Genes, Brains, and Human Potential The Science and Ideology of Intelligence

284 HUMAN INTELLIGENCE

Memory
Memory fi gures prominently in IQ tests as the content of many simple
items, such as digit span or short- term recall. In the form of working
memory they are thought to refl ect the more general cognitive, and even
neural, “strength” of individuals. I criticized that view of working mem-
ory in chapter 7. But theories of memory, in general, assume that it re-
sides primarily in the individual brain.
In humans, though, memory also exists in epicognitive forms with the
aid of cultural tools. Even in preliterate socie ties, memory is, or has been,
expressed in shared verbal and graphic forms (drawings), and in song,
dance, story, and legend. At some time in human history memories started
to be shared as written symbols, such as marks on sticks and later, picto-
grams. Even the rudimentary forms of these new tools fostered a crucial
medium of social cooperation, as well as extending individual memory
capacity.
As Vygotsky and Luria pointed out, the written forms of communica-
tion vastly expand the natu ral memory function, transforming it into a
new medium of cognitive organ ization and planning. Such auxiliary
memory tools became vastly augmented by printing, libraries, calcula-
tors, computers, and the internet. Internalized, they all form the cogni-
tive tools of individuals in a position to assimilate them. Th ere will be
(and are) individual diff erences in such memory, but again, apart from
demonstrable pathology, it is impossible to separate the individual from
the social sources.

Science
Th is interdependence of individual and culture has reached its most
sophisticated form in the cultural tool we call “science.” Th e history of
science and of scientifi c thinking is that of a shared toolkit for confi rm-
ing knowledge. Th e implicit knowledge found in all other species is, of
necessity, made explicit in humans when we need to cooperate to acquire
knowledge and, therefore, communicate about it. As with refractive ab-
straction, found in all cognitive systems, deeper layers of structure are
exposed that defy surface appearances.

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