Content of the article

It took a few hundred neurosurgeons and rocket scientists to figure it out, but a new study suggests these professionals aren’t, in fact, smarter than the general public.

Content of the article

The researchers asked 329 aerospace engineers and 72 neurosurgeons from around the world to perform 12 cognitive tasks as part of the Great British Intelligence Test of the Cognitron artificial intelligence platform. They were tested in six distinct aspects of cognition, covering planning and reasoning, working memory, attention, and emotional processing skills.

The peer-reviewed study, published Monday in the holiday edition of the British Medical Journal, found “no significant difference” in how aerospace engineers scored in any of the tasks compared to more than 18,000 members of the British public.

“These results suggest that despite the stereotypes represented by the phrases ‘It’s not rocket science’ and ‘It’s not brain surgery’, all three groups showed a wide range of cognitive abilities,” the authors write. .

In addition, 90% of Britons scored above average on at least one aspect of intelligence, which the researchers said demonstrates “the importance of studying several areas that make up a concept of intelligence rather only one measure “.

Only neurosurgeons showed a significant difference in results, performing problem-solving tests faster but requiring more time than the general population in memory recall tasks.

Content of the article

“The difference in problem-solving speed exhibited by neurosurgeons could be due to the rapid nature of neurosurgery, which attracts those with a pre-existing flair for rapid treatment, or it could be, although less likely, a product of. training for rapid decision-making in critical situations, ”according to the researchers.

Although researchers found few differences in the cognitive abilities of aerospace engineers and neurosurgeons, the former scored higher on mental manipulation and attention, required in tasks such as mental rotation of figures, while the latter were better at solving semantic problems, such as defining rare words and comprehension. sentences.

Perhaps now is the time to correct old choruses to reflect an even more difficult career.

“Other specialties might deserve to be on this pedestal and future work should focus on determining the most deserving profession,” write the authors.

In the meantime, they suggest that the phrase “it’s a walk in the park” or other phrases unrelated to careers would be more appropriate.