Effort and Cognition

At the end of Chapter 4 there are some interesting insights into what we generally call "intelligence." Do not most people believe that intelligence is an innate ability? I can honestly say that my thoughts on intelligence and what it means to be intelligent have fluctuated over the years. It's probably due to the people I'm around: I've known some terribly bright people who seem blase about their profound ability to recall and synthesize information. But then, I've been around people who work hard to earn the right to be called intelligent: they may not be as expressive as those who seem innately smart, but you can tell the "hard workers" have a firm grasp on what they're talking about. It comes down to a phrase I've knocked around my head and in conversations: "It's a willingness to learn." I don't see myself as smart, but I'm willing to learn (now, whether I'm willing to do all these cool generative exercises is another matter).

It's this willingness to learn that the latter half of Chapter 4 focuses on: metacognitive monitoring and regulation of cognition. I enjoy knowing what I know and I fail to see why other people don't enjoy this. I want to know why and how I formed my opinions. But does this make me intelligent or just introverted? On page 83, there's a key insight: "Metacognitive monitoring also appears to be unrelated to aptitude." This sentence ties into what I had been talking about in the previous paragraph: if you're aware of what you know, you'll have a head start on others who may be "smarter" than you as you're willingness to learn is higher. But I haven't answered my question and maybe I should rephrase it: am I smart or introverted? I think the difference is in action and what you're willing to do with it. Although I do think I have above average ability, I think I'm more introverted than smart because even though I'll read/learn many things, the true measure of intelligence is forming a real life representation (a generative activity) of that knowledge. For some reason, I balk at these generative activities. This will lead nicely into my next post: self-regulation!