Don't you get annoyed when people are so quick to blame "intelligence" on results?

College Confidential Community
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<p>I've struggled with proving my ability in math/science in the past. Not due to issues with intelligence (though maybe partially due to those in a sense), but to issues with attentional allocation (that means, issues with properly allocating my attention - which is a VERY important issue in academic productivity).</p>

<p>Like, I know a boy who said "don't tell her this, but X isn't very smart". His reason: "I tried explaining to X what a mole is, but she didn't get it". The problem is - not understanding a concept instantly isn't always a result of intelligence. It's often a result of attentional allocation (that is, the person could have been not fully tuned in, distracted by something else, or having some attention lapses).</p>

<p>The problem is that he can't judge her intelligence based on that single incident. My parents were telling me that I wasn't very smart, and that I would never go into theoretical math/physics, yada yada yada. Of course I took that personally and tried to get Adderall since I realized that attentional allocation was a bigger hindrance on my performance than was intrinsic intelligence. Now I'm more mature than I used to be and can study better, though the problems with attentional allocation are still there.</p>

<p>While intelligence obviously does play a role in academic performance, in MANY cases, it's often issues of attentional allocation that matter more than differences in intelligence. This does not mean anything significant on the societal level (since differences in ADD and OCD levels don't seem to be significant when comparing people on basis of intelligence or socioeconomic status - it could be that low-achieving students may have abnormally high rates of ADD or OCD but that may be just due to an increased propensity to diagnose people with identified academic problems). </p>

<p>The other thing is that intelligence can sometimes compensate for difficulties in attentional allocation. But when problems with attentional allocation are extreme, high intelligence doesn't always cut it.</p>

<p>So before you blame the supposedly immalleable factors, start with the malleable factors</p>

<p>ALSO, socialization DOES play a role in attentional allocation. Motivation also DOES play a role. When socialization diminishes motivation, attentional allocation is THUS disrupted (you can't devote your full attentional resources to the problem when you're consistently worried about how stupid you'll appear in front of the group, for example)</p>

<p>===
Now, a couple of things:
(a) attentional allocation is situational, not dispositional. Attention span is more dispositional (as is slacking off and choosing not to pay attention). Attention lapses, temporary daydreaming, or not being fully alert while listening => those are the situational issues that I wish to highlight more of.
(b) until differences in attentional allocation can be suitably demonstrated to be present between different groups with an academic performance disparity, the research on IQ disparities between groups cannot be invalidated (my statement here applies mostly to individuals).</p>

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<p>I agree with most of what you said. When I was in grade 2, my teacher wanted to put me into the special ed. class, because I never did any of the work, and I never payed attention. My mom thought I was just immature and that I'd get better. In grade 3, my marks started to go up. I started focusing more in school, and I got better.</p>

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<p>Intelligence is generally a very good reason for failure in academics. So no, I'm not annoyed when it's given as the reason.</p>

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<p>I CAN TOTALLY RELATE!</p>

<p>attentional allocation. wow. did you come up with that, IK?</p>

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<p>
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Intelligence is generally a very good reason for failure in academics. So no, I'm not annoyed when it's given as the reason.

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<h1>It is often a good reason - it's just annoying when people quickly blame it (instead of being open to something else)</h1>

<p>
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attentional allocation. wow. did you come up with that, IK?

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<p>Yeah I did</p>

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<p>it's kind of similar to attention economy, which there's a wiki article on.</p>

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<p>I get what you're saying, IK, but society is too rigid to notice.</p>

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<p>
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it's kind of similar to attention economy, which there's a wiki article on.

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<p>Wow, thanks for the link!!!!!!!!!!</p>

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<p>but IK -- hasn't it been determined that the human brain is 3 dimensional and infinite in it's information storage capacity?</p>

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<p>
[quote]
but IK -- hasn't it been determined that the human brain is 3 dimensional and infinite in it's information storage capacity?

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It's limited in storage capacity (if anything, limited by the amount of electrons int it). The limit is quite high though.</p>

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<p>
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It's limited in storage capacity (if anything, limited by the amount of electrons int it). The limit is quite high though.

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</p>

<p>Its limited in both working memory and in storage capacity. As for the limit of storage capacity, hard to say. There are people like the autistic savant Kim Peek who can memorize HUGE NUMBERS of books and recite them verbatim. Maybe that sort of memory is theoretically possible for more ordinary people - I wonder if I could ever approach that memory after a really long time</p>