12.6: Thinking vs. Intelligence

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Page ID: 67224

Jim Marteney
Los Angeles Valley College via ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative (OERI)

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Now we can look at the relationship between Intelligence, knowledge, and finally thinking. There is a difference between intelligence and actual thinking. Too often more credit is given to the person who is “highly intelligent” than the person who effectively uses that intelligence to critically think, argue, and arrive at a decision.

Intelligence may describe our cognitive potential, but thinking examines how we actually use that potential. Brain training pioneer, Edward de Bono, explains our mental capacity by comparing it with the engine of an automobile. He compares the horsepower of an engine with intelligence, fuel with knowledge, and how well-tuned an engine is with one’s thinking ability. Just like having a high horse-powered engine that does not go anywhere because it is poorly tuned, so could a person be highly intelligent and still make poor decisions, because he or she does not have good thinking skills.

12.6.1: "Automobile engine" by Unkown on Pixabay

Horsepower --- Intelligence

Fuel --- Knowledge

Tuned --- Thinking

Smart = Effectively using thinking Skills to utilize your Knowledge and Intelligence.

Another way of looking at the interaction between intelligence, knowledge, and thinking is to compare them with the working of a computer. Intelligence can be related to the computer processer and memory storage. Knowledge is the data that is imputed into the computer. Thinking is the program that is written to utilize the capabilities of the computer in processing the information. No matter how impressive the computer processer is, without a quality program it is little more than a doorstop.

If a person has a level of cognitive ability, access to quality information, and effective thinking skills, then we can say that person is smart. Since thinking is necessary to best utilize a person’s intelligence, we need to more closely examine the skill of thinking.