Intelligence

Intelligence has several distinctive qualities:
  • It is adaptive, such that it can be used flexibly to respond to a variety of situations and problems.
  • It involves learning ability: People who are intelligent in particular domains learn new information and behaviors more quickly and easily than people who are less intelligent in those domains.
  • It involves the use of prior knowledge to analyze and understand new situations effectively.
  • It involves the complex interaction and coordination of many different mental processes.
  • It is culture specific.  What is "intelligent" behavior in one culture is not necessarily intelligent behavior in another culture.
The broad definition of intelligence is the ability to apply past knowledge and experiences flexibly to accomplish challenging new tasks.

Spearman's g
Charles Spearman, British psychologist, proposed that intelligence comprises both a single, pervasive reasoning ability, a general factor, that is used on a wide variety of tasks and a number of narrow abilities, specific factors, involved in executing particular tasks. 


Cattell-Horn-Carroll Theory of Cognitive Abilities
Raymond Cattell found evidence for two distinctly different components of general intelligence; fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence.  Fluid intelligence is a child's ability to acquire knowledge quickly and adapt to new situations effectively.  It relates to novel tasks like rapid decision making and being non-verbal.  Crystallized intelligence is the knowledge and skills they have accumulated from their experiences, schooling, and culture.  This is more important for familiar tasks, those that are dependent on language and prior knowledge.
The Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) theory has three layers of intelligence or stata.  The top layer, Stratum III, is general intelligence.  Out of that comes 10 broad abilities, Stratum II, including fluid and crystallized intelligence.  From those 10 broad abilities comes 70-100 specific abilities, Stratum I.


Gardner's Multiple Intelligences
Howard Gardner, American psychologist, believes children and adults have at least 8 distinctly different abilities, or what he calls multiple intelligences.  He believes people who are skilled in one area can have average abilities in another area.  Gardner also believes that the multiple intelligences can take different forms in different cultures.  He also feels that traditional test scores alone cannot give a good picture of humans' abilities.


Sternberg's Triarchic Theory
Robert Sternberg, American psychologist, believes that people may be more or less intelligent in three different domains. 
  1. Analytical intelligence is comprised of making sense of, analyzing, contrasting, and evaluating the kinds of information and problems often seen in academic settings and on intelligence tests. 
  2. Creative intelligence is comprised of imagination, invention, and synthesis of ideas within the context of new situations.
  3. Practical intelligence is comprised of applying knowledge and skills effectively to manage and respond to everyday problems and social situations.
He also believes that intelligent behaviors are made up of three factors:

Environmental Context
  • Adapting behavior to fit the environment
  • Adapting the environment to fit one's needs
  • Selecting an environment conducive to success
Prior experience
  • Dealing with a new situation by drawing on past experience
  • Dealing with a familiar situation quickly and efficiently
Cognitive Processes
  • Interpreting new situations in useful ways
  • Sustaining concentration on a task
  • Separating important information from irrelevant details
  • Identifying effective problem-solving strategies
  • Finding relationships among seemingly different ideas
  • Making effective use of feedback
  • Applying other cognitive and metacognitive processes as well
Distributed Intelligence
Distributed Intelligence is the idea that intelligent behavior depends on physical, social, and cultural support mechanisms.  Children can use physical objects to manipulate large amounts of information.  They can also work with others to investigate ideas and solve problems.  They also can represent and think about situations they encounter using symbolic tools their culture provides.  These symbolic tools can be words, charts, or mathematical equations.

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