Thinking about intelligence


Thinking about intelligence
As thinking is an abstract concept, so is what constitutes intelligence. There are numerous theories regarding the nature of intelligence. Some ideas are briefly described here to provide context to the perspective of thinking in this book. Arguably one of the most influential theorists suggesting a psychometric model of intelligence is Charles Spearman (1927).
He proposed a two-factor theory of intelligence. He suggested that any intellectual act requires a combination of general intelligence (`g') and specific intelligence(s) (`s'). He argued that different tasks will vary in the proportion of `g' or `s' required to solve them. He suggests that `g' is a core or common level of intellect required for any task. The `g' or innate general intelligence is much more easily measured, by psychometric means, than `s', which will vary in every task. Thurstone (1935) developed from this a more comprehensive description of `g'. He didn't think `g' was a general capability.
He argued that there were seven primary mental abilities:
Verbal comprehension. The ability to understand verbal material.
Measured by vocabulary tests and reading comprehension tasks.
Word fluency. The ability to produce words rapidly. Measured by timed word tasks.
Numeracy. The abilityto rapidly compute numerically. Measured by timed arithmetic tasks.
Memory. The ability to remember strings of words, letters,numbers, symbols or objects. Measured by serial or free recall tests.
Spatial visualization. The ability to `see' shapes, rotations of objects and ho wpieces of a puzzle would fit together. Measured by tests requiring mental manipulation of geometric objects. Perceptual speed. The ability to recognize letters, numbers or symbols rapidly. Measured by timed proofreading or identifying the odd one out.
Inductive reasoning. The ability to reason from the specific to the general. Measured by predicting the final number or letter of a given sequence.

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