You are a smart person

When have you told someone, 'You're an intelligent person?' What makes you think someone is intelligent? And what makes you think someone is not?

Intelligence is something difficult to define. You may have heard of IQ (Intelligence Quotient) as a number that determines your intelligence, as something that orders people from least intelligent to most intelligent. Well, know that modern intelligence scales, such as the Wechsler scale, do not have that goal.

Modern intelligence scales measure reasoning ability, memory, and processing speed. They help define intellectual disability from a conceptual perspective. In other words, they assess abilities like reading and calculating. Can we understand concepts like time, space, and money? The Wechsler scale is a tool to determine if a person needs support to navigate their life, but it does not measure intelligence.

We may ask ourselves, 'Does someone with adequate reading and calculating abilities, but who doesn't excel in logical-mathematical or verbal fields, mean they're not intelligent?' What about a musician with typical reasoning abilities (not exceptional or deficient)? If they don't excel in logical-mathematical or verbal domains, does it mean they're not intelligent? The same goes for a painter, a gymnast, or a plumber.

As modern society has evolved, it has become clear that a definition of intelligence based solely on one ability (logical-mathematical or verbal reasoning) is not sufficient to describe the complexity of the matter.

A modern approach defines different types of intelligence; it speaks of multiple intelligences. Intelligence can also be understanding the surrounding space, comprehending music, understanding how our body moves, understanding oneself and others.

Does this mean we are all intelligent? Not necessarily. The conclusion is that we have different abilities, some of which are more developed than others. We may need support in some areas while being particularly skilled in others.

Sources:

• Terman, L. M., & Merrill, M. A. (1937). Measuring intelligence: A guide to the administration of the new revised Stanford-Binet tests of intelligence.
• Wechsler, D. (2008). WAIS-IV: Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Fourth Edition.
  
• Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences.

To whom have you said, 'You're intelligent!'? Why did you say it? What criteria did you use to define it?

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