The study was conducted at the Georgia Institute of Technology on more than 500 “children aged 18 to 35” in the city of Atlanta. This study revolves around the 3 main components of cognitive ability: Fluid Intelligence, attention control, and working memory.
Primarily, Fluid Intelligence is the art of solving extremely difficult problems with knowledge that we currently do not have. To study the first component, the scientists launched several special tests on the participants and noticed that people who demonstrated Fluid Intelligence had larger pupil sizes than those who failed.
Can demonstrate other cognitive abilities
The scientists decided to investigate attention control, which means the ability to focus on something in spite of the distractions around you. In one of the tests dealing with attention control, participants had to identify letters quickly before they disappeared while trying not to see the flashing asterisks passing on the screen. At the end of this test, people with larger pupils had better results.
Finally, participants need to take a test to measure their ability to remember information after a certain period of time. The results showed that working memory was correlated with large pupils but as much as attention control and fluid intelligence.
Pupil reason related to intelligence
The results of different tests conducted with participants claim that pupils are related to intelligence, but why is that?
According to another study, the pupil is connected to the locus coeruleus, a point in our brain that initiates higher cognitive functions. Basically, the more functional the spot, the more dilation the pupil is likely to be.
Reporter: Ielyfia Prasetio
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