| Intelligence (trait)
Intelligence is usually said to involve mental capabilities such
as the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly,
comprehend ideas and language, and learn. Although laymen generally
regard the concept of intelligence as having much broader scope,
in psychology, the study of intelligence generally regards this
personality trait as distinct from creativity, personality, character,
or wisdom.
Definitions of intelligence
At least two major "consensus" definitions of intelligence
have been proposed. First, from "Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns"
a report of a task force convened by the American Psychological
Association:
Individuals differ from one another in their ability to understand
complex ideas, to adapt effectively to the environment, to learn
from experience, to engage in various forms of reasoning, to overcome
obstacles by taking thought. Although these individual differences
can be substantial, they are never entirely consistent: a given
person’s intellectual performance will vary on different occasions,
in different domains, as judged by different criteria. Concepts
of "intelligence" are attempts to clarify and organize
this complex set of phenomena.
A second definition of intelligence comes from "Mainstream
Science on Intelligence", which was signed by 52 intelligence
researchers in 1994:
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a very general mental capability that, among other things, involves
the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly,
comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly and learn from experience.
It is not merely book learning, a narrow academic skill, or test-taking
smarts. Rather, it reflects a broader and deeper capability for
comprehending our surroundings—"catching on",
"making sense" of things, or "figuring out"
what to do. (reprinted in Gottfredson, 1997, p. 13) |
Psychometric intelligence
Main articles: IQ, General intelligence factor
Despite the variety of concepts of intelligence, the most influential
approach to understanding intelligence (i.e., the one that has generated
the most systematic research) is based on psychometric testing.
Intelligence, narrowly defined, can be measured by intelligence
tests, also called IQ tests. Such tests are among the most accurate
(reliable and valid) psychological tests. Such intelligence tests
take many forms, but g theory proponents argue that the common tests
(Stanford-Binet, Raven's Progressive Matrices, Wechsler Adult Intelligence
Scale, Wechsler-Bellevue I, and others) all measure the same dominant
form of intelligence, g or "general intelligence". The
abstraction of g stems from the observation that scores on all forms
of cognitive tests correlate positively with one another. g can
be derived as the principle factor from cognitive test scores using
the method of principal components analysis or factor analysis.
In the psychometric view, the concept of intelligence is most closely
identified with g, or Gf ("fluid g"). However, psychometricians
can measure a wide range of abilities, which are distinct yet intercorrelated.
One common view is that these abilties as hierarchically arranged
with g at the vertex (or bottom, underlying all other abilities).
One or several types of intelligence?
Some experts accept the concept of a single dominant factor of intelligence,
general mental ability or g, while others argue that intelligence
consists of a set of relatively independent abilities (American
Psychological Association task force report, Gottfredson 1998).
A single factor is not guaranteed. Other psychological tests which
do not measure cognitive ability, such as personality tests, generate
multiple factors.
Proponents of multiple-intelligence theories often claim that g
is, at best, a measure of academic ability. Other types of intelligence,
they claim, might be just as important outside of a school setting.
One theory even suggests the existence of two types of g (see Fluid
and crystallized intelligence).
Yale psychologist Robert J. Sternberg has proposed a Triarchic
Theory of Intelligence. Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner's theory
of multiple intelligences breaks intelligence down into at least
eight different components: logical, linguistic, spatial, musical,
kinesthetic, naturalist, intra-personal and inter-personal intelligences.
Daniel Goleman and several other researchers have developed the
concept of emotional intelligence and claim it is at least as important
as more traditional sorts of intelligence.
In response, g theorists have pointed out that g's predictive validity
has been repeatedly demonstrated, for example in predicting important
non-academic outcomes such as job performance (see IQ), while no
multiple-intelligences theory has shown comparable validity. Meanwhile,
they argue, the relevance, and even the existence, of multiple intelligences
have not been borne out when actually tested (Hunt 2001).
The fundamental indicator of a general factor is that test scores
on a wide range of seemingly unrelated cognitive ability tests (such
as sentence completion, arithmetic, and memorization) are positively
correlated. People who score highly on one test tend to score highly
on all of them. This suggests that the tests are not unrelated,
but that they all tap a common factor. The common factor, g, can
be extracted using mathematical techniques such as factor analysis
or principal components analysis. IQ tests measure g better than
any other test. According to Jeff Hawkins, the brain's cortex implements
a memory prediction system to form the basis of intelligence.
Controversies
Researchers in the field of human intelligence have encountered
a considerable amount of public concern and criticism - much more
than many scientists would be accustomed to or comfortable with
(for examples, see Gottfredson, 2005). Some of the controversial
topics include:
- the relevance of psychometric intelligence to the common-sense
understanding of the topic.
- the importance of intelligence in everyday life (see IQ).
- the genetic and environmental contributions to individual variation
in intelligence (see Nature versus nurture).
- differences in average measured intelligence between different
groups and the source and meaning of these differences (see Race
and intelligence and Sex and intelligence).
Collective and non-human intelligence
Some thinkers have explored the idea of collective intelligence,
arising from the coordination of many people. A battleship, for
instance, cannot be operated by a single person's knowledge, actions
and intelligence, it takes a coordinated and interacting crew. Similarly,
the interesting behaviors of a bee colony are not exhibited in the
intelligence and actions of any single bee, but rather manifested
in the behavior of the hive. These ideas are explored as a basis
for human thought, with applications for artificial intelligence
(AI), by MIT AI pioneers Norbert Wiener and Marvin Minsky. Artificial
intelligence (AI) has emerged from Computer science as a specialty
which seeks to make computers act in increasingly intelligent ways,
and provides insights into human thought processes.
When considering animal intelligence, a more general definition
of intelligence might be applied: the "ability to adapt effectively
to the environment, either by making a change in oneself or by changing
the environment or finding a new one" (Encyclopædia Britannica).
Many people have also speculated about the possibility of extraterrestrial
intelligence.
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