One of the great challenges of psychology and neuroscience – and one of the most contentious issues, too – is to objectively measure intelligence and personality. The famous IQ tests have been in the pillory for years and, until now, no conclusive link has been found between the electrical activity of neurons and character traits, which influence our cognitive performance.
Researchers from the Center for Biomedical Technology (CTB) of the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) and the Yuri Gagarin State Technical University (SSTU), in the Russian town of Saratov seem to have managed to fine-tune the shot, as explained in the journal PLoS ONE. In the experiment, the scientists examined the electroencephalograms (EEGs) of various volunteers while they performed a test called “Schulte tables.” Basically, this consists of locating numbers, from 1 to 25, to place them in grids – like a kind of sudoku puzzle – from highest to lowest.
Alexander Pisarchik, a researcher at the CTB Aging Laboratory and one of the study authors, explains his method as follows: “according to the particular characteristics that we find in the EEG structure, we divided the participating subjects into three groups . For the subjects of each of them, we applied the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF), which assesses their personality traits . We found that each group exhibited a different score on the personality scale, such as warmth, reasoning, emotional stability and dominance ”. That is, the electrical activity of neurons was directly related to character.
Participants in the first group quickly carried out new tasks for themselves and maintained their efficiency at a relatively high rate. They showed a tendency to work alone, an analytical mind and critical thinking, but also intolerance to uncertainty and a delay in making decisions . In addition, they exhibited self-control, lack of anxiety, and leadership. The UPM and SSTU experts concluded that creativity and their drive for perfectionism hurt their results.
Less intelligence but more efficiency
The most striking characteristic of the Group II people is that they tried to develop a simplification strategy . During the completion of the first task, his right hemisphere was fully used, which means that the strategy was not yet developed that tactic. Subsequently, activity in that hemisphere declined. As a result, the subjects in group II demonstrated greater efficacy than those in group I. Their personal profiles combined high scores in intellect, emotional maturity, and self-control.
Finally, group III participants did not attempt to develop a strategy to simplify the task, although its efficiency remained high. The experts’ assumption is that subjects in this group have difficulty maintaining high performance for long . Their personal tests showed a marked preference for working alone with low self-control, intolerance of uncertainty, and delayed decision-making, perhaps due to anxiety. They also demonstrated an analytical mind, critical thinking, and a spirit for experimentation.
“It is interesting to note that the intelligence factor, which was very low in group II subjects and did not reflect their creativity in the development of new strategies, ultimately resulted in a much higher job performance, ” concludes Pisarchik.
The results obtained can be applied to the design of automated intelligent programs that combine simple tests and EEG tests to estimate human personality traits and mental abilities.
Maksimenko, V.A.; Runnova, A.E.; Zhuravlev, M. O.; Protasov, P.; Kulanin, R.; Khramova, M.V.; Pisarchik, A.N.; Hramov, A.E. Human personality reflects spatio-temporal and time-frequency EEG structure. PLoS ONE 13 (9). Sep 2018. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0197642
