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Jill Maschio, PhD
The looming question about AI is whether it will significantly impact human intelligence. Flynn’s work (2007) may provide some insights, but it’s clear that this question is complex and far from being resolved. AI’s potential implications on human intelligence are vast and could reshape human intelligence. Interestingly, prior to writing this article, I wrote in the ChatGPT prompt what it means to be human. This question is commonly discussed in my classes when teaching psychology. ChatGPT provided a pretty good answer – there are biological aspects with cognitive abilities, a psychological dimension with consciousness and emotion, social aspects, philosophical and existential perspectives such as our search for meaning, interconnectedness with nature and technology (how interesting), moral considerations such as human rights, and challenges and aspirations such as overcoming adversity. ChatGPT failed to mention human intelligence.
Defining intelligence is no easy task, but consider a few factors. There are numerous definitions of intelligence. Each field may define intelligence differently. Russell Stuart, UC Berkeley computer scientist professor and leading AI expert, states that intelligence is when something can do what it was designed for (2020). Outside of the computer science world, we can look to psychologists such as Charles Spearman. Spearman coined the term “g” for general intelligence and claimed there is a general intelligence. Sternberg (1999) believes there is a specific type of intelligence called practical intelligence. This is the ability to solve real-life problems. That intelligence can also involve being creative. Raymond Cattell, influenced by Hebb’s work (1943), mentioned intelligence in two forms: fluid and crystallized intelligence. Although his article is vague, he stated that fluid intelligence is the general ability to “discriminate and perceive relations between any fundaments, new or old” (p. 178). It is the ability to solve novel problems without extensive use of declarative knowledge (Carpenter et al., 1990). Crystalized intelligence is the ability to recall knowledge of past experiences. Both types of intelligence may be used when you are learning a new task or skill and when problem-solving something for the first time.
Gottfredson (1997) stated that intelligence involves several cognitive abilities, including reasoning, planning, problem-solving, abstraction, comprehending, and learning quickly and from experience. Gardner (1987) argued that intelligence isn’t as narrow as others had suggested but has a biological nature due to the way information is organized rather than relying on the results of intelligence tests. That intelligence is what is valuable to a culture. He popularized seven intelligences:
- Linguistic: language
- Logical mathematical
- Interpersonal – the ability to understand other people
- Intrapersonal – the ability to understand oneself
- Musical
- Spatial – the ability to form representations of the spatial world
- Body kinesthetic – the ability to use your body, such as dancers
I am not an expert on intelligence, but having taught psychology for over 15 years – and having studied the neurobiology of learning, I would lean on the work of early psychologists who believed that behavior is oriented toward achieving a goal, such as Alfred Adler. The most basic goal in life is to survive. Animals aim to survive. This is an essential characteristic of their being, such that animals fight for food and territory. The perceived evolutionary goal to survive is then transformed into psychological motivation followed by a response. Animals also need to adapt. The world is ever-changing. If winter comes early one year, then migrating birds must learn to migrate earlier to adapt to the weather change. Learning is necessary to ensure survival. Humans have animal instincts to help them survive. If this process is the basis of human behavior, then it is a cognitive function that allows a person to learn how to achieve a perceived goal.
From the perspectives mentioned here, I believe intelligence is the ability to learn from and through experiences with the goal of adapting to an ever-changing environment, including novel situations. This definition relies on cognitive function and abilities. For example, from experience, the way information is organized and manipulates information during the encoding process of the working memory, consolidated into long-term memory, and how it is retrieved later when needed, such as when problem-solving, is pivotal to adapting and surviving. It is not to say that people cannot be talented, such as musicians, mathematicians, or in language; intelligence seems to be related to general fluid intelligence and the working memory’s ability to manipulate information while problem solving (Carpenter et al., 1990).
Intelligence Gains and Losses
The Flynn effect is the name for massive IQ gains over multiple generations in the twentieth century. The gains were seen across 14 nations and ranged from 5 to 25 points in one generation (Flynn, 1987). Then, something changed. Between 1972 and 2002, US schoolchildren made no gains in general information and minimal vocabulary gains. The children of that period were not better prepared to read adult-level literature. Decreases in intelligence may have been seen as early as 1947 (Flynn), and the reverse of the Flynn effect could still exist today as researchers have shown cognitive decreases when using multiple composite ability scores from 2011 to 2018 (Dworak, Revelle, & Condon, 2023)
Flynn (2007; 2012; 2009) argues that we may not have seen gains in general intelligence factor or g, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t see gains in subcategories of intelligence. Flynn proposes possible reasons for these changes, such as the fact that children today may be better at on-the-spot problem solving when not provided with any guidance on approaching problems. They may be better at logical thinking and reasoning about hypothetical situations. Another possible reason may be that the concrete objects from which people form abstractions have also changed over the years. For example, in the 1940s and 50, people and Louis Jordan sang, “Ain’t Nobody Here but Us Chickens,” and children were watching Howdy Doody; children played games in the streets, such as hopscotch and swapped cigarette cards, played marbles, with wooden tenpins and blocks. In 1947, the second telephone was invented. People communicated face-to-face. Today, we have inventions such as drones, the air fryer, wearable technology, handheld phones, security cameras, and hundreds of new gadgets. We have advanced and automatic technology that has brought us a digital world. In other words, the environment and culture have advanced in vast ways, and abstractions and similarities between objects would, to some degree, be different today. Because of that, the environment in which we live and the experiences we encounter can influence intelligence.
Solid research shows that identical twins raised apart have similar IQs and can be accounted for by differences in the children’s environment and culture (Nisbett, 2009). Flynn believes that children today have no difficulty “freeing logic from concrete referents and reasoning about purely hypothetical situations—something that people not always like did” (p. 26). However, the intelligence tests have not kept up with these notable generational differences.
If Flynn’s hypotheses are correct, children today may possess different intelligence strengths and weaknesses than our ancestors. For example, it showed that children with higher imaginations were more successful at justifying answers when solving a syllogism task compared to children with low imaginations. It may be that earlier generations were more imaginative because they played outdoors. Flynn also believed that our ancestors used deductive reasoning all the time (Flynn, 2007; 2012; 2009). I remember that, as a young teenager, my friends and I played mostly outdoors. Play is an important part of developing the growing brain. Children play less outdoors today.
Psychologist Gray (2011) stated that “by natural selection, children need to play, but that in the U.S. and other developed nations, the opportunities for children to play, especially outdoors and with other children, have continually declined” (p. 443). Instead, we have witnessed fewer play opportunities associated with an increase in anxiety, depression, and other psychopathologies. One believed reason for this change is the lure of technology. Parents may feel that outdoor play is unsafe, so children play indoors more than outdoors. Gray goes on to explain the benefits of play on development, noting it helps with intrinsic interest, learning better decision-making and problem-solving, learning better self-control and emotion regulation, social skills, and happiness.
Another theory is that consciousness continues to evolve (Jung, 1961), and the human brain may be better at some abilities or tasks with consciousness; however, science has yet to understand consciousness’s total impact on intelligence. Either way, the brain is plastic, making intelligence malleable. The environment in which people live is the logic in which concrete and abstract referents are made.
Since 1947, the environment has undergone countless changes. Technology is present in our current culture, and although there are valuable uses for technology that have improved how people work and live, research also shows counterproductive changes to the brain with Internet use. These changes may change the human psyche and continue transforming cognition and behavior for people living in developed countries—as that part of the world population is considered “online.”
Changes to the Human Brain from Technology Usage
Brain Regions
As a child climbing the monkey bars at the park, the more you do it, the better you get. The areas of the brain responsible for learning the task get stronger due to the repetition of the associated neural network firing. A study by Takeuchi et al. (2018) showed that excessive internet use is associated with lower cognitive function and a reduction in the volume of several brain regions. With 284 participants, the researchers used rGMV/rWMV analysis that showed an increase in the frequency of Internet use was related to a significant decrease in the following areas: “bilateral perisylvian areas, the bilateral temporal pole, the bilateral cerebellum, bilateral medial temporal lobe structures (hippocampus and amygdala), bilateral basal ganglia structures, the bilateral inferior temporal lobe, the thalamus, the bilateral orbitofrontal gyrus, and lateral prefrontal cortex, the insula, and the left lingual gyrus” (p. 4475).
These areas are known to assist in verbal intelligence, working memory, executive functioning, attention, storage of infuriate, learning, decision-making, and emotion and rewards. All these areas affected by excessive Internet usage can impact intelligence. Take the hippocampus, for example. The hippocampi play a role in neurogenesis (the “birth” of new brain cells). Neurogenesis in the hippocampi allows learning to occur via new memories. When neurogenesis is hindered, cognitive abilities are impacted, such as memory formation and the brain’s plasticity ability for learning.
Numerous studies suggest that what we give our minds to influences cognitive function. For example, when people are less engaged, negative neurological changes may be induced (Firth et al., 2019). As people disengage more and more from the real world and enter virtual reality, engage with AI, or let AI do the primary thinking and provide solutions, people are choosing to give their minds to a non-human entity, which may have negative consequences on human intelligence. For example, Zhou et al. (2019) compared 41 participants with a history of excessive Internet gaming to 78 gaming novices to determine the effects of Internet gaming on brain structure; after a 6-week period of daily Internet gaming, the excessive Internet gaming group had lower right orbitofrontal gray matter compared to their counterpart. The orbitofrontal gray matter has been associated with cognitive function, including emotional and cognitive processing with learning, prediction, and decision making. Abnormalities in the neurons, or atrophy, in this area are associated with decreased social behavior and an increase in mental symptoms of depression (Yu et al., 2018) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (Bowen et al., 2021).
What can people do to protect their brain from atrophy? Take frequent breaks from the Internet, including AI. Do other tasks that require activation of other areas of the brain or activate the areas of the brain that time on the Internet is “deactivating.” Do something creative, something fun, complete a board puzzle, read, bake, go shopping, and talk to people. Shift your cognitive exercise so that the load is activating various parts of the brain and do so throughout the day.
This article also has practical application to the field of education and cognitive well-being. AI can be a useful tool in the classroom and for everyday life but do not get consumed by it to the point that students and people spend excessive time putting their cognitive abilities and intelligence at risk by losing neurogenesis and plasticity. Activities can activate and strengthen the working memory and metacognition (being self-aware of your thoughts and what you know and what you don’t know), both of which have been associated with general fluid intelligence (Carpenter et al., 1990; Jaeggi et al., 2008). So, instead of being “online”, try doing the following:
- Stay social and talk to people.
- Complete a variety of tasks and activities to help increase neurogenesis.
- Focus your attention on other tasks aside from being “online”.
- Increase fluid intelligence by working the working memory.
- Do activities that promote activity within the executive function, such as problem solving games and critical thinking.
- Do activities that require spatial memory.
- Do activities to improve metacognition.
- Learn to recognize when you’ve
- Don’t give in to scrolling and not fully processing information while on the Internet or using AI.
- Exercise
Conclusion
In summary, recognize AI’s potential impact on the human psyche and your intelligence. Be cognizant that excessive online use can lead to decreased activity in several regions of the brain. Of significance is the hippocampi because of its pivotal role in the development of new brain cells and neuroplasticity. As people engage more with the digital world and AI, the working memory may be less active. These factors may alter the human psyche and influence how the brain functions.
Note: This article and all articles on this site are written solely by human.
References
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