什么是智力

学习、理解、对付崭新或艰难处境的能力。在心理学中，这个用语可能特定解释为：利用知识来操纵环境或以客观标准（例如智商测验）衡量之抽象思考的能力。智力通常被视为来自遗传特点与环境（发展性与社会性）因素的结合。这个主题一直倍受争议，而许多人试图揭示：生物学（特别是基因）或环境（特别是反映社会经济阶级的条件）在某种程度上是产生智力差异的全部因素。支持种族与智力关联的研究特别受到议论，其中大部分尚未被科学界接受。综合智力常被说成包含了各种不同的能力（表达能力、解决问题的逻辑应用能力等），但评论家论述：这样的分隔无法反映出认知的本质，而可能奠基於资讯处理的其他模式是需要的。高智力（由测验算出）有时显然与社会成就相关联，但大部分的专家相信，其他因素是重要的，智力并非成功的保证（缺乏智力亦非注定失败）。亦请参阅artificial intelligence、creativity。

intelligence

Ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations. In psychology, the term may more specifically denote the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one's environment or to think abstractly as measured by objective criteria (such as the IQ test). Intelligence is usually thought of as deriving from a combination of inherited characteristics and environmental (developmental and social) factors. The subject remains hotly debated, and many have tried to show that either biology (especially genes) or environment (especially conditions reflecting socioeconomic class) are more or less exclusively responsible for producing differences in intelligence. Particularly contested have been studies purporting to show links between race and intelligence, most of which have not been accepted in the scientific community. General intelligence is often said to comprise various specific abilities (verbal ability, ability to apply logic in solving problems, etc.), but critics contend that such compartments fail to reflect the nature of cognition and that other models, perhaps based on information processing, are needed. High intelligence (as measured by tests) is sometimes shown to correlate with social achievement, but most experts believe other factors are important and that intelligence is no guarantor of success (and its lack is no guarantor of failure). See also artificial intelligence, creativity.