# Future Bright  ## Metadata - Author: [[Michael E. PhD Martinez]] - Full Title: Future Bright - Category: #books ## Highlights - A baseball player’s batting average reveals something important, but necessarily omits much about that player’s strengths, weaknesses, and style. ([Location 480](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DAX8CV8&location=480)) - Inductive reasoning—finding the general pattern in specific data—is vital to the scientific enterprise. More generally, inductive reasoning is also an indispensable element of intelligent thought. It’s so important, in fact, that some theorists believe inductive reasoning lies at the very heart of fluid intelligence. ([Location 689](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DAX8CV8&location=689)) - From studying performance on Raven’s, we have learned that people differ in their ability to perform three kinds of intellectual activities: (1) finding order in complex patterns, (2) breaking problems down into subproblems, and (3) managing several goals at once without being overwhelmed. ([Location 718](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DAX8CV8&location=718)) - People are smart in different ways. ([Location 1048](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DAX8CV8&location=1048)) - Sternberg did not seek to replace traditional theories so much as to expand them. His theory recognizes three forms of intelligence: analytical, practical, and creative. ([Location 1070](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DAX8CV8&location=1070)) - This rationale—that analytical ability is legitimate but not fully sufficient—lies at the heart of Sternberg’s theory of successful intelligence. ([Location 1132](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DAX8CV8&location=1132)) - It’s possible that IQ and creativity are not related—at least not in any direct way. Instead, the opportunity to be creative requires the proper certification, a degree or license for practicing a profession.20 ([Location 1173](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DAX8CV8&location=1173)) - Because new ideas may be rejected for long stretches of time, possibly through the entire life of the originator, creative people very often display extraordinary persistence.26 ([Location 1209](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DAX8CV8&location=1209)) - Yet another theory of intelligence, still embryonic in its development, falls under the banner of distributed intelligence. The theory, introduced by Stanford professor Roy Pea, recognizes that every manifestation of human intelligence entails much more than a single mind acting in isolation. Rather, intelligence always operates in and through an array of resources defined by a culture. According to this theory, intelligence reflects the concepts and priorities of a local culture, as well as draws upon a panoply of tools, technologies, and practices offered by the culture. In Pea’s words, intelligent thought and action occur in a world “thick with invented artifacts.”43 ([Location 1359](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DAX8CV8&location=1359)) - An alternative way of computing is the connectionist paradigm, also known as the neural networks method. This model does not rely on discrete symbols. ([Location 1649](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DAX8CV8&location=1649)) - According to one theory, variation in IQ arises directly from how efficiently brains respond to stimulation.40 Brains primed to respond to environmental stimulation, quite possibly through being genetically predisposed to form new connections are, for that reason, more intelligent. Less adaptable brains are not as capable of forming and maintaining new neuronal connections. This theory of brain adaptability, though somewhat speculative, has the attractive feature of merging important facts from theories of intelligence and theories of brain development. ([Location 2065](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DAX8CV8&location=2065)) - Apparently, higher-IQ participants solved the puzzles most efficiently. Not only was their cognitive performance higher, their brains were working less hard to achieve a superior result. ([Location 2192](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DAX8CV8&location=2192)) - Note: Know brained threshold concepts or having seen problem structure before - In the language of psychology, the question is whether apparent gains in working memory capacity transfer to new tasks.78 Recent research shows that gains in working memory capacity do, in fact, transfer.79 Working memory, a central component of the intelligent mind, can be expanded with benefits extending beyond the original training materials. For those interested in the elevation of human intelligence, this is welcome news. ([Location 2395](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DAX8CV8&location=2395)) - An apt metaphor is a butterfly that emerges from the cocoon according to the organism’s genetic program. Piaget’s theory was insightful in characterizing the origins of human intelligence as a process of unfolding from within. ([Location 2615](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DAX8CV8&location=2615)) - Intelligence, in Vygotsky’s view, is fundamentally social and linked to the skilled use of language. Intelligence grows within minds only as those minds are immersed into a community that includes capable others—teachers, parents, and peers—who are, at least in some ways, further along in their intellectual development. ([Location 2620](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DAX8CV8&location=2620)) - is improper for any person to say, “Half of my IQ arises from my genetics, and the other half comes from my life experiences.” Such an interpretation would be convenient if the half-nature/half-nurture formula applied to individuals. But because heritability values always apply to groups, the statement is false, or perhaps nonsensical. ([Location 2728](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DAX8CV8&location=2728)) - Historically, the difference in mean IQ has been about one standard deviation, which places the White average at 100 and the Black average around 85. ([Location 2763](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DAX8CV8&location=2763)) - Note: Black culture less analytical and more impressive language slang - What may be surprising, however, is that schooling is the more powerful influence: On most tests, an additional year of schooling has twice the benefit of an additional year of maturation.37 ([Location 3400](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DAX8CV8&location=3400)) - Adults ought to think of their career pathway at least partly in terms of its ability to nourish and develop the intellectual resources of intelligence. ([Location 3632](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DAX8CV8&location=3632)) - intelligence is significantly a function of the quality of experience—or what we might call the educational value of experience. ([Location 4716](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DAX8CV8&location=4716)) ## New highlights added July 5, 2023 at 2:24 PM - One anecdote memorably illustrates radical relativism with respect to culture. Working with the remote Kpelle tribe of Liberia, psychologist Joseph Glick and his collaborators presented what they thought was a straightforward categorization problem.48 Various objects, such as a knife, hoe, potato, and orange, were placed on the ground. The Kpelle tribesman was then asked to sort the objects. The field researchers expected that the man would group the tools together into one cluster and the foods in a different cluster—a sorting method that derives from the abstract categories of tools and foods. But rather than using this scheme, the Kpelle man grouped the potato with the hoe and the orange with the knife. This arrangement was based on functional relationships, a categorization scheme that was fully sensible on its own terms, yet would be judged as unsatisfactory according to Western standards for assessing cognitive development. Was the Kpelle man intellectually stunted, or did he simply think differently from the Western scholars who presented the sorting task? Perhaps sensing bewilderment on the part of the Westerners, he justified his answer by saying that it was the way a wise man would do it. Curious, Glick asked, “How would a fool do it?”49 In response, the man sorted the objects according the abstract categorization scheme prized by the Western intellect—foods were grouped together, tools were grouped separately, and so on. The story of the Kpelle tribesman drives home the cogency of cultural relativism. ([Location 1411](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00DAX8CV8&location=1411))