Intelligence Theories
Intelligence theories have evolved through a succession of paradigms which have tried to explain and define intelligence. Many of these paradigms have been psychometric theories, cognitive theories, cognitive-contextual theories, and biological theories.
Psychometric theories have sought to understand the structure of intelligence: the form it takes, its categories, and its composition. Underlying psychometric intelligence theory is a psychological model according to which intelligence is a combination of abilities that can be measured by mental testing. These tests often include analogies, classification/identification, and series completion. Each test score is equally weighted according to the evidence of underlying ability in each category.
British psychologist Charles E. Spearman published the first psychometric theory in 1904. His theory noted that people who excelled on one mental ability test often did well on the others, and people who did poorly on one of them tended to do poorly on the others. Using this concept, Spearman devised a technique of statistical analysis that examined patterns of individual differences in test scores. This analysis helped him discover what he believed to be the two sources of these individual differences: the "general factor" which is our general intellectual ability, and a test-specific factor.
American psychologist L. L. Thurstone disagreed with Spearman's theory and his isolation of the "general factor" of intelligence. Thurstone believed that the "general factor" resulted from Spearman's method of analysis, and that if analysis were more thorough, seven factors would emerge. These seven factors were collectively called the "primary mental abilities" and included verbal comprehension, verbal fluency, numbers, spatial visualization, inductive reasoning, memory, and perceptual speed.
To further complicate matters, a third theory was introduced by American Raymond Cattell and Canadian Philip Vernon. They combined ideas from Spearman and Thurstone's theories, stating that abilities are hierarchical. At the top of the hierarchy is our "general factor" of intellectual ability, and below are successive levels of narrowing abilities, ending with Spearman's "primary mental abilities".
Most psychologists agree that a broader subdivision of abilities than Spearman's classification is necessary, but only some agree with the hierarchical subdivision. It quickly became apparent to many psychologists that there were problems that could not be addressed by psychometric theories. The number of abilities could not be positively identified, and the differences between them could not be clearly defined due to the limitations of testing and analysis. However, the most significant problem extended beyond the number of abilities: what happens in someone's mind when they are using the ability in question? Psychometric theories had no means of addressing this issue, and cognitive theories began to fill this gap.
During the era of psychometric theories, people's test scores dominated the study of intelligence. In 1957, American psychologist Lee Cronbach criticized how some psychologists study individual differences and others study commonalties in human behavior, but the two methods never meet. Cronbach voiced the need for the two methods to be united, which led to the development of cognitive theories of intelligence.
Without understanding the processes underlying intelligence, we cannot come to accurate conclusions when analyzing test scores or assessing someone's performance. Cognitive analysis helps the interpretation of test scores by determining to what degree the score reflects reasoning ability and the degree to which it is a result of not understanding the questions or vocabulary. Psychometric theories did not differentiate between these two factors, which have a significant effect on the determination of intelligence. Many people are excellent reasoners but have modest vocabularies, and vice versa.
Underlying the cognitive approach to intelligence is the assumption that intelligence is comprised of a set of mental representations of information, and a set of processes that operate the mental representations. It is assumed that a more intelligent person represents information better, and operates more quickly on these representations than does a less intelligent person.
Several different cognitive theories of intelligence have emerged over the years. One was introduced by Earl Hunt, Nancy Frost, and Clifford Lunneborg, who in 1973 showed one way in which psychometric and cognitive modeling could be combined. Instead of using conventional psychometric tests, they used tasks that allowed them to study the basis of cognition - perception, learning, and memory. Individual differences in the tasks became apparent, which they related to differing patterns of forming and operating mental representations.
Several years later, Robert Sternberg suggested an alternative approach to studying cognitive processes. He argued, based on evidence he had gathered, that there was only a weak relationship between basic cognitive tasks and psychometric test scores because the tasks being used were too simple. Although simple tasks involve cognitive processes, they are peripheral rather than central.
Although opposing cognitive theories exist, they are all based on the serial processing of information, which means that cognitive processes are executed one after another in a series. The assumption is that we process chunks of information one at a time, trying to combine the processes into an overall problem-solving strategy. Other psychologists have challenged this idea, arguing that cognitive processing is parallel, meaning that we process large amounts of information simultaneously. However, it has proved difficult to distinguish between serial and parallel models of information processing.
Despite evidence and support for cognitive intelligence theories, a major problem remains regarding the nature of intelligence. Cognitive theories do not take into account that the description of intelligence may differ from one cultural group to another. Even within mainstream cultures, it is well known that conventional tests do not reliably predict performance. Therefore in addition to cognition, the context in which the cognition operates also needs to be accounted for.
Cognitive-contextual theories address the way cognitive processes operate. The two major cognitive-contextual theories are of Howard Gardner and Sternberg.
In 1983, Gardner proposed a theory of "multiple intelligences", arguing that there is no single intelligence. He identified what he believed to be the seven minimal intelligences, some of which are similar to the abilities proposed by psychometric theorists, but others not. Gardner devised his list of intelligences from a variety of sources, including studies of cognitive processing, brain damage, exceptional individuals, and cognition between cultures. He suggested that whereas most concepts of intelligence had been ethnocentric and culturally biased, his was universal.
Sternberg's "triarchic" theory of intelligence agreed with Gardner in terms of the conventional notions of intelligence being too narrow. However, he disagreed as to how to go beyond traditional notions. Sternberg suggested that some abilities are talents rather than intelligences, since they are specific and are not prerequisites for adaptation to a cultural environment. He proposed that intelligence has three aspects - not multiple intelligences, but independent aspects that relate intelligence to what goes on internally within someone, what goes on in the external world, and what mediates between the internal and external worlds.
Biological theories are radically different approaches to intelligence, seeking to understand intelligence in terms of its biological basis instead of hypothetical factors or abilities. These theorists, called reductionists, believe that a full understanding of intelligence will only result from the identification of its biological substrates.
Those that oppose biological theories argue that they only seek to describe the fundamental behavior behind intelligence, not explain it. However, those in favor of these theories believe that the understanding of the biological basis of intelligence will compliment other investigations into intelligence, and will help unlock the mystery.
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