Understanding Brain Function (09:41)

FREE PREVIEW

Experts come together to understand where intelligence resides in the brain; Franz Joseph Gall successfully searched for certain functions of the brain. Alfred Binet developed special education for children considered abnormal in 1909, he called this mental orthopedics. The brain can be trained to be more intellectual just as other muscles can be conditioned to perform specific activities.

Neurological Evaluations (05:35)

Education can help children develop intelligence; helping them gain skills will reinforce self-confidence, but overstimulation will lead to most children not listening to the teacher. Jean-Phillippe Lachaux explains the difference between memory and attention for an audience member; he studies the electromagnetic responses of a patient’s brain as she performs an activity.

Evaluating Intelligence in Children (10:34)

The concept of IQ is defined as the mental age divided by the real age and then multiplied by one hundred. American psychologist David Wechsler developed a way to measure intelligence using statistical techniques. Even if a child has an above average IQ, he may not have the psycho-affective maturity to go into a higher class; there are many factors including intellectual stimulation.

Evaluating Intelligence in Adults (04:48)

Intelligence is not officially measured by tests within the working world in order to avoid discriminatory actions in workplaces. Aptitude helps to identify professional profiles, which help professionals decide what job best suits them. Since society is based on media, the concept of IQ has become more complex as it rises in popularity; if a child's IQ is considered absolute, society risks turning the child and his cognitive activity into an object.

Tracking Intelligence Further (06:36)

At the Institute of Cognitive Science, two students are taking part in an experiment led by Aurore Curie to help psychologists understand patients with genetic learning disabilities. Individuals with an IQ lower than 70% are considered mentally deficient and represent only 2.5% of the population. People who are mentally deficient are often frightened by anything new because they do not understand novelty.

Cognitive Development (04:34)

Through reasoning, cognitive sciences study psychology, data processing, or linguistics to understand how man acquires consciousness of the events and objects within his environment. Scientist Ira Noveck describes how he believes words should be studied closely because they are the source of all reasoning and cognition. Some people perform better during tests, particularly reasoning problems, than other due to their higher IQs.

Future of Artificial Intelligence (08:23)

Peter Ford Dominey displays his robots intellectual capacity to imitate an action he performs; some robotics developers aim to create the perfect man, an audience member expresses his fear that humans will one day be replaced. Dominey assures him technology is unable to perform the daily tasks of humans and lack the social intelligence needed to integrate into society. Intelligence is not a well-defined scientific term due to its links to multiple brain functions; there are multiple criteria for intelligence.

Credits: Intelligence Quotient (01:11)

Credits: Intelligence Quotient