Mental capacity. Structure, levels and diagnostics of mental abilities

When talking about intelligence, many do not fully understand what is hidden under this word. And the meaning of the word intelligence has a broad definition.

Intelligence is a generalization of human abilities, revealed in learning, understanding and the ability to understand and solve current situations. Intelligence combines all kinds of learning units:

Imaginative abilities.
Forecasting events.
Ability to perceive information.
Analysis of sensations.
Recognition and gradation of emotions.
The ability to remember and reproduce information, that is, memory functions.
Thinking abilities.
Ability to imagine a solution and development of a situation.

Intelligence is the psychological ability of any person to adapt to new conditions through learning, the need for which comes with life experience. In the learning process, theoretical knowledge is used for further application in practice in order to adjust behavior and adapt to the environment.

Intelligence is all the mental abilities of a person.

Intelligence is the thinking abilities of each individual.

Intelligence is the original mental component of a person, which determines his type of activity.

Intelligence is an ability based on conscious adaptation to existing situations.

Intelligence is reason, concept, perception and sensations, understanding.

Intelligence is the ability to plan and coordinate, organize and control one’s own behavior and actions to achieve a goal. All actions take into account the truth, and the result is aimed at obtaining good.

Intelligence is the ability to learn.

Intelligence is an understanding of the essence of the problem and the ability to draw up a solution while predicting the result and the reactions of others to this decision.

All these definitions will be correct.

Parameters of intelligence that distinguish humans from other living beings:

Memory capacity for continuous operation,
Ability to analyze and predict events,
The tool of activity is logic,
Multi-level selection and sorting of information,
Consciousness, understanding of events,
Ability to focus attention
Extensive vocabulary,
Perseverance,
Memory, the ability to remember and reproduce information.

Intelligence has the following qualities:

Inquisitiveness.
Depth of mind.
Flexibility of mental abilities.
Agility of the mind.
Logical thinking.
Proof.

The quality data can be deciphered as follows:

Curiosity and interest - the desire to learn about environmental phenomena from different angles.
Deep intelligence - the ability to draw parallels and separate dominant factors from secondary ones, necessary actions from random events.
Flexibility of mind is the ability to freely apply existing life experience, not only your own, but also the ability to learn from the mistakes of others, the ability to benefit from situations. Promptly explore and apply subjects to new situations.
Agility of mind is the ability to destroy stereotyped thinking and leave your own comfort zone.
Logical thinking is maintaining strict consistency in reasoning, taking into account all available information and using only the dominant factors in the current situation. This suggests that only the object under study is considered, with possible consideration of all relationships with it.
Evidence is the use of factors and patterns that are aimed at convincing the interlocutor of the correctness of your reasoning and the conclusions you have drawn.
Critical thinking is a strict assessment of the results of the thought process, criticizing conclusions, and without regret refusing solution options that are unacceptable to the situation. The ability to refuse actions if they go against the assigned task.
The breadth of thought processes is the ability to cover the entire issue, with all its consequences. At the same time, without losing the initial data to solve the problem, the ability to see different options for resolving the situation.

Spiritual Intelligence (SQ)

Spiritual Quotient is the highest of all types of human intelligence. It is spiritual intelligence that makes a person a person capable of setting life goals, searching for and finding his life mission, and comparing his actions with life values. If all higher mammals, along with humans, possess emotional intelligence, then spiritual intelligence is the prerogative of humans exclusively.

Just in development of the topic of spiritual intelligence, Stephen Covey’s next book about the so-called “Eighth Habit” appeared. As you probably guessed from the title, this book became a kind of continuation of the world-famous bestseller “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.”

Stephen Covey's eighth skill is the ability to find your voice and inspire others to find their voices. “Finding your voice” according to Covey is the ability to choose your life path, which does not necessarily coincide, but rather does not coincide at all with the average experience of hundreds of thousands of people. This is the ability to make your own choice in any situation. In essence, one’s voice is the “Path to Greatness” when a person lives life with meaning and awareness of its meaning. Of course, such an approach is impossible without spiritual intelligence.

In many ways, another book by Stephen Covey, “Focus on the Main Things,” echoes these ideas. Live, love, learn and leave a legacy"

Spiritual intelligence involves the ability to look back at your life and find the top few things to do first. Stephen Covey, as we see, offers his list of such “main things”:

Live.
Be in love.
Study.
Leave a legacy.

Your personal list may look a little different, but the point is the same: you should focus on the main things in your life. Also, you should not allow secondary vanity to occupy the main place and main time of your life.

This does not mean at all that a person should not or will not have to engage in routine. You will have to, however, this process can be streamlined by allocating your time to everything. By the way, the previously mentioned time management matrix can also help with this.

So now you have another answer to the question “How to become smarter?” and specific tips in which direction to develop. It is not at all difficult to determine which types of intelligence you currently have to a greater extent, and what should be given more attention. All that’s left to do is start taking action.

And, by the way, our “Cognitive Science” course, aimed at developing thinking, can help you with this. In a couple of months, you will be able to master more than two dozen effective thinking techniques that will allow you to find solutions to the most complex and non-standard problems, achieve great success and make your life better.

We wish you success and look forward to attending our programs!

Species and types

These varieties began to be identified largely for the sake of proving the ineffectiveness of IQ tests and the approach itself, which assumes that intelligence is something holistic, indivisible and can be fully measured.

According to the classification proposed by Howard Gardner, there are eight types of intelligence:

Spatial. This is the ability to navigate in space, quickly determine where is up, where is down, where is right and where is left, find the road using maps, and compare information from them with the real situation.
It is well developed in people whose profession is to one degree or another related to spatial orientation: drivers, dancers, architects, chess players.
Interpersonal. The ability to interact with people around you, find an approach to each person, feel their emotional state, understand experiences, fears, be able to provide psychological support, correctly determine the attitude of a particular person, create strong social connections. Highly developed in those who constantly interact with people: psychologists, psychotherapists. This type of intelligence is very close in meaning to the concept of “emotional intelligence.” Poorly developed in social phobias and autistic people.
Musical. The presence of increased sensitivity to sounds (not only those produced by musical instruments), the ability to combine them, to feel the rhythm. Musicians, dancers, and composers are well developed.
Bodily-kinesthetic. The ability to efficiently use motor abilities, make precise and correct movements, move to the beat, interact well with both small and large objects. High development of bodily-kinesthetic intelligence allows you to better work with various materials and engage in applied arts. Developed by choreographers, dancers, masters of applied arts, and athletes.
Linguistic. The ability to harmoniously combine words, build coherent sentences, remember rules, correctly use complex terms, and express one’s own thoughts in verbal form. Developed by linguists, philologists, editors, writers, journalists.
Logical-mathematical. The ability to create logical connections between various symbols, work with information, and find a sequence.
Specialists in the field of exact sciences: mathematicians, physicists and others are well developed.
Intrapersonal. The ability to understand one’s own feelings and find ways to deal with psychological discomfort.
Naturalistic. The ability to distinguish between plants and animals, to feel sympathy for them, to understand the feelings of certain animals, to determine what a withering plant needs in order for it to recover.

These types of intelligence are also distinguished:

General. A combination of skills that allow you to adapt to the world around you, effectively solve various problems, and achieve success.
Special. Implies the presence of special abilities necessary to work in narrow areas of knowledge.

Development of intelligence

Scientists have proven the fact that intelligence can be developed; various empirical studies have been conducted. where the relationship has been established, a person who reads and develops has better indicators of intelligence with age, in contrast to people who, after graduating from universities, cease to saturate their brain intellectually and stop developing. Intelligence is an integral cognitive system, which consists of subsystems: perceptual; mnemonic; thinking. The purpose of these subsystems is information support for human interaction with the environment: Intelligence is the totality of all cognitive functions of an individual; Intelligence is associated with interest in life and developed imagination. You can develop your imagination by doing simple exercises using grotesque and drawing; You can develop intelligence through solving imagination problems; Intelligence is thinking, the highest cognitive process;

It is worth noting that among the factors influencing the development of intelligence are the size and structure of the brain, genes, heredity, social and cultural environment, upbringing and education. We can also say that intelligence is mental abilities, reason, the ability to learn from experience, the ability to adapt, be adequate to external stimuli, apply knowledge to be able to control the environment, think logically and abstractly. But it is also a general ability to cognition and solve problems, to learn new things, which unites all human cognitive abilities: sensation; perception; memory; performance; thinking; imagination;

Therefore, it is possible to develop the level of intelligence, as well as to increase or decrease the efficiency of human intelligence. Often this ability is characterized in relation to tasks encountered in a person’s life. For example, in relation to the task of survival: survival is the main task of a person, the rest for him are only those arising from the main one, or to tasks in any field of activity. Intelligence as an ability is usually realized with the help of other abilities. Such as: the ability to cognize, learn, think logically, systematize information by analyzing it, determine its applicability (classify), find connections, patterns and differences in it, associate it with similar ones, etc.

Processing of Wechsler test results

After a person has completed all the subtests, the scores must be correctly calculated and interpreted into the final result. For this process, you need to have the necessary tables on hand.

The assessment is carried out at three levels:

Calculation and interpretation of general intelligence scores, verbal and non-verbal components.
Analysis of the profile of performance scores based on coefficients.
Qualitative interpretation of assessments, taking into account observation of the test taker’s behavior and other diagnostic information.

Standard processing consists of the psychologist calculating the primary scores for each of the tasks, that is, summing up the subject’s “raw” assessments. After this, using special tables, the “raw” result is converted to a standard one and displayed in the form of a profile. The summed results in a standard form determine indicators of general, nonverbal and verbal intelligence.

The classification of results is as follows:

130 points or more is a very high IQ.
120-129 points – high level.
110-119 points is a good standard.
90-109 points – average IQ.
80-89 points are a bad norm.
70-79 points are a segment of the border zone.
69 points and below indicate that the subject has a mental defect.

Psychology of intelligence

At all times, people have been studying intelligence. However, the main teaching was the theory of Piaget, who divided the first directions in the child’s adaptation to the environment in the form of assimilation (explaining the situation using existing knowledge) and accommodation (learning new information). In psychology, according to Piaget’s theory, the following stages of intelligence development are distinguished:

Sensorimotor. It appears in the first years of life, while the child is exploring the world around him. The scientist called the first intellectual activity the emergence of one’s own judgments.
Preceding operations. The world is gradually becoming diverse for the child, but he is still able to solve simple problems and operate with elementary concepts.
Specific operations. When a child begins to focus on his own judgments and take specific actions.
Formal transactions. A teenager already has certain ideas about the world that enrich his spiritual world.

However, not all people develop intelligence equally. There are tests developed by psychologists that show what level of development a person is at.

Mental education

This is the work of adults (parents, teachers) on the mental development of children, with the deliberate intention of transferring and communicating knowledge. Learning to apply acquired skills in practice. The main task is the development of the active thought process of preschoolers.

Consequently, mental development and education are closely related. It is very important not to overload the child’s brain. Mistakes made leave an imprint on the future life of the preschooler. For example, the baby was deprived of playing with construction toys and building materials. Subsequently, he will have poorly developed spatial imagination, which will cause problems in studying geometry and drawing.

Therefore, to be successful in school, a child needs to acquire independence, skills and knowledge.

Let's summarize:

A person at birth receives a certain set of inclinations that help in the development of abilities;
Abilities are displayed by the speed of obtaining skills to successfully perform actions. They develop in the process of activity, which must be controlled by specialists;
The environment plays a huge role in identifying and developing a child's abilities. This is his environment: parents, kindergarten, school;
Only determination, perseverance, diligence, willpower, and desire will help you achieve success.

It’s good when the child is healthy, but, unfortunately, mental retardation occurs. This is a disaster not only for parents, but naturally for the children themselves. After all, they suffer from this, first in kindergarten, and then within the walls of school.

How to define intelligence?

To tell the truth, there is no exact method for determining IQ. The most commonly used intelligence test is the one developed by Eysenck. However, this technique, even without looking at its popularity, is somewhat inferior to others. Tests by R. Amthauer, D. Raven, D. Wexler, R. B. Cattell are more accurate. Therefore, to determine your level of intelligence, you need to apply several of them, and perhaps all of them. Only then will the score you receive more accurately reflect your mental abilities.

Remember that any technique determines IQ relative to the mental development of the “average” person in accordance with age. And yet, most people rightly believe that the ideal intelligence test has not yet been found. After all, any technique only shows the level of knowledge and awareness.

What is meant by mental retardation

Retarded mental development of a person is a disorder of intelligence, which, unfortunately, is irreversible.

There are two main clinical forms, which differ in the time of occurrence:

Oligophrenia. It occurs due to internal damage to the child’s brain in the first years of life. Here there is a violation of the development of intelligence due to its underdevelopment;
Dementia is the collapse of already existing intellectual functions due to various diseases of the brain, due to damage to its cortex after the first two or three years of life.

Qualities of intelligence

The main qualities of human intelligence are inquisitiveness, depth of mind, flexibility and mobility, logic and evidence.

Inquisitiveness of the mind is the desire to comprehensively understand this or that phenomenon in significant respects. This quality of mind underlies active cognitive activity.

The depth of the mind lies in the ability to separate the important from the secondary, the necessary from the accidental.

Flexibility and agility of mind is a person’s ability to widely use existing experience and knowledge, quickly explore known objects in new relationships, and overcome stereotyped thinking. This quality is especially valuable if we keep in mind that thinking is the application of knowledge, “theoretical measures” to various situations. In a certain sense, thinking tends to be stable and somewhat conventional. This prevents the solution of creative problems that require an unusual, unconventional approach. Inertia of thinking is revealed, for example, when solving the following problem. It is necessary to cross out four dots arranged in a square with three closed lines. Trying to act by connecting these dots does not lead to a solution to the problem. It can only be solved if we go beyond these points.

At the same time, a negative quality of intelligence is rigidity of thinking - an inflexible, biased attitude towards the essence of a phenomenon, exaggeration of sensory impressions, adherence to stereotyped assessments.

Intelligence is the ability of an individual to comprehend a specific situation in a generalized, schematic way, to optimally organize the mind when solving non-standard problems. However, the essence of intelligence cannot be understood only through a description of its individual properties. The carriers of intelligence are the individual’s experience of mental activity, the mental space he has formed, and the ability to present a structural representation of the phenomenon under study in the individual’s mind.

Logical thinking is characterized by a strict sequence of reasoning, taking into account all the essential aspects of the object under study, all its possible relationships with other objects. Evidence-based thinking is characterized by the ability to use at the right moment such facts and patterns that convince of the correctness of judgments and conclusions.

Critical thinking presupposes the ability to strictly evaluate the results of mental activity, discard incorrect decisions, and abandon initiated actions if they contradict the requirements of the task.

Breadth of thinking lies in the ability to cover the issue as a whole, without losing sight of all the data of the corresponding task, as well as the ability to see new problems (creativity of thinking).

The different content of activity requires the development of certain leading intellectual characteristics of the individual, his sensitivity to search problems - his creativity.

An indicator of the development of intelligence is its divergence - the subject’s unboundness by external restrictions (for example, his ability to see the possibilities of new uses of ordinary objects).

An essential quality of an individual’s mind is prognostication—foreseeing possible developments of events and the consequences of actions taken. The ability to anticipate, prevent and avoid unnecessary conflicts is a sign of mental development and breadth of intellect.

Intellectually limited people reflect reality extremely narrowly, locally, and do not carry out the necessary transfer of knowledge to new objects.

The development of individual qualities of the individual’s mind is determined both by the genotype of the individual and the breadth of his life experience, the semantic field of his consciousness - the individual system of meanings, the structure of the intellect. In totalitarian social regimes, conformist individuals develop so-called gap thinking, narrowed to extremely limited everyday limits, and intellectual infantilism spreads widely. In groupthink, stereotypes, template orientations, and schematized matrices of behavior begin to predominate. Deformations occur both in the content and structure of the intellect.

Child's intelligence

Even in the womb, the development of intelligence begins, which depends on the woman’s lifestyle and the information she perceives. A child’s intellectual activity depends on many factors: genes, nutrition, environment, family situation, and others.

The main emphasis is on how parents communicate with the child, what exercises they offer to develop their intelligence, how often they explain certain phenomena, how often they visit various places, etc. Intelligence itself does not develop. At first, a lot depends on what and how the parents do with the child.

Varieties

There are many classifications of types of intelligence. One of them identifies the following types:

social;
emotional;
physical;
spiritual;
spatial;
logical;
verbal;
creative.

Social intelligence

The set of abilities and skills of an individual, responsible for his successful interaction with society:

understanding the motives of one’s own behavior;
understanding the behavior of people around you;
analyzing the situation and making decisions about your actions in accordance with it.

Social intelligence can be considered as a characteristic personality trait of a person, since it is responsible for interpersonal communication. At the same time, it has a cognitive function (a person has to study the characteristic features of other people, their behavior). A characteristic of social intelligence can be considered the skills, knowledge, and abilities acquired during the socialization process that help to establish contact with other people and effectively manage their behavior.

Emotional intellect

The totality of an individual’s abilities and skills:

manage your own emotional state;
evoke the emotions of other people by controlling them;
understand your own desires, motivations, intentions;
understand the desires, motivations and intentions of other people;
recognize the emotional state of others.

Emotional intelligence is essential for effectively interacting with others based on emotional connections with them, as well as for managing your own emotions. Combined with social intelligence, it gives a person the opportunity to achieve success in life and career.

Physical intelligence

Manifests itself in coordination of movements, dexterity, and hand motor skills. To develop it, you need to engage in sports, yoga, and dancing. A direct connection has been proven between the development of physical intelligence and mental intelligence. In particular, children who practice fine motor skills have better speech and writing skills.

Spiritual Intelligence

It is characterized by the ability for self-improvement and self-development, self-discipline, the ability to motivate oneself, set and achieve goals. You can develop it through meditation, other Eastern practices, as well as internal dialogue with yourself, thinking about the meaning of life and its goals.

Spatial intelligence

Based on visual perception. Characterized by the ability to create visual images in the imagination and manipulate them. Develops through creative self-expression (drawing, sculpting), observation training, and orientation in an unfamiliar environment.

Logical intelligence

It is expressed by the presence of logical thinking skills, calculations, reasoning, the individual’s ability to analyze, compare, find patterns, and draw conclusions. To develop it, it is recommended to solve various logical problems.

Verbal intelligence

It is the basis for such important skills as speaking and writing. Trains in reading books, including aloud, writing poetry, learning foreign languages, speaking (including a foreign language).

Creative Intelligence

Responsible for the ability to express oneself, generate ideas, create something new, and various types of creativity. Trains through activities that develop the creative right hemisphere - drawing, modeling, music, dancing, singing, writing poetry and prose.

A subtype of creative intelligence is musical. It is expressed in the manifestation of a “musical ear” - a sense of rhythm, tact, and the ability to accurately reproduce a heard melody. For its development, it is advisable to listen to music, practice singing, dancing, and playing musical instruments.

Intelligence, are you so different?

One of the gurus of specialists involved in child development is our contemporary - American scientist and psychologist Tony Buzan. His research into the capabilities of the brain has had an impact not only on education, but also on the business community, because many of the scientist’s discoveries help develop intellectual abilities throughout life and apply them in work.

Buzan was the first to come up with the theory of mind maps for the development of memory and thinking and set a record for memorizing large amounts of information. He is the author of many best-selling books, which have been published in more than 100 countries and translated into 28 languages. Thanks to Buzan's research, we now have a broader understanding of intelligence. His theory is based on identifying 10 types of intelligence that every person has from birth. Unfortunately, most of us are accustomed to recognizing ourselves as skilled only in some areas, and considering others unattainable for ourselves, deliberately refusing to dive into them. Meanwhile, according to Buzan, any type of intelligence can and even must be developed throughout life. And then, even in those areas in which our talent did not immediately manifest itself, we can achieve significant results and become a truly harmoniously developed personality.

It is in this spirit that it is important to approach the development of our younger generation. If all areas of human capabilities are developed at the very beginning of life, then, as an adult, the child will be able to more accurately understand his talents and at the same time be a comprehensively developed person. This knowledge helps parents and teachers systematically approach the issue of children's intellectual development. And, of course, everyone knows that children learn best about the world around them through play. Therefore, we will talk about all types of intelligence and offer several games for the development of each of them.

Creative Intelligence

It helps to “go beyond” - to think in a new way, to easily look at things from different points of view, to think associatively and unpredictably, without relying only on known facts. Together with the children, we are convinced that every thing has an infinite number of meanings, and we learn to justify our conclusions.

Association games, word games and puns are suitable for the development of creative intelligence, which help create original and unique connections and images in the mind. And here the main thing is not the result, but the thought process itself. Games should stimulate the development of children's imagination and not deprive them of initiative.

For example, choose any pair of words at random, say “car” and “life”, “wind” and “kitten”, “shoe” and “pencil”. And think with your child about what they might have in common. And then practice differently. Try to think of 10-15 alternative uses, such as lipstick or a glass. At the same time, abstract from their sizes, materials, properties - and then there will be many more ways to use the item. Imagine a lipstick the size of a skyscraper, in which swallows could easily build nests. Beautiful and comfortable.

Personal intelligence

The development of personal intelligence is contained in one phrase: “Know yourself.” Every person should become their own best friend and partner for life. This “preparation” will allow the child to feel good in any situation, regardless of whether he plays alone or in the company of other children. It is important to teach children to listen and understand themselves, reflect on their strengths and weaknesses, overcome their personal adversities, and develop self-confidence and self-sufficiency.

One of the best games to play with children is the game “Who Am I?” You can also use a ball in it (to pass words to each other) or come up with your own versions of the “game design” of a conversation about personality. Invite the children to ask themselves the question: “Who am I?” - and answer it. The answers will be very different: a man, Vasya, Spider-Man, future wife.

“A person with a realistic outlook on life and highly developed personal intelligence is usually called positive. It is important to point out that this does not mean wandering around with a stupid grin on your face and claiming that everything is great! It means accepting any situation as it is, no matter how bad it is, and finding the best way to deal with it.”
Tony Buzan

Another game with a child to develop his personal intelligence is drawing a map about himself. Invite your child to draw himself in the center of a piece of paper. From yourself in the center, come up with an arbitrary number of “rays” with names, for example: “personal qualities”, “what I don’t like”, “what I like to do”, “what I’m afraid of”, “achievements”, “family”. And each ray has its own branches: qualities - strong and weak. Let the child list both of them and display them on the map. And so for each direction. As a result, you will get a very interesting map of your child’s personality, his own assessment of himself and his opinion about a variety of life situations.

Social intelligence

The development of social intelligence is the development of the ability to enjoy communicating with other people, to understand and empathize with them, as well as the ability to defend one’s point of view. It is important for children to learn to listen to others and speak in public, to learn how to find solutions in conflict situations. At the same time, the child’s social circle should consist of both peers and people of different ages, genders and professions.

All role-playing games, where a child “try on” another personality, develop precisely this type of intelligence. The same family game - the first attempts to imitate mother, rock and feed a doll, as well as twisted plots of family relationships for older children. This is how the imagination develops, non-standard ways out of conflict situations are often invented, and an outlet is given to accumulated childhood emotions, including negative ones, which could develop into psychological tensions.

“The number one fear that overcomes people is greater than the horror of snakes, spiders, mice, insects and all kinds of creepy creatures, the mere sight of which gives you goosebumps;
greater than before war, famine, disease, foreign invasions and death - this is the fear of speaking in public! Tony Buzan

Turn your child's public performances into a game. Organize home concerts together, where the child recites poems for everyone, sings songs and dances. We also recommend recording them on camera, so that later you can review the performance with your child and invite him to evaluate his own speech, find good moments and what he would like to improve. This type of work helps us work with our children to develop their social intelligence.

Spiritual Intelligence

The foundations of spiritual intelligence are also laid at an early age. This is the ability to perceive oneself as part of the vast universe and all life on Earth.

Spiritual intelligence develops naturally and consistently from personal intelligence (the knowledge and ability to evaluate and understand oneself), rising to social intelligence (the knowledge and ability to evaluate and understand those around us), and then to the appreciation and understanding of all other forms of life and the Universe itself in in general. In fact, the ability to come into contact with nature, understand and appreciate it is the main sign of the development of spiritual intelligence.

This intelligence is considered by many to be the most important of all, and it is so powerful that it can completely transform the life of each person as an individual, human civilization, our entire planet and influence the course of history.

This type of intelligence can be called maturity intelligence. But, oddly enough, it is children who are the natural carriers of spiritual intelligence. They already possess the qualities characteristic of him: unconditional love, joy and fun, openness and trust, truthfulness, generosity, the ability to be surprised by miracles and others. Unfortunately, with age, many of these qualities are lost. Therefore, it is so important to pay attention to them from childhood and promote their development.

With your children, explore the boundlessness of space, the beauty and mystery of nature, get acquainted with various objects and phenomena - holidays of other countries, religions.

Buy a map of the solar system and books about it, let your child know how big it is. If you have the opportunity to buy at least a simple telescope, do it. It will help you truly study the heavens and understand the vastness of the Universe. Together with your child, look at the stars late in the evening or at night, learn to recognize different constellations.

Spiritual insight is often expressed through music and poetry, and many geniuses of art and literature often take nature as their muse. Beethoven, Mozart and other great composers used nature as a source of inspiration, including birdsong, wind and water sounds, and animal calls in their compositions. All movements of Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 (Pastoral) are based on a walk through the countryside!

One of the main properties of spiritual intelligence is a sense of humor. It brings with it a ton of benefits, including reduced stress levels, improved overall health, and more and happier friends. Read stories and books with your children that make you laugh. Practice together the ability to tell jokes, imitate other people funny, and generally act like inveterate comedians. Teach your child to laugh at himself - tell him funny stories about himself.

Physical intelligence

This is a vital type of intelligence for a growing child. The more harmonious and stronger the body is physically, the more perfect the brain becomes mentally and spiritually.

From the moment a child begins to crawl, he needs complete freedom of movement. Outdoor games, coordination exercises, training the ability to control one’s movements, alternating work and rest, constant change of activities. As the child develops strength and dexterity, as a rule, none of the parents have any questions. Any outdoor games develop the body physically. Remember any games with a ball, games for coordination of movements, crawling on your bellies, running and swimming races.

Or here are some more examples.

Mirror movements: the leader, standing facing the children, performs movements with his arms, legs, and torso, and the children copy his movements, but in a mirror way; throwing small balls not only with the right (strong for right-handed people), but also with the left (weak) hand.
Performing the simplest combinations without prior preparation: a combination of 4-5 exercises is first shown, and then the children must reproduce the entire combination from memory (arms forward, up, to the sides, squatting, standing, hands on the waist, bending to the right and left, arms down, walking in place).
Ball in a circle: everyone stands at a distance of 3 meters from each other. The task is to quickly pass and catch the ball without leaving your spot.

Sensory intelligence

This intelligence encompasses the five major senses and the sixth, intuition. What contributes to its development? Listening to music or sounds of nature, depicting your feelings from music on paper or expressing them in words, exploring and guessing smells and tastes, describing your associations.

If we teach a child to “mix” different sensory perceptions, “tasting a color or seeing a taste of a sound,” the child has every chance of becoming a creative person with a well-developed memory, with developed sensory thinking, which they will be able to use regardless of their area of interest.

Try “writing” different letters and numbers on your child’s back. His task is to guess what you wrote by feeling.
Organize a tasting. Buy apples of three different varieties (2 apples of each variety). Cut one apple of each variety into portions. Keep the other three apples as samples. Together with your child, first try one type of apple and discuss its taste (sour, sweet, sour-sweet, bland). Apples can also vary in texture, so when discussing an apple, note this (apple is hard/soft/juicy/crispy/flabby, etc.). Do the same with the other apples. After you have discussed the taste of all three varieties, invite your child to eat a slice of apple without looking, describe the taste and find the corresponding sample apple or name the variety. Such tasting not only develops the senses, but also enriches the child’s vocabulary.

"Circle of sensations" Tell your child about all the senses and what and how we feel. For example: “We see with our eyes. What can you see with your own eyes? Listen carefully to the child's answer. Then move on to the next senses: “We hear with our ears. What can you hear with your ears?”, “We smell with our nose. What smells can you smell with your nose?” etc. Such conversations develop the ability to become aware of sensations.

Digital intelligence

Digital intelligence can be called traditional intelligence. When we talk about a person’s mental abilities, the ability to easily navigate the digital world is considered one of the most important indicators. Tony Buzan also includes verbal and spatial intelligence as traditional intelligence, namely those varieties that can be verified through testing. As a rule, IQ tests are based on assessing these abilities.

So, digital intelligence is the ability of the brain to manipulate the “alphabet” of numbers, starting from the most basic counting, mastering the basic arithmetic operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and ending with higher mathematics. It is a skill that serves us in a variety of situations: in the store, when preparing food, planning a vacation, in teaching and in work.

Leo Tolstoy also said that counting to 100 is the basis of mathematics. Children need to learn to navigate the digital world, count, measure, for example, their height and weight, calculate time and even money for their purchases.

"Journey" . Prepare in advance a set of numbers from 0 to 9. There can be several travel goals: “Find 5 red objects in the apartment”, “Show 3 round objects”, “Show 2 of your favorite toys”, etc.
"My calendar" . Turn learning about the calendar into a fun game for your child. Tell him about what a calendar is, how many days there are in a month, what days of the week there are. And offer to mark all the dates that are interesting for the child next month, for example, a trip to the circus, classes at the Baby Club, a birthday, etc. Circle these days on the calendar. Yes, it would be great if the calendar was in a large format so that you could draw something else on it. Now you can come up with different tasks. You can count the number of days until the long-awaited event and paint over each day with multi-colored markers or stick on some funny little animals. In addition, you can draw what the child especially liked that day - perhaps he was treated to some very tasty candy, so let him try to draw it on his calendar.
“I see...” Choose a room in your apartment with your child or agree to play this game outside while walking. The first player’s task is to find a familiar number in the surrounding space (on a clock or a shop window, on a magazine or a milk carton...) and say: “I see the number 3.” The second participant must find this number, guided by the clues “warm” or “cold”. You can prompt each other using words such as: “on”, “above”, “under”, “near”, etc.

By combining familiarization with numbers with any outdoor games, we help children learn the basics of mathematics easily and with interest.

Spatial intelligence

This type of intelligence helps us not only to feel the connection of objects in space, but also to realize our place in society - in the family, among friends and loved ones.

Already in infancy, the child begins to “orientate” the area. Where's mom? Where's my rattle? It’s not in vain that we roll a ball for a child so that he can catch it, or hang toys from the crib so that he reaches for them. The development of spatial thinking forms the three-dimensional world of a small person and helps him navigate this world. This is not just “left-right, straight-crooked” and similar concepts. This is the shape of the object, and the distance to it, and its location in space, and its size, and many, many more spatial images.

Spatial intelligence “turns on” when you need to successfully navigate the environment - find your way when you get lost, go into the right room in the house, set the table, put things in their places, rearrange things, cross the road or drive a car, take part in any sports game.

Always take note of where you are. And if you find yourself in a new area with your child, use a compass to determine the directions of all four cardinal directions, and also find out where the most important rivers, roads, buildings and monuments are located. And look back often! This will help not only to create a simple map in your head that is easy to navigate, but also to clearly determine the location of any “milestones” relative to each other.

Studying astronomy, in particular star charts, solving geometric puzzles, and multidimensional toys such as LEGO or Rubik's Cube will help develop a sense of space. By developing children's spatial intelligence, we lay the foundation for the skills necessary for future artists and sculptors, architects and surgeons. Play chess, Japanese Go, and checkers with your children - this is an amazing way to improve spatial intelligence. Tennis, badminton, football, dancing and physical exercise are also fertile ground.

Here are more examples of games:

“In which hand?” . This game will help test your child's ability to match himself with the image. Make a selection of drawings in an even number, which depict people with objects in their hands. Ask your child to identify who is holding the object in which hand. Change roles, let the baby ask you the same question. A chip is awarded for the correct answer. Whoever scores more wins.
“Right or wrong?” . Swap roles with your baby for a while. Be a child. Let the leader - your baby - touch certain paired parts of your body (arms, legs, eyes), and you name them. For example, a child touched your left hand. You say, “This is my right hand.” The child must understand whether you are speaking correctly or making a mistake.
"Vice versa" . Take the ball, it will be useful to you in this game. When throwing the ball to the baby, tell him a phrase with a preposition that determines the location of the object, and the child, throwing the ball back, must say a phrase with the opposite preposition. For example, you say: “The cat was lying under the chair.” And the child should say: “The cat was lying on the chair.” “Say the word . 2-3 year old children love this game very much. When telling a fairy tale, pause, do not finish the sentence, giving the child the opportunity to “get in” a word.
“Wrong!” . Deliberately allow inaccuracies in the story (change the sequence of characters, mix up their names, etc.). Let your child find the mistake and tell you. These games help develop the baby's memory, attentiveness and speech.
Finger theaters . They develop sensorimotor skills. All the theater characters that he can manipulate will easily fit on the baby’s hand. During the game, you can introduce your child to a fairy tale, the heroes of which may be figurines from a finger theater. At the same time, you will be able to emotionally convey the intonation of speech of each character with your voice (the mouse speaks in a squeaky voice, the bear speaks in a bass voice, etc.)

Verbal intelligence

Verbal, or speech, intelligence represents a person's linguistic skills, his ability to operate with language. We use verbal intelligence in almost all areas of life. Speech, writing, reading - all these abilities are under his control. The most intensive development of this intelligence occurs at an early age, when the process of learning about the world around us begins.

It is necessary to talk to the child from birth, involve him in conversations and discussions, and help him find the relationship between words and objects. It is necessary to teach children to clearly and figuratively express their thoughts, read texts, understand their meaning and come up with their own stories.

We’ll just list some of the games and activities that promote speech development. These include tongue twisters, articulation exercises, learning poetry and solving crossword puzzles, inventing rhymes and learning the composition of words, as well as writing stories based on pictures. And also:

Sensual Intelligence

The brain needs oxygen, food, information and love. This is the key to human vitality and health. From a very early age, it is important for children to feel physical contact with other people and see expressions of their relationships. In addition, it is important to learn to recognize yourself as a boy or a girl, to know about the anatomical features of your body and to communicate with each other, also taking into account your gender. After all, every person is born with a certain psychosexual potential, which is realized and enriched in the process of life experience. And this experience begins from childhood. It should be remembered that throughout life we go through a number of stages of psychosexual development, the violation of which can dramatically deform not only sexuality, but even the psyche. Our task is to ensure that the soil for development is favorable. It is very important that the child develops the correct attitude towards intimacy between a man and a woman. So that, as an adult, he can express his feelings and not experience hostility or a feeling of awkwardness.

Let's call one of the games that develops a conscious attitude towards oneself, “What do we love?” As a group, ask the children to find out if boys and girls have similar hobbies. Let them ask each other questions, try to play with toys that are not theirs. And also let the guys think about what epithets can be said to men and women and what compliments will be pleasant for each of them.
In the “Compliments” game, invite your child to choose pleasant words that best suit and characterize mom/girl/woman and dad/boy/man. These can be adjectives or other parts of speech. When you play this game for the first time, give your child a direction of thought, give an example - he will quickly understand what is required of him.
Talk to your child about professions. Deliberately choose those that are more suitable for a particular gender. Ask your child who is more suited to this or that profession, a man or a woman. Discuss why he thinks this way. Men are characterized by professions that show heroism, courage, physical strength, bravery, nobility, and the ability to come to the rescue. Women usually choose professions that allow them to demonstrate peacemaking, responsiveness, kindness, and the ability to see and create beauty.

By helping children develop all their intellectual capabilities, we create the society of the future. Children learn to think freely, enjoy life and find something they like.

What is intelligence

Intelligence

is the mental ability of the body, expressed in the ability to solve various problems, cope with problems, carry out cognitive activity, adapt to changing environmental conditions and manage it.

Intelligence is manifested in educational, research, work activities, communication and social life in general

This concept combines individual cognitive abilities: sensations, perception, memory, ideas, thinking, imagination, will, reflection, attention

The concept of intelligence arose relatively recently - only at the end of the nineteenth century. At that time, psychology was developing at a rapid pace, and researchers were studying the mental abilities of humans and animals. Sometimes they made serious mistakes. Thus, at that time, the prevailing belief was that a person uses only a few percent of his brain, while the rest of it remains unused. In everyday life, this idea still persists, but it is fundamentally incorrect and was refuted by science a long time ago. But how could such an assumption even arise? The fact is that at the end of the nineteenth century the functions of a significant part of the brain were not yet studied, and researchers could not understand what they were needed for. In addition, some processes in the brain occur as if in an automatic mode, without the participation of human consciousness. That is, it seems to us that some part of the brain is inactive, but in fact it carries out extremely important work unnoticed by us, without which, probably, intelligence itself would become impossible.

However, the issue of the relationship between intelligence and the brain is quite complex. Does man have intelligence? Of course there is. But does a cat have it? Probably there is too. What about the lizard? One might think that she has it too. What about an ant, a microbe, a plant? At first glance, it seems that the more developed the organism, the more we can talk about the presence of intelligence. But here, too, not everything is so simple.

Ants, like all other insects, do not have a brain at all. Their "brains", dispersed throughout the body, are a primitive nerve cluster. And the entire structure of the ant organism is very primitive. Meanwhile, some even seriously compare the intellectual abilities of ants with those of humans. Ants can accumulate and transmit information, communicate, learn, and they have a complex hierarchy. They can navigate the terrain; recent research shows that they apparently can even count. In ant society there are many “professions”, the variety of which varies for each species. In fact, the life of an anthill is very reminiscent of human society.

A lizard is an organism of a completely different kind. Its overall development is tens of times more complex and organized than that of an ant. And there is a full-fledged brain, and a fairly developed one at that. But the intellectual abilities of a lizard are very modest and cannot be compared with the intelligence of an ant (and even more so a human).

It turns out that intelligence is more of a function than a certain material structure. Intellectual activity can be realized in various ways.

How is this function implemented? The implementation of an intellectual function occurs through the work of its components: this is the ability to find connections between disparate data, synthesize and analyze, compare, classify, build associations, etc. Each such ability separately does not form intelligence, it can only be discussed in the aggregate of these abilities .

Features of the human intellectual system consist of several parameters

Working memory capacity, ability to predict, use tools, logic;
Multi-level hierarchy of selection of valuable information - six layers of neurons are involved in this;
Consciousness;
Memory.

Intelligence does not appear suddenly and on its own, but develops over time. The intellectual level of a person can be increased through special techniques; it can also decrease due to various circumstances (old age, head injuries, mental illness, etc.).

Let's talk about degrees of mental retardation

They differ in brain damage:

Idiocy. Severe form. It is characterized by deep-seated trauma to the cerebral cortex, which entails serious disturbances in psychological and physiological development. Among the patients there are people who are unable to move and also cannot sit. Require constant care;
Imbecility. Average degree of disease. There are light and expressive forms. The second is severe, expressed, even in the absence of paralysis, by underdeveloped motor function. Children are unable to jump and run, and generally have difficulty switching movements. Hands and fingers may not work, which limits their ability to develop self-service skills. Very bad memory. The light form allows you to develop imaginative thinking and primitive visual skills. Able to master simple self-care skills. They can be taught to write and count, and also be prepared for future work. They cannot live and function independently. But they have the ability for physical activity, contact with others, and participation in social events organized by teachers. Can work under supervision;
Moronism. This is a mild form of retardation. Children with this diagnosis may be taught how to speak correctly and formulate sentences correctly. They respond well to learning to write. But they make a lot of mistakes. Limited memory capabilities. They can develop voluntary attention, as well as elementary logical and imaginative thinking.

It is necessary to recognize the symptoms of mental retardation in time. As a rule, this is noticeable; the child looks immature compared to his peers, his behavior and ability to master knowledge are poorly expressed.

In early childhood, the signs are also clearly expressed. This is when a child is not interested in learning about the world around him and does not play. Starts to speak late, while speech and motor development is slow. These are obvious physical inconsistencies, a large head, an irregular skull shape, etc.

Children with significant mental development disorders are trained in special rehabilitation centers. It is very important for parents to continue to study with them at home. With mild forms of the disorder, you can study in a secondary school. The support of family, teachers and class is important here.

Tests

Each test consists of many different tasks of increasing difficulty. Among them are test tasks for logical and spatial thinking, as well as tasks of other types - the tests usually include logical and arithmetic tasks, orientation in practical situations - the ability to independently compare, generalize known facts (creative approach, including non-standard thinking - ambiguous answers are allowed , formulation of several hypotheses, different arguments), testing RAM, etc. Based on the test results, IQ is calculated. It has been noticed that the more test options a subject takes, the better results he shows. One of the most famous tests is the Eysenck test. More accurate are the tests of D. Wexler, J. Raven, R. Amthauer, R. B. Cattell. There is currently no single standard for IQ tests.

The tests are divided by age group and show the development of a person corresponding to his age. That is, a 10-year-old child and a university graduate can have the same IQ, because the development of each of them corresponds to its age group. The Eysenck test is designed for the age group of 18 years and older and provides a maximum IQ level of 160 points. For children from 7 years old there is an IQ test developed at the NIPNI named after. V. M. Bekhterev under the guidance of Professor L. I. Wasserman.

What is human intelligence?

Translated from Latin, intellect means “knowledge”, “understanding”. Intelligence refers to people’s ability to perceive and remember various information, the tendency to solve complex problems and life situations with the help of brain activity, namely through logical deductions and conclusions.

There is an intelligence coefficient, which is an assessment of a person’s level of knowledge and is calculated using various special tests and techniques. The average IQ ranges from 90 to 110 points. Indicators at the level of 70 points indicate intellectual impairment in a negative direction. Individuals with above average intelligence are those whose scores exceed 110. According to experts, the main factor in the formation of such abilities is heredity.

Now let's look at some points that affect the level of mental abilities

There is no clear definition of this term; scientists argue on what the level depends. But there are three criteria that determine it:

Cognition. This is the ability to understand and analyze the speech of another individual or to comprehend a book read, for example;
Sanity. Characterized by the ability to soberly assess a situation, highlight positive and negative aspects, and maintain objectivity in extreme circumstances;
Memory. Ability to remember necessary and important information. The ability to reproduce it at the required point in time.

We figured out what affects the level of mental abilities, and now we’ll find out how to measure them.

Summary

To summarize the article, I would like to add that, despite the fact that IQ is largely determined by factors that do not depend on a person (genetics, environment, gender, race, etc.), the intellectual abilities of almost every person can be trained, in other words, they can be developed.

Currently, many different developmental programs have been developed that can increase a person’s intelligence, for example, intellectual games, puzzles, tests, and various trainings. In addition, there are many ways in which you can increase your IQ without resorting to special programs. This includes banal reading of books, solving crosswords and scanword puzzles, watching educational TV shows, and even communicating with smart and developed people and eating right.

Every person has the power to increase their level of intelligence. The main thing is to constantly learn and not stand still. And for additional motivation, you should always remember that people with a high IQ are much less susceptible to various diseases and live longer.

What ways can it be improved?

Scientists have proven the factors contributing to their deterioration, these are long-term inactivity, physical and psychological abnormalities, and old age.

But there are ways to keep them at the proper level and improve them:

Solving puzzles, charades, crosswords, various tasks;
Working with specially developed computer programs that improve brain performance;
Hobby, favorite pastime. For example, attending various trainings, educational games;
Special sets of exercises that provide physical activity.

If you receive an unsatisfactory IQ test result, do not be upset. It is necessary to train the mind: this is solving logical problems, reading scientific and fiction books, learning languages. You need to constantly improve yourself. And, of course, stick to a healthy diet and get plenty of rest.

Story

The concept of IQ was introduced by the German scientist Wilhelm Stern in 1912.

He drew attention to the serious shortcomings of mental age as an indicator in the Binet scales. Stern proposed using the quotient of mental age divided by chronological age as an indicator of intelligence.

IQ was first used in the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale in 1916 (originally Binet in 1903).

Nowadays, interest in IQ tests has increased many times over, resulting in the emergence of many different unfounded scales. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to compare the results of different tests and the IQ number itself has lost its informative value.

Differences in the intellectual development of men and women

Since ancient times, society has been dominated by the view of women as inferior beings and less developed than men. Traditions and laws that do not allow women to engage in certain types of activities have led to the emergence of the myth that women's intelligence is developed significantly lower than men's. Because of this, it was believed that a woman should “know her place” and not interfere in “men’s affairs,” otherwise nothing good will come of it.

The easing of the position of women and their equal rights with men have shown that women's intelligence is in no way inferior to men's. Moreover, women cope with some types of mental activity much more successfully than men.

But the old attitudes still prevail in many countries: in the popular consciousness, women appear more stupid and undeveloped, and they are assigned a secondary and subordinate role. A woman cannot be the head of the family, she cannot inherit parental property, and in some places women are even prohibited from driving a car. There are also ideas about the inferiority of intelligence among women in the lower strata of the population of developed countries. As a rule, such people tend to take wishful thinking. They are guided by highly outdated scientific information, as well as myths and legends, and religious dogmas. They prefer not to acknowledge more current information because it does not correspond to their personal ideas.

Research into the relationship between sex and brain development has been going on for a long time. The available results show that there are differences in the structure of the brain between men and women, but they are not decisive in terms of intelligence: men and women can perform the same tasks equally successfully.

Thus, it has been shown that the volume and mass of the brain in men is slightly larger than in women. However, this did not have a significant effect on mental abilities. Results from studies of the effects of hormones on intelligence have been controversial; It has been shown that high levels of certain hormones can either increase or decrease mental performance.

Other studies have shown that although the male brain is slightly larger, it is markedly more vulnerable to developmental disorders in the womb. Thus, poor nutrition of the mother during pregnancy in many cases reduces the mental abilities of born boys, but this does not affect girls in any way.

Separate studies have been conducted on the perception of stereotypes. And they showed that in societies where women are exposed to adverse psychological influences, their intelligence levels actually turned out to be lower than in societies where women are perceived as equal to men and treated with respect. The thing is that in conditions of constant humiliation, women use to a greater extent those areas of the brain that are responsible for emotional reactions, and those areas that are responsible for solving certain problems remain unclaimed and do not receive development.

Stereotypes influence in other ways; for example, through raising children. From childhood, in traditional societies, girls are taught to do one type of activity and boys to another. Often, girls are not allowed to study physics, mathematics and other sciences, because it is believed that they will not need it in life. Because of this, boys' and girls' brains are trained to different degrees and in different ways, resulting in very different abilities at a certain age.

How to pass an IQ test with maximum score

The average IQ score of a test is calculated by the number of people who were able to pass it with a score of 100 or so. The test scoring system is constantly being revised because humanity is getting smarter by about 3 points every ten years. The increase in average scores is associated with an increase in the number of educated people and the transition from manual to mental work.

Researchers have noticed that a person's performance is influenced by his ability and desire to perform the test as well as possible. The higher the test subject's level of intelligence, the stronger the influence of his motivation on the test result. A person with lower abilities, no matter how hard he tries, will not show a high result. If a person with high intellectual potential does not try to solve problems, he will not show his true abilities.

The test result will be higher if you practice performing similar tasks - this is the learning effect. As in any test, the emotional mood plays a role, so it is better to start the tasks in a good mood.

Distribution of test subjects' results: 70% demonstrate average scores, another quarter - slightly above or below average, a few - extremely high or low scores.

Measuring intellectual abilities using an IQ test

Today, IQ testing of working personnel is successfully practiced in many companies. Children can also test their intellectual level. Yes, there is a lot of controversy around, but it still takes place.

The answer is expressed by the number obtained as a result of passing the test. The average score ranges from ninety to one hundred and ten. If the coefficient is above one hundred and thirty, then the person has the highest abilities. All scores below ninety indicate that intellectual ability is below average.

But don't despair, because intellectual intelligence can be increased.