INTELLIGENCE

Concept of Intelligence and related terms

Mundia (1993) gives a number of definitions of intelligence as stated

below; intelligence - enables an individual to learn.

- Is what helps an individual to adapt him/herself to the environment - that which

is measured by intelligence tests.

- ability to perform tasks involving the grasping of relationships.

- ability to see relationships between objects or ideas and apply them to new
situations.

- the ability or capacity to understand relationships among facts of knowledge

and the ability to apply or manipulate to connect ideas and things, to things, to
think.
- It is the ability to adopt oneself, understanding, good judgment, self- criticism
and self- appraisal.

Intelligence Quotient – the score of level of intelligence, formulated by dividing mental

age by chronological age and multiply the divided by 100.

Intellectually Gifted – a term assigned to those people assessed to have an IQ score

of 130 and above.

Crystalized Intelligence-it is a form of intelligence that consists of

accumulated knowledge, skills, tasks, vocabulary, general information and
arithmetic problems. It represents what a person has learnt and retained from
experiences that indicate the influence of environment on intelligence. It
depends on culture and learning opportunities.
Fluid Intelligence-is a form of intelligence that involves the ability to see
relationships among stimuli. It depends on a condition in the brain. It is marked
by the ability to reason abstractly, thinks creatively and understands complex
relationships that seem to be influenced by hereditary characteristics.

THEORIES OF INTELLIGENCE

 There are various models of intelligence in which others rely on psychological

tests measuring the constructs.

(1) The Two Factor Theory

 Charles Spearman, a British Psychologist was one of the first theorists who
researched on intelligence.

 He carried out a research to find out the definition of ‘human intelligence’

 Historically there are models of intelligence that answers fundamental question

that theorists and psychologists tried to attempt in answering as to whether
intelligence is a singular or general ability or if it is composed of multiple
separate and distinct abilities.

 Lionel (2008) states that there is a two factor theory of intelligence and these
are, ‘general and specific intelligences’

(a) General Intelligence (g) – known as ‘g’, factor. It is vital in the performance of all
tasks (Spearman 1904, 1923).

 He states that individuals scoring highly in mathematics would achieve high

scores in another mental ability such as, language.

 He defines ‘g’ as “mental energy”. General Intelligence Factor, the ‘g’ Factor is
 that which influences all mental activities (Binet, 1905).

 According to Spearman, the ‘general intelligence factor’ refers to an innate

and unchangeable composition of many mental abilities.

 These abilities according to Thorndike (1948) are important for the

performance.

 They involve the ability to learn higher processes of thought (special

abstract thinking) and ability to adapt to novel situations.

(b) Specific Intelligence (S) – this factor refers to the ability required to perform
various tasks.

 It differs from one act to another, unlike the ‘g’ which is available at same
level for all intellectual acts.

 Spearman’s specific intelligence factor refers to the specific abilities that

are required to perform various tasks.

 The difference between g and s may be ‘autistic savants. (An autistic

savant is someone with autism who also has a single extraordinary area
of knowledge or ability.)

 Although the individual might be mentally retarded (g), they can show to be
genius abilities at a specific area (s) mainly numeric, reasoning, memory
feats, artistic ability and musical ability (Edelson, 1995).

 The performance of any intellectual act requires a combination of g and s

and the contribution of each depends on the nature of the task at hand.

 Intelligence tests focus on measurement of ‘g’ and avoid any interference of

s’ for it is just an indication of performance on subtests of intelligence.
 (2) Theory of Primary Mental Abilities

 It is a theory developed by Thunderstone Louis, an American Psychologist who

started his career as an electrical engineer.

 Thunderstone was interested in the correlations which were not perfect.

 He viewed that the performance on any mental task was more influenced by
specific abilities than a general ability.

 He then, brought out the idea of primary mental abilities or group factors which
he thought would constitute general intelligence.

 Seven primary factors were identified as follows;

 Thunderstone’s Seven Primary Factors

ABILITY DESCRIPTION

M Rote Memory The ability to store and recall information

N Number Ability -The ability to work with figures such as to add, subtract,
divide, etc

P Perceptual Speed -The speed at which visual patterns are perceived and
compared.

R Reasoning -Dealing with novel problems in terms of rules, principles

and experience.

S Spatial -Reasoning about visual forms and the relationship between

Visualization parts, such as perceiving distance and managing rotation

V Verbal -Comprehending verbal statements, ideas in word form.
comprehension

w Word Fluency -Producing ideas fluently in word form

(3) Three Factor Structure of Intellectual Model

 Guilford, an American Psychologist rejected the idea of a general intelligence

factor and used the system of factor analysis to develop his ‘three factor
structure of intellectual model’. (Factor analysis is a type of statistical
procedure that is conducted to identify clusters or groups of related items
(called factors) on a test.)

 His theory states that a distinction was made between operations, products
and contents and ascribed them as three separate dimensions of human
intellectual functioning.

 Each was divided into subordinate categories. Categories of one dimension

intersect with the categories of the other dimensions. It is presented by the
means of a cube.

 The proposed dimensions are as follows;

 Operations – things that involve a mental operation.

 Contents – things an individual works with, the areas of information in which

 operations are performed.

 Products – the way in which information is organized, the result of

intellectual process.

 Originally there were four content, five operation and six product categories
adding to 120 different components of intelligence or unique abilities.
 In 1977, Guilford revised the model based on the research and reports from
others and divided the content into auditory and visual categories.

 It was further revised into memory category within the operation dimension
into two separate categories of memory retention and memory recording.

 Currently, the nature of intellect model has 180 unique abilities, 6 operations,
6 products and 5 contents.

 The three examples could be cognition of auditory units, memory for

semantic relations and the evaluation of behavioral systems, but it is noted
that human mental capacity is not limited to 180 abilities.

 The critic over this model is that, this model facilitates human intelligence
expansion by introducing factors related to social judgment and creativity,
but it has a problem in planning and predicting behaviors in real-life
situations.

(4) Theory of Multiple Intelligence

 Professor Gardner Howard presented his multiple intelligence theory in his

book entitled “Frames of Mind”, and highlighted the idea as a fact that each
individual exist within multiple context, each with a unique and different form
of intelligence.
  He suggested that human beings possess seven – nine different forms of
intelligences related to various areas of learning.

The table showing Multiple Intelligence

Area of Multiple Presentation of Intelligence People Involved

intelligence

Bodily - it involves the capacity to use the -Dancers, Athletes,

Kinesthetic whole body or various parts to solve Surgeons

problems
Intelligence
[Link] - the understanding and skills -Teachers, Marketers,
requires for interaction with others. Politicians
I0.+]=_ntelligence
[Link] - having knowledge of oneself, -Psychologists,
awareness of ones feelings and being Psychiatrists
Intelligence
in touch with ones emotions.
[Link] -it involves the production of -Linguistic Specialists

Intelligence language to express ones thoughts such as, Lawyers, Public

and understanding of Speakers,
others. Poets and Authors.
[Link] - problem solving skills and being - Mathematician,
Intelligence able to think scientifically. Scientists

[Link] - the skill and ability to perform - Musicians, Artists

Intelligence musical tasks such as, hearing,

recognizing and remembering
pitches, tones, rhythm, melodic
patterns followed by its
implementation, during performance.
[Link] - people with high level of spatial -Sculptures, Architects,

Intelligence intelligence can easily perceive and

Navigators
interpret three dimensional shapes
and images. It involves abstract
visualization.
[Link] - it was added in 1996. -Botanists

Intelligence - it involves sensitivity on living -Famers

things and other aspects of the
-Chefs
natural world, e.g. plants and clouds.
[Link] - it was added recently by Gardner. - Religious People
It is the capacity to pose questions
Intelligence - Artists
regarding life and death and
considered it as a foundation of art, - Philosophers
religion and philosophy. (Scientists)
  Note that the nine intelligences do not operate in isolation, but requires
interaction between several kinds of levels of intelligences. Each human
being possesses such intelligences but their levels of development differ.

Criticisms of Gardner’s theory of intelligence

 It is not supported by adequate research and is regarded as highly

speculative.

 Musical and sport intelligences are said to be talents.

 Interpersonal and Intrapersonal are regarded as personalities or traits

rather than intelligences