Thinking and Intelligence

Thinking and intelligence are major topics in

phycology (and now in technology).

They have an important role in the human life.

Islam encourages us to think about things that

compose our life.

Thinking and intelligence are tightly related to

creativity.
 What is Thinking

Thinking refers to the process of considering or

reasoning about something.

It is the action of using one's mind to produce

thoughts.

Thinking is manipulating information, as when we

form concepts, engage in problem solving, reason
and make decisions.

The act of thinking, produces thoughts.

 What is Intelligence
We have many definitions:

The ability to acquire and apply knowledge and

skills.

The capacity for logic, understanding, self-

awareness, learning, reasoning, planning, creativity,
critical thinking, and problem solving.

The ability to learn or understand or to deal with

new or trying situations. It is the skilled use of
reason.
 What is Intelligence

The ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one's

environment or to think abstractly as measured by
objective criteria (such as tests).

Human intelligence is mental quality that consists

of the abilities to learn from experience, adapt to new
situations, understand and handle abstract concepts,
and use knowledge to manipulate one’s
environment.
 The Nature of Intelligence
An artistic work such as Gustav Eiffel.

The ideas of Voltaire.

The novels of Agatha Christie.

Different natures that imply different skills and

behaviors:

Learning, calculating, memorizing, formulating

words, prioritizing, making a vision, choosing
expressions, expecting events, judgment,
adaptability, creativity.
 The Nature of Intelligence
Intelligence is the ability of a being to effectively
interact with its environment in order to achieve its
goals.

Its all about abilities, cognitive or mental abilities.

Ability is main the Keyword.

Intelligence abilities can be logical, mathematical,

spatial, imaginative, creative.
 Intelligence Abilities
Intelligence abilities include:
Memory.

Comprehension.

 Social, Interpersonal.

Reasoning, and

Abstract thought.

One of the most known theories is: Howard

Gardner Theory of Multiple Intelligences.
 Howard Gardner Eight Specific Intelligences
(1) Linguistic Intelligence:
The ability to speak and write well.

(2) Logico-mathematical Intelligence:

The ability to use logic and mathematical skills to
solve problems.

(3) Spatial Intelligence:

The ability to think and reason about objects in
three dimensions.

(4) Musical Intelligence:

The ability to perform and enjoy music.
 Howard Gardner Eight Specific Intelligences

(5) Kinesthetic (body) Intelligence:

The ability to move the body in sports, dance, or
other physical activities.

(6) Interpersonal Intelligence:

The ability to understand and interact effectively
with others.

(7) Intra-personal Intelligence:

The ability to understand oneself and one’s
thoughts and feelings.
 Howard Gardner Eight Specific Intelligences
(8) Naturalistic Intelligence:
The ability to recognize, identify, and understand
animals, plants, and other living things.

For psychologists, these abilities are:

To learn: The acquisition, retention, and use of
knowledge.
To recognize problems: To put knowledge to use,
people must be able to identify possible problems in
the environment that need to be addressed.
To solve problems: People must then be able to
take what they have learned to come up with a
useful solutions to a problem they have noticed in
the world around them.
 Robert Sternberg Triarchic Theory of
Intelligence
One advocate of the idea of multiple intelligences
is the psychologist Robert Sternberg.

Sternberg has proposed a triarchic (three part)

theory of intelligence that proposes that people may
display more or less:

 Analytical intelligence:

Is influential in being able to take apart problems

and being able to see solutions not often seen.
 Robert Sternberg Triarchic Theory of
Intelligence

 Creative intelligence:
This stage deals mainly with how well a task is
performed with regard to how familiar it is. Sternberg
splits the role of experience into two parts: novelty
and automation.

A novel situation is one that has not been

experienced before. People that are adept at
managing a novel situation can take the task and
find new ways of solving it that the majority of people
would not notice.
 Robert Sternberg Triarchic Theory of
Intelligence

An automation situation is one that has been

performed multiple times and can now be done with
little or no extra thought. Once a process is
automatized, it can be run in parallel with the same
or other processes.

The problem with novelty and automation is that

being skilled in one component does not ensure that
you are skilled in the other.
 Robert Sternberg Triarchic Theory of
Intelligence
Practical intelligence:
It deals with the mental activity involved in
attaining fit to context through the three processes
of:

 Adaptation (it occurs when one makes a change

within oneself in order to better adjust to one's
surroundings).

Shaping (it occurs when one changes their

environment to better suit one's needs).
 Robert Sternberg Triarchic Theory of
Intelligence

Selection (it is undertaken when a completely new

alternate environment is found to replace the
previous, unsatisfying environment to meet the
individual's goals).

Through the three processes of adaptation,

shaping, and selection, individuals create an ideal fit
between themselves and their environment.

This type of intelligence is often referred to as

"street smarts."
 Peter Taylor in The Birth of Project Intelligence

 According to Peter Taylor intelligence can be

described as the ability to learn about, learn from,
understand, and interact with one’s environment.

Environment in this definition has a wider meaning

that includes a person’s immediate surroundings,
including the people around him or her.

Environment in this case can also be something

as small as a family, the workplace, or a perhaps a
project team.
 Peter Taylor in The Birth of Project Intelligence
But what if you combine intelligence with projects,
what would you achieve? Well a successful project
manager certainly needs to address the specific
intelligence abilities:

This general ability can be broken down into 6

separate abilities:

1. Adaptability to a new environment or to changes

in the current environment (projects are all about
delivering change and the ability to oversee such
change requires a great degree of adaptability).
 Peter Taylor in The Birth of Project Intelligence
2. Capacity for knowledge and the ability to
acquire it (projects also require a continuous learning
process to understand the change that is being
delivered, the lessons that are there to be learned.
The combined knowledge of the core and extended
project team offer the best platform for project
success).

3. Capacity for reason and abstract thought

(logical application through the methods of project
management will deliver a degree of likely success,
the ability to think outside the box and supply
beneficial adaptations to process and solutions will
deliver the rest).
 Peter Taylor in The Birth of Project Intelligence
4. Ability to comprehend relationships (projects are
all about people and the relationship of people with
other people).

5. Ability to evaluate and judge (such is the

essence of project leadership and decision making).

6. Capacity for original and productive thought

(problem resolution and the comparative analysis of
options is a constant need in good project
management).
 Measures of Human Intelligence
Intelligence quotients, or IQ tests, compare your
performance with other people your age who take
the same test.

These tests don’t measure all kinds of intelligence,

however. For example, such tests can’t identify
differences in social intelligence, the expertise
people bring to their interactions with others.

There are also generational differences in the

population as a whole. Better nutrition, more
education and other factors have resulted in IQ
improvements for each generation.
 Measures of Human Intelligence

Intelligence is not quite the same as IQ, although

people use the terms interchangeably.

IQ, which stands for Intelligence Quotient, is a

score determined by an IQ test.

IQ tests are designed to measure a person's

intelligence, a general ability.
 Rationale for Studying Intelligence

There are two main ideas that encourage us to

think about improving our (or others) intelligence:

1- Brain cells grow as they are solicited and used

correctly.

2- In order to receive and treat information and

knowledge, the brain have to be prepared
“formatted” (just like plowing the land before
cultivating it). That is because our brain can (need
to) be “formatted” to accept certain types of thinking.