Research published by Grand Valley State University reports the conclusion that when it comes to brains, bigger is better.

Larger animals generally tend to have larger brains but part of the reason was assumed to be the need to control their larger bodies. But researchers found one other reason: larger animals also tend to be smarter.

The difference lies in cognitive ability related to environment. Domain-general cognitive ability allows species to adapt and deal with changes in the environment, whereas domain-specific skills are suited only to particular environments.

Larger animals may need to be smarter to control aspects of their environment, and because they generally live longer, they may have more to gain from being flexible and adaptable as the environment is more likely to change during their lifetimes.

Although the researchers concluded that it is not always necessary to adjust for the correlation between body size and brain size in comparing intelligence across species, they do allow that body size cannot always be dismissed as a factor - larger bodies may need larger brains to accomodate greater neural traffic. And although they do not assert that elephants or whales are smarter than humans or that men are more intelligent that women, in general, brain size seems to be linked with intelligence.

Bigger is Smarter!