Intelligence

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WHEN ANNE MCGARRAH DIED AT THE age of 57, she had lived more years than she could count. That is because Anne could not count at all. Like most people with Williams syndrome, she could not add 3 and 7, could not make change for a dollar, and could not distinguish right from left. Her disability was so severe that she was unable to care for herself or hold a full-time job. So what did she do with her time?

I love to read. Biographies, fiction, novels, different articles in newspapers, articles in magazines, just about anything. I just read a book about a young girl—she was born in Scotland—and her family who lived on a farm.…I love listening to music. I like a little bit of Beethoven, but I specifically like Mozart and Chopin and Bach. I like the way they develop their music—it is very light, it is very airy, and it is very cheerful music. I find Beethoven depressing. (Finn, 1991, p. 54)

Although people with Williams syndrome are often unable to tie their own shoes or make their own beds, they typically have gifts for music and language. Williams syndrome is caused by the absence of 20 genes on chromosome 7. No one knows why this tiny genetic glitch so profoundly impairs people’s general cognitive abilities, yet leaves them with a few special talents.

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WAS ANNE MCGARRAH INTELLIGENT? IT SEEMS ODD TO SAY that someone is intelligent when she cannot do simple addition. But it seems equally odd to say that someone is unintelligent when she can articulate the difference between baroque counterpoint and nineteenth-century romanticism. In a world of Albert Einsteins and Homer Simpsons, we would have no trouble distinguishing the geniuses from the dullards. But ours is a world of people like Anne McGarrah and people like us: people who are sometimes brilliant, often bright, usually competent, and occasionally dimmer than broccoli. So, what exactly is intelligence? About 20 years ago, 52 scientific experts came together to answer this very question, and they concluded that intelligence is the ability to direct one’s thinking, adapt to one’s circumstances, and learn from one’s experiences (Gottfredson, 1997). As you will see, that definition captures much of what scientists and laypeople mean when they use that term.

For more than a century, psychologists have been asking four questions about intelligence: How can it be measured? What exactly is it? Where does it come from? Who has it and who does not? As you will see, intelligence is a set of abilities that can be measured quite accurately, it is the product of both genes and experience, and it is something that some people and some groups have more of than others.