Environment and intelligence
Encyclopedia
Environment and intelligence research investigates the impact of environment on intelligence. This is one of the most important factors in understanding human group differences in IQ test
scores and other measures of cognitive ability. Historically, there has been great interest in the field of intelligence research to determine environmental influences on the development of cognitive functioning, in particular, fluid intelligence
, as defined by its stabilization at 16 years of age.
of intelligence, or g, as measured by IQ tests. A person’s IQ is supposed to be relatively stable after they have reached maturity.
The capacity of the brain to adapt its connections to environmental stimuli diminishes over time, and therefore it would follow that there is a critical period
for intellectual development as well. While the critical period for the visual cortex
ends
in early childhood, other cortical areas and abilities have a critical period that lasts up through maturity (age 16), the same time frame for the development of fluid intelligence. So for a person to develop certain intellectual abilities, they need to be provided with the appropriate environmental stimuli during childhood, before the critical period for adapting their neuronal connections ends. It should be mentioned that some researchers believe that the critical period effect is a result of the manner by which intellectual abilities are acquired—that changes in neuronal connections inhibit or prevent possible future changes. However, the critical period is observed at approximately the same age in all people, no matter what level of intellectual ability is achieved.
that an individual's peer group
influences their intelligence greatly over time, and that different peer group characteristics may be responsible for the black-white IQ gap
. Several longitudinal studies support the conjecture that peer groups significantly effect scholastic achievement, but relatively few studies have examined the effect on tests of cognitive ability. There is some evidence that peer groups influence tests of cognitive ability, however.
. On the one hand, those who did better on intelligence tests in their childhood tend to have a lower drop out rate, and complete more years of school, therefore making intelligence a predictive factor of how well someone will succeed in schooling. However, on the other hand, education has been shown to improve a person’s performance on these intelligence tests, from a very young age.
capacity. Working memory capacity is defined as the ability to remember something temporarily, like remembering a phone number
just long enough to dial it.
In an experiment, groups of adults were first assessed using standard tests for fluid intelligence. Then they trained groups for four different numbers of days, for half an hour each day, using an n-back
exercise that worked on improving one’s working memory. It supposedly does so through a few different components, involving having to ignore irrelevant items, manage tasks simultaneously, and monitor performance on exercise, while connecting related items. After this training, the groups were tested again and those with training (compared against control groups
who did not undergo training) showed significant increases in performance on the fluid intelligence tests.
affects cognition and intellectual development from a neurobiological perspective. In an experiment, four different habitats were set up to test how environmental enrichment or relative impoverishment affected rats’ performance on various measures of intelligent behavior. First, rats were isolated, each to its own cage. In an second condition, the rats were still in isolation, but this time they had some toy, or enriching object in the cage with them. The third condition placed the rats in cages with each other, so they were receiving social enrichment, without any enriching object. The fourth and final condition exposed the rats to both social interaction and some form of object enrichment.
In measuring intellectual capacity, the rats who had both forms of enrichment performed best, the ones with social enrichment performed second best, and the ones with a toy in their cage performed still better than the rats with no toy or other rats. When the volume of the rat's cortices was measured the amount of enrichment again correlated with larger volume, which is an indicator of more synaptic connections, and greater intelligence.
However, long-term, post-natal malnutrition can have a significant effect on intellectual development. This relationship has been harder to establish because the issue of malnutrition is often conflated with socioeconomic issues. However, it has been demonstrated in a few studies where pre-schoolers in two Guatemalan villages (where undernourishment is common) were given protein nutrition supplements for several years, and even in the lowest socioeconomic class
, those children showed an increase in performance on intelligence tests, relative to controls with no dietary supplement
.
Early nutrition can affect brain structures that are actually correlated to IQ levels. Specifically the caudate nucleus
is particularly affected by early environmental factor
s and its volume correlates with IQ. In an experiment by Isaacs et al., infants born premature were either assigned a standard or high-nutrient diet during the weeks directly after birth. When the individuals were assessed later in adolescence, it was found that the high-nutrient group had significantly larger caudate volumes and scored significantly higher on verbal IQ tests. This study also found that the extent to which the caudate volume size related selectively to verbal IQ was much greater in male participants, and not very significant in females. This may help explain the finding in other earlier research that the effects of early diet on intelligence are more predominant in males.
Another study done by Lucas et al. confirms the conclusions about the importance of nutrition in the cognitive development of individuals born prematurely. It also found that the cognitive function
of males was significantly more impaired by poorer postnatal nutrition. A unique finding however, was that there was a higher incidence of cerebral palsy
in the individuals who were fed the non-nutrient enhanced formula.
Breast feeding
has long been purported to supply important nutrients to an infant born premature, and has been correlated with increased cognitive gains later in childhood. However, this effect has also been demonstrated for infants born at normal weight. When controlling for other environmental influences and maternal IQ, a study by Johnson et al. still found that the initiation of breast feeding predicted the scores of three year olds on intelligence tests. On average, breast feeding resulted in a 4.6 higher score on intelligence tests.
, are still at risk for exposing their children.
Furthermore, prenatal exposure to alcohol
can greatly affect a child’s performance on intelligence tests, and their intellectual growth. At high doses, fetal alcohol syndrome can develop, which causes mental retardation
, as well as other physical symptoms, such as head and face deformities, heart defects
and slow growth. It is estimated that 1 in 1,000 babies born in the general population are born with fetal alcohol syndrome, as a result of heavy use of alcohol during pregnancy.
However, studies have shown that even at slightly less severe doses, prenatal exposure to alcohol can still affect the intelligence of the child in development, without having the full syndrome. Through a study done by Streissguth, Barr, Sampson, Darby, and Martin in 1989, it was shown that moderate prenatal doses of alcohol, defined as the mother ingesting 1.5 oz. daily, lowered children’s test scores by 4 point below control levels, by the age of four. They also showed that prenatal exposure to aspirin and antibiotics is correlated with lower performance on intelligence tests as well.
In another study, prenatal drug exposure was shown to have significantly negative effects on cognitive functioning, as measured at the age of five, compared again controls matched for socioeconomic status and inner-city environment. The researchers concluded that prenatally drug-exposed children are at greater risk for learning difficulties
and attention problems in school, and therefore should be the subject of interventions to support educational success. It could be hypothesized that the effect of these drugs on the development of the brain prenatally, and axon guidance
could be the root of the negative consequences on later deficits in intellectual development.
Specifically, prenatal exposure to marijuana affects development of intelligence later in childhood, in a nonlinear fashion, with the degree of exposure. Heavy use by the mother within the first trimester
is associated with lower verbal reasoning
scores on the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale
; heavy use during the second trimester is associated with deficits in composite, short-term memory
as well as lower quantitative scores on the test; high exposure in third trimester associated with lower quantitative scores as well.
and mental retardation. Also, low birth weights have been linked to lower intelligence scores later in lives of the children. There are two reasons for low birth weight
, either premature delivery or the infant’s size is just lower than average for its gestational age
; both contribute to intellectual deficits later in life. However, the correlations are relatively small unless the weight is extremely low (less than 1,500 g) - then the effects on intellectual development are more severe and often result in mental retardation.
; he did not demonstrate generalized exceptional intelligence as a child, however there is evidence that he started exploring the ideas of physics
and the universe at a young age.
This fits with the model of development of fluid intelligence before age of maturity because the neuronal connections are still being made in childhood. The idea is if you expose a child to concepts of, for example theoretical physics
, before their brain stops responding to the environment in a plastic way, then you get exceptional understanding of that field in adulthood, because there was a framework developed for it in early childhood. However, Garlick proposes that early environmental experience with their field of genius, is necessary but not sufficient to the development of genius.
There are many environmental influences on intelligence, typically divided into biological and non-biological factors, often involving social or cultural factors. The commonality between these two divisions is the exposure in early childhood. It seems as though exposure to these various positive or negative influences on intelligence levels, defined as fluid intelligence, as measured most often by IQ tests, needs to happen early on in the development of the brain, before the neuronal connections have ceased forming.
However, a study claimed that musical training improves verbal
, but not spatial IQ.
Significant differences in brain structure between musicians and non-musicians have been found.
Studies have shown that listening to Mozart before taking an IQ test will improve scores. This is called the Mozart Effect
. The Mozart Effect improves spatial-temporal reasoning
.
requires auditory-verbal-sequential skills, not visuospatial skills. A German
study found that Garry Kasparov
, a Soviet
/ Russia
n former World Chess Champion, regarded by many as the greatest chess player of all time, has an IQ of 135 and an extremely good memory. One study found that students who were taking a chess class improved mathematical and comprehension performance.
Intelligence quotient
An intelligence quotient, or IQ, is a score derived from one of several different standardized tests designed to assess intelligence. When modern IQ tests are constructed, the mean score within an age group is set to 100 and the standard deviation to 15...
scores and other measures of cognitive ability. Historically, there has been great interest in the field of intelligence research to determine environmental influences on the development of cognitive functioning, in particular, fluid intelligence
Fluid and crystallized intelligence
In psychology, fluid and crystallized intelligence are factors of general intelligence originally identified by Raymond Cattell...
, as defined by its stabilization at 16 years of age.
Neurobiological theory
As babies, our neuronal connections are completely undifferentiated. Neurons make connections with neighboring neurons, and these become more complex and more idiosyncratic as the child ages, up until the age of 16, when this process halts. This is also the time frame for development of what is defined in psychometric studies as the general factorGeneral intelligence factor
The g factor, where g stands for general intelligence, is a statistic used in psychometrics to model the mental ability underlying results of various tests of cognitive ability...
of intelligence, or g, as measured by IQ tests. A person’s IQ is supposed to be relatively stable after they have reached maturity.
The capacity of the brain to adapt its connections to environmental stimuli diminishes over time, and therefore it would follow that there is a critical period
Critical period
This article is about a critical period in an organism's or person's development. See also America's Critical Period.In general, a critical period is a limited time in which an event can occur, usually to result in some kind of transformation...
for intellectual development as well. While the critical period for the visual cortex
Visual cortex
The visual cortex of the brain is the part of the cerebral cortex responsible for processing visual information. It is located in the occipital lobe, in the back of the brain....
ends
in early childhood, other cortical areas and abilities have a critical period that lasts up through maturity (age 16), the same time frame for the development of fluid intelligence. So for a person to develop certain intellectual abilities, they need to be provided with the appropriate environmental stimuli during childhood, before the critical period for adapting their neuronal connections ends. It should be mentioned that some researchers believe that the critical period effect is a result of the manner by which intellectual abilities are acquired—that changes in neuronal connections inhibit or prevent possible future changes. However, the critical period is observed at approximately the same age in all people, no matter what level of intellectual ability is achieved.
Family
Having access to resources of the home, and having a home life conducive to learning, definitely affects scores on intelligence tests. However, it is difficult to disentangle possible genetic factors from a parent’s attitude or use of language, for example.Peer group
JR Harris suggested in The Nurture AssumptionThe Nurture Assumption
The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do is a book written by Judith Rich Harris, with a foreword by Steven Pinker, originally published 1998 by the Free Press, which published a revised edition in 2009. It has been published in at least 20 languages...
that an individual's peer group
Peer group
A peer group is a social group consisting of humans. Peer groups are an informal primary group of people who share a similar or equal status and who are usually of roughly the same age, tended to travel around and interact within the social aggregate Members of a particular peer group often have...
influences their intelligence greatly over time, and that different peer group characteristics may be responsible for the black-white IQ gap
Race and intelligence
The connection between race and intelligence has been a subject of debate in both popular science and academic research since the inception of intelligence testing in the early 20th century...
. Several longitudinal studies support the conjecture that peer groups significantly effect scholastic achievement, but relatively few studies have examined the effect on tests of cognitive ability. There is some evidence that peer groups influence tests of cognitive ability, however.
Education
Education has a complicated relationship with intelligence; it is both a dependent and independent variableIndependent variable
The terms "dependent variable" and "independent variable" are used in similar but subtly different ways in mathematics and statistics as part of the standard terminology in those subjects...
. On the one hand, those who did better on intelligence tests in their childhood tend to have a lower drop out rate, and complete more years of school, therefore making intelligence a predictive factor of how well someone will succeed in schooling. However, on the other hand, education has been shown to improve a person’s performance on these intelligence tests, from a very young age.
Training and interventions
Research on the effectiveness of interventions, and the degree to which fluid intelligence can be increased, especially after age 16, is somewhat controversial. Fluid intelligence is typically thought of as something more innate, and defined as immutable after maturity. One recent article however, demonstrates that, at least for a period of time, fluid intelligence can be increased through training in increasing an adult’s working memoryWorking memory
Working memory has been defined as the system which actively holds information in the mind to do verbal and nonverbal tasks such as reasoning and comprehension, and to make it available for further information processing...
capacity. Working memory capacity is defined as the ability to remember something temporarily, like remembering a phone number
Telephone number
A telephone number or phone number is a sequence of digits used to call from one telephone line to another in a public switched telephone network. When telephone numbers were invented, they were short — as few as one, two or three digits — and were given orally to a switchboard operator...
just long enough to dial it.
In an experiment, groups of adults were first assessed using standard tests for fluid intelligence. Then they trained groups for four different numbers of days, for half an hour each day, using an n-back
N-back
The n-back task is a Continuous Performance Task that is commonly used in neuroimaging to stimulate brain activity in test subjects. It was introduced by Wayne Kirchner in 1958.-The task:...
exercise that worked on improving one’s working memory. It supposedly does so through a few different components, involving having to ignore irrelevant items, manage tasks simultaneously, and monitor performance on exercise, while connecting related items. After this training, the groups were tested again and those with training (compared against control groups
Scientific control
Scientific control allows for comparisons of concepts. It is a part of the scientific method. Scientific control is often used in discussion of natural experiments. For instance, during drug testing, scientists will try to control two groups to keep them as identical and normal as possible, then...
who did not undergo training) showed significant increases in performance on the fluid intelligence tests.
Environmental enrichment
Environmental enrichmentEnvironmental enrichment (neural)
Environmental enrichment concerns how the brain is affected by the stimulation of its information processing provided by its surroundings . Brains in richer, more stimulating environments, have increased numbers of synapses, and the dendrite arbors upon which they reside are more complex...
affects cognition and intellectual development from a neurobiological perspective. In an experiment, four different habitats were set up to test how environmental enrichment or relative impoverishment affected rats’ performance on various measures of intelligent behavior. First, rats were isolated, each to its own cage. In an second condition, the rats were still in isolation, but this time they had some toy, or enriching object in the cage with them. The third condition placed the rats in cages with each other, so they were receiving social enrichment, without any enriching object. The fourth and final condition exposed the rats to both social interaction and some form of object enrichment.
In measuring intellectual capacity, the rats who had both forms of enrichment performed best, the ones with social enrichment performed second best, and the ones with a toy in their cage performed still better than the rats with no toy or other rats. When the volume of the rat's cortices was measured the amount of enrichment again correlated with larger volume, which is an indicator of more synaptic connections, and greater intelligence.
Nutrition
For period of time it was believed that prenatal malnutrition could lead to intellectual developmental deficits. However, through a study of Dutch males who were born during a wartime famine, it was demonstrated that short-term prenatal malnutrition had no relationship to intellectual development.However, long-term, post-natal malnutrition can have a significant effect on intellectual development. This relationship has been harder to establish because the issue of malnutrition is often conflated with socioeconomic issues. However, it has been demonstrated in a few studies where pre-schoolers in two Guatemalan villages (where undernourishment is common) were given protein nutrition supplements for several years, and even in the lowest socioeconomic class
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
, those children showed an increase in performance on intelligence tests, relative to controls with no dietary supplement
Dietary supplement
A dietary supplement, also known as food supplement or nutritional supplement, is a preparation intended to supplement the diet and provide nutrients, such as vitamins, minerals, fiber, fatty acids, or amino acids, that may be missing or may not be consumed in sufficient quantities in a person's diet...
.
Early nutrition can affect brain structures that are actually correlated to IQ levels. Specifically the caudate nucleus
Caudate nucleus
The caudate nucleus is a nucleus located within the basal ganglia of the brains of many animal species. The caudate nucleus is an important part of the brain's learning and memory system.-Anatomy:...
is particularly affected by early environmental factor
Environmental factor
Environmental factor or ecological factor or ecofactor is any factor, abiotic or biotic, that influences living organisms.- Environmental factors inducing diseases :...
s and its volume correlates with IQ. In an experiment by Isaacs et al., infants born premature were either assigned a standard or high-nutrient diet during the weeks directly after birth. When the individuals were assessed later in adolescence, it was found that the high-nutrient group had significantly larger caudate volumes and scored significantly higher on verbal IQ tests. This study also found that the extent to which the caudate volume size related selectively to verbal IQ was much greater in male participants, and not very significant in females. This may help explain the finding in other earlier research that the effects of early diet on intelligence are more predominant in males.
Another study done by Lucas et al. confirms the conclusions about the importance of nutrition in the cognitive development of individuals born prematurely. It also found that the cognitive function
Cognition
In science, cognition refers to mental processes. These processes include attention, remembering, producing and understanding language, solving problems, and making decisions. Cognition is studied in various disciplines such as psychology, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science...
of males was significantly more impaired by poorer postnatal nutrition. A unique finding however, was that there was a higher incidence of cerebral palsy
Cerebral palsy
Cerebral palsy is an umbrella term encompassing a group of non-progressive, non-contagious motor conditions that cause physical disability in human development, chiefly in the various areas of body movement....
in the individuals who were fed the non-nutrient enhanced formula.
Breast feeding
Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding is the feeding of an infant or young child with breast milk directly from female human breasts rather than from a baby bottle or other container. Babies have a sucking reflex that enables them to suck and swallow milk. It is recommended that mothers breastfeed for six months or...
has long been purported to supply important nutrients to an infant born premature, and has been correlated with increased cognitive gains later in childhood. However, this effect has also been demonstrated for infants born at normal weight. When controlling for other environmental influences and maternal IQ, a study by Johnson et al. still found that the initiation of breast feeding predicted the scores of three year olds on intelligence tests. On average, breast feeding resulted in a 4.6 higher score on intelligence tests.
Exposure to toxic chemicals and other substances
Lead exposure has been proven to have significant effects on the intellectual development of a child. In a long-term study done by Baghurst et al. 1992, children who grew up next to a lead-smelting plant had significantly lower intelligence test scores, negatively correlated with their blood-lead level exposure. Even though lead levels have been reduced in our environment, some areas in the United States, particularly inner citiesInner city
The inner city is the central area of a major city or metropolis. In the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Ireland, the term is often applied to the lower-income residential districts in the city centre and nearby areas...
, are still at risk for exposing their children.
Furthermore, prenatal exposure to alcohol
Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders describes a continuum of permanent birth defects caused by maternal consumption of alcohol during pregnancy, which includes, but is not limited to fetal alcohol syndrome...
can greatly affect a child’s performance on intelligence tests, and their intellectual growth. At high doses, fetal alcohol syndrome can develop, which causes mental retardation
Mental retardation
Mental retardation is a generalized disorder appearing before adulthood, characterized by significantly impaired cognitive functioning and deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors...
, as well as other physical symptoms, such as head and face deformities, heart defects
Congenital heart defect
A congenital heart defect is a defect in the structure of the heart and great vessels which is present at birth. Many types of heart defects exist, most of which either obstruct blood flow in the heart or vessels near it, or cause blood to flow through the heart in an abnormal pattern. Other...
and slow growth. It is estimated that 1 in 1,000 babies born in the general population are born with fetal alcohol syndrome, as a result of heavy use of alcohol during pregnancy.
However, studies have shown that even at slightly less severe doses, prenatal exposure to alcohol can still affect the intelligence of the child in development, without having the full syndrome. Through a study done by Streissguth, Barr, Sampson, Darby, and Martin in 1989, it was shown that moderate prenatal doses of alcohol, defined as the mother ingesting 1.5 oz. daily, lowered children’s test scores by 4 point below control levels, by the age of four. They also showed that prenatal exposure to aspirin and antibiotics is correlated with lower performance on intelligence tests as well.
In another study, prenatal drug exposure was shown to have significantly negative effects on cognitive functioning, as measured at the age of five, compared again controls matched for socioeconomic status and inner-city environment. The researchers concluded that prenatally drug-exposed children are at greater risk for learning difficulties
Learning disability
Learning disability is a classification including several disorders in which a person has difficulty learning in a typical manner, usually caused by an unknown factor or factors...
and attention problems in school, and therefore should be the subject of interventions to support educational success. It could be hypothesized that the effect of these drugs on the development of the brain prenatally, and axon guidance
Axon guidance
Axon guidance is a subfield of neural development concerning the process by which neurons send out axons to reach the correct targets...
could be the root of the negative consequences on later deficits in intellectual development.
Specifically, prenatal exposure to marijuana affects development of intelligence later in childhood, in a nonlinear fashion, with the degree of exposure. Heavy use by the mother within the first trimester
Pregnancy
Pregnancy refers to the fertilization and development of one or more offspring, known as a fetus or embryo, in a woman's uterus. In a pregnancy, there can be multiple gestations, as in the case of twins or triplets...
is associated with lower verbal reasoning
Verbal reasoning
Verbal reasoning is understanding and reasoning using concepts framed in words. It aims at evaluating ability to think constructively, rather than at simple fluency or vocabulary recognition.-Verbal reasoning intelligence tests:...
scores on the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale
Stanford-Binet IQ test
The development of the Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scales initiated the modern field of intelligence testing and was one of the first examples of an adaptive test. The test originated in France, then was revised in the United States...
; heavy use during the second trimester is associated with deficits in composite, short-term memory
Short-term memory
Short-term memory is the capacity for holding a small amount of information in mind in an active, readily available state for a short period of time. The duration of short-term memory is believed to be in the order of seconds. A commonly cited capacity is 7 ± 2 elements...
as well as lower quantitative scores on the test; high exposure in third trimester associated with lower quantitative scores as well.
Perinatal factors
There is also evidence that birth complications and other factors around the time of birth (perinatal) can have serious implications on intellectual development. For example, a prolonged period of time without access to oxygen during the delivery can lead to brain damageBrain damage
"Brain damage" or "brain injury" is the destruction or degeneration of brain cells. Brain injuries occur due to a wide range of internal and external factors...
and mental retardation. Also, low birth weights have been linked to lower intelligence scores later in lives of the children. There are two reasons for low birth weight
Birth weight
Birth weight is the body weight of a baby at its birth.There have been numerous studies that have attempted, with varying degrees of success, to show links between birth weight and later-life conditions, including diabetes, obesity, tobacco smoking and intelligence.-Determinants:There are...
, either premature delivery or the infant’s size is just lower than average for its gestational age
Gestational age
Gestational age relates to the age of an embryo or fetus . There is some ambiguity in how it is defined:*In embryology, gestational age is the time elapsed since conception. This interval is also termed fertilisation age....
; both contribute to intellectual deficits later in life. However, the correlations are relatively small unless the weight is extremely low (less than 1,500 g) - then the effects on intellectual development are more severe and often result in mental retardation.
Development of genius
It has been hypothesized that the development of genius in an area results from early environmental exposure to the topic in which the “genius” has prodigious knowledge or skill. This is utilizing the definition of genius that is not just a significantly higher than average IQ score, but also having some type of exceptional understanding or ability in a specific field. Einstein is often used as an example of geniusGenius
Genius is something or someone embodying exceptional intellectual ability, creativity, or originality, typically to a degree that is associated with the achievement of unprecedented insight....
; he did not demonstrate generalized exceptional intelligence as a child, however there is evidence that he started exploring the ideas of physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
and the universe at a young age.
This fits with the model of development of fluid intelligence before age of maturity because the neuronal connections are still being made in childhood. The idea is if you expose a child to concepts of, for example theoretical physics
Theoretical physics
Theoretical physics is a branch of physics which employs mathematical models and abstractions of physics to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena...
, before their brain stops responding to the environment in a plastic way, then you get exceptional understanding of that field in adulthood, because there was a framework developed for it in early childhood. However, Garlick proposes that early environmental experience with their field of genius, is necessary but not sufficient to the development of genius.
There are many environmental influences on intelligence, typically divided into biological and non-biological factors, often involving social or cultural factors. The commonality between these two divisions is the exposure in early childhood. It seems as though exposure to these various positive or negative influences on intelligence levels, defined as fluid intelligence, as measured most often by IQ tests, needs to happen early on in the development of the brain, before the neuronal connections have ceased forming.
Musical
Early musical training in children is said to improve IQ.However, a study claimed that musical training improves verbal
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
, but not spatial IQ.
Significant differences in brain structure between musicians and non-musicians have been found.
Studies have shown that listening to Mozart before taking an IQ test will improve scores. This is called the Mozart Effect
Mozart effect
The Mozart effect can refer to: * A set of research results that indicate that listening to Mozart's music may induce a short-term improvement on the performance of certain kinds of mental tasks known as "spatial-temporal...
. The Mozart Effect improves spatial-temporal reasoning
Spatial-temporal reasoning
Spatial–temporal reasoning is used in both the fields of psychology and computer science.-Spatial–temporal reasoning in psychology:Spatial-temporal reasoning is the ability to visualize spatial patterns and mentally manipulate them over a time-ordered sequence of spatial transformations.This...
.
Chess
Studies have shown that chessChess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
requires auditory-verbal-sequential skills, not visuospatial skills. A German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
study found that Garry Kasparov
Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....
, a Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
/ Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n former World Chess Champion, regarded by many as the greatest chess player of all time, has an IQ of 135 and an extremely good memory. One study found that students who were taking a chess class improved mathematical and comprehension performance.
See also
- Nature versus nurtureNature versus nurtureThe nature versus nurture debate concerns the relative importance of an individual's innate qualities versus personal experiences The nature versus nurture debate concerns the relative importance of an individual's innate qualities ("nature," i.e. nativism, or innatism) versus personal experiences...
- Health and intelligenceHealth and intelligenceHealth can affect intelligence in various ways. This is one of the most important factors in understanding the origins of human group differences in IQ test scores and other measures of cognitive ability...
- Compensatory EducationCompensatory EducationCompensatory education offers supplementary programs or services designed to help children at risk of cognitive impairment and low educational achievement reach their full potential.-Children at risk:...
- Environmental enrichmentEnvironmental enrichment (neural)Environmental enrichment concerns how the brain is affected by the stimulation of its information processing provided by its surroundings . Brains in richer, more stimulating environments, have increased numbers of synapses, and the dendrite arbors upon which they reside are more complex...