This article talks about a concept that we often talk about - IQ. I have been using it before, but I have never been able to understand it. It's not that I don't want to understand it, but I haven't encountered it. Works that make it clear. The book "Beyond IQ: Why Smart People Do Stupid Things" explains this issue very thoroughly, but I still have to complain. The title of this book still sounds a bit clickbait, which caused my companion to just glance at it. One glance at the title and I said I was watching "Chicken Soup for the Soul."
The author proposed a "triple processing mental model". The whole book provides various explanations and elaborations around this model. IQ only accounts for one of them. By understanding this model, we will know how to modify the "parameters" in it. , come to make yourself smarter, you can really become smarter!
The operation of the brain can be divided into three different cognitive processes, each with different functions and advantages and disadvantages.
Autonomous mind is an automated processing process. When a person receives external information or stimulation, he will first be triggered and executed unconsciously, such as facial recognition, language understanding, and others taking advantage of you. An accidental slap on the back of your head will immediately arouse your anger and so on. These operations are all automatically completed by the autonomous mind. These operations are usually completed unconsciously.
This reaction mode has the characteristics of fast speed, automation, low computational load, low energy consumption, and does not require a large amount of analysis of all possible situations, and there is not much difference in autonomous minds between different individuals. , except for experts in this research field, no one cares about the level difference in this aspect. If there is a problem, it is usually caused by congenital or acquired damage to the brain, causing problems in certain cognitive modules. As a result, phenomena such as autism and dyslexia that we often mention will appear.
We can simply understand the autonomous mind as human instinct. All human instincts are gradually formed during the evolutionary process and then inherited from generation to generation. Not only are there not many differences between individuals, but they are also quite stable. For example, Confucius has been around for 2,568 years, but Confucianism’s various explanations of human nature still seem to be very accurate to this day. I think it can be used as evidence in this regard.
Algorithmic mind is the concept of "intelligence" that we usually talk about. Below I will directly use "intelligence" to replace "algorithmic mind".
"IQ" is the abbreviation of intelligence quotient, which is a score obtained by testing a person's intelligence. When I was a child, I didn't understand. I thought that a magical hat filled with various electrodes was put on a person's head, connected to the power supply, and then handed over to a computer terminal to perform various calculations, and the results came out. However, it is not that magical in reality. In fact, the test subjects are asked to do various types of questions. The higher the score, the higher the IQ. Although this type of test has also been controversial, it can basically accurately reflect a person's "intelligence" ability, that is, the level of brain operation. So what exactly are the people we call high IQs that are higher than the average person?
The difference in intelligence between people is very important in their cognitive decoupling ability. So what is cognitive decoupling?
We know that when humans engage in intellectual activities, they are mostly separated from the real world. Think about the mathematics, physics, and chemistry we learned in middle school. When learning these subjects, It is difficult for us to find a direct mapping in life experience, so we have to carry out various simulations in our brains and temporarily "break away from the real world". We call the direct mapping of the real world in our brains "primary representations", and "secondary representations" are copies of the primary representations, but separate from the real world so that they can be manipulated, that is, simulated. Human intellectual activities generally shield primary representation and proceed under secondary representation. Such a process is "cognitive decoupling."
Analyzed from the perspective of cognitive ability, processing secondary representations, that is, maintaining their decoupled state, requires high cognitive abilities. Evolutionary theory gives a good explanation in this regard. : As we evolve into animals that rely heavily on cognitive simulation, it is important that we cannot “disconnect” from the world for long periods of time. Therefore, dealing with primary representations of the world must have a unique and special status.
The difficulty with decoupling manifests itself in certain behaviors, such as closing our eyes (or looking up at the sky, or looking away) when we are thinking hard, in an attempt to prevent primary representations from changing. Interfere with the secondary representations of the ongoing simulation to avoid confusing real-world representations with hypothetical scenarios.
So it can be seen that maintaining simulation while maintaining decoupled representations, these operations reflect the computing power of the brain, which is what we call the difference in intelligence. In addition, human intelligence is particularly affected by genetics and environment.
In addition to differences in cognitive decoupling abilities, working memory is also an important aspect of differences in human intelligence. Working memory is a system with limited capacity that is used to temporarily store information. It is therefore a basic support for the thinking process, just like a computer cannot run programs without memory. Regarding working memory, the book does not explain much, but only mentions that it is an important part of intelligence.
Two of the three-layer mental processing models have been discussed, and there is still one "reflective mind" left. So what is the reflective mind?
We think, if a person has a normal autonomous mind (instinct) and a highly efficient algorithmic mind (intelligence), can we say that he is a smart person? I'm afraid it's not possible. Otherwise, whether a person is smart or not is determined from the moment he is born. Then what is the point of studying and studying? A person's high IQ means that he has strong cognitive decoupling ability and strong brain computing power, but he is not smart, otherwise the author would not say "smart people can do stupid things", here is the author The so-called intelligence is intelligence in a narrow sense, that is, "high IQ". If you want to be truly smart, you also need to work hard on "reflective mind".
The introspective mind corresponds to people's "rational thinking". A smart person must be very rational. So where does rationality come from? Obviously it is not innate, but many innate instincts are always irrational, because with the development of society and culture, some behaviors that are very rational in primitive society will appear very stupid in civilized society. This should be a ** * Got it. There is no doubt that if you want to make yourself rational, you can only acquire knowledge through acquired learning and let knowledge help you become more rational. We call these knowledge images that can make ourselves more rational "mind" program".
The concept of "mental program" is very vivid. Just like our computer, it is not enough to only be equipped with a CPU and memory with high computing power. It cannot be used by people without a executable program, so We need to install various APPs on our computers to complete various tasks. The same goes for people. A complex society prevents us from simply living in this world. We need to use various ways of thinking such as probability, logic, and economics to deal with the various uncertainties of life. This knowledge or way of thinking is what we Various "mental programs" required.
Therefore, the differences between people can originate from differences in intelligence (algorithmic mind) or thinking styles (reflective mind). In other words, whether a person is smart or not includes two aspects: algorithmic mind and reflective mind.
Through the above three mental processing theories, we can see that humans have three different psychological characteristics. First, cognitive capabilities at the algorithmic mind level are required to sustain suppression and simulation activities. Secondly, during the simulation process, the required mental programs can be acquired.
Among these three types of minds, the autonomous mind is basically the same for everyone. The difference lies in intelligence and reflective mind. Fortunately, intelligence is normally distributed, and there is not much difference. There are very few extremely high and extremely low intelligence. The biggest difference is the introspective mind, because everyone has different mental programs installed, which leads to some people being wise and others being stupid.