Questions tagged [intelligence]
While no precise and agreed upon definition exists, intelligence, in essence, refers to the ability to critically acquire, interpret and apply information.
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Do Any Academic Papers Provide Experimental Evidence for Smart Farm Animals?
I'm an engineer and biology is my weakest point, so I apologize in advance if this question is dumb.
About 5 years ago, I started hearing that cows are really smart! Horses can do math! Pigs have more ...
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Could an animal have a developed Broca's area but no Wernicke's area?
Broca's area's function is for speech production, specifically, the control of muscular movement for speech, and Wernicke's area's function is the comprehend language or communication, Communication ...
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Measures of animal intelligence
What is a good cross-species measure of intelligence?
I want to use this information to decide which animals to eat, so preferably it would have been measured for most commonly eaten animals.
I read ...
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Do the EDAR sinodont mutation affect brain size or intelligence?
I am reading on wikipedia that a certain mutation in the "Ectodysplasin A receptor" known as rs3827760 or 370A is responsible for the sinodont dentition pattern in East Asians as well as ...
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Is there any running experiment to selectively breed non-human smart animals?
Is there any running experiment to selectively breed non-human smart animals?
I saw some scientists made overly tame and friendly foxes using fust selective breeding. Could it be possible to add the ...
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Intelligence without natural selection?
Natural selection is not the only driving force of evolution. There are other mechanisms such as genetic drift, mutations, gene flow, etc... To what extent can these different mechanisms (which don't ...
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Which animals do bait hunting?
By bait hunting I mean some predator which first collects or finds some bait (food of its prey) and then uses the bait to lure and catch its prey. This question is inspired by this video showing an ...
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What are the most intelligent plants?
For intelligence lets adapt the definition from here:
Perception of the surrounding environment
Adaptation to environmental conditions
Communication (in the case of plants, through chemical ...
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Do lobsters demonstrate any problem solving capability?
I was watching this video where a man takes a grocery store lobster and raises it in a salt tank, the lobster exhibits curious behavior that looks like intent. In the comments there was a claim that ...
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Why Account for Phylogeny when using Relative Brain Size as a Surragate for Intelligence
This paper tries to relate intelligence, life history, and urban fitness of birds. They use relative brain size of each species as a surrogate measure of intelligence. Although this may not be the ...
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Is there a difference between human neuron cells compared to those of other animals?
Thanks for looking.
Firstly, I am nowhere near biologist, just a student, so my apologies if this isn't a "good" question.
Background:
So I was searching about intelligence, brains and ...
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Why do women have less synapses / neurons / brain mass than men despite having the same average IQ?
I don't mean to cause offence or suggest than men and women shouldn't be of the same intelligence — that's not something I'm here to dispute. What I want to understand is how this is possible given ...
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Does too much screen time really damage your brain? [closed]
So I was looking on the internet for articles to whether computers really damage your brain and I found that half of them say the do and the other half say the don't. Personally I don't think it does ...
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What factors have led to selection for intelligence in crows and rooks?
The Corvidae family could include some of the smartest species after primates. What could be the factors that differentiate them from other species of birds that have determined their potential for ...
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Do dogs and cats know the names of other people / pets in the house?
I have a dog named Penny and a cat named Milo. I always wonder if Milo knows Penny's name, and vice versa. So if I call Penny, does Milo know that I just called her? Similarly for humans, if someone ...
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Effect of myelination on inteligence in cephalopods
Cephalopods are known for their unique intelligence compared to other invertebrates.
The number of neurons of cephalopods is of the order $5*10^8$, similar to dogs. Humans have about $10^{11}$ ...
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Does intelligence depend more on environment than on genetic factors? [duplicate]
Many have argued that the test of IQ is simply a test of language. The application of the test consists of asking a number of questions. The person should understand the question presented to them and ...
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Correlation brain size and muscle volume
I have 3 dogs that weigh ≈ 5 kg, ≈ 20 kg and ≈ 45 kg. The smallest dogs whole head would fit in the mouth of the biggest dog. Although I haven't measured it exactly but by just looking at the dogs I ...
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Why don't intelligent animals like primates use plastic bags? [duplicate]
I'll be honest here. Although this is a serious question, what made me wonder about it is this comic from Wumo:
This question is not specific to monkeys. It applies to animals that live with or ...
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Is intelligence correlated with neural calorie usage?
The human brain uses a lot of calories in comparison to other species, that is usually explained by referencing the intelligence disparity between Humans and other Animals. My question is how far does ...
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Mild introduction to selective advantage of intelligence/nervous systems in animals?
I have a general understanding of why intelligence, i.e. nervous systems in animals, is advantageous: processing information allows an animal to adapt to its environment dynamically and perform ...
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Intelligence as measured by DNA tests
Suppose a person has an IQ of 130, as measured by a standard IQ test, when he is 18 years old. He then goes on to develop severe mental illness, which reduces his IQ to 100. After this, he takes a DNA-...
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How do insects recognize their host plants?
Many insects, like butterflies have specific host plants on which they feed or lay eggs. While researching about some butterflies, I found that they lay their eggs on certain specific plants and their ...
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Its there a gene or genes for intelligence?
I don't know almost nothing of genetics but I felt a little interested in the subject of genetics and its role in intelligence and i found to reports that talk about certain genes that contribute to ...
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Genes and Intelligence
Assuming that intelligence has a genetic component,
• do we know which genes contribute to it?
and, if so,
• can we predict intelligence from genomic analysis?
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Have there been any successful studies showing that it is possible to increase IQ?
I am curious if there have been any leading studies that show improvement in general IQ. For example, an adult with an IQ of 130 reaching an IQ of 140, over many different IQ tests and then averaged, ...
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Book on current state of knowledge on the genetics of intelligence
I'm looking for a book that gives a good summation of the current state of knowledge on the genetics underlying intelligence.
I have read textbooks on human population genetics but I'm looking for ...
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At what point do scientists consider something sentient vs random and/or genetic? [closed]
When I was thinking about sentience from a scientific point of view, I was confused about the bio-electric mental difference between a paramecium, dog, human, and supercomputer.
At what point does ...
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Are Richard Lynn's estimates of African IQ inherently innacurate on the basis that most Africans aren't mentally retarded?
I've been looking at Richard Lynn's studies on average African IQ, and he seems to estimate really low IQs in the 60s range (e.g. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160289609001275?via%...
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Is it true that the human brain has not evolved in 100 000 years? [closed]
I read that the human brain has not evolved in 100 000 years and that's why there are no genes for intelligence.
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What are the consequences of inbreeding?
Inbreeding increases the risk of getting two identical recessive genes, alleles, that cause a disease which wouldn't have been activated with mixed genes. That's how I understand it anyway. But I ...
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Why are some animals so much more intelligent than others? [closed]
From what I found many biologists state that animals living in large social groups (elephants, primates, cetaceans etc.) have a tendency for improved cognitive abilities. Yet at the same time there ...
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Being able to write/type different texts using each hand respectively, at the same time?
Has there been any documentation of being able to either write down (jot down) or type in (key in) different texts using the left hand and the right hand respectively, simultaneously?
So, I'm ...
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What is the evolutionary advantage to a lifespan limit? [duplicate]
How/Why
Do Koi have a lifespan of hundreds of years?
Do humans have a lifespan of decades?
Do dogs have such a short lifespan?
Within these questions I pose further questions. How does size relate ...
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Is hunting animals, crafting and attacking/defending from enemies intellectually equivalent to learning quantum physics? [closed]
Our brains were shaped after natural selection. Which means that, as long as we were being affected by it, our brains were changing, evolving.
Once we stepped out of nature and stopped being targets ...
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Have creatures ever evolved to become less intelligent?
Inspired by https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/58533/is-intelligence-the-natural-product-of-evolution , I'm wondering if creatures have ever become less intelligent as a result of ...
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Decoding animal language (dolphins etc)
I have this idea about how we perhaps could decode animal vocabularies that I would like to have some input on.
The idea is to design an experiment/challenge where we could predict roughly what has ...
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Do the mother's genes determine the sons' (heredity) intelligence more than the father's?
It is a general belief that a person's intelligence is determined by both nature and nurture.
I can find a study by Turner 1996 ( in fact, this is the motivation of this question), which makes the ...
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How do heredity and regression to the mean work with respect to intelligence?
I am trying to understand the heredity of intelligence between generations in general, and how regression to the mean works in detail in particular. The answer I'm looking for should preferably answer ...
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Is there a correlation between Animal Intelligence x Playing time?
I'm writing a small text for a blog about playing time and I wish to have more resources about the correlation between Intelligence and Playing time in animals. If not exactly that, maybe some ...
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Is there any evidence that any other species are "pre-intelligence"? [closed]
Is there any evidence regarding whether other species might, given time, evolve intelligence as humans have?
I realize "intelligence" is a vague word here, but I'm interested in throwing a wide net, ...
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Is NZT-48 real?
NZT is a fictional compound in a movie called limitless, basically it's a brain booster, it gives access to more simultaneous neuron activity.
are there any real cognitive enhancers out there?
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Why are sight and sound prerequisites for intelligence?
Edward O. Wilson, in The Diversity of Life wrote (emphasis mine):
Ninety-nine percent of the animals find their way by chemical trails. […]
Animals are masters of this chemical channel, where we are
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Is hunger pushing cognitive ability in humans? [closed]
We have a lot of those questions here that base on personal anecdotes and I try to avoid asking any of those. Still, after skipping breakfast and an extremely effective work day so far I started ...
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Current Trend in Evolution of Human Intelligence
Up front, I am specifically not interested in philosophical or ethical considerations re Eugenics and related concepts. In an effort to receive a concise answer I'll post a narrowly defined question ...
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How could be the "Eurasian magpie" bird won the "Mirror Test" where Gorillas failed
EURASIAN MAGPIE VS GORILLA
VS
How could be the "Eurasian magpie" bird won the "Mirror Test" where Gorillas failed ?
In 1982, mirror tests on two, zoo-reared gorillas failed to demonstrate ...
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Is there biological evidence for self-awareness in animals?
I am conducting an investigation into the topic of the intelligence of
animals, in particular farm animals. I would be interested to hear a scientific and biologic perspective as to what is perceived ...
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Is there a correlation between total neurons and intelligence?
Thanks for looking.
First off, I am not a biologist, just a curious layman, so I apologize in advance if this isn't a "good" question. Please don't downvote me into oblivion.
I read today ...
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Do species which have a closer common ancestor to humans tend to be more intelligent? [closed]
Q: Do species which have a closer common ancestor to humans tend to be more intelligent?
Our closest living relative, the chimpanzee, seems to be regarded as intelligent:
Chimpanzees make tools ...
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Propagation of tool use in primates?
There are several famous cases of great apes demonstrating a surprising degree of wherewithal in communication and tool use - even monkeys can learn some tool use from each other observationally, even ...
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