Intelligence.
Intellectual abilities, Genetic and
Environmental influence on Intelligence
Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic,
understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning,
planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. More generally, it
can be described as the ability to perceive or infer information, and to retain it
as knowledge to be applied towards adaptive behaviours within an
environment or context.
Famous psychologists that studied Intelligence and created influential theories
Theorists:
Spearman - Spearman was English psychologist and he developed two-factor
theory of intelligence using factor analysis. His research not only led him to
develop the concept of the g factor of general intelligence, but also the s factor
of specific intellectual abilities.
Spearman's two-factor theory Proposes that intelligence has two components:
general intelligence ("g" and specific ability "s". To explain the differences in
performance on different tasks, Spearman hypothesized that the "s"
component was specific to a certain aspect of intelligence.
Thurstone was an American pioneer in the fields of psychometrics and
psychophysics. He criticized Spearmans ideas and he claimed that his
experiments showed that intelligence formed seven primary categories: verbal
comprehension, number facility, spatial relations, perceptual speed, word
fluency, associative memory, and reasoning. Thurstone agreed that there was
a general factor among ability measures.
Raymond Cattell was a British-American psychologist. He supported general
ability concept like Thurstone but have his own theory. Cattell highlighted two
forms of ability, distinguished by their development in older age: fluid and
crystallized intelligence.
Fluid Intelligence the ability to to think abstractly, reason quickly and problem
solve independent of any previously acquired knowledge
Coming up with problem-solving strategies
Interpreting statistics
Philosophical reasoning
Solving puzzles or abstract problems
Crystallized Intelligence is based upon facts and rooted in experiences. As we
age and accumulate new knowledge and understanding, crystallized
intelligence becomes stronger.
Memorizing text
Memorizing vocabulary
Recalling how to do something
Remembering dates and locations
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Gardner - Intelligence is defined as eight independent intelligences—linguistic,
logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic,
intrapersonal, interpersonal, and naturalist.
Sternberg - Intelligence is defined as three types of abilities—analytical,
creative, and practical.
Stanovich - Intelligence is not sufficient for good thinking; rationality, which is
independent of intelligence, is also necessary.
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We tend to order living beings as being more or less intelligent. Intelligence is
not a characteristic that is either present or not, rather one that is present in
degrees. But it is also clear that ordering intelligence on a linear scale is not
possible. Some students are good at writing essays, others can do math, still
others play music, and a fourth group might excel at camping out in the wild:
How should we compare their intelligence? It is not obvious how such a
comparison can be made in a sensible and profitable way.
Thinking and problem solving
The ability to think is often mentioned as an essential characteristic of
intelligence. Thinking, in its common sense meaning, includes problem solving
and logical reasoning but also less structured forms of mental activity such as
those we use in our everyday lives, when we doing household chores or
planning a weekend trip. Problem Solving is closely related to thinking. Typical
problem-solving tasks are finding a bug in a computer program, diagnosing the
disease of a patient, finding a solution to a high school physics problem or
designing experiment with animals to test a hypothesis.
Learning and memory
For an example. A doctor with extensive experience who can remember all his
patients and their diseases and can apply this knowledge to treat new cases is
considered intelligent. Transfer of knowledge is the point, not merely storing it.
Language
The ability to talk to one another, to read and write, is one of humans'
distinguishing features. No animal species has abilities even remotely
resembling human natural language. Those who speak multiple languages are
often regarded as particularly intelligent. Their ability is a combination of good
learning, memory capacity, and talent for languages.
Intuition and creativity
Both intuition and creativity seem in some ways to go beyond thinking.
Thinking can be executed in a "cold" manner, whereas intuition and creativity
require the engaging of emotions. Creating something new also has a
somewhat mysterious flavour.
Emotions
Emotional intelligence refers to the ability to recognize emotions in others,
using emotions to support thinking and actions, understanding emotions, and
regulating emotions. The general idea is that if you recognize your own
emotions, you are better able to perceive the emotions in others and to react
appropriately in social situations.
Perceptual and motor abilities.
Motor abilities, on the other hand, especially basic ones like walking, are
usually thought to require no intelligence. As the complexity of the motor task
increases, it becomes less and less clear to what extent intelligence is required.
Intelligence testing
The general idea of an IQ test is to measure a capacity that is not dependent
on particular knowledge but is, in a sense, a "general intelligence capacity" or
"factor g," as it is sometimes called.
The Binet Simon intelligence Scale was first developed in 1905 by French
psychologist Alfred Binet and his collaborator Theodore Simon to test the
attention, memory, and verbal skill of school children and thereby measure
their intelligence. It is considered first intelligence test ever created.
