What is intelligence?

Intelligence (14TH C) from the Latin words, intellectus meaning perception, understanding, discernment, meaning, sense, and intellegere meaning to choose among and the Old French word, inter + legere, pick up, gather, choose, read

In 1994, 52 well repected researchers into intelligence published the following statement in the Wall Street Journal,

"Intelligence is a very general mental capability that, among other things, involves the ability to reason, plan solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly and learn from experience. It is not merely book learning, a narrow academic skill, or test-taking smarts. Rather, it reflects a broader and deeper capability for comprehending our surroundings- 'catching on', 'making sense' of things, or 'figuring out' what to do."

When the researchers were asked to say whether a given aspect of behaviour was an important aspect of intelligence,

• 99.3% thought that abstact thinking or reasoning was important,
• 97.7% - problem solving ability
• 96% - capacity to aquire knowledge
• 80.5% - memory
• 71.7% - mental speed
• 62.4% - general knowledge
• 59.6% - creativity
• 18.9% - achievement motivation

There is some debate as to whether we should talk about a person's intelligence or their multi-intelligences.

 

Is a person's intelligence one thing or many things?

Among psychologists who create tests allowing measurement of mental abilities, there is agreement that the ability to perform well in a number of very specific tests of different types of mental abilities is related to a generally good mental ability termed g. This is to say that the ability to perform well in one test indicates the ability do do well in the others.

This hierarchical notion of intelligence can be represented diagrammatically: