Bigger Brains Make Smarter People Study Says

udderly writes "People with bigger brains are smarter according to a Virginia Commonwealth University industrial and organizational psychologist, Michael A. McDaniel, Ph.D. McDaniel, who is a professor in management at VCU's School of Business. He reviewed 26 previous studies comparing brain size and intelligence and found that brain volume has a strong correlation to intelligence. According to McDaniel, 'for all age and sex groups, it is now very clear that brain volume and intelligence are related.' So, how big of a hat do you wear?"

Einstein: The exception to the rule?

[WebHostingGuy]

As several sites have suggested 1, [250x.com] 2, [bbc.co.uk] 3, [bioquant.com] Einstein's brain fell in the range of normal for all measurements, except for the portion known as the inferior parietal lobes, located in the middle of the brain. This middle portion was 15% wider and had no groove.

So maybe the correct conclusion is not that bigger is better, but only the sections that matter. Remember, its not the size of the wand, its the magic in it that counts.

too simplistic a theory

[yagu]

As one other poster noted, Einstein had a brain that only fell in the range of "normal", giving lie to the theory size alone is an indicator of likely intelligence. Here's another interesting article [yahoo.com] I coincidentally read a couple days ago.

A couple of interesting things to take from this article:

• brain size relates closely to gender
• there are notable physiological differences in brains along gender lines
• however, there are not noticable differences in intelligence between genders
• but, there are differences in how intelligence manifests between the genders.

Before drawing conclusions on brain size and correlation with intelligence therein, read this article... it sheds far more light on this discussion than does the research "summary".

Interestingly, even though men and women have fairly significant differences in brain sizes, this article shows that women's brains develop differently than mens, with density in different regions and layers possibly offsetting size differences. I'll not go over the entire article, read it.... it's good.

Sidebar: Oh, and by the way, my brain is so small, I use the extra space inside my skull to store my CD collection.

Re:The Mismeasure of Slashdot

[An Onerous Coward]

Actually, Gould's book wasn't that good. He frequently misrepresented the people he was criticizing. He heaped particular scorn on Arthur Jensen, who responded [debunker.com] to the criticisms.

I especially remember a passage where Gould tries to make Jensen look like an idiot. In one of his books, Jensen makes a rather straightforward claim: that some critters are smarter than others. But when Gould gets through with it, it sounds very much as though Jensen believes that humans evolved from dogs.

I'm all in favor of looking for preconceptions and biases in the current understanding of science. But as I remember Gould's book, it amounted to little more than trying to smear modern researchers by linking them to the blatant racists who did the earliest work in the study of human intelligence.

Gould did little to disprove the correlation between brain size and intelligence. Sure, he went over the early (1800's era) studies with a fine-toothed comb to show their pitiful accuracy. But he didn't deal with more recent attempts to measure the correlation.

For the sake of making my own biases clear, I do believe that IQ tests do a passable job of measuring something. Also, my hat size is 7 5/8. Bow before me!

Re:Too bad this comes out now...

[minairia]

Well, you all do know that Bush had better grades than Kerry at Yale?