When we talk about intelligence, we tend to think about what system we can use to measure it. When we talk about how intelligent a person is, we may think about how high his/her IQ level is. IQ is the Intelligence Quotient of a person derived from the equation of mental age over chronological age. It is said that the higher a person’s cognitive capability is, in relation to his number of years lived, the more intelligent he is.

So we tend to think that people with higher IQ are more intelligent than people with lower IQ. Ok, but if you take a group of people with perfectly functioning brains and with normal psychological makeup, are the ones with higher IQ really always considered to be more intelligent than the rest?

Answer is yes and no.

If you take higher IQ as a simple definition that so and so is more intelligent than another. Then the answer is NO.

If you take higher IQ to mean that a person has certain higher cognitive capabilities than others then the answer is Yes.

You see, IQ does not measure all of a person’s intelligence. It only measures part of it. We all know that there are three faculties that an IQ test is testing a person in. There are seven types of intelligence and IQ measures only three of the seven.

Psychologist Howard Gardner identified the following distinct types of intelligence. They are listed here with respect to gifted / talented children.

1. Linguistic

Children with this kind of intelligence enjoy writing, reading, telling stories or doing crossword puzzles.

2. Logical-Mathematical

Children with lots of logical intelligence are interested in patterns, categories and relationships. They are drawn to arithmetic problems, strategy games and experiments.

3. Bodily-Kinesthetic

These kids process knowledge through bodily sensations. They are often athletic, dancers or good at crafts such as sewing or woodworking.

4. Spatial

These children think in images and pictures. They may be fascinated with mazes or jigsaw puzzles, or spend free time drawing, building with Leggos or daydreaming.

5. Musical

Musical children are always singing or drumming to themselves. They are usually quite aware of sounds others may miss. These kids are often discriminating listeners.

6. Interpersonal

Children who are leaders among their peers, who are good at communicating and who seem to understand others’ feelings and motives possess interpersonal intelligence.

7. Intrapersonal

These children may be shy. They are very aware of their own feelings and are self-motivated.

IQ test measures a person’s Linguistic, Logical-Mathematical and Spatial Intelligence. The first two are left-brained and the third is right-brained. But there are still four other areas of intelligence than IQ does not measure. Areas in which people can be geniuses in as well.

We cannot use IQ alone as a basis to compare the intelligence of people with one another. In fact, some people are more intelligent than others who may have higher IQ than them! How is that so? Simply because, there is a difference between having certain enhanced cognitive capabilities and using these capabilities in combination and harmony with the rest of your mind in an integrated and holistic way.

There is a difference between using your brain in a partial way, and using it in a complete and well connected way.