So what type of intelligence is best to have?

Submitted by “Jerry” Westcott who has consistently pointed out the similarities between his own ADHD and those with bipolar “cognitive” struggles.

Michael Bond, a London-based consultant to New Scientist, quotes Keith Stanovich, “ I.Q. isn’t everything. Notwithstanding that IQ tests determine…the academic and professional careers of millions in the U.S.) (The SAT’s for instance). In his book, What Intelligence Tests Miss(Yale University press, 2008), he claims standard IQ tests “measure only a limited part of cognitive functioning.” Stanovich and other reaearchers focus attention on cognitive faculties that go beyond intelligence. In fact, our brains use two different systems to process information. One is intuitive and spontaneous. The other is deliberative and reasoned.

Intelligence, as we know it, can be a poor predictor of “good thinking.” People with higher intelligence excel in certain situations like number ratios, probabilities, deductive reasoning, and the use of hindsight. However, correlation between intelligence and successful decision making is weak. Stanovich adds, “ intelligent people perform better only when you tell them what to do.”

Wandi Bruine de Bruin notes: “those who displayed better rational-thinking skills suffered significantly fewer negative events in their lives such as credit card debt, having an unplanned pregnancy, or being suspended from school.”
Interestingly, Baruch Fischhoff reports in the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making V 18, p1 that adolescents who scored higher on a test of decision-making competence drank less, took fewer drugs, and engaged in less risky behavior overall.” He notes that “irrational thinking (not IQ) may be more important than intelligence for positive life experiences.”

Unfortunately, to date, there is no “rationality- quotient (RQ) test.” Also, although IQ tests excel in measuring brainpower or for academic selection, “RQ tests” might be the way to select managers and leaders. The same researchers also warn that, unlike IQ tests, it may be easy to train people to do well on RQ tests; that is, “to ignore intuition and engage reasoning.” The affirmative, however, is “ that everyone can improve their rational thinking and decision-making skills.”

One conclusion that is possible from this information is that there can be special psychotherapists who may offer their skills correcting such conditions trauma-related cognitive-executive deficits or bipolar and ADHD “misfiring” that register on the RQ scale instead of the standard IQ scale. Food for thought anyway. Adapted by Peter J. Dorsen, M.D., LADC