When we describe something or someone as smart, we think they’re also fast.
That’s how we were convinced by the correlation between intelligence and speed.
But there’s more to it than that.
Even when we developed supercomputers, the idea was sold to us by how fast they can compute.
However, in a recent study fast doesn’t always mean smart, and smart can actually mean slow.
Imagine taking a pattern test with other people.
Of course, you’d think that the smartest ones will be the first ones to finish the test.
However, in a new study, they’ve concluded that processing becomes much slower as the problems and patterns become more complex.
Faster information processing or mental speed can actually vary and is not reflective of one’s intelligence or capabilities.
The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, showed that smart people deliberately take their time when solving problems.
Fast solutions can sometimes lead to inaccurate results and slow solutions provide detailed processes to replicate an answer.
There were over a thousand participants.
Michael Schirner and his team examined data from 1,176 Human Connectome Project participants
The scientist from the Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin analyzed intelligence scores and their relationships with reaction times through the Penn Matrix Reasoning Test.
The test has a set of increasingly difficult pattern-solving tasks.
It showed that while people who ranked high in their intelligence scores solved the first problem with ease, they spend more time-solving complex ones.
So why are intelligent people so slow?
They have concluded that smarter people when faced with difficult challenges, don’t jump to conclusions.
They take their time considering all metrics, parameters, or hidden rules, before formulating a fitting solution.
They also examined neural networks.
The researchers also analyzed the brain network models of 650 of the participants by combining data from brain activity responsible for decision-making and working memory.
The study revealed that those who solved problems for a longer amount of time had a higher resting state of connectivity between the frontal and parietal lobes.
The frontal lobe of the brain is important for decision-making.
Meanwhile, the parietal lobe is responsible for processing sensory information. It collects, integrates, and translates the information we see, hear, feel, taste, and smell.
Intelligence, as studies suggest, is then determined by the healthy synchronicity between these two areas of the brain.
So what does all of these mean?
The findings in the study challenge the assumption that being smart means being cognitively fast.
Being quick is not necessarily needed in all situations as some circumstances require careful calculations and intensive critical thinking.
Some problems can be solved quickly.
Even “automatically,” but at some point, you’ll need to become much more cautious and careful to get accurate results.
So next time, don’t get frustrated when you’re stuck in a particularly complex puzzle.
Chances are, you’re just trying to assess the problem through different perspectives, measuring the effectiveness of all available solutions, and questioning if your process will give an accurate and reliable result.
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