Transcriber: Huan Wan Reviewer: David DeRuwe
“Geniuses are made, not born.”
You may think this is a bold statement to make, but allow me to explain.
It all started 50 years ago when a Hungarian psychologist named László Polgar
studied how geniuses have come to be.
He researched over 400 prodigies,
ranging from Socrates to Einstein and found a remarkable pattern.
Every single one of them was intensely exposed to their field of success
from a very young age, leading him to believe anyone could become a genius.
He decided to put his thesis to the test and to raise a genius of his own.
In fact, when László explained his idea to his local government,
he was told he was crazy and that he should see a psychiatrist.
But this didn’t stop László,
and it became his lifetime goal to prove his belief.
To start,
he needed a partner that supported this unconventional investigation.
I’m not so sure “Do you want to raise a genius with me?”
is the greatest pickup line,
but for a woman named Klara who would become his wife,
it was an intriguing proposal.
So László and Klara’s first child, Susan,
soon came along and the experiment began.
At first,
László was stumped about what field Susan should become a prodogy at.
He needed something objective to measure achievement,
which was difficult to do with art or even science.
He found his answer when a three-year-old Susan
came across a chessboard while rummaging through the attic.
It didn’t matter to László
that less than 1% of top chess players in the world were female at the time.
In fact, this only further encouraged him.
Susan’s fate was sealed.
So László began intensely training with Susan from the age of four,
and within six months,
she was already beating grown men who’d played all their lives.
Now, Susan was on her path to greatness,
but what if it was just a mere coincidence?
László needed more evidence to prove his case,
so naturally, his second daughter, Sofia, came along and a third, Judit.
He decided that if he could turn Sofia and Judit also into chess geniuses,
he would have succeeded in proving his theory.
So what do you think, did László and Klara create a family of geniuses?
Spoiler alert, they did.
The oldest, Susan,
went on to become the highest ranked woman player at the age of five
and was the first woman to ever qualify for the Men’s World Chess Championship.
Sofia was a very talented player herself, but it was the youngest sister,
Judit Polgar,
that made the biggest mark.
At the mere age of 15,
she went on to beat Bobby Fischer’s record of becoming the youngest grandmaster,
which is the highest title you can achieve in chess.
And she is regarded as one of the greatest players of all time,
with her peak ranking at number eight.
These sisters shattered the common belief that women are not capable of excelling
at chess or other intellectually demanding disciplines.
At a time when even one successful female chess player was unheard of,
there were three of them and that, too, under one roof.
So other than recognizing that László Polgar’s experiment was a massive success,
what can we learn from it?
László didn’t realize this at the time,
but his experiments were rapidly enriching
the spatial centers of the young girls’ brains.
Spatial abilities are how we generate, perceive,
and visualize object positions in our mind’s eye.
These abilities are often overlooked, but are essential to our lives.
They allow us to navigate using maps
and even have a role in fitting dinner leftovers into a container.
These skills are only one aspect of a person's intelligence,
but interestingly enough, strong spatial skills are directly correlated
to future success in fields like STEM and chess.
So if these skills are so important, can we get better at them?
People often think that spatial intelligence
is a gift you either have or you don’t have -
that it is biologically written in your DNA.
But this is the farthest thing from the truth; well, sort of.
There's a lot of research concerning this area,
but the general consensus is that spatial abilities differ from person to person.
Whether that be due to nature or nurture, we’re still not so sure yet.
Curiously, in one critical area of spatial thinking,
called mental rotation,
women seem to have a disadvantage,
but it takes most of childhood for this imbalance to show itself.
This raises the important question: Could the underrepresentation of women
in spatial-oriented fields be linked to this development of spatial imbalances?
Take a look at these graphs:
We have less than 15% of girls choosing careers in engineering,
construction, and technology.
Women in STEM are more likely to study chemistry or biology.
Could it be a coincidence that these fields involving
increasingly more spatial thinking seem to have less women involved?
There are nearly eight times as many male chess players as females,
but after age 11, the number of girls diminishes rapidly.
Now, there are a number of possible explanations for this,
but the rapid decline of girls playing chess coincides with the time
when spatial disadvantages begin to impact success.
However, if all kids got a start like the Polgar sisters,
if all kids are able to strengthen these abilities from a very young age,
disparities in spatial skills wouldn't exist.
The playing field would be level between boys and girls alike,
and maybe this strong spatial foundation would support more girls
to be pursuing these kinds of careers.
Evidence shows that with practice, these abilities can improve dramatically.
In fact, numerous studies evaluating adults’ spatial intelligence
before and after even minimal training
has shown that these skills improved for both sexes,
and any imbalances between the genders completely disappears.
When I heard that spatial abilities could be improved through training,
I was determined to create an effective tool
to help people get better at these skills.
With that goal in mind, I created an app called Spatial X,
which will be in the App Store soon.
My app utilizes the three general areas of spatial thinking:
The first is called “Mental Rotation,” which I touched upon earlier,
and it’s exactly what it sounds like,
challenging us to determine whether an object is different
or if it’s merely in a different orientation.
The second category is “Spatial Visualization,”
which involves mentally manipulating objects;
for example, imagining what a piece of paper looks like
after it has been folded and hole punched.
The third category is “Spatial Perception,”
which involves making sense of an object using its surroundings.
This includes determining what one side of a cube looks like
based on other angles to complete the picture.
I compiled and created dozens of these kinds of problems
for my app’s question bank, and through the use of initial diagnostic tests,
my app is able to constantly assess users’ strengths and weaknesses
in each of the categories of spatial thinking
and provide them with custom problem sets suited to their weaknesses.
It tracks progress, provides feedback, and ultimately maximizes improvement.
Spatial abilities are not widely understood
and do not find a place in most school curricula.
But they should be included, and from early grades,
because the younger you are, the more malleable your brain is.
Education systems have the power to create the next generation of thinkers.
They have the power to close the STEM gender gap.
And this can be done by simply incorporating more visual activities
into a child’s learning experience.
They don’t need to be chess geniuses to develop their spatial abilities.
Showing them how to convert
from 2D nets to 3D figures or rotate objects -
these are all easy ways to strengthen children’s spatial abilities,
so that every person, no matter their gender, has the chance to achieve success.
László Polgar believed that in every child there is a potential genius.
And I think that by developing children's spatial abilities from a young age,
we are teaching them to become better problem solvers
and thereby creating the next Marie Curies and Katherine Johnsons of the world.
We can all improve our spatial abilities, and I encourage you all to try.
I can't promise that you'll become the next Polgar sister,
but I guarantee that you will reap the benefits in many areas of your life.
Thank you.
(Applause)