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Monday, January 31, 2011

GENERAL INTELLIGENCE

GENERAL INTELLIGENCE (MULTIPLE ABILITIES)
HOW IS THE INTELLECT STRUCTURED?
Following the development of the first standardized intelligence tests, it was thought that data from test performance might reveal the secret of how the intellect is structured. Intelligence as a general mental facility Initial studies looked definitive. If a random sample of participants take different types of cognitive tests, such as those in the Binet–Simon scale or the more recent Wechsler intelligence scales, those who are better than average on tests of vocabulary will generally be better than average at mechanical reasoning. They will also be better at solving analogies, making inferences and carrying out arithmetical calculations, know more general information, be faster at substituting digits for other symbols, and so on. The fact that the correlations between ability tests are all positive has been termed positive manifold. (positive manifold the fact that the correlations between ability tests are all positive) In other words, different tests may well tap similar underlying factors or traits, as Binet had suggested. So it seemed that perhaps geniuses as diverse as Einstein and Mark Twain might have something in common after all. This model suggests that, rather than there being different types of intelligence, differences between these men may have more to do with the application of a general mental facility to different areas of interest.

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