What is intelligence?
The term intelligence is used in different ways. We talk about intelligent design, artificial intelligence, intelligent animals and intelligent people. Most people would agree that intelligence has something to do with the ability to think, and that some are more intelligent than others. But beyond that, the meaning of the word intelligence is often quite unclear. Even among experts in intelligence testing there are disagreements on how the word should be defined, and what, exactly, an intelligence test measures.
Photo: Helge Brekke MUV
The question has been debated since the infancy of intelligence testing
Some psychologists have claimed the existence of a general intelligence which can be measured with an IQ test. Others are skeptical about the existence of a general intelligence, and use "intelligence" as a term that summarizes a number of different psychological abilities. According to this, IQ is mainly a measure of how good your abilities are in a number of different areas, such as your short-term memory, processing speed, or how good you are at visualizing.
Another highly contentious question is the extent to which your intelligence is innate or the result of learning. In the early days of intelligence testing, many people thought that an IQ test measures an innate and unchanging trait. But this idea has been thoroughly criticized. Today, it is most common to think that intelligence is the result of a complex interaction between innate predispositions and life experiences, and that an IQ score alone cannot, distinguish between nature and nurture.
IQ testing have affected our ideas about what intelligence is
Disagreement about what intelligence tests actually measure, has not prevented them from being widely used. Perhaps it is rather the opposite: The flexibility of the intelligence concept have made it possible to interpret and use IQ tests in different ways and for different purposes. In our project, we have looked at how IQ tests have been designed to perform specific tasks in society, what kind of knowledge has been produced using these tests, what kind of effects this knowledge has had on society and for individuals, and how the IQ tests have influenced our ideas about what intelligence is.
