The ability to comprehend the relationship between abstract or concrete objects with the help of concepts and perceptions, to think abstractly, to reason, and to use these mental functions for a purpose in harmony is called intelligence (Koçer 2006). This definition is the most commonly used definition of intelligence today. Intelligence has been defined in different ways by many philosophers and psychologists.
Binet and his friends first started to develop an intelligence test in 1905 in order to distinguish students with learning difficulties in schools in France from others, and this test was called the Binet-Simon test. According to Binet, not with simple mental elements such as intelligence, memory area, sensory acuity and reaction speed, but with comprehension, judgment, reasoning and giving a certain direction to thought, adapting thought to the realization of a desired goal, self-criticism, finding one’s own mistakes and manifests itself in complex operations such as correction. After these years, these tests have been developed and applied to different age groups. However, the most important feature of these tests is that they measure intelligence with a numerical value and consider intelligence in one dimension.
Intelligence has been defined in different ways by many scientists. The common view in all of them is that intelligence is a common product of heredity and environment. In addition to all these, it is stated that intelligence can be improved, developed and changed, can be displayed in various ways, and cannot be isolated from real life situations or conditions (Gardner 1993). Along with these definitions, many more definitions of intelligence are made.
. “The capacity for good reasoning, judgment, and self-healing”
. “Abstract thinking process”
. “Perception, questioning, creativity”
. “Capacity to act purposefully, think logically, and be effective in relationships with the environment”
. “The ability to consciously adapt one’s thinking to new situations.”
. “The ability to react appropriately to the environment”
. “The capacity to learn, solve problems, create new products and communicate” (Sağıroğlu, Beşdok, & Erler, 2003).
. “Quickness in responding, probing possible solutions, and the capacity to understand new relationships between phases of a problem”
. “The activity of discovering a new mechanism or rule or making a guess.”
. “It is the brain’s ability to receive information and analyze it quickly and accurately.”
While biologists considered intelligence as the ability to adapt to the environment, educators evaluated it as learning, psychologists as understanding relationships, and computer scientists as the ability to process information. What has been written about intelligence so far shows that it cannot be fit into a universal definition, since intelligence is an abstract and open-ended concept just like the soul, subconscious mind, mind, and thinking.
The brain consists of a mass of nerve cells (neurons) that are in complex relationships with each other. In the most general sense, the brain is a control center of activities. Human intelligence provides the creation of reactions by interpreting the stimuli received by the senses and the control of these reactions.
The fact that there are too many unknowns under the tiny structure of the brain causes studies in the field of neuroscience, which includes many disciplines, to intensify. In the simplest terms, there are 100 billion nerve cells with one trillion connections in a 1 cm3 region of the brain. Between these 100 billion nerve cells, there is 10 million x billion impulse transmissions per second. As can be understood from just this much information, the human brain has a system that is too complex and superior to be compared to any computer.
The main purpose of intelligence research is to understand the principles of human information processing and to unravel the working mechanisms of biological nervous systems. Computers play an important role in both the research and development of these mechanisms (Sağıroğlu, Beşdok, & Erler, 2003).
As a result of these studies, serious results have been reached regarding intelligence and memory in particular. The weakness of our memory is the most common situation. The biggest reason for this error is that our environment-contextual memory is the oldest memory type and has a common origin with many living things.
Contextual memory provides people with advantages and disadvantages. When we need information, if the conditions in the period when we first learned that information, you can rely on contextual memory if it is present at that moment. If it does not match, you have a serious problem. Because the pieces of information that stand out in the current conditions are in your subconscious. It will trigger thousands of memories.
One such working mistake about our brain is the “confirmation bias.” We tend to believe more in things that fit our beliefs than those that don’t. For example, guess the rule that creates the pattern 2-4-6 and create new sequences that fit it: Does 4-6-8 follow the rule you found, yes, 8-10-12… I guess you said yes again? So, do you think the rule is “the sequence of triple even numbers increasing by 2”? So, can 1-3-5 or 1-3-4 be a valid sequence? Or let’s put it this way, can the main rule be “any sequence of three consecutive numbers”? (P.WATSON EXPERIMENT)
A similar fallacy is the “illusion of focus.” When attention is focused on a particular area, people become oriented in that direction;
Are you happy?
How many people have you dated in the last month?
When the order in which these questions are asked changes, the answers differ. ) For example: Let’s look at the statement “The incidence of breast cancer in women over 40 is 1%, the mammography test is 10% positive in those without breast cancer, and 80% in those who do”
… Those who are 45 years old and have a positive test result What is the probability of a woman getting breast cancer? 90% of the doctors who were asked this question answered that it is over 70%. However, this is a Bayes Theorem; If we have 1000 subjects over the age of 40, if 1% is breast cancer, 10 out of 1000 means breast cancer. If 99% is not breast cancer, 990 out of 1000 people are healthy.
If 10 women with cancer are tested, 8 of them are positive and 2 of them are negative. (80%) When 990 healthy women are tested, 99 are positive and 891 are negative. (10%)
Test Result: 8+99=107 positive results, 8 of which are actually cancer. So 8/107 = 7.5% is the true value.
This kind of probabilistic thinking error is a “combination error”. Take, for example, a subject who weighs 150 pounds and smokes. Is he ‘likely to have a heart attack and ulcer’ or just ‘likely to have an ulcer’? Although the majority gives the first answer, according to probability rules, the combination of two events cannot be greater than the probability of one of them.
“Gambling error” is a similar error; If a coin is tossed 5 times in a row and they all come up heads, is the probability of getting heads or tails high in the 6th toss? The majority say heads. Whereas, in independent events, what happened before does not affect what will happen later.
Likewise, the “hot hand error” is a well-known probabilistic fallacy. Just like a basketball player who puts the ball in the basket 20 times in a row has a warm hand and his 21st shot will be a basket. Here, however, a pattern that does not exist has been created. In light of all this;
The brain thinks in two ways;
Fast, automatic, unconscious Slow, analytical, probing, discreet…
The first is older; When encountering a wild animal, flood, fire, etc. intervenes in events and does its job. The second is more recent; When we are tired and busy with a problem, it turns off or short-circuit!!!
The indispensable correlation between these two compartments of the brain is assumed by “prediction neurons”. So what are they?
Wolfram Schultz’s Dopamine Experiments and prediction neurons
W.SCHULTZ makes an interesting observation while working on the physiology of Pavlov’s operant conditioning studies. To monkeys
½ sec after listening to music When they waited and then gave apple juice, the neurons first responded to the reward and then began to respond to the music. Wolfram Schultz called them “Prediction Neurons.” A strong stimulus is emitted from the anterior cingulate to the brain. The Anterior Cingulate both stimulates consciousness, keeps it alert, and sends a warning to the Hypothalamus, which regulates vital aspects of bodily functions. Dopamine neurons in the anterior cingulate use data from new events to regulate old predictions and expectations, internalize life lessons and update the NERVE NETWORK MODELS of the BRAIN. If this region cannot fulfill its function for some reason, the individual cannot use negative reinforcement in learning and repeats the same mistakes constantly because he has difficulty in learning from his mistakes.
Unless we experience unpleasant signs of being wrong, our brain can never review its patterns.
Our neurons have to fail again and again in order to succeed!
NEUROFEEDBACK strengthens organization between old and new brain compartments through the generation of new prediction neurons.
