Have you ever felt like you can tell everything about someone just by looking into their eyes? Well, research shows that this intuition may not be completely unfounded, at least when it comes to figuring out how intelligent they are.
Intelligence is too complex to be judged by appearance alone, but our students apparently emit a subtle signal that may reflect how well our minds process information.
Research shows that you can tell how intelligent someone is by looking into his or her eyes
Move over, IQ tests. A study at the Georgia Institute of Technology suggests that there is a relationship between a person’s intelligence and baseline pupil size. Of course, our pupils are constantly dilating and contracting in response to light and our emotions, but when they are in conditions where they can rest, they can reveal even more.
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The study’s researchers first noticed this phenomenon while analyzing the levels of mental effort people spend completing memory tasks. Nearly 500 adults from the Atlanta area took part in the study, and as they worked, the team began noticing that their pupils dilated in response to their exertion.
An electronic eye tracker was used to measure the participants’ pupil sizes. Based on these measurements, they recorded each person’s average pupil size at rest, which typically ranges from 2 millimeters to 8 millimeters, after staring at a blank screen for a few minutes.
The researchers found a correlation between the student measurements and cognitive test results.
Participants were also asked to complete a series of cognitive tests that evaluated fluid intelligenceworking memory capacity, and control of attention. While these skills are not always thought of as traditional forms of intelligence, they are more practical thought processes and the key to being a good problem solver.
Interestingly, individuals with larger pupil sizes scored higher on these cognitive tests. They had greater fluid intelligence, better control over their attention, and even slightly greater working memory capacity. Their overall knowledge and ability to recall facts were not considered part of the study. As in, their “book knowledge” wasn’t important here, it was all about real forms of intelligence.
One of the strongest theories is that the connection takes place in the brain.
Regardless of whether intelligence is actually related to pupil size, the findings still prove that there is an even deeper relationship between the brain and the eye. “One hypothesis is that people with larger pupils at rest have better regulation of their activity by the locus coeruleus, which benefits cognitive performance and brain function at rest,” the researchers said. explained to Scientific American.
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The pupil size is determined by the locus coeruleus, which also releases norepinephrine, a hormone that helps regulate perception, attention and memory, among other things. It is possible that individuals with larger resting base pupils experience greater cognitive activity in this region.
The results of the study are far from definitive, but may still warrant further investigation. Still, you can test this in real life by simply observing problem-solving patterns and seeing if the good problem solvers you know actually have larger learners.
At the very least, consider it an opportunity to learn more about the people in your life (and maybe do some eye-opening, too).
Kayla Asbach is a writer with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Central Florida. She covers topics in relationships, psychology, self-help, pop culture and human interest.
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