neral intelligence can be defined as a construct that is made up of different cognitive abilities. These abilities allow people to acquire knowledge and solve problems.
This general mental ability is what underlies specific mental skills related to areas such as spatial, numerical, mechanical, and verbal abilities. The idea is that this general intelligence influences performance on all cognitive tasks.
How It Works
General intelligence can be compared to athleticism. A person might be a very skilled runner, but this does not necessarily mean that they will also be an excellent figure skater.
However, because this person is athletic and fit, they will probably perform much better on other physical tasks than an individual who is less coordinated and more sedentary.
Psychologist Charles Spearman helped develop a statistical technique known as factor analysis, which allows researchers to use a number of different test items to measure common abilities. For example, researchers might find that people who score well on questions that measure vocabulary also perform better on questions related to reading comprehension.
In 1904, he suggested that this g factor was responsible for overall performance on mental ability tests. He noted that while people certainly could and often did excel in certain areas, people who did well in one area tended also to do well in other areas.
All tasks on intelligence tests, whether they related to verbal or mathematical abilities, were influenced by this underlying g factor.
Components of General Intelligence
There are several key components that are believed to make up general intelligence. these include:
- Fluid reasoning: This involves the ability to think flexibly and solve problems.