What is the difference between thinking and intelligence

In other chapters, we discussed the cognitive processes of perception, learning, and memory. In this chapter, we will focus on high-level cognitive processes. As a part of this discussion, we will consider thinking and briefly explore the development and use of language. We will also discuss problem solving and creativity before ending with a discussion of how intelligence is measured and how our biology and environments interact to affect intelligence.

She provides the following definition: "Critical thinking is a collection of cognitive skills that allow us to think rationally in a goal-orientated fashion, and a disposition to use those skills when appropriate.

Critical thinkers are amiable skeptics. They are flexible thinkers who require evidence to support their beliefs and recognize fallacious attempts to persuade them.

While the spatial skills and math ability measured by intelligence tests are important, they are arguably not the keys to making most real-world decisions in a business context, where the factors are complex and many of the most important variables are social variables: How is my boss going to react? How can I convince the board to invest in this?

There is much more to a job position than the responsibilities outlined in the job posting. To be successful requires the use of critical thinking to deal with new and unexpected situations much more so than solving mathematical problems even if that's what you've been hired to do. In other words, being good at math is great, but it is not sufficient for success. Image attribution: Clem Onojeghuo. If you've been tasked with building a marketing team, whether it's a brand new team or you're composing a project team within your organization, forget the IQ tests and focus your energy on identifying people with strong critical thinking skills.

Strong teams need to have strong interpersonal dynamics, and those with strong critical thinking skills have the ability to assess the reality of the situation in front of them and judge the best course of action. Particularly if deadlines are tight and the atmosphere is stressful, you need people who can handle the crunch and perform under challenging circumstances.

But how exactly should you go about finding people with strong critical thinking skills? It isn't as easy as asking, Are you good at critical thinking? Thankfully, scientists have developed a reliable test that has been validated numerous times for measuring critical thinking ability.

A recent study from the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology validates a set of assessment criteria that actually predict real-world outcomes of critical thinking. It has been shown to reliably measure critical thinking across a wide range of disciplines such as education, health, law, finance, and interpersonal relationships.

The Halpern Critical Thinking Assessment HCTA measures five dimensions of critical thinking: verbal reasoning, argument analysis, thinking as hypothesis testing understanding sample size and generalizations , likelihood and uncertainty applying relevant probability principles like base rates , and decision-making and problem solving. Basically, the test presents a variety of real-world scenarios and asks how you would respond.

Analytical intelligence is closely aligned with academic problem solving and computations. Sternberg says that analytical intelligence is demonstrated by an ability to analyze, evaluate, judge, compare, and contrast. When reading a classic novel for a literature class, for example, it is usually necessary to compare the motives of the main characters of the book or analyze the historical context of the story.

In a science course such as anatomy, you must study the processes by which the body uses various minerals in different human systems.

In developing an understanding of this topic, you are using analytical intelligence. When solving a challenging math problem, you would apply analytical intelligence to analyze different aspects of the problem and then solve it section by section. Creative intelligence is marked by inventing or imagining a solution to a problem or situation.

Creativity in this realm can include finding a novel solution to an unexpected problem or producing a beautiful work of art or a well-developed short story. The person in your group who figures out a way to successfully brew coffee for everyone would be credited as having higher creative intelligence.

Among these eight intelligences, a person typically excels in some and falters in others Gardner, Table 7. People with high emotional intelligence typically have well-developed social skills.

Some researchers, including Daniel Goleman, the author of Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More than IQ , argue that emotional intelligence is a better predictor of success than traditional intelligence Goleman, In this theory, abilities are related and arranged in a hierarchy with general abilities at the top, broad abilities in the middle, and narrow specific abilities at the bottom.

The narrow abilities are the only ones that can be directly measured; however, they are integrated within the other abilities. At the general level is general intelligence. Next, the broad level consists of general abilities such as fluid reasoning, short-term memory, and processing speed. Finally, as the hierarchy continues, the narrow level includes specific forms of cognitive abilities. For example, short-term memory would further break down into memory span and working memory capacity.

Intelligence can also have different meanings and values in different cultures. If you live on a small island, where most people get their food by fishing from boats, it would be important to know how to fish and how to repair a boat. If you were an exceptional angler, your peers would probably consider you intelligent.

If you were also skilled at repairing boats, your intelligence might be known across the whole island. What values are important for Latinx families? Italian families? In Irish families, hospitality and telling an entertaining story are marks of the culture. If you are a skilled storyteller, other members of Irish culture are likely to consider you intelligent.

Some cultures place a high value on working together as a collective. In these cultures, the importance of the group supersedes the importance of individual achievement. When you visit such a culture, how well you relate to the values of that culture exemplifies your cultural intelligence , sometimes referred to as cultural competence.

Creativity is the ability to generate, create, or discover new ideas, solutions, and possibilities. Very creative people often have intense knowledge about something, work on it for years, look at novel solutions, seek out the advice and help of other experts, and take risks.

Although creativity is often associated with the arts, it is actually a vital form of intelligence that drives people in many disciplines to discover something new. Creativity can be found in every area of life, from the way you decorate your residence to a new way of understanding how a cell works. In contrast, convergent thinking describes the ability to provide a correct or well-established answer or solution to a problem Cropley, ; Gilford, IQ stands for intelligence quotient and describes a score earned on a test designed to measure intelligence.

Similarly, IQ tests—the tools designed to measure intelligence—have been the subject of debate throughout their development and use. When might an IQ test be used? What do we learn from the results, and how might people use this information? While there are certainly many benefits to intelligence testing, it is important to also note the limitations and controversies surrounding these tests. For example, IQ tests have sometimes been used as arguments in support of insidious purposes, such as the eugenics movement Severson, The infamous Supreme Court Case, Buck v.

Bell , U. Today, only professionals trained in psychology can administer IQ tests, and the purchase of most tests requires an advanced degree in psychology. Other professionals in the field, such as social workers and psychiatrists, cannot administer IQ tests. In this section, we will explore what intelligence tests measure, how they are scored, and how they were developed. It seems that the human understanding of intelligence is somewhat limited when we focus on traditional or academic-type intelligence.

How then, can intelligence be measured? In the following paragraphs, we will explore the how intelligence tests were developed and the history of their use. The IQ test has been synonymous with intelligence for over a century. Although he was not a psychologist, his contributions to the concepts of intelligence testing are still felt today Gordon, Binet was asked by the French government to develop an intelligence test to use on children to determine which ones might have difficulty in school; it included many verbally based tasks.

American researchers soon realized the value of such testing. As a result, the test was normed and standardized, which means that the test was administered consistently to a large enough representative sample of the population that the range of scores resulted in a bell curve bell curves will be discussed later.

Standardization means that the manner of administration, scoring, and interpretation of results is consistent. Norming involves giving a test to a large population so data can be collected comparing groups, such as age groups. The resulting data provide norms, or referential scores, by which to interpret future scores. Norms are not expectations of what a given group should know but a demonstration of what that group does know.

Norming and standardizing the test ensures that new scores are reliable. Remarkably, an updated version of this test is still widely used today. Wechsler combined several subtests from other intelligence tests used between and World War I. This combination of subtests became one of the most extensively used intelligence tests in the history of psychology. Although its name was later changed to the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale WAIS and has been revised several times, the aims of the test remain virtually unchanged since its inception Boake, These tests are used widely in schools and communities throughout the United States, and they are periodically normed and standardized as a means of recalibration.

As a part of the recalibration process, the WISC-V was given to thousands of children across the country, and children taking the test today are compared with their same-age peers Figure 7. When the test is complete, individuals receive a score for each of the five indices and a Full Scale IQ score. The method of scoring reflects the understanding that intelligence is comprised of multiple abilities in several cognitive realms and focuses on the mental processes that the child used to arrive at his or her answers to each test item.

Interestingly, the periodic recalibrations have led to an interesting observation known as the Flynn effect. Named after James Flynn, who was among the first to describe this trend, the Flynn effect refers to the observation that each generation has a significantly higher IQ than the last. Ultimately, we are still left with the question of how valid intelligence tests are. The Bell Curve. The results of intelligence tests follow the bell curve, a graph in the general shape of a bell.

When the bell curve is used in psychological testing, the graph demonstrates a normal distribution of a trait, in this case, intelligence, in the human population. Many human traits naturally follow the bell curve. This cluster would fall in the center of the bell curve, representing the average height for American women Figure 7.

The trick to finding a bell curve in nature is to use a large sample size. Without a large sample size, it is less likely that the bell curve will represent the wider population.

A representative sample is a subset of the population that accurately represents the general population. If, for example, you measured the height of the women in your classroom only, you might not actually have a representative sample. Because basketball players tend to be taller than average, the women in your class may not be a good representative sample of the population of American women.

But if your sample included all the women at your school, it is likely that their heights would form a natural bell curve. The same principles apply to intelligence test scores. Individuals earn a score called an intelligence quotient IQ. Over the years, different types of IQ tests have evolved, but the way scores are interpreted remains the same. The average IQ score on an IQ test is Standard deviations describe how data are dispersed in a population and give context to large data sets.

The bell curve uses the standard deviation to show how all scores are dispersed from the average score Figure 7. In modern IQ testing, one standard deviation is 15 points. An IQ score of or above is considered a superior level. Only 2. A score of 70 or below indicates significant cognitive delays. When these are combined with major deficits in adaptive functioning, a person is diagnosed with having an intellectual disability American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, Formerly known as mental retardation, the accepted term now is intellectual disability, and it has four subtypes: mild, moderate, severe, and profound Table 7.

On the other end of the intelligence spectrum are those individuals whose IQs fall into the highest ranges. People are considered gifted if they have an IQ score of or higher, or superior intelligence in a particular area. Long ago, popular belief suggested that people of high intelligence were maladjusted.

This idea was disproven through a groundbreaking study of gifted children. In , Lewis Terman began a longitudinal study of over children with IQs over Terman, Heather Butler, individuals with a strong critical thinking capacity encounter fewer negative life experiences than those who are only intelligent.

Critical thinking refers to the group of cognitive skills that assist humans in using rational thought in a goal-oriented manner and using these skills at an appropriate time. On the other hand, intelligence has several definitions in psychology; some scientists believe it is a distinct ability while others believe it to be a collection of capabilities. However, it is generally known as the capability to discern, deduce, and react to information while still applying knowledge. Intelligence is often associated with adaptive behavior whereby a person uses experience to respond to a specific situation.

Critical thinking primarily relies on flexible thinking that requires you to analyze available evidence, identify fallacious information, and make an informed decision. Intelligence mostly relies on logic, shared understanding, and learned knowledge when making decisions.

The techniques used to measure these two abilities also vary. When measuring intelligence, you will use an intelligence quotient IQ test to assess the individual. Critical thinking tests measure how you can use analytical thinking skills to solve variable real-life challenges.

There is also a variation between intelligent individuals and critical thinkers when it comes to personality traits. For instance, smart people are often highly adaptable to new environments, curious, and individualistic.

By contrast, creative thinkers are objective-driven, critical analyzers, creative thinkers, and effective communicators. However, Scientific research shows that critical thinking skills may be more necessary in making sound decisions. To live a healthy, financially stable life, you need critical thinking to know what you should or not do.