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Brain

3 Pages 701 Words


Discuss The Relationship Between Brain Size And Intelligence
The brain is the most complex machine in the world. It is the thing that we think, wonder, create, and perceive with. However, little is known about this amazing machine, this is not to say that there has been little research done on the brain, merely that there is such a vast amount that remains utterly inexplicable to us.
There is a familiar correlation between intelligence and brain size; other things being equal, a larger brain correlates with greater intelligence. For example, our brain is larger than that of an Orangutan, and an Orangutan’s brain is larger than a Great Dane’s. The level of intelligence among these three species follows the same progression, i.e., we are more intelligent than Orangutans, and they are more intelligent than Great Danes. It seems plausible to hypothesize that a creature that had a brain size of 2200 cc ought to be more intelligent than Homo sapiens with our measly 1300 cc. Certainly this is the sort of reasoning that is used to explain the vast difference in intelligence between humans and apes, i.e., apes (although similar in body weight) have much smaller brains.
Below are to charts the first shows the average brain size for three races and the second shows average intelligence for the three races.

These charts show a reasonably strong relation between brain size and intelligence, but this does not prove causation. The notion that overall brain size is an indicator of intelligence levels within a species can be proven to be quite wrong. There have been extremely intelligent humans with small brains as well as big-brained people who low intelligence levels. There are such a variety of other factors involved in this complex machine that, such a crude measurement is basically useless within a species.
Comparing one species to another, however, it does seem to be relevant, although many are unsure in what way to apply the data...

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