executive intelligence

Many times, when we think about intelligence, the image of academic intelligence comes to mind. That is, a good student who gets high grades, a person who has a university degree or a scientist who dedicates himself to research. But this way of seeing intelligence does not include everything that this psychological process contains.

Today we know that there are multiple intelligences and we understand this as the ability to interpret the information that comes to us from the outside, integrate it with our inner experiences and give the best response to the conditions we face (executive intelligence).

Psychologists understand intelligence as much more than IQ, identifying it with the individual’s ability to adapt to the environment in which they find themselves. That is, we talk about Executive intelligence is the ability to know how to make decisions, stop our impulses, reflect on what we feel and what we think, knowing how to plan our actions and direct our attention. All of these skills together roughly make up what we call executive intelligence. In this article we will explain to you in an easy way what executive intelligence is and also how you can enhance it.

Biological bases of executive intelligence: the frontal lobe (central executive)

First of all, it should be noted that when searching for information about the biological bases of executive intelligence it is very likely that we will find the term executive functions. This happens because executive intelligence has been studied separately, skill by skill or function by function and that is why scientific articles on it usually talk about executive functions and not intelligence. However, the term executive intelligence is correct and refers to the use of all functions as a whole.

Thus, studying this type of intelligence on the physiological level makes us focus on our frontal lobeespecially in our prefrontal cortex (impulse control and decision making). Let’s say it’s the frontal lobe. the one that directs and governs the rest of the conscious functions of our brain. All of this is known because people who have strokes or have accidents at the neuronal level in the frontal lobe lose their executive functions or they are greatly impaired.

The scientific literature has several documented cases of how A lesion in the frontal lobe causes problems such as continuous distraction, inability to plan routine sequences of normal life, remember what was being done and why and, above all, know how to stop impulses. In this sense, the case of Phineas Cage is well known (Ratiu, et al., 2004), who in an accident damages a part of his frontal lobe. Phineas remains alive but loses what makes him more human, he loses his intelligence. executive.

What skills make up executive intelligence?

Self-control and impulse management

Self-control is one of the main components of executive intelligence. The frontal lobe (prefrontal cortex, near the eye sockets) is responsible for regulating our behaviors, assessing the possible consequences of our actions and thus deciding what to do in each situation. In other words, The weight of education and cultural pressure falls on the frontal lobe and is part of executive intelligence. This is one of the hypotheses being considered to explain why people diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are treated with stimulants that make their frontal lobe work harder.

The regulation of our behaviors is part of executive intelligence, knowing how to shut up at the right moment and being able to stop an impulse that, if we let ourselves be carried away by it, will harm us, is executive intelligence. This type of intelligence is linked to the ability to know when to act and when it is better to “do nothing.”

So, executive intelligence is associated with the ability to control impulsivity and that is why one way to train this type of skill is to aim to gain self-control. For example, when you feel the urge to do something (buy something, drink something or eat) the simple fact that you stop for two seconds and tell yourself “what are you going to do and why” can help you a lot to gain self-control and improve this component of executive intelligence. In this way you will be able to train your capacity for self-regulation and therefore you will be working towards better executive intelligence.

Work memory

Working memory was conceptualized by Baddeley (1974) and generally refers to a process rather than a knowledge storage function. Working memory is the type of memory that we use to develop reasoning, remember in the very short term and is what allows us to develop action plans and make decisions.. Let’s say it is the type of memory that in the computer we call the processor or CPU. Working memory allows us to manage a quantity of information at the same time and thus put everything together to assess what to do, how we feel and what the next steps to follow are.

Why is working memory part of executive intelligence? Because working memory allows us to establish relationships between different elements and make decisions based on them. So, It is working memory that allows us to integrate information, reason and reach a conclusion including information of a different nature. Thus, one way to boost your working memory can be to perform mental calculations.

Planning and decision making

Part of executive intelligence is being able to make thoughtful decisions in the shortest time possible. An intelligent decision-making process evaluates the pros and cons of each possibility, but at the same time it does so at a level of depth that allows it to be optimal. A person with good executive intelligence knows how to decide and does so in a timely manner.

The decision-making process that we carry out from executive intelligence It implies a great ability to consider a scenario beyond reality and mentally move to the different possible scenarios.

On the other hand, we also find planning ability as a component of executive intelligence. Executive intelligence is responsible for devising plans and strategies to achieve goals through the planning component.

Being able to plan is an essential skill for various activities of daily life. Furthermore, it is necessary at key moments such as studying, looking for a job, becoming independent or starting a family. For all these situations we use our executive intelligence and that is why it is very useful to carry out exercises that enhance planning and the creation of strategies.

Cognitive flexibility

A developed executive intelligence allows us to adjust our ideas to the changes we experience in our reality.In this sense, psychologists know that it is very healthy to change your mind. Because a change of opinion is a sign of cognitive flexibility, and this allows us to adapt what we think or had planned to the circumstances of the moment. Furthermore, being flexible at a cognitive level is related to a greater ability to manage frustration, because thanks to this flexibility we are able to change the way in which we try to achieve a goal without changing the objective.

Likewise, people who are highly intelligent at the executive level have a great capacity to adapt to adversity and this is due to their great cognitive flexibility. In other words, we mean that if you have a plan and things don’t go as expected, keep the goal and change the plan.

To have better cognitive flexibility and therefore enhance your executive intelligence, you can do exercises that make you leave your comfort zone, change steps in your daily routine and expand your personal interests. The more different the stimuli your mind receives, the more flexibility you can have.

Reasoning or abstract thinking

This component of executive intelligence is perhaps the one that most distinguishes us as humans. Thanks to it we can think in abstract terms, “things” that do not exist in the physical world, but do exist in the mental or emotional world, and in turn, we can also think about what we think (metacognition). Abstract reasoning is what allows us to work on our emotions, feelings, doubts, fears, and other psychological aspects.

Furthermore, executive intelligence allows us to give meaning to our lives, which feeds our mental health. It is abstract reasoning that helps us feel that our existence is valuable, that leads us to think that we have to take advantage of every minute we spend awake. Without this capacity for abstract reasoning we would have an excessively pragmatic and meaningless life. On the other hand, to improve abstract reasoning you can train your ability to introspect, as well as study and read topics related to philosophy and art.

Finally, remember that executive intelligence is a different way of understanding intelligence itself, and the greatest benefit of this approach is that it allows training of its different components and has an impact on people’s quality of life. In other words, Executive intelligence is part of a new paradigm that focuses on improving the individual’s adaptation to the world around him. Dare to train her!

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