Shammy Davis wrote:I will say one thing about the intelligence discussion. Recent human studies have produced some thoughts on "wisdom" suggesting that environmental factors do play a significant role related to our intelligence. Whether, there are genetic changes, I'll have to defer to you and the other PQ experts. It is believed that the human brain reaches maturity around 25 years of age, while the value of "wisdom" does not begin playing a role in our thinking until 35 or 40. It is likely there is the same cognitive relationship in the horse.
Starvation, traumatic experiences will affect people and their thinking.
But programs of 'enrichment'--Head Start, etc., lose all apparent benefits after a few years.
"Intelligence" is a lot of things, but much of it's genetic. When large families were more commonplace, this was obvious with all the children relatively smart or relatively dull. They might not be academically distinguished, but watching them interact with people revealed their smarts or lack of them.