Culture and Neuroscience - Week 6

This week, we had several discussions on special topics, culture and neuroscience and their effects on intelligence. I found the first discussion on culture and intelligence to be particularly interesting, mainly because I have already taken Intro to Neuroscience. Going into the conversation, I had thought that Sternberg's fourth model was the best (intelligence is different across cultures and must be measured differently).

As the class discussion progressed, I found myself beginning to side more and more with his third model, that intelligence is the same across cultures but must be measured in different ways. I think that different cultures value different skills, but there still must be one overall human intelligence that can be measured across cultures. Using the fourth model makes it nearly impossible to come up with this "score". I was surprised to find that my opinion changed after just one class discussion. I do still believe in multiple intelligences, but I think there are problems with Sternberg's fourth model because it seems to focus more on specialized skills instead of overall human intelligence.