Neural adaptability and inspection time

A measure known as inspection time (IT) has been shown to account for approximately 25% of the variance in peoples' intellectual abilities, as measured by IQ. Despite this strong relationship, inspection time has had only limited success in expanding our knowledge regarding the nature of intelligence, which can be attributed to a lack of understanding of the neurophysiology underlying IT. In the present study we present a hypothesis in which participants' ITs are determined by their brain's ability to adapt its neural functioning based on experience. This ability is often referred to as neural plasticity. To test this hypothesis, we related participants' ITs to a series of neural plasticity measures identified during a spatial learning task and a reinforcement learning task. In both tasks a significant correlation was found; however, the correlations found were in opposing directions. A subsequent analysis of the tasks revealed a potentially significant relationship between participants' learning ability and their focus of attention. This led us to the conclusion that IT may be determined by participants' neural plasticity through a measure known as neural adaptability, which relates participant experience, learning, and attention.