Mensa Intelligence Day

Rumour has it that individuals with high IQ have a knack for attracting misfortune: they would have a higher rate of learning disabilities, ADHD, school difficulties, depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, etc. Unfortunately, these claims are based on anecdotal evidence and on studies of biased samples of the high-IQ population. Only whole-population studies can provide reliable estimates of the prevalence of disorders in high IQ, compared to the rest of the population. So, what do these studies say? Register Now for Free.

Franck Ramus is a CNRS senior research scientist at the Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Psycholinguistique, Department of Cognitive Studies, Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, within which he heads the "Cognitive development and pathology" team.

His research bears on the development of language and social cognition and on academic achievement in children, their disorders (developmental dyslexia, specific language impairment, autism), their cognitive and neural bases and their genetic and environmental determinants.

Explore the unique characteristics that set apart hypersensitive individuals with emotional intelligence from those without. Through this illuminating discussion, we will uncover the magic that lies within hyper-sensitivity, revealing its potential as a superpower. Learn how, when channeled with emotional intelligence, this trait can lead to remarkable positive outcomes. Register Now for Free.

Marina Fiori earned a PhD in Social and Personality Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is Professor at the Swiss Federal University for Vocational Education and Training (SFUVET), where she is Head of the research field “Learning processes and support”. She directs a team of researchers on projects related to socio-emotional competences in vocational school teachers and students, and the study of talented apprentices in vocational school. Dr. Fiori received two grants from the Swiss National Science Foundation on emotional intelligence, one of which is ongoing and concerns the relationship between emotional intelligence and emotional hypersensitivity. Her research interest refers to the interplay of emotion and cognition, emotional intelligence, personality and the study of individual differences. Actively involved in theory development, she enjoys applied research too and strive to understand and explain human behavior in the complexity of everyday life. Her past work experience includes several years as researcher and lecturer at the Faculty of Business and Economics of the University of Lausanne and a few years as HR consultant specialized in psychological testing.

This presentation highlights recent research focusing on the emotional competence and hypersensitivity of highly intelligent individuals recruited among Mensa members. It explores how to grasp hypersensitivity with objective indicators used in cognitive research, by introducing different experimental tasks and explaining how to interpret the data collected. Such objective indicators suggest that Mensa members do not treat emotional information in the same way as the general population. How can we explain this difference? Register Now for Free.

Christelle Gillioz is a senior researcher at the Swiss University for Vocational Education and Training. After her PhD in psychology, she has worked as a researcher and lecturer in several universities in Switzerland and the US. She is an expert in experimental methods aiming at shedding light on subtle cognitive processes. In her current research, she uses experimental tasks and objective indicators (such as response times to emotional stimuli or physiological changes in emotional settings) to better understand how hypersensitivity works and how it is related to intelligence and emotional intelligence.

What makes the difference between people who are either overwhelmed by their emotions or ignore them and people who seem to live a rather peaceful emotional life?
Discover how to concretely boost your emotional skills and how high sensitivity and high IQ may help (or not) in this process. Register Now for Free.

Dr. Pascale Michelon conducted research on the brain at Washington University in St Louis. Now in Geneva, she combines neurosciences and different clinical methods to help people bring the changes they desire in their life. She specializes in helping adults with high sensitivity and high IQ discover and grow their potential.
She is the author of "Au Coeur des cerveaux hauts potentiesl et hypersensibles: Comprendre et mieux se vivre grâce aux neurosciences" (Leduc).