Recent research from the University of Illinois shows flexibility is the key to developing human intelligence. The researchers found that it’s the brain’s dynamic properties – how it is wired but also how that wiring shifts in response to changing intellectual demands – that are the best predictors of intelligence in the human brain.
Author of the research, psychology professor Aron Barbey, says: “What my colleagues and I have come to realise is that general intelligence does not originate from a single brain region or network. Emerging neuroscience evidence suggests that intelligence reflects the ability to flexibly transition between network states.”
This means that it’s all well and good to have crystallised intelligence as a result of what you learn and experience, but it is also important to have fluid intelligence, which occurs when the brain tackles unique unusual problems. So why not turn try your hand at one of our puzzles?
