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Article Excerpt
As we enter the 21st century, neuroscience techniques will accelerate our understanding of how the brain works. Brain-imaging technologies are particularly helpful because they can identify brain areas, and the relationships among them, that underlie psychological processes central to education including learning, memory, attention, and reasoning. Moreover, there is a renewed interest in the neural basis for individual differences in these processes and for the complex integration of these processes that form the basis for most concepts of human intelligence. There is considerable progress in this area, as we summarize here.
In our view, understanding the neural basis for individual differences central to intelligence may present the single most important challenge to educators in the next decade, especially if it turns out that the neural basis of intelligence is amenable to educational strategies. Whether this is true is an empirical question yet to be answered and, as of now, there is relatively little investigation of this issue given its critical importance. Although research in cognitive psychology has advanced considerably in the last two decades, it is still not known why some people learn faster than others, or why some people have better memories or longer attention spans than other people, or why some people are much better at mathematical reasoning than at spelling, or why some people are more creative than others. Brain-imaging research is just beginning to address these questions; thus, educators do not yet have a strong empirical basis from neuroscience for tailoring one educational strategy or another for particular students. However, the results of this emerging research field likely will affect all students across the range of intellectual attainment from the lowest to the very highest.
In fact, even if neuroscience results offer educators potential advances, it is not clear that the education community is ready or prepared to listen. For example, there is no single concept more important in education than the concept of intelligence, but the very word is so controversial that it has all but disappeared from most educational discourse. One exception is the popular psychology notion of "multiple intelligences," but there is virtually no empirical support for it (see current debates: Gardner & Moran, 2006; Waterhouse, 2006a and b). The specialty field of gifted education is another notable exception where there is considerable interest in research identifying the neurobiology associated with very high mental ability levels (Haier & Benbow, 1995; Kalbfleisch, 2004, 2006, in press; O'Boyle et al., 2005). The more general disdain for intelligence is not because there is a lack of empirical data about the unbiased assessment of intelligence and the many biological and social correlates of such assessments. To the contrary, there is an enormous, scientifically robust research literature that is often ignored in discussions about education (Murray 2007a, 2007b, 2007c; Neisser et al., 1996). In part, this may derive from the vehement controversies about group differences in IQ that were well publicized in the late 1960s and were reignited with publication of The Bell Curve in the 1990s (Hernstein & Murray, 1994). There also is the common idea that all individuals have the same intellectual potential if only environments and opportunities were equal, although there are compelling reasons why this idea is not valid (Pinker, 2002).
Despite these controversies, it is time for educators to reexamine the current state of knowledge about intelligence (Jung & Haier, 2007; Neisser et al., 1996) so that new findings about the neural basis of intelligence, and the component processes of learning, memory, and attention, can be discussed and studied for relevance (if any) to education (Byrnes & Fox, 1998a and b; Geake, 2004; Geake & Cooper, 2003; Goswami, 2004). It also is important to note that attending to neuroscience data concerning intelligence does not preclude using any new data about important environmental influences, should such data become available and survive similar levels of scientific scrutiny.
As the concept of intelligence has divided and perplexed many educators and parents, interest in creativity has increased. However, there are few neuroscience studies of creativity or of the creative process. This is most likely due to the difficulties of defining creativity and the lack of psychometric means of assessing it, problems largely addressed and overcome in research on intelligence. Nonetheless, there may well be a neural basis for creativity. If so, it will be important to distinguish how this concept differs from and/or overlaps the neural basis of intelligence. To this end, we will summarize some theoretical and brain-imaging efforts in this direction.
It is our goal in this article to bring to the reader's attention some of the current brain research that may be relevant to education in the near future. The remainder of this article is organized to address the following questions:
1. Why is there a neuroscience interest in intelligence'?
2. Can intelligence be located in the brain?
3. Why are some brains smarter than others?
4. What do we know about creativity and the brain?
5. Can information about an individual's brain structure and function be useful to benefit his/her education?
WHY IS THERE INTEREST IN BRAIN CORRELATES OF INTELLIGENCE?
Psychometric intelligence testing is the subject of debate and controversy, but there is overwhelming data that such assessments have considerable construct and predictive validity (Gottfredson, 1997). This is true for several concepts of intelligence including the g-factor, crystallized intelligence, fluid intelligence, and intelligence in general. There are substantial individual differences among people on intelligence measures and much of this variance can be attributed to genetic factors (Bouchard, 1999, 1998). Since genes always work through biology, there must be a biological basis to intelligence, and so there is a logical focus on understanding how biological and genetic variables influence the brain. There is no controversy about the importance of understanding these influences for Alzheimer's disease, mental illness, mental retardation, learning disabilities, and many other serious problems. Surely, there are biological and genetic influences on the cognitive processes that underlie intelligence in the absence of neurological problems and a major neuroscience effort to understand these influences is warranted.
It is important to note that there is a common misconception that anything that has a biological or genetic basis, even in part, is relatively difficult to change compared to something with a largely environmental basis. Just the opposite may be true. Every time you visit a physician it is with the expectation that broken biology can be fixed. In the 21st century, we are beginning to have innovative techniques to alter the neurobiology of the brain; these include new drugs and targeted delivery into specific brain areas, electrical stimulation of deep brain structures with implanted electrodes, genetic engineering, and even surgical interventions including tissue transplantation in the brain. Currently, this research and funds that support it target neurological and psychiatric problems, but as progress continues there is every reason to expect that new knowledge can be applied to understanding intelligence. For example, if there are drugs developed to dramatically improve memory in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients, how will such drugs affect college students studying for exams? Such a "miracle" drug for treating AD is a goal for many determined researchers and a major effort in neuroscience. Since memory is a key component of intelligence (Colom, Rubio, Chun Shih, & Santacreu, 2006), there undoubtedly will be controversial issues about using such drugs in people without AD to optimize learning or mathematical ability or reading speed or any other cognitive process. This debate will be vigorous with or without participation from...
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