Is there a correlation between how intelligent an animal is at birth vs how intelligent it will get?
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Esedess (
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August 1st, 2014
I.E:
Human = Dumb and highly incapable of anything at birth, but have the largest maximum potential for intelligence. The transition from lowest intellectual capacity to maximum is slow.
Deer = Smarter/more capable than human baby at birth, but have a lower maximum intelligence potential. The transition from lowest intellectual capacity to max is moderately quick.
Spider = Born completely capable and self-sufficient, but doesn’t get any smarter. Transition from low intelligence to max is basically non-existent.
Apply this correlation to other species. I can’t think of a one that, presumably, doesn’t fit the mold.
Obviously intelligence and capacity are difficult to quantify
It’s as if, the less capable at birth and the slower the climb to maximum intelligence, the higher the maximum potential is; and vise-versa.
If it helps to think of it like this: Imagine each species on a graph where ‘y’ is capacity and ‘x’ is time.
Pick 2 animals, make 2 separate graphs, then lay them on top of one another.
Or am I just being crazy?
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16 Answers
The determining factor is how long the gestation is. Humans have to offload early because of the size of the baby’s head.
I get it. That is a cool idea! The deer example immediately popped into my mind. Fawns are fast and really capable a few minutes after birth. They are aware of everything! Compare that to a human baby. Dopes! See attached Onion article.
How far down the chain do we go? Birds? Single celled animals?
Well, your thoughts seem plausible regarding their normal life, but does not apply to their learning POTENTIAL. Several animals born with relatively the same intelligence might live a life of around the same intelligence, but, their ability to learn more through training from humans, or being forced into a new environment does not run parallel.
Just a side note, elephants are very smart, even one of the smartest creatures on earth We know this by observing them, and discovering they are a matriarchal society. ;-)
They stay pregnant for 2 years, too.
It’s wrong to consider the deer “smart” at birth. The deer is fully able to run, hide and keep quiet at birth as well as perceive danger. These are obvious survival traits one would expect to evolve in an animal at the top of every meat lover’s menu. In fact the behaviors are so ideal, that little is required in the way of intelligence to improve on them as the animal matures. They’re instinctive. Human beings are completely helpless at birth, but are wired so heavily for learning that deer like instincts have been effectively eliminated, as is nearly every other survival trait beneficial to an animal in order to maximize the one trait that puts us on top.
The human brain develops until age 25.
Instinct is what animals and Man are born with. Intelligence is what is accrued during the lifetime.
Men’s brains stop at 14. Just sayin’!
@kritiper I don’t think intelligence can be “accrued.” Knowledge can, but intelligence…well, either you got it or you don’t.
@stanleybmanly
In that sense you could rearrange the correlation to suit the instinct paradigm.
i.e. – Instinct at birth is inversely proportional to the rate at which a creature becomes intelligent, and the maximum capacity of its intelligence.
A stimulating environment is key as well. Studies have shown baby lab rats raised in mentally stimulating and explorative enclosures have larger brains than their peers raised in a situation devoid of stimulus. The whole failure to thrive component shows u\p as well, for animals as well as human infant.
@Dutchess_III “intelligence…1 a (1) the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations ; REASON; also : the skilled use of reason (2) : the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one’s environment or to think abstractly as measured by objective criteria (as tests) ...” -from Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary 11th ed.
When a dog is first taught a trick it must learn two things: (1) That you want it to do something and (2) what that something is. Learning that first thing is not something you or the animal is born with. That and “the skilled use of reason” is accrued intelligence.
Those abilities to learn and understand are what you are born with. You take two people and show them something new, in the exact same way. Person A gets it, person B doesn’t. This is because person A was born with more intelligence.
Going back to dogs, it is much easier to teach my German Shepherd new tricks than it is to teach my Spaniel, because my German Shepherd understands faster. She gets it faster. She’s miles smarter than my Spaniel. She was born that way.
@Dutchess_III I have observed that a dog’s learning skills/desires are proportionate to it’s level of devotion to it’s master, not it’s alleged intelligence.
Well, you’re wrong. I don’t know what else to say. A dog is born with a certain amount of intelligence, as are individual children. What they do with it, the experiences they have, is a whole other question.
I read a book once, called One Child. It is a true story about a little girl who was so neglected and abused that her actions made people think she was retarded. However, Tory Haden (the author of the book and a psychologist) came into her life. “At age 4, Sheila’s then-18-year-old mother left and took Sheila and 2-year-old brother Jimmie with her; however, on the highway, Sheila’s mother opened the door and pushed Sheila out, leaving her behind. Since then, Sheila has lived in poverty with her neglectful and verbally abusive fathe.
When all was said and done, it turns out the child had an IQ of 182. You can’t learn that.
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