There’s a growing awareness in the scientific community that animals are far more intelligent than we previously supposed (for an excellent summary of what’s known about ”animal cognition” click here).  Now we can expand our understanding of this field by connecting it to Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences.  Gardner says there are eight (or...Read More

Were people intelligent in prehistoric times?  There’s no reason not so think so, given the fact that the times haven’t been long enough to account for significant genetic changes one way or the other. There’s a field of study called cognitive archeology that attempts to hypothesize the inner cognitive processes of our prehistoric ancestors. An...Read More

The old adage ”use it or lose it” seems to apply to the human brain according to findings in neuroscience.  Studies of lifelong learners (most famously, a group of nuns in Mankato, Minnesota) show that engaging in a variety of stimulating activities throughout adult life can result in lower incidence of Alzheimer’s disease and better...Read More

The brain is an incredibly complex organ.  Someone once suggested that if the brain was so simple we could understand it, we’d be so simple that we couldn’t.  However, Dr. Howard Gardner gives us one window into better understanding the brain in his theory of multiple intelligences, which posits the existence of eight (or possibly...Read More

One of the most remarkable aspects of being human is our ability to symbolize.  Simply through a mark on a page, a sound from our voice, or a gesture from our hands, we can convey ideas that are not immediately present to our senses (we essentially ”re-present” them).  Dr. Howard Gardner, the creator of the...Read More