Is it possible to have once been intelligent?

[UseHerName]

Let me start off by saying this is no way an ego trip, and all of the information posted here I cannot remember experiencing, so it's from other people's accounts.

According to my mother and father I developed quickly as a child (they didn't tell me I was special because I'm retarded or something, I asked them about it myself), I started to speak at around 6 months, spoke fluently at 12 reciting full nursery rhymes and shit. From what I've read this is not normal, and that I've developed quicker than most people.

Right now I am 17 years old, and I don't feel like I'm too much smarter than other people. I have a sort of arrogance thinking that I might be "above average" but that's not uncommon amongst average people. I never did too well in school, scoring average grades but then again never really tried at all. I'm not some genius like Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting, I feel of average intelligence, and I've done several online IQ tests which have all given me average IQ scores (I know they're not legitimate but they do estimate intelligence within an accurate range between everyone who took the test). I do somewhat understand certain things more than other people but not at an extreme level. And before you ask if it's just language processing centers or some shit, I'm not that good at speaking or writing, in fact I hardly understand grammar and can barely spell. I'm not intelligent. But my mother swears by the things she's said and shit.

So what I'm really here to ask is: is it possible for me to have lost those remarkable traits? Is it possible for me to be a genius right now? Are there other cases of this?

Please ask more questions in the comments, I'll happily provide you with information if you're willing to help me.

 

[ProxyAmenRa]

I think it is called being a teenager...That syndrome can manifest itself through a variety of undesired traits. I would not dwell on it.

 

[Absurdity]

You open with an example of how you possessed an incredible affinity for language at a young age, and then later discuss "intelligence" and being "smart" relative to others much more generally. By what metric are you assessing "intelligence?" If it is by means of IQ tests exclusively, which you mention, then that would appear to be an assessment of logic and pattern recognition. This does not seem to be directly related to the apprehension of language at a young age. I suppose it also depends on what you mean by intelligence, but I don't expect you to give a concise and all-encompassing definition, as it doesn't seem like any person ever has.

If it is merely your impression gained from interacting with or observing other people, then I would encourage you to become more skeptical. Many people expend enormous amounts of energy attempting to appear more intelligent, attractive, and interesting than they actually are.

 

[UseHerName]

You open with an example of how you possessed an incredible affinity for language at a young age, and then later discuss "intelligence" and being "smart" relative to others much more generally. By what metric are you assessing "intelligence?" If it is by means of IQ tests exclusively, which you mention, then that would appear to be an assessment of logic and pattern recognition. This does not seem to be directly related to the apprehension of language at a young age. I suppose it also depends on what you mean by intelligence, but I don't expect you to give a concise and all-encompassing definition, as it doesn't seem like any person ever has.

If it is merely your impression gained from interacting with or observing other people, then I would encourage you to become more skeptical. Many people expend enormous amounts of energy attempting to appear more intelligent, attractive, and interesting than they actually are.

It's not that I'm trying to seem more intelligent. Other than that I understand what you mean. I believe intelligence is the ability to understand things, these "things" are everything, but not combined, rather learned. Some people have a natural heightened place in life because they understand logical synthesis, understand the creative method and such because these things can be applied. Intelligence is the ability for certain parts of your brain to be connected enough to your conscious to help understand the patterns of problems and give leeway to your consciousness which will solve them with thought. Language could be an early example of your brain making connections to your conscious for you to understand how to speak and consciously form responses and shit. Does that make sense?

 

[UseHerName]

This thread is so dead, thinking about it now makes it seem so stupid.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

This thread is so dead, thinking about it now makes it seem so stupid.

Is it possible that the thread was once intelligent? :P
It's only been an hour or so..

Reading your OP, I would say that two things should be considered. (1) Mental abilities probably grow at an exponential rate during youth and then slow down as one starts to become a physically matured human. (2) The 'intelligent' things you did as a kid were probably relatively easier than the things that you make you intelligent now.

Don't think it is all set in stone however, the brain is always open to exercise, it just takes a little work to get it going similar to the body.

 

[ℜεмїηїs¢εη¢ε]

I feel the same way. Whether it was caused by bad health, sleep deprivation, or laziness; It seems to me that I'm not quite as brilliant as I used to be. I also developed fairly quickly by reading at two, playing chess at four, doing algebra at six. I always did significantly better then my peers in school until about eighth grade... It didn't go anywhere.
Instead, my intelligence seems to have been declining over time. For example, in eighth grade I took the SAT. I scored in the 99th percentile, pretty good if do say so myself. After that, I got a bunch of letters in the mail from colleges that are looking for child prodigies and junk so my mom got so excited and was like so proud of me... A couple years ago I took the SAT again, this time I did bad, like barely good enough to get into the college that I wanted. Wtf? I swear, the test didn't get any harder, if anything it should have gotten easier because the second time I had a better understanding of geometry and a bigger vocabulary. But no, I did worse.

I have kept the huge ego that I managed to develop during my younger years, thinking I was better than everyone else, but that little genius boy has disappeared. Poof. I've been trying (unsuccessfully) to resurrect him by making myself learn complicated math and to improve my visualization skills, but to be honest, I'm so darn lazy I don't think it will happen.

 

[Architect]

I think it is called being a teenager...That syndrome can manifest itself through a variety of undesired traits. I would not dwell on it.

Hilarious

(1) Mental abilities probably grow at an exponential rate during youth and then slow down as one starts to become a physically matured human.

Interestingly the brain connections and neurons peak around 3 I believe, then go on a massive pruning. Becoming intelligent (or at least growing up) seems to be more about creative destruction than increasing neuronal complexity.

(2) The 'intelligent' things you did as a kid were probably relatively easier than the things that you make you intelligent now.

Yes and measurement bias, all new parents think their little one is the biggest marvel in the world. I wouldn't take the anecdote that my parent thought I was pretty special with too much vigor.

The question is difficult anyhow as we would first need to define the intelligence we are talking about.

 

[themirror]

I was intelligent. That one time.

 

[NinjaSurfer]

Let me start off by saying this is no way an ego trip, and all of the information posted here I cannot remember experiencing, so it's from other people's accounts.

According to my mother and father I developed quickly as a child (they didn't tell me I was special because I'm retarded or something, I asked them about it myself), I started to speak at around 6 months, spoke fluently at 12 reciting full nursery rhymes and shit. From what I've read this is not normal, and that I've developed quicker than most people.

Right now I am 17 years old, and I don't feel like I'm too much smarter than other people. I have a sort of arrogance thinking that I might be "above average" but that's not uncommon amongst average people. I never did too well in school, scoring average grades but then again never really tried at all. I'm not some genius like Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting, I feel of average intelligence, and I've done several online IQ tests which have all given me average IQ scores (I know they're not legitimate but they do estimate intelligence within an accurate range between everyone who took the test). I do somewhat understand certain things more than other people but not at an extreme level. And before you ask if it's just language processing centers or some shit, I'm not that good at speaking or writing, in fact I hardly understand grammar and can barely spell. I'm not intelligent. But my mother swears by the things she's said and shit.

So what I'm really here to ask is: is it possible for me to have lost those remarkable traits? Is it possible for me to be a genius right now? Are there other cases of this?

Please ask more questions in the comments, I'll happily provide you with information if you're willing to help me.

I'm inclined to assign probability to the fact that mother and father are liars
Before I assume that your genius has evaporated,
Must be convinced it was there to begin with

Is it possible that they were so convinced you were special that they fabricated the dates you first started speaking?

 

[snafupants]

I'm inclined to assign probability to the fact that mother and father are liars
Before I assume that your genius has evaporated,
Must be convinced it was there to begin with

Is it possible that they were so convinced you were special that they fabricated the dates you first started speaking?

Perhaps the OP meant six years rather than six months.

 

[MichiganJFrog]

Ask this guy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mason_Reese

 

[snafupants]

Ask this guy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mason_Reese

Jabba the Hutt meets Seinfeld's Newman?

Anyway, everything clicked when I saw Los Angeles.

 

[MichiganJFrog]

everything clicked when I saw Los Angeles.

Seriously. I was only there for two weeks 30 years ago, and I'm still getting over it.

 

[ObliviousGenius]

My parents never gave me any sort of indication at all if I was above average as a child. I just sort of come to realize it as I got older. I can't really say if I even used to be smarter as a small child. I do remember being smarter than the other 29 of my classmates from 1st to 6th grade in terms of performance. Since then I have not been the class superstar at all. At the same time I don't feel I've had any sort of drop off of intelligence. I had a big jump in maturity level, wisdom, and overall intelligence when I fully realized I was considerably different from most people in terms of personality and intelligence. This was around age 16. Or perhaps it wasn't an increase but an acceptance of what I really was. I became cognisant of the difference of what was intelligence and what was not.

I'm 21 now and looking back 5 years ago it feels as though I've gained the world in comparison. I want to say I'm more intelligent than I was in the past.

 

[HDINTP]

I think that it is possible that you used to use more of your "intelligence".