Diverse Intelligences

This course introduces students to the study of diverse intelligences as a transdisciplinary field, bringing together perspectives from across the natural, social, and technological sciences. Students will explore how different forms of intelligence – human and non human, natural and artificial, individual and collective – are understood and studied across disciplines. 

Topic examples

  • Diverse Intelligences: What are they, how to study them and why
  • Decision making in humans, primates and machines
  • Causal reasoning in animals and LLMs
  • Plants: reactive or proactive organisms?
  • Three branches in AI
  • The wisdom of the crowds

These examples are merely a sample and are based on previous years. Topics may change based on the curriculum chosen by the department in any given year.

Academic skills

In addition to studying specific content, students will develop their academic writing skills, learn how to construct and refine arguments, and strengthen their critical analysis. They will also learn the basics of various research methodologies and how to work as part of a research team while expanding their subject-specific vocabulary.

Learning experience

Students will experience a mixture of lectures, seminars, workshops, field trips, group research projects and independent study on this course. Lecture content is taught by staff of the University of St Andrews. 

Course outcomes

  • Experience how researchers work by becoming a research team member.
  • Work collaboratively with peers and researchers to design and execute a research project on diverse intelligences.
  • Gain an interdisciplinary understanding of diverse intelligences by engaging with various disciplines and perspectives.
  • Develop an understanding of core research skills, including experimental design, critical evaluation of evidence, and interpretation of scientific claims in the media.
  • Learn to communicate ideas clearly and effectively through writing, presentations and discussion.

Students will receive an official certificate from the University of St Andrews to confirm their successful completion of the course.