Thread: The memory

I looked to see if this topic was posted before and all i found was a photographic memory thread, which doesnt relate to this.

Anyways here is my question, does having a good or great memory count as being consiered intelligent? It seems that people that are born with a natural good memory seem to do better in school. So could you say people born with a good memory are born "smart"?. i know people without good memories to be smart also.

thanks 8)

i have a terrible memory and i do pretty well at school, i think that being 'smart' is your ability to see conections and patterns and then use you knowlage to complete the problem

my dad used to have a classmate that do very well on tests, allmost everyt right every time. but one day his grade sky dived. the test was suddenly not anymore just repeating previus math stuff but new things you had to use previus knowledge to fix. this guy was unable to do that but had a great memory.

the answer to your question? NO
smart = knowing alot of information
intellgient = your ability to use that knowledge to solve new problems and such

After reading everyone's post ive forgotten what the original question was. what was it again

Seriously though, it depends. We have long term memory and short term memory. I have a rubbish short term memory but an excellent long term memory. I can remember stuff that happened when I was lying in hospital at 2 years old. I can remember the colour of the floor and the colour of the toy box in the centre of the room. My point is, it sounds like you have a problem with either your short term memory, OR committing stuff to your long term memory.

A good computer users analogy would be: Burn back-up CD's more often !!

Try eating a lot of fish too, they are good for memory; (despite a goldfish having the memory life of 3 seconds)

More like the ability to come up with new knowledge, or to solve a new problem NOT from existing knowledge but from an inspired deduction or guess.

Originally Posted by Megabrain

More like the ability to come up with new knowledge, or to solve a new problem NOT from existing knowledge but from an inspired deduction or guess.

Such as winning the lottery perhaps ?

Originally Posted by leohopkins

sounds like you have a problem with either your short term memory, OR committing stuff to your long term memory.

-naw man my memory ive been told is actually pretty good
-but what does it mean when people say your absent minded? ive been told im absent minded cause im always misplacing my wallet, forgetting to wear my jacket when its cold etc lol
-ive been told too im very clever in thinking out problems, at least real life ones heh
-thanks for your responses

Well, I'm sure that having a good memory can help you at school but it won't necessarily make you smarter per se. It's almost like having a talent, a sort of added benefit.

There are two types of intelligence, crystallized and fluid (This is according to Raymond Cattell, Psychologist btw).

Fluid is the ability to perceive relationships independent of previous specific practice or instruction concerning those relationships.

Crystallized is mental ability derived directly from past experience.

IQ tests, standard measures of intelligence, are based on measuring fluid intelligence. The people who perform well on these have a fast mental speed and a short inspection time. They also have a working memory with a large capacity.
Needless to say, mental speed and working memory capacity correlate strongly with measures of fluid intelligence.

Savants, like Kim Peek for example, have exceptional memories, but they do not draw relationships like other intelligent people. The exception I can think of however is Daniel Tammet.

Having a great memory does not necessarily make you intelligent, but it helps.

I have a good memory so i do well in exams, but it doesnt mean that im smart and actually understand all that stuff...

If you want a simple answer to your question "does better memory mean more intelligence", than i would look into a gentleman by the name of Kim Peek. Peek probably has the best memory on the planet, being the true rainman and is able to remember the entire phone book, moment in history, song/title/composer, yet cannot put together an idea or connect memories. This man is known as a savant, he is extremely talented in one area, memory, yet has no other gifts. Intelligence should be based on the ability for someone to use logic and reason in his/her actions. I would not say memory has a lot to do with it, however it would help when proving a point or using examples in an argument. Most people I know with exceptional memories tend to just be a tape recorder, if it was written than it is law, and do not use these ideas and phrases they have made such an effort to remember toward new ideas. The ability to use reason and logic should be the ultimate basis for intelligence since it judges how you are able to solve a problem given to you. If that problem be to build a perpetuating motor or get a piece of furniture through the halls of a building.

It has to be a combination of things in my opinion no one asset can be intelligence, if it were say, the ability to store facts then the humble PC would outshine us all yet it does not have the 'intelligence' to move when I take a hammer to it......

Intelligence is IMHO the ability to adapt readily to new situations or if you like, solve new problems where no previous knowledge or experience exists.

I think Keith had the answer. I think a high I.Q. requires a good short term memory and an ability to size up a problem and answer it quickly. You can tell who those people are sometimes by how fast they can talk and make sense at the same time! Of course, if you go faster than your mind is able, you make mistakes.

charles, http://humanpurpose.simplenet.com

yaa some have natural intelligence but less u put ur brain 2 practice the more it losses momentum. if not smart from, practise and determination makes a man perfect.!!

The brain like any other part of the body is very much subject to "Use it or lose it", If I could remember where mine was I'd use it a lot more often!

what are some good mental exercises?
reading
chess
rest
drawing and writing


whate else could one do to increase there mental powers?
eat alot of vegtables?

Anything that keeps it busy, the worse thing is TV where you just sit back and are not doing anything to re-enforce the 'data'. Sudoku puzzles are reckoned to be very good, as are crosswords and other puzzles, it's a two way interaction in effect. Not sure about chess, it seems to slow peoplae down a lot...

yea chess is pretty tough to play well, even though when im just taking my time at playing it i feel those brain juices swashing and churning in my head lol

Problem solving is probably the most efficient 'brain exercise' whether how to win a game of chess or build a rocket from and old car, makes no difference.

-so TV is a bad thing :wink:

It can educate and inform but most it is sheer crap.

TV is really isn't a good tool to educate with because much of the time when watching ones brain is primarily and a relaxed state showing alpha waves. It has been shown that you really don't learn anything and do not reinforce anything unless your brain is active and exhibiting beta wave type functions.

I don't think I watch more than about an hour's worth of TV a week, usually a snatch of news and weather around a mealtime, or some science documentary, I find I can remember pretty well all of what I watch with ease but I guss that since it is of direct interest to me that is why I remember it. Conversley I often have the radio on for much of the time,a sort of background noise to keep me company, I'm so used to it that I can't remember the which piece of music was played just a few minutes before.

Chess is a good game only if you are playing someone of an equal level to yourself. If you are playing with someone better than you are then you will loose. If you are playing with someone a lot worse than you then there is a good chance of them winning through their unpredictability.

Hi guys,

People with better memories have better problem solving skills. Thats because when faced with a problem to solve they can call up similar problems and solutions that act as a seed for new thoughts and solutions.

Does it mean you're smart? It doesn't hurt. As to being intelligent, well there are different forms of intelligence. Book smarts, and emotional intelligence are just two.

As you age you memory isn't as good as it used to be, but your acquired wisdom compensates for the reduction in memory. At least for some people.

Regards
Robert
( http://www.priority1design.com.au )

Originally Posted by johnny

yea chess is pretty tough to play well, even though when im just taking my time at playing it i feel those brain juices swashing and churning in my head lol

I played a game of chess once a few years ago against a particular guy (he had one a few competitions) - He probably did this just to show off but he sat with his back to me and was blind-folded. and we played a game of chess together, basically i told him which of my pieces i had moved from and where (like knight a3 to b6 (yes i know its an impossible move but i cant be bothered to work it out so i give it purely as an example!) anyway, and he told me where he wanted his pieces moved by called out the pieces and the from / to coordinates. He STILL managed to beat me !!

Originally Posted by johnny

I looked to see if this topic was posted before and all i found was a photographic memory thread, which doesnt relate to this.

Anyways here is my question, does having a good or great memory count as being consiered intelligent? It seems that people that are born with a natural good memory seem to do better in school. So could you say people born with a good memory are born "smart"?. i know people without good memories to be smart also.

thanks 8)

Hmm, I find this an interesting question. From what I have experienced your memory is selective. My learning abilities aren’t bad at all. I’m good at remembering yesterday’s notes as well as something I read a few weeks ago, though I tend to forget other things very easily. Names, birthdays and sometimes even promises I made are a bit to easy forgotten.

Though memory is very important at school there are other abilities needed as well. I think being smart is more than remembering or knowing things. It’s a kind of vision you have or don’t have.

I agree, plus there are memory techniques which you an use to memorise huge amounts of information very quickly if you want. I would say people who are "smarter" may well have a good memory anyway!

Memory is divided into declarative (factual) and procedural (movement) memory and then declarative is divided into semantic (general) and episodic (personal) memory. Perhaps some people have greater memories in some of the subsections.

I use a memory technique whereby you use places you have been to remember things, this works really well because for some reason, your brain is incredibly good at remembering places you have visited even if you only visit the place once! The reason memory is slecetive is that your brain does not recognise it as useful information so gets rid of it so that more important things can be remembered instead (at least in theory as long term memory is thought to be infinite in capacity!)

I've got brain rot and fighting it.

I don't personally class memory as intelligence, although I recognise it is an asset.

i often found myself thinking about what was being said by the teacher, and therefore i phased out for the next 2-3 minutes, losing whatever he/she talked about.

an intelligent mind is a playful mind?
the key to intelligence is experimentation.

an intelligent person is a person who can come up with unusual solutions that works exceedingly well, yet are simple at their heart.

is that a good definition of an intelligent person?

or am i trying to define a genius here.

hmh. what is the definition of a genius?

Can someone please break down the difference between the English words "smartness" and "intelligence" for me? Not just in scientific terms, but also in terms of usage in colloquial language.

Is recollection of memorized data sufficient to call someone "smart"? It seems to be applied in that sense when I hear comments on people who perform well on TV shows like Jeopardy, Who Wants To Be A Millionair. One show running right now in the US even has the word "Smart" in its title: Who's smarter than a 5th-grader?

If the ability to memorize and recollect data is smart, does that mean a computer is smart?

What about intelligence in contrast to smartness?

Are good chess-players (like Kasparov and Deep Blue) necessarily smart, intelligent, or both?

Well the use of the words are more-a-less interchangeable in colloquial English, there isn't much significance in the difference between them.

If anything I would say that the word intelligence describes the defining properties of a person; creativity, imagination, intuition, logic and reasoning (in other words the overriding intellectual human capacities).

If somebody displays any one of these properties, they are considered to be smart. Whereas true intelligence would be a mixture of all of these properties.

For example a computer may appear to be 'smart' because of it's immense capacity to perform calculations, but when it comes down to it computers are very, very stupid. - They might be fast but they have no real intelligence - that is no capacity to think for themselves, be creative, or use intuition. They do exactly what they are programmed to do.

I don't really like to be anal about such things, but if I were, then thats how I would see it.