The spectrum of intelligence
by Woo Pei Jun
Most people equate intelligence to academic performances.
In essence, you are deemed intelligent if you have good grades and vice versa.
According to experts, one's intelligence is measured not just by one's school grades
but a whole spectrum of skills and abilities that shape an individual and determine
his or her success in life.
In this article, Ms Woo Pei Jun, a Developmental Psychologist, expounds on the different
types of intelligence and gives practical tips on how parents could help to increase
their children's intelligence.
Ms Woo has studied and worked in Malaysia and the United States. She obtained her
Bachelors and Masters degrees in Psychology from Ohio State and Boston University,
USA. Her work in the medical field has included attachments with Ohio State University
Hospital and South Bay Mental Health Services, USA.
Her areas of research have involved eating disorders amongst Asians, motivation
of workers, within the field of industrial and social psychology. In addition, she
has also been involved in rehabilitation of patients, motivating students, behavioural
aspects of sales personnel, early intervention programmes for children at risk,
and outreach work for disadvantaged people.
As part of her responsibilities, she has addressed Kindergartens, International
schools, Christian and Buddhist groups, Malaysian Mensa and Maxis on issues related
to children, intelligence and stress. She is also a member of the Malaysian Mental
Health Association. Currently, she is in private practice and has a special interest
in children's development and abilities, developmental delay and intervention programmes.
Q1) What is Intelligence?
A) There are many types of Intelligence and many different definitions of
it. But in general, intelligence can be summed up as the ability for an individual
to act purposefully, think rationally and deal with his or her own environment effectively.
In other words, it is how an individual uses his past experiences and present information
to adapt to his surrounding or current situation.
Q2) What are the different types of Intelligence? How are they
defined and differentiated?
A) There are 3 types of intelligence:
• Fluid Intelligence
• Crystallised Intelligence and
• Emotional Intelligence
Fluid Intelligence is your ability to perform, problem solve, plan, remember and
pay attention to a situation. It involves nonverbal, relatively culture- free reasoning
and contains components that are needed to receive, store and process non-verbal
information (i.e., memory, attention, processing speed, perceptual organisation)
Crystallised Intelligence is the acquired skills and knowledge that are dependent
on exposure to a particular culture as well as formal and informal education. It
involves information that you have learned in school such as arithmetic, vocabulary,
comprehension, etc. It also assesses whether an individual is able to retrieve information
and experiences learned and apply it in a meaningful manner.
Emotional Intelligence is the ability of an individual to adapt to his own environment
using various resources that is available to him/her.
A scholar from Cambridge (for example) might have a very high fluid and crystallised
intelligence due to his exposure to the wealth of information in school but may
not perform or fit in well to his society when he comes out to work if he does not
have adequate emotional intelligence (meaning he might lack certain social skills
to interact efficiently with his environment).
Hence, it is very important, to not just have good academic intelligence (crystallised
and fluid intelligence) but to have adequate social-interpersonal skills (emotional
intelligence) as well.
Q3) Can Intelligence be improved? If so, how?
A) Intelligence to a certain degree can be improved with the right resources
and training. For example, a child who is weak in his mathematics, if taught in
another way and given the chance to understand a certain concept and practice it,
might eventually be able to improve his mathematics. However, it does not mean that
he will become a genius in mathematics overnight! Similarly, it does not mean that
an individual who has an IQ score of 100 can suddenly shoot up his IQ scores to
120 or 132. In general, a person's IQ score would remain relatively the same throughout
his/her years. The purpose of an IQ test is actually to identify an individual's
strengths and weaknesses. By doing this, an individual can then be helped to focus
on his weaknesses using some of his strengths that are identified.
Q4) What can parents do to help increase their children's intelligence?
A) The most important thing to remember here is that there is no one way
or method to improve intelligence. The more important thing is to provide your child
the opportunity to explore and see as many things as possible. Academic information
is only one way of opening your child's eyes to the world outside. However, play
time, experiments and field trips are also other ways of exposing your child to
different things in life. Give them as much opportunity as you can (within safety
limits, of course). Activities ranging from going to the museum, fishing trips,
padi fields, aquarium, educational videos (i.e. National Geographic), scout or girl
guide activities (to name a few) can be beneficial to a child.
Q5) What can an older child do to increase his or her intelligence?
A) Similarly to the above, give them opportunity to expose and absorb various
information but at the same time, they should also be given the opportunity to apply
and practise what they have learned!
Q6) At what age should a child be first exposed to the computer?
A) The main thing to remember here is that a child being exposed to the computer
should have the cognitive ability to understand what they are seeing in the computer
(if not, they aren't really learning) and the child is being supervised by an adult
to guide them through the process of learning through the computer.
Q7) Too much TV viewing is regarded harmful for children. So,
how much TV viewing time in a day is regarded safe and what type of TV programs
would you recommend for young children?
A) Too much television can be harmful for a child if it is not supervised
by an older adult. However, television can be a window to a world of events and
an educational experience for a child if it is controlled in a constructive manner.
It can take you to concerts, ballets, Africa, laboratories, Mars, etc that you might
not be able to expose your child to. Hence, taking active control to what your child
sees on TV is the key to avoid some of the harmful effects of TV and getting the
most out of it.
What you can do:
• Set a limit on television time. Thirty minutes to an hour daily is plenty for
a preschooler. Homework should be completed before television viewing is allowed.
Or you might decide to limit television viewing to the weekends only. Be firm and
consistent with your rules. However, be reasonable with the limit you set and if
there is a special program on TV, allow your child the opportunity to watch it.
• Monitor the type of programs watched: Some good programs for young children include,
Sesame Street, National Geographic, Animal Planet, nature programs and so on.
• Encourage activities and reading rather than just watching television.
• Praise your child for good viewing habit
• Watch television with your children and talk about the characters and explain
what is going on in the programs.
• Set a good example! Your children imitates what you do. Hence, take a look at
your own viewing habits, and if you feel that you spend too much time watching television,
spend more time playing with your child, reading or do other activities.