[The World on the Page] Can Training the Brain Alone Boost Intelligence?... Time to Move Beyond Chaeksangmullim

Annie Murphy Paul’s “The Extended Mind”
Cognitive Fitness, Brain Gym, and the Illusion of Boosting Intelligence Through Brain Training
Maximizing Cognitive Abilities by Skillfully Using the Brain, Body, Tools, and Human Relationships
Thinking with the Heart as Well as the Head Leads to a Successful Life

There is a term called "chaeksangmullim." It refers to people who study hard at school and know a lot but are ignorant of worldly affairs. These are individuals who sat quietly at their desks until adulthood, diligently studying textbooks, and who learned about the world only intellectually without experiencing society firsthand.

Chaeksangmullim have difficulty accepting that humans are beings whose emotions often precede reason, so they struggle to properly handle the complex and subtle conflicts or ethical dilemmas that frequently arise in real situations. Also, because they habitually think based on organized data after events occur, they often fail to respond quickly to the various problems that arise in ever-changing real-world settings. This is why, in advanced countries, it is rare for professors with little social experience to be immediately appointed to high-ranking positions such as ministers or vice ministers.

The modern educational practice of keeping children stuck at desks from an early age, focusing only on thinking with their heads, has produced many chaeksangmullim. According to American science writer Annie Murphy Paul’s book Extend Mind (RH Korea), this educational approach is based on a mindset that confines human cognitive abilities to the brain, known as “brain-bound thinking.” We mistakenly believe that we mainly use only the brain when thinking and encourage children to think only at their desks rather than training intelligence in diverse ways together with the outside world.

People who concentrate their intelligence training solely in the head cannot think flexibly according to situations or act creatively to solve problems. Those who just sit still and think are clumsy at coming up with fresh and original ideas while understanding the moving world. The overflowing nuances of reality always exceed the limits of the 1.4-kilogram brain trapped inside the skull.

Yet this educational method remains popular because people commonly misunderstand that training the brain alone can increase intelligence. Buzzwords like CogniFit and Brain Gym clearly reveal this mistaken bias. Terms like “brain muscle” are not scientific facts but merely metaphors. In reality, thinking does not occur solely in the brain but is more like a communication process involving coordination and adjustment with various resources outside the brain, such as the body, tools, places, and friends. Therefore, smart people are skilled conductors. They know how to maximize cognitive abilities by appropriately using the brain, body, places, and human relationships.

How closely thinking is linked to physical condition can be easily understood by recalling times when we are sick. When the body is unwell, thinking becomes a mess. When we have a fever, our thoughts are not solid, sustained, or logical but rather hazy, intermittent, and chaotic. Conversely, if we can properly regulate our physical condition, we can improve our thinking ability.

For example, we have a sense that perceives signals occurring inside the body’s organs, muscles, and bones, called interoception. Interoception informs us of our current state, that is, “how I feel right now” according to various information flows collected from the external world, and it also includes information on how to act accordingly.

People who have trained their interoception make better decisions, respond more resiliently to challenging factors, skillfully manage situations by enjoying intense emotions, and relate to others with deeper attentiveness and insight. In short, our bodies can access more complex information than what consciousness processes. This is why people who think with their hearts as well as their heads live better lives than those who rely only on their heads. Those who have trained their interoception make better decisions when faced with complex events and overcome stress more easily in confusing situations.

Our cognition is distributed throughout the entire environment. Smart people know how to improve the quality of their thinking by properly managing the places they are in. For example, astronauts experience constant anxiety. Since they can only look out at the world through windows, they endlessly long for the natural habitat of green foliage, fresh air, and ever-changing sunlight. This is very similar to modern people trapped in homes, cars, classrooms, or offices, clutching their heads. When thinking is stuck, taking a walk or exercising changes the quality of thought rather than being stuck at a desk. This is why philosophers like Rousseau and Nietzsche were also excellent walkers.

Conversely, when placed in unfamiliar and anxious environments, it is good to add signals that indicate a sense of belonging to the environment. When in familiar places, the mind relaxes, so mental and perceptual processes work more efficiently without requiring much self-control. Creative thinkers know how to skillfully combine thinking and place to enhance the quality of thought instead of being trapped by foolishness.

Smart and creative people regularly use tools to clear their minds. They remove unnecessary information from their heads and transfer it outside to the world whenever possible. They jot down emerging thoughts on paper or organize them into charts to compress them. This is to secure mental resources for high-level tasks such as problem-solving and idea generation. When sailing the Gal?pagos aboard the Beagle, Charles Darwin endlessly transferred his emerging thoughts into journals, securing the capacity to make new observations and generate creative ideas. Evolutionary theory might have started with notes.

Creative people know how to resocialize their thoughts. They meet others to endlessly converse, debate, and exchange stories. Through teaching or learning, cooperating or competing, we share the burden of thinking, develop each person’s expertise, and solve problems through collective collaboration. People who think together are wiser than those who think alone. In life, a friendly companion in the alley is more likely to succeed than a lonely genius in a garret.

Thinking does not operate along a linear path like input, output, and completion but follows tangled and winding routes between the brain, body, world, and humans. When thoughts are confined inside the skull and do not meet the world outside the brain, thinking does not develop. It is time to stop education that produces chaeksangmullim and teach how to think together with the world.

Jang Eun-su, Publishing Culture Critic