Heidi Graw wrote:
> >"MCP"  wrote in message
> >news:v9%Od.84953$K7.3096{at}fe2.news.blueyonder.co.uk...
> >
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12170249%255E2703,00.html
> >
> (snip)
>
> >quoted from article:
> > Bruce Burns, assistant professor in the department of psychology at

> > Michigan
> > State University, conducted a study of chess players, suggesting
those who
> > were quicker thinkers were likely to make better moves.
>
> A quick brain can also think a dumb thought much quicker.

Sure, and this is a point that other researchers might raise in
response to the scientists who carried out this study of neuron speed.
Instead, people are getting out the tar and feathers.

Of course, the scientists would tell you that they never intended to
measure intelligence, but it would still be a good point in that it
would address what people are really thinking about their results.

If the Michigan study had been done on bad chess players, it may have
found that they lose more quickly to good ones.  But since the study
was done on good chess players, it showed the faster thinkers to be
more intelligent, when they may not be.  You've seen that two-sided
clock we use, right?  It kicks up the pressure, and those who can work
the board out faster do better.  Ask Gary Kasparov, who has lost
several times to a computer.  If he had unlimited time to consider his
moves, he more likely would have beaten Deep Blue in most if not all
encounters.

> So, who's more intelligent...a person who thinks slowly, but
smartly...or a
> person who thinks dumb thoughts quickly?

It's difficult to measure intelligence, but people draw inferences on
it based on what someone accomplishes.  An executive may be judged more
intelligent than the mail man, although this isn't necessarily true,
and if you went to a Mensa meeting, you'd see that the membership
spanned the social classes.  Paradoxically, intelligence may be a
hinderance, because intelligent people will consider decisions more
carefully, and may possibly obsess or become indecisive.  An executive,
or the guy with the big bucks, has to make decisions quickly and
confidently.  One who makes all decisions on time, with 20 percent
being right and 80 wrong, will surpass one who always makes the right
ones, but too late.  The fast, dumb thinker may not be more
intelligent, but he may look more intelligent.

> Heidi



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