No feature of the mind is as important, controversial, and mysterious as intelligence. It is one of the brain’s highest-order activities, allowing us to navigate the complexities of everyday life—thinking, remembering, planning, learning, organizing, solving problems, making snap judgments, and pondering difficult decisions. It is the epitome of brain function, and it has a powerful influence on success in life. And thanks to decades of research, we are closer than ever before to understanding it.

Although many aspects of intelligence remain puzzling, researchers are now on their way to a detailed scientific explanation of what defines intelligence, where it comes from, and how it operates in the brain. Few fields of psychology are as crucial to the lives of people or the social policies of nations. An understanding of how the brain produces intelligence sheds light on questions such as these:

• What’s right and what’s wrong with IQ tests?
• Can intelligence be measured directly from the brain?
• Can education or brain training enhance intelligence in children or adults?
• Is intelligence constrained by genes?
• What is the connection between intelligence and creativity?

The answers to these questions help determine policy decisions in education, employment, health care, and other fields. They also govern personal choices about how we want to lead our lives and raise our children. For example, is it realistic to gauge school success largely by rising test scores? Are everyday tools such as electronic devices unnecessarily complicated for most people to use? Or suppose a pill were available that could raise IQ. Would you take it? Would you allow your school-age children to take it?

The Intelligent Brain plunges you into a myriad of thought-provoking issues such as these in 18 stimulating half-hour lectures taught by Professor Richard J. Haier of the University of California, Irvine. Professor Haier is one of the world’s foremost researchers on intelligence and a pioneer in the use of brain imaging technology to explore the workings of the human intellect.

Testing Intelligence

The modern history of intelligence research began with attempts to measure the differences that separate cognitively normal children from “abnormal” children. This was the origin of the first IQ test, designed by French psychologist Alfred Binet in the early 20th century. The Intelligent Brain traces the fascinating history of intelligence testing and its leading thinkers and their ideas, including the following:

• g factor: First described by psychologist Charles Spearman over 100 years ago, g is the conjectured general factor of intelligence and is widely used today in research. It is not the same as IQ, which can be influenced by social and cultural factors, whereas g is thought to be largely innate.
• Flynn effect: Challenging the idea of an innate g factor is James R. Flynn’s research showing that average intelligence test scores have risen faster than can be explained by evolution. Critics contend that better education and test-taking skills help explain the increase, while leaving g relatively unchanged.
• Multiple intelligences: Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences holds that instead of a single g factor there are diverse independent abilities—from facility with language to interpersonal skills. But if such abilities are not independent, is this evidence for the g model?
• Arthur Jensen: The most infamous article in the history of psychology was written by Arthur Jensen, a prolific intelligence researcher. Professor Haier shows how Jensen’s work on g factor differences among groups led to widespread criticism about the nature of intelligence.

While most of us are familiar with tests that assess intelligence through a long series of exacting questions, such as those on the college SAT, there may be a much simpler way to gauge intellectual ability. In this course, you get to try a stimulus/response exercise that is a shortcut to establishing mental quickness—and possibly intelligence.

Exploring Intelligence in Depth

As a pioneer in the field, Professor Haier was one of the first psychologists to use positron emission tomography (PET) to study brain function during tasks associated with intelligence. In addition, you investigate magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a newer and more powerful imaging technology than PET that can reveal brain structure and rapid changes in brain activity and has helped pinpoint areas of the brain associated with high IQ.

These lectures are illustrated with dozens of PET, MRI, and other remarkable images, including animations that show the shifting pattern of activity in a thinking brain, shedding light on what goes on inside the mind at work. Professor Haier also enlivens his presentation with examples of questions from different intelligence tests, giving viewers a taste of the methods used to rank individuals on the intelligence scale.

The Intelligent Brain discusses some of his surprising findings, which include differences in brain function in males and females when they are engaged in the same challenge at the same performance level. These results show that not all brains work the same way. Professor Haier also presents evidence that brain efficiency, not increased mental effort, may be the hallmark of intelligence.

You close the course by looking into the future. Today, no one questions the use of caffeine to improve mental performance. What will the attitude be toward neurochemicals that promise to enhance memory, learning, and other aspects of brain function? Will it be considered cheating for students to use such brain boosters before tests? Will these chemicals be embraced as a benefit to society? Should they be required like vaccines? What if only the rich can afford them? With The Intelligent Brain, you gain a deeper understanding of the intriguing recent research findings on this most complex of human phenomena.