Learning and Intelligence

What is Intelligence? Intelligence is a biopsychological process that is a product of genetic heritage and psychological properties ranging from personality dispositions to cognitive powers.

Intelligence is a combination of the ability to:

Learn. This includes all kinds of informal and formal learning via any combination of experience, education, and training.

Pose problems. This includes recognizing problem situations and transforming them into more clearly defined problems.

Solve problems. This includes solving problems, accomplishing tasks, creating, fashioning products, and doing complex projects.

The good news is that the definition of intelligence implies the ability to improve. It says that each of us can become more intelligent. We can become more intelligent through desire and determination, study and practice, through access to appropriate tools, and through learning to make effective use of these tools.

What are the recognized different types of Intelligence? It is recognized that we all have a multiple of intelligences, with no two intelligences being the same, as we each have a unique degree of the differing intelligences. Some recognized intelligences are:

Musical Intelligence which is the ability to learn, perform, and compose music.

Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence which is the ability to use one's physical body well.

Logical-Mathematical Intelligence which is the ability to learn higher mathematics. The ability to handle complex logical arguments.

Linguistic Intelligence which is the ability to communicate well, perhaps both orally and in writing, perhaps in several languages.

Spatial Intelligence which is the ability to know where you are relative to fixed locations. The ability to accomplish tasks requiring three-dimensional visualization and placement of your hands or other parts of your body.

Interpersonal Intelligence which is the core capacity to notice distinctions in others, particularly moods, temperament, motivations and intentions. The ability to discern the intentions and desires of others even when hidden.

Intrapersonal Intelligence is the knowledge of the internal aspects of oneself. The ability to sense other's feelings and be in tune with others.
The ability to access to ones own feeling and life, ones range of emotions, and the capacity to make discrimination among the range of emotions as a means to guide and understand ones behavior. A person with good intrapersonal intelligence has an effective model of himself consistent with a description constructed by careful observers. The self-awareness ability to know your own body and mind.

Naturalistic Intelligence which is the ability to understand different species, recognize patterns in nature, classify natural objects.

Neural Intelligence which is the ability to have insight into one’s efficiency and precision of one's neurological system.

Experiential intelligence which refers to one's accumulated knowledge and experience in different areas. It can be thought of as the accumulation of all of one's expertises.

Reflective Intelligence. This refers to one's broad-based strategies for attacking problems, for learning, and for approaching intellectually challenging tasks. It includes attitudes that support persistence, systemization, and imagination. It includes self-monitoring and self-management. Reflexive intelligence can be thought of as a control system that helps to make effective use of neural intelligence and experiential intelligence. A person can learn strategies that help to make more effective use of neural intelligence and experiential intelligence. The habits of mind included under reflexive intelligence can be learned and improved.

Existential Intelligence which is the ability to discern and understand the big questions of life and the most fundamental questions of existence.

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