The Development of Human Intelligence: the Level of Cognitive Ability of a Person - Essay Example

What causes intelligence? Are there truly smart genes causing some individuals to be born intelligent? Nowadays, advertisement about milk and vitamins that promise to enhance and boost intelligence to kids is quite common. DHA containing products are said to be brain-food, enhancing a child’s cognitive potentials. But an interesting question would be- up to what extent do these products truly help in maximizing individual cognitive abilities? The topic of intelligence is such a broad one that definitions arise from all possible resources- scientific, genetic, and environmental. Along with these are the different views gathered from studies and researches yet, there is no definite and single definition of the word, just a number of descriptions and views according to the evidences. It is quite common for some to believe that there are individuals who are endowed with a considerable high level of intelligent genes so to speak. On the contrary, in our everyday lives, we have learned through experience that intelligence emerges in time. additional evidence stress the fact that knowledge or skills are such things that can be mastered, perfected, forgotten, enhanced, learned, gained, lost, enlarged, advanced, deepened, or augmented (Derr, 1989). A point taken from Gray (1992) says that the underlying reason why there is often a slide between different senses of innateness is that these are all linked to a dichotomous view of development. Innate behavior is being seen as inborn- determined by internal and inherited factors; behaviors that are acquired are driven by environmental factors. Still others presume that human behaviors are coded in the genetic makeup, thus, are existent prior to the developmental processes and interactions. Few of the definitions of intelligence include it being a general cognitive (g) as assessed in the psychometric function tradition of a general factor derived from a battery of diverse cognitive ability tests Plomin & Petrill, 1997). IQ tests such as Stanford-Binet and Weshler Intelligence tests, aims to evaluate one’s level of cognitive functioning in areas like reasoning, spatial, and even socio-emotional factors. These tests have been standardized to address the socio-cultural differences and level down the other differences of the test takers to solidify the results and increase its reliability and validity. According to a Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget, intelligence is simply the individual’s ability to comprehend and understand the relationship of things and circumstances around him or her that is deemed appropriate to a person’s mental age. The cognitive ability is therefore increasing as a person ages, although the rate at which different children develops, for example, varies from one another even when they pass the same predictable stages. Studies and researches across time also suggest that intelligence results from learning and maturation (Brown, 1973; Elkind and Weiner, 1978). True to the premise that not all behaviors we learn are acquired the same way, still, the same behavior can be learned in different ways according to how it has been perceived and processed by the individual as time progresses. The basic understanding of human behavior is learning, involving in nearly all aspects of life that result in the gradual increase of the intelligence. Scholars define learning as the relatively permanent change in behavior that results from experience and therefore influences the person’s manner of thinking. Even when the role of cognition or thinking in development view the growing child quite differently, still theorists believes that a child is essentially passive, just like a clay to be shaped. Children, in general, tend to make sense of the environment out from their experiences and these experiences help them develop the full potential of their cognitive abilities (Fischer, 1973; Gerst, 1971; & Herrnstein, 1971). In an article by Gray (1992), he postulated that the concept of innate behavior and genetic determinism are rejected by most developmental biologists and psychologist because of the following reasons: first, the concept of innate behavior has multiple meanings and that this term is often used in multiplicity of non-equivalent ways. It suggests that substantive problems arise due to the fact that people often act as if evidence for one definition of innateness implies another leading to more confusion on the view. Second, the idea that behavior is somehow present in either a latent or coded form in the genes is implicit in the concept of innate behavior implying that human behavior exists prior to developmental processes and interaction in the environment. Third, behavior that results to learning is also viewed as selective, (this has been stressed by deprivation experiments) further stating that it is impossible to raise an organism in he absence of an environment or the absence of experience. And finally, there is a simple correspondence between developmental inputs and behavioral outcomes, such that environmental information produces acquired behavior and genetic information produces innate behavior. further, it has been found out that the forms of behavior that might have been termed innate (genetically determined) or behavior that is specific to the species and is present from birth requires positive, informative, and constructive input for it to be enhanced (Gray, 1992). One of the most common arguments on intelligence is the nature versus nurture claim. Human intelligence, as well as individual behavior is often seen by many as a result of their interaction and the influences of environmental factors during development. It has been argued that the individual’s understanding of the world was due to how he or she perceived it, hence, in accordance to his or her daily experiences (Erikson, 1950). He or she learns how to reason and think critically based on how he or she sees and experiences a certain thing. One famous claim was made by John Watson who wrote: “give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and on my own specified world, to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select- doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant,-chief, and yes, even beggar man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors” (Watson, 1930: 104). This has been a solid argument that is being held until now by behaviorists, viewing that intelligence, just like behavior, is acquired and not inborn. On the other hand, nature is also said to be one of the contributors to the development individual differences specifically in human intelligence. To make several exciting discoveries about intelligence, there have been a number of genetic researches on intelligence that investigated the developmental change and continuity, multivariate associations among cognitive abilities, and the developmental interface between nature and nurture. Indeed, the many advances in molecular genetics have led to the dawn of new era for genetic influence on cognitive abilities and disabilities (Plomin & Petrill, 1997). A person’s general cognitive ability (which refers to what cognitive abilities have in common) has been an important target for molecular genetic research over the years for the reason that multivariate quantitative genetic analyses have shown that the same set of genes affects diverse cognitive abilities as well as learning (Butcher, Davis, Craig, & Plomin, 2008). Plomin and Neierhiser (1991), stress that there has been a growing acceptance of the conclusion that genetic influence on intelligence is significant and substantial is only the first chapter in the story of genetics and intelligence. Given this, still there are a lot to be studied about the multivariate phenomena that occurs in the claim of nurture through the basic quantitative genetic issues as well as the genetic influences on intelligence-related environmental measures. This claim has been evident in the studies of twins. Some studies contradicts previous proposition that human intelligence is the result of experience and environmental factors (Holden, 1980). A concrete example is set in the results of a 20-year longitudinal adoption study of 245 adopted children and their biological and adoptive parents as well as 245 matched non adaptive parents and offspring. The result indicate that adopted children resemble their adoptive parents slightly in early childhood but not at all in middle childhood or adolescence and that during childhood and adolescence, adopted children become more like their biological parents, and to same degree as children and parents in control families (Plomin et.al., 2006). Another study proved other ways the nature-nurture prove to be complex in defining human intelligence. Results of another longitudinal study of identical twins that are separated by birth due to adoption or foster care show the effects of the same genes among the twins in different environments. Even when they are separated and of no recognition of each other and was brought by different families, they still show similar qualities and the level of cognitive functioning is almost the same (Terman, 1983). In addition to this claim, family, adoption, and twin data heritability has been simultaneously analyzed and attributed to genetic differences estimating about 50%, or about half of the variance of IQ scores among individuals in these populations (although other studies on different countries may yield different results, populations sampled are primarily from the United States and Europe) (Petrill, 1997). Although cases such as these are rare, still it is extremely important from a scientific point of view since it is also possible to see whether adoptive children resemble more closely to their biological parents level of cognitive abilities or adoptive parents. These result suggests the importance of genes and intelligence being inherently innate as well as emphasizes the claim of the influence of environment, contradicting the view that intelligence is innate. Until people gain a more sophisticated understanding of how genetic influences and heredity and environmental factors interact to produce behavior and affect intellectual level of functioning the nature-nurture, innate-acquired question will continue to be controversial (Gormy, 1993 & Cronbach 1970). There has been a controversy over intelligence that includes the socio-economic status of an individual. Some studies have concluded that the difference in economic standing have been found to have effects an influence on a person’s level of intelligence as being brought about by their every day life experiences. A study conducted by Davis (1951), found out that questions pertaining to usual life experiences mattered in testing for an IQ score. The socio-economic background and everyday life experiences portrays an important role in shaping human intelligence was concluded in the study measured experience and reasoning in both middle class society and lower class families. The question on the experiment was set like this: a symphony is to a composer as a book is to what? (Choices include paper, sculptor, author, musician, man). It was found out that that 81 percent of children from well-off families, but only 51 percent of children from lower class families, answered this correctly but when the question was revised giving more emphasis on everyday words and experiences common for both middle and lower class families, both of the respondents were able to answer equally, thus closing the gap between socio-economic status (Davis, 1951; Loehlin et.al., 1975). If these cases were to be considered, then there is a considerable amount of reason to think that intelligence is not at all innate. Considering the number of studies and arguments presented, it is clear to see that the debate pertaining to whether or not intelligence is innate or acquired continues to be a controversy. Studies and researchers however help in generating pertinent information regarding the different views and claims on intelligence. Scrutinizing the arguments presented ahead of this paper, it is quite important to note that both of the claims (intelligence is innate; intelligence is acquired) have main points in the development of human intelligence. Intelligence can be innate as shown by studies on adoptive children that develop characteristics similar to their biological parents when reaching adulthood while it can also be acquired when enough support and motivation from the environment and support persons are experienced by the child while growing up. These factors truly help in enhancing a child’s cognitive abilities in his or her formative years. As to the concern of whether intelligence is innate or acquired, it is best to say that both factors determine the level of cognitive ability of a person rather than putting much emphasis on one than the other. References: 1. Brown, Roger. (1973). A first language: the early stages. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 2. Cronbach, Lee J. (1970). Essentials of psychological testing. 3rd edition. New York: Harper & Row. 3. Davis, A. (1951). Socio-economic influences upon children’s learning. Understanding the child, Vol. 20 pp. 10-16. 4. Derr, Richard. (1989). Insights on the nature of intelligence from ordinary discourse. Case Western Reserve University Intelligence 13, 113-118. 1989. 5. Elkind, D., and Weiner, I.B. (1978). Development of the child. New York: Wiley. 6. Erikson, Erik. (1950). Childhood and society. New York: Norton. 7. Fischer, Kurt W. (1973) Piaget’s theory of learning and cognitive development. Chicago: Markham. 8. Gray, R.D. (1992). 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