The WHY? Game
Albert Einstein famously said that if you can't explain something to a six-year-old, then you don't understand it yourself.
That philosophy, paired with the fact that I just watched yet another inspirational VSauce video, is the reason why I decided to play the WHY? game.
After I finish a book or a unit in whatever I'm learning in my independent study, I'm going to pause and go over what I learned.
I'll start with a simple question, like 'why is the sky blue". Then I might answer with "molecules in the air scatter blue light from the sun more than they scatter red light, so blue is the color we see when we look up at the sky". And then (trying to look as sane as possible whilst talking to myself), I'll ask "but why??".
And it'll go on until I can't explain any more.
The idea is that this exercise will help me reflect on what I've learned so far.... fingers crossed that it does!
This week I'm going to go over creativity and intelligence, because that's what I've been delving into (see Rex Jung's research). Why don't you tag along, dear reader!
What I want to specifically focus on is how intelligence is manifested in the brain.
From what I've read, humans who possess higher intelligence tend to have larger brains, thicker gray matter (the processing cells of the brain) in the frontal and parietal lobes, better white matter connectivity (the wires that connect the processing nodes) between regions, and more of certain beneficial chemicals in particular regions of the brain.
It's this idea that intelligence = bigger, better, stronger, faster.
When I read this, something in me went "nawww".
I guess it's because I've conditioned myself (or been conditioned) to believe that bigger and faster does not always equate to better. So to be told that having a bigger brain means that you're more intelligent just makes me want to scream NO!
Why?
Well, because.... what if Mother Nature just dealt someone a bad genetic card and the kid ended up having a tiny brain? (My self righteous side would be screaming "just because their brain is small doesn't mean that that kid is stupid, I refuse to believe it!"
I got the same feeling when I was reading (again from Rex Jung's research) that there really isn't a way to increase intelligence - it's under "tight genetic control", as Mr. Jung explains.
I don't know if I understood it correctly, but I think it has something to do with the plasticity of the brain, or its ability to make new neural connections. Some people are just born with a higher neuroplasticity, so it's easier for them to form those new connections, increase interconnectedness between cortical regions, "learn" faster, and therefore be deemed as "smarter".
Going back to the idea that intelligence = bigger, stronger, faster..... it kind of makes sense if you think of how plasticity and practice plays into it. The more you practice something, the stronger the connections between those specific neurons corresponding to the action will become, the thicker the gray matter in those regions will grow, the faster those neurons will fire when the action is repeated, and the "bigger" and "smarter" the brain will seem as a result.
So people who have an innately high neuroplasticity will have larger brains (given that they practice and utilize that neuroplasticity to strengthen their neural connections), will be able to make connections, and arrive to conclusions faster, and will be deemed as more intelligent.
