Human and Animal Intelligence

What is Intelligence?

Have you ever thought about why or when you are called intelligent? One can safely say that you have. Even if not, here are some of the situations in which you would feel proud of your intelligence:

• When you get all questions correct in a tough exam
• When you solve a challenging puzzle in record time
• When you beat your sibling in a difficult stage of Contra
• When you can recognize and remember the names of all the players of your favorite football team
• When you get a laugh from all your friends on a joke you cracked
• When you remember the lyrics of one of your favorite songs from the past

But what exactly is intelligence?

Intelligence is one’s capacity for logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, planning, creativity, and problem-solving.

Human Intelligence

Human intelligence can be described as

1. The ability to perceive, understand and analyze information.
2. The ability to learn and increase knowledge.
3. The ability to make decisions based on knowledge.

How Are Animals Different from Humans?

You might have heard that animals are not intelligent. This is actually not true.

Animals are intelligent but they are not as good as humans. In most animals, their skills and abilities are restricted to survival. Here are some examples of intelligent animals:

1. Dolphins: Dolphins are extremely sociable creatures with a highly developed ability to adapt to their habitat. They help one another when injured or ill and, thanks to their individually distinct calls, they’re able to pass on their knowledge to others.
2.  Parrots: These birds have an incredible ability to recognize different human faces and have a high aptitude for communication. Besides these, parrots have an excellent memory which helps them solve complex problems (like how to remember your best friend’s birthday).
   
3. Elephants: Elephants boast the largest brain of all land animals. These animals are renowned for their ability to socialize and can express a wide range of emotions, including happiness and compassion, as well as pain and grief. They display acts of altruism and self-awareness. With a greater memory than even us humans, an elephant truly never forgets!
   

Conclusion

In this topic, you learned about human intelligence and animal intelligence, and most importantly what makes them intelligent.

In the next topic, we will assess if computers are also intelligent or not?