On the heels of a post I did at The Scientist (“Amazing Rats”), where I proposed a new model of intelligence based on a animal’s ability to solve problems rather than its communication skill, I read a blog post by Jonah Lehrer at The Frontal Cortex where he gives his take on what intelligence really means. Rather than smarts merely defined by how many facts someone can cram into their heads, Lehrer argues that a better measure of intelligence is to look at how well people (or animals) can shift their selective attention. Facts are just facts, but the intelligent being can manipulate and organize the information for the task at hand, which places a high demand on the attention circuits in the brain.
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