Concept Of General Intelligence Research Articles

General Intelligence: An Ecumenical Heuristic for Artificial Consciousness Research?

The science of consciousness has made great strides in recent decades. However, the proliferation of competing theories makes it difficult to reach consensus about artificial consciousness. While for purely scientific purposes we might wish to adopt a ‘wait and see’ attitude, we may soon face practical and ethical questions about whether, for example, agents artificial systems are capable of suffering. Moreover, many of the methods used for assessing consciousness in humans and even non-human animals are not straightforwardly applicable to artificial systems. With these challenges in mind, I propose that we look for ecumenical heuristics for artificial consciousness to enable us to make tentative assessments of the likelihood of consciousness arising in different artificial systems. I argue that such heuristics should have three main features: they should be (i) intuitively plausible, (ii) theoretically-neutral, and (iii) scientifically tractable. I claim that the concept of general intelligence — understood as a capacity for robust, flexible, and integrated cognition and behavior — satisfies these criteria and may thus provide the basis for such a heuristic, allowing us to make initial cautious estimations of which artificial systems are most likely to be conscious.

The Relationship between Intelligence and Executive Functions in Hispanic Patients with Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

Executive functions have been described as the “brain of the brain” and to include a variety of processes, including, but not limited to, abstraction, formulation of intentions, reasoning, formulation of strategies, monitoring their success, working memory, and the self-regulation of behavior. Executive functions have been determined to be associated with the integrity of the frontal lobes. On the other hand, intelligence has also been described in similar terms, and the concept of general intelligence, or the g factor has also been associated with the frontal lobes. As constructs, intelligence and executive functions have been also described as “overlapping” in many features, while maintaining a certain degree of conceptual independence. The purpose of this study was to compare the intellectual functioning of a sample of patients with mild traumatic brain injury, obtained by means of the Reynolds Intellectual Assessment Scales (RIAS), with their performance in a number of neuropsychological measures of executive functions, such as the Halstead Category Test (HCT), the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), the Stroop Word and Color Test (SWCT), and the Trail Making Test (TMT). Pearson Product Moment Correlations were obtained between the various measures of the RIAS and the measures of executive functions (HCT, WCST, SWCT, TMT). Whereas the magnitudes of the correlations were within the moderate range, intelligence, particularly non-verbal intelligence and working memory were noted to be significantly correlated with the measures of executive functions. The conclusion was reached that intelligence and executive functions are related to each other as constructs, but yet maintain a certain degree of independence.

General Intelligence (g): Overview of a Complex Construct and Its Implications for Genetics Research.

Current technology has dramatically increased the prevalence of studies to establish the genetic correlates of a wide variety of human characteristics, including not only the physical attributes that determine what we look like and the risk of physiological disease but also the psychological and cognitive characteristics that often define who we are as individuals. Perhaps one of the most deeply personal and often controversial characteristics is the concept of general intelligence, known in the psychological literature as "g." As with the genetic study of any complex trait, the first step in studying the genetics of g is to carefully define the characteristic of interest. For g, this entails establishing what intelligence means and providing a clear operational definition for how it will be measured. In this paper, we provide a brief historical and theoretical overview of the construct of general intelligence, describe its relationship to the contemporary measurement of intelligence, and discuss these concepts in light of the challenges associated with defining g as a characteristic in the study of genetics.

Raven's Matrices and Working Memory: A Dual-Task Approach

Raven's Matrices Test was developed as a "pure" measure of Spearman's concept of general intelligence, g. Subsequent research has attempted to specify the processes underpinning performance, some relating it to the concept of working memory and proposing a crucial role for the central executive, with the nature of other components currently unclear. Up to this point, virtually all work has been based on correlational analysis of number of correct solutions, sometimes related to possible strategies. We explore the application to this problem of the concurrent task methodology used widely in developing the concept of multicomponent working memory. Participants attempted to solve problems from the matrices under baseline conditions, or accompanied by backward counting or verbal repetition tasks, assumed to disrupt the central executive and phonological loop components of working memory, respectively. As in other uses of this method, number of items correct showed little effect, while solution time measures gave very clear evidence of an important role for the central executive, but no evidence for phonological loop involvement. We conclude that this and related concurrent task techniques hold considerable promise for the analysis of Raven's matrices and potentially for other established psychometric tests.

Early electro-cortical correlates of inspection time task performance

The concept of general intelligence ( g) summarizes the well established finding that scores on separate cognitive tasks are positively correlated, indicating a trait common to many aspects of information processing. Inspection time is a well-established correlate of IQ, where those of a higher IQ can correctly identify a briefly presented stimulus with a greater level of accuracy than those of a lower IQ. This study used two age-matched samples, selected on the basis of their scores on Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices from the undergraduate population of Bangor University. In order to address the confound of inspection time and IQ of previous ITT-ERP research, each participant of the presented study performed an IT task with the same five levels of stimulus duration while undergoing 64-channel EEG recording. The high IQ group made significantly fewer errors at each level of stimulus duration and exhibited a significantly larger N1 response. N1 latency and other ERP components did not distinguish the two IQ groups. Given the specificity of ERP group differences to the N1, the results of the present study suggest that the link between IT performance and g is attributable to individual differences in directing attention to a spatial region.

The quantitative and molecular genetics of human intelligence.

General cognitive ability or g as measured by IQ tests has been the most intensively studied trait in human behaviour genetics. Although there has been much debate about how best to describe and measure intelligence, this is addressed elsewhere in this volume and here I will assume that there is utility in the concept of general intelligence and review the data showing that, whatever it is, g is familial and influenced by genes. Next, I will briefly describe some of the main quantitative genetics models that have been used in trying to tease out the genetic and environmental sources of variation. Finally, I will outline current molecular genetic research aiming to locate and identify genes influencing human intelligence and try to predict the directions in which such research will lead.

So near and yet so far: Lingering questions about the use of measures of general intelligence for college admission and employment screening.

The evidentiary bases for the various positions taken by the authors of articles in the March 2000 special theme issue of Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, are examined. Despite some substantive disagreements among the authors, a substrate of evidence is accepted (or, at the very least, goes unchallenged) by all authors. Although the substantial progress made by psychometric researchers is acknowledged, there remains a critical need to probe ever more deeply into the nature of intelligence and the meaning of correlations between ability tests and performance at school and at work. The author concludes by arguing that the concept of general intelligence may have considerable predictive usefulness whenever the situation calls for making a limited number of choices among many applicants but that there are lingering conceptual limitations about its meaning.

So near and yet so far: Lingering questions about the use of measures of general intelligence for college admission and employment screening.

The evidentiary bases for the various positions taken by the authors of articles in the March 2000 special theme issue of Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, are examined. Despite some substantive disagreements among the authors, a substrate of evidence is accepted (or, at the very least, goes unchallenged) by all authors. Although the substantial progress made by psychometric researchers is acknowledged, there remains a critical need to probe ever more deeply into the nature of intelligence and the meaning of correlations between ability tests and performance at school and at work. The author concludes by arguing that the concept of general intelligence may have considerable predictive usefulness whenever the situation calls for making a limited number of choices among many applicants but that there are lingering conceptual limitations about its meaning.

The 1988 Jansson memorial lecture. The performance of the 'idiot-savant': implicit and explicit.

'Idiots-savants' are people of low intelligence who have one or two outstanding talents such as calendrical calculation, drawing or musical performance. Such people are mostly male and occur with high frequency among the autistic population. Do they perform their amazing feats because of an outstanding memory or do they draw on some faculty of reasoning to help them? Although they cannot easily make clear how they carry out their tasks by using speech, experiments reveal that they follow simple rules which they use to aid them in recalling correct dates and sequences in classical music. It has been said that they cannot abstract but this turns out not to be true: all can abstract to some degree and some are more at home with abstract than with concrete material. Whatever else is true of these handicapped but gifted people their gift becomes apparent at an early age and is apparently not improved by practice. Perhaps the most important conclusion from work with these groups is that their gifts force us to think again about the concept of general intelligence. How far is it possible to have low intelligence and yet be an outstanding musician or artist? Speculation on this idea may force us to revise our concepts of intelligence, neuropsychology and handicap.

A CHECK ON THE THEORY OF FLUID AND CRYSTALLIZED INTELLIGENCE WITH DESCRIPTION OF NEW SUBTEST DESIGNS

Several important theories about human abilities contend in the field today. Salient features of these theories have been explicated and critically evaluated in several recent publications. For example, Horn (1972, 1976, 1977a, 1977b, 1978a, 1978b) has considered the evidence in relation to the classical theories of general intelligence, Thurstone's primary mental abilities structure, the hierarchical theories of the British psychologists (Burt & Vernon) and Humphreys, the Piagetian system, Guilford's structure of intellect model, Guttman's analytic/achievement distinction, and Jensen's level I/level II conception. Matarazzo (1972) has looked at much of this evidence from the position of one presenting a new handbook for the Wechsler scales. Cattell (1963, 1971) and Horn (1968, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1977a, 1978a, 1978b) have evaluated the evidence in terms of theories of fluid (Gf) and crystallized (Gc) intelligence. Several recent efforts have been directed at linking together the evidence and theory deriving from study of information processing or cognitive psychology, on the one hand, and the study of individual differences, on the other hand (Carroll, 1976; Horn, 1978c; Hunt, 1978; Sternberg, 1977). The hypotheses of these theories that pertain to organization among abilities are of major importance for understanding the present study. The classical viewpoint (Spearman-Binet-Wechsler) is still quite influential, particularly in applied settings. The major concept of this kind of theory is a single general factor of intelligence comprised of a collection of abilities. A concept of general intelligence is also an important feature of Piagetian theory, but in place of a collection of abilities this theory postulates a collection of schemata, these being cognitive laws in accordance with which a person explains or understands his conception of reality. In Guilford's model the domain of behavior represented by a general intellective factor is described in terms of a large number of distinct abilities said to be indicated by uncorrelated factors. This theory can be viewed as one of several efforts to deal with the proliferation of ability factors presented to the literature since the modern computer came on the scene (Humphreys, 1962). Other notable