t work that way that I began seeing it more like they do.
Two biological truths changed my mind. First, our genomes aren’t fixed because they are regulated by our epigenomes. The epigenome comprises the modifications to our DNA that tell our genes when to turn on or off. The epigenome is heritable (a.k.a. it can be passed down from generation to generation) and it’s malleable (a.k.a. it can change depending on your environment, including your health behaviors, social interactions, and life experiences).
Second, our brains aren’t fixed because they are constantly growing and developing according to our environmental inputs. The brain is plastic (a.k.a. it is impressionable and pliant). It actually prunes its internal networks as you put your energy into and attention on one thing or another, changing its form and function!
So intelligence can never be reduced to what’s inside our heads or our genes. And we aren’t just some amount smart. We are beings in conversation with our fast-changing environments. We always have the potential to learn and grow. In fact, we are doing just that whether or not we are aware of it.