does having a good memory make you intelligent ?

Things change I've changed

Things change I've changed

Things change I've changed

Soldato
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you know on the surface it looks like it does, it certainly must help having a good memory, if you are born into this world with the ability to retain information at a pretty good level, then I would imagine that person to be quite intelligent academically as most tests/exams rely on the person being able to recall basic facts and figures, and even if you have to form your own theory/conclusion from these facts/figures then being able to remember them easily would make it allot easier to form that conclusion surely, in fact when you learn pretty much anything it's all about being able to retain and recall the information that you've been taught, so does the quality of your memory play a big part in gauging how intelligent you are ?,

It certainly seems to be the case in todays society, it seems todays world is geared up for people that have good memory's, yet what about people that are not as well equipped when it comes to remembering information, facts/figures/equations etc, but they excel in common sense thinking and problem solving, I myself am like this, I don't understand how a car fully works because I don't have the ability to remember all that data, but if there is a problem with an engine and I ask someone just to explain the basics then usually even though it is not my chosen field I'll be able to work out what is wrong, it's like me brain just needs a few basic principles of the problem in hand and it fills in the gaps, on many occasions I have solved problems for people that I myself have had no real understanding of, I think the world is full of people like this and I bet others on here can relate (I hope so :o), but society doesn't seemed to be geared up towards helping people like us, or even understand that there is intelligence beyound being able to retain and recall bountifull amounts of information,


what are peoples thoughts on this ?
 
No, having a good memory alone doesn't make you intelligent but it can certainly help you to appear so and as you say tests become a lot easier if you do have one.

As markyp23 says if you can combine common sense and a good memory then you have a better chance of being intelligent but I'd say there is something even more intangible about real intelligence. What you described initially is fairly simple problem solving while for someone to be classified as having real intelligence I'd say they have to be able to step outwith the ordinary methods of thinking for such matters. Just trying to describe what I mean makes me realise how difficult it is to articulate. I might have to have a think about it and come back to this later. :)
 
Arguably a good memory is becoming less and less important with the greater access to the Internet - why bother remembering it when you can google it in 2 seconds :p
 
That's a good point, I probably fall into the same category as Welshy. I forget organisational things which can make me seem absent-minded or dopey but I can solve almost any problem and have got through school, college and university without revising for more than 2 hours for an exam :p I also have minor problems getting my thoughts across in writing and end up re-writing things a few times (even forum posts) which can also make me seem less intelligent too.

It's reasonably well known that many of the worlds geniuses have been somewhat lacking common sense or absent-minded. :D
 
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There are three things:

1) Having a good memory
2) Having a good understanding
3) Having common sense.

I used to get irritated by 1) as at school they used to ace exams with almost no effort whatsoever as they remembered everything. This changed at uni and college as 2 and 3 are more involved and they had neither.
 
paul8811 said:
Anyone every known anyone that has a photographic memory, having that kind of memory would surely be a big benefit?
Click to expand...
See my post above yours.

Ofcourse it is a massive benefit... but it still needs an iota of comprehension. You can know all the French vocabulary... but unless you know the grammar.... ;)
 
jdickerson said:
There are three things:

1) Having a good memory
2) Having a good understanding
3) Having common sense.

I used to get irritated by 1) as at school they used to ace exams with almost no effort whatsoever as they remembered everything. This changed at uni and college as 2 and 3 are more involved and they had neither.
Click to expand...

I don't agree that common sense has anything to do with intelligence. Some of the most intelligent people I know have little common sense.

I don't have the best memory, but I can understand and apply things really easily. I aced exams at school because I understood material, and could manipulate a few formulae and such to fit different situations, rather than remembering every single one. I had no time for biology, because it was just a big memory test, there was no space for understanding. I never studied at school at all, yet was always the top of my year. That actually tripped me up a bit when I first came to uni, because I had to start remembering things more.

I have come across several people at uni, who really are of average intelligence, who manage to get As or Bs because they just memorise the entire course. They don't necessarily have a better memory than the others on the course, they just spend every available hour studying or looking up books.
 
Memory is important, but for scientists perhaps more important is problem solving. When doing research you need a good memory of the literature, but also being able to apply this knowledge is as important.
 
I have an excellent memory. It helps a lot with running my own business as makes my customers feel really valued when I remember them from a £30 job 12months ago.

I don't know why I am so good at remembering faces and names, I just am.
 
I suppose it depends on your definition of intelligent.

Having a good memory will ultimately help you to acquire knowledge, but in my opinion doesn't make you intelligent, just makes you clever. Having the ability to apply knowledge to a situation, which often brings in common sense, does imply intelligence.

As lowrider007 said, he doesn't have the memory to be able to remember how a whole car works, but given the basics, he's able to track down and resolve the problem. I'd consider that intelligent.

It's like an quote I heard years ago distinguishing knowledge and wisdom:

Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.
 
I have a terrible memory. What this thread about? Ah yes. I think there are many levels to intelligence. While be able to recall things is very useful, it as said does not prove your intelligent. A Parrot can remember words and recite them, does not mean it understands the meaning of the words. I think intelligence is being able to adapt to situations and to draw on personal and vicarious experience to formulate a resolution to a given situation. It also helps to be open minded and not constrained by popular belief. I consider myself of reasonable brain power, but its at quite a low ebb this morning due to being knackered.

I don't think IQ has everything to do with it either. For example, my girlfriend I consider is quite intelligent. She has been to University (I know, this alone proves nothing) and is very good at interpersonal relationships. She often helps people with their emotional problems and is very good at it. We both can talk very well together and have interesting conversations for hours and hours. Odd seeing as we have been together for 12 years.

I on the other hand, am fairly carp at interpersonal stuff and can relate better to fixing problems rather than talking about them. She could never say, change a light bulb, set-up a TV or PC or anything which is computer or "Logic" related. We both took IQ tests for fun. Mine was 148 and hers was 98! I could not believe it! So it goes to show, intelligence is not everything.
 
No.

Knowledge without understanding is just data, is access clever?

Understanding is knowing not just how, but why something works - once you know that you may forget specifics but you'll still know why it's working and be able to fill in the gaps (you theorise b by knowing how it gets from a to c).

If you don't get it you probably never will, if you do though you can just pick up a reference to remind yourself of the figures.
 
I'd say it helps pass exams, but doesn't make you more intelligent. I got accused of cheating in an exam at uni in which I had essentially replicated a couple of paragraphs from the course text when justifying an answer. I had to write them out again in front of the lecturer to prove I hadn't taken in any notes.

This type of thing probably only helped me in two or three modules, but I always chose them as I knew it wouldn't be difficult to rack up a lot of marks by pure recall.
 
Telescopi said:
If you don't get it you probably never will, if you do though you can just pick up a reference to remind yourself of the figures.
Click to expand...

Would you think of someone who constantly has to do that as intelligent though? What use is the understanding of a topic if you can't retain or recall the associated facts and information?

To my mind, truly intelligent people are those who are able to "think on their feet", which requires a good balance of understanding and memory.
 
savant springs to mind, specially that guy who can read a book with each eye at the same time.dont think it makes him intelligent though.just because he can ell you the day it rained in 1921 in a city of choice and at what time.
 
inteligence is the ability to learn and understand and use that.

knowledge is simply how much you can read and remember, IE people that go on mastermind, not really that intelligent(or don't ahve to be) they just read a lot on the subject for a long time(most of the people on it are fairly old and have focus'd a career or hobby on that subject).

for instance, i might talk to someone about politics, i barely read the papers/news, i hate following whats going on and remain blissfully ignorant to most of the pointless crap they get up to. if someone who reads the papers even a bit spoke to me, they would appear to be smarter because they could tell you more about current events in politics. the difference really with intelligence is this, how fast you can learn/understand something really. for instance in an IQ test, the patterns in number questions, the spatial awareness tests. everyone could score well if they were given 3 hours to do the test(or at least better). but if on a given 30 min test you can spot the patterns much quicker and get a higher score, it stands to reason that if you are say doing research on proteins, you are likely to spot patterns quicker, or play the stock market. the brain's just working better.

knowledge is pointless without understanding. you can know every primeministers name since the first, but not know anything about their job. you can know everything thatcher did while she was in power, but have no clue why she did anything or how it affects anything else. so memory is fairly useless aswell, helpful yes, makes life easier, yes, proves anything at all with regards to intelligence. not in the slightest.
 
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