Response to Novelty: Continuity Versus Discontinuity in the Developmental Course of Intelligence

Abstract

In this article, we have reviewed research in diverse domains that has provided evidence for the assertion that intelligence can be construed, in part, as a response to novelty. We began by distinguishing two types of continuities, namely, the continuity in the fundamental nature of intelligence throughout development and the relative stability of individual differences in intellectual abilities at various ages. Current empirical and theoretical work has culminated in a proposition that the actual nature of intelligence is discontinuous, at least in the early years of life, and that individual differences in intellectual functions are unstable (Bayley, 1970; McCall, 1979a,b). Research on aspects of an infant's response to novelty and the relationship between this response and later intellectual functioning was examined and interpreted as reflective not only of one element of continuity in the actual nature of intelligence throughout development but also of a stable source of individual differences in intellectual development. Other literature reviewed suggested that the interest in and ability to deal with novelty remains an integral component of individual differences in intelligence throughout the life span. A framework for conceptualizing intelligence as, in part, the response to novelty was offered to provide some synthesis to the literature we have reviewed on the relationship between one's response to novelty and intelligence across the life span. This framework comprises two major aspects: a motivational aspect, referring to interest in, curiosity about, and preference for novelty, and an information-extraction aspect, referring to component processes that are involved in the acquisition of novel information. These two aspects of dealing with novelty were evident in the literature that was reviewed above. They seem integral to intellectual development. We are not alone in positing the importance of one's response to novelty as a major element of individual differences in intelligence across the life span. Other researchers and theorists from diverse disciplines within psychology, such as artificial intelligence, Piagetian psychology, and psychometric intelligence, as well as layperson's commonsense notions about intelligence, have also indicated the importance of the ability to deal with novelty in intelligent functioning. We view the motivational and information-processing response to novelty as a source of stability in intellectual functions across development and as an element of continuity in the actual nature of intelligence.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)