2. Factor – a circumstance, fact,
or influence that contributes to a
result or outcome.
A number or quantity that when
multiplied with another produces
a given number or expression.
3. Intelligence – is the sum of total of
all cognitive processes and skills.
It refers to the ability of an individual to
learn from experience, to reason well,
and to cope with the demands of social
living.
Topics called “higher-order” forms of
cognition-concept formation, reasoning,
problem solving, and creativity, as well
as memory and perception are related to
human intelligence.
4. Human intelligence – is the
ability to acquire, recall, and use
knowledge to understand
concrete and abstracts concepts,
relations among objects and
ideas, and to use knowledge in a
meaningful way.
5. Nature
How much does our intelligence
depend on our genes?
For more than a century, researchers have been
studying how much our genetic legacy influences
our intelligence. After all that time, they've
determined that our genes do influence intelligence
and IQ. (40-80%)
6. our brain structure and functionality -- both
biological factors -- contribute to our level of
intelligence. Using brain imaging,
neuroscientists have identified differences in
brain structure, specifically differences in
our parieto-frontal pathways that seem to
affect our intelligence positively (or
negatively, depending on the brain). Well-
functioning pathways correlate to better
brain functioning, brain efficiency and
information processing, which all point to
better IQ scores.
7. Early Nutrition
As it turns out, you really are
what you eat. And what your
mom ate during her
pregnancy. Prenatal and early
nutrition are linked to brain
structure, behavior and, yes,
intelligence.
8. The greater nutrition in the foods we
eat, especially for males in the weeks
just after birth, the greater the size of
the caudate -- that's the part of our
brain that specializes in learning and
memory -- and the greater our verbal
IQ scores.
9. And the effects also seem
to apply to babies whose
prenatal diets were rich in
long-chain
polyunsaturated fatty
acids, such as DHA
(docosahexaenoic acid).
10. When pregnant and lactating women
have diets rich in these fatty acids, their
offspring are more likely to score higher
on intelligence and achievement tests at
ages 4 and 7.
11.
12. Nurture
How much nature versus nurture affects
human intelligence is a long-studied and long-
debated topic. The term "nature" refers to how
genetics and heritability influence our
intelligence, and "nurture" describes how
certain environmental factors affect our
intelligence. These factors include everything
from our family's parenting style and home
environment to how we're educated and the
experiences we have throughout our lives.
13. Researchers often study twins who've been separated at
birth to understand further the roles nature and nurture
play in human intelligence. They theorize that if
intelligence is purely biological, identical twins
separated at birth should still have equal IQs. But that's
not always the case, they find.
While you may be genetically predisposed to an average
intelligence level, a quality education and life
experiences may enable you to turn an average IQ into a
great one over a lifetime.
14. Birth Order
People have been studying whether or not birth
order affects human intelligence for more than
a century, yet we're still just not sure. For
years, it was believed that firstborns and older
children in families were more intelligent than
their younger siblings. And there are more
firstborn children who've become space-bound
astronauts, U.S. presidents and Nobel Prize
winners than kids with older siblings.
15. Why? Families with just one child may have more time and
financial resources to put toward educating that child. Recent
studies, however, observe that it may not be intelligence -- our
potential for learning, understanding and reasoning -- that's
affected by birth order, but rather our IQ (intelligence quotient).
IQ tests measure our intelligence aptitude and compare us to our
peers. Firstborn children, on average, score three points higher
on IQ tests than their closest, next-born siblings
16. Birth Order and Personality
While researchers continue to study if,
how and why birth order affects our
intelligence, they're also looking at how
birth order affects our personalities.
They've found that firstborn children
tend to be perfectionists and people-
pleasers, while their younger siblings
are often more extroverted and
sociable.
17. Environment
We may be genetically predisposed to a
certain brain volume, structure and
pathways -- a certain level of intelligence
set by our biology -- but how much we
achieve isn't based in biology alone. The
type of life we lead also affects intelligence.
Environmental factors, such as the diet we
eat, the toxins we're exposed to both in the
womb and as we age, and even the
neighborhood we choose to live in -- be it
dangerous or safe -- all influence how genes
are expressed in our lives.
18. Let's use cigarette smoke as an example. Exposure to the toxins in
cigarette smoke -- while in the womb and throughout a lifetime -- is
known to lower our intelligence quotient, decreasing IQ scores by
more than seven points when compared to individuals who aren't
exposed to cigarette smoke [source: American Friends of Tel Aviv
University]. Such environmental factors are thought to influence
our intelligence levels throughout our lives.
