1.
Psychometric Theories have sought to understand the
structure of intelligence; the form, it categories, and its composition.
Underlying psychometric intelligence theory is a psychological model according
to which intelligence is a combination of abilities that can be measured by
mental testing. These tests often include analogies, classification /
identification, and series completion. Each test score is equally weighted according
to the evidence of underlying ability in each category
British psychologist Charles
E. Spearman published the first psychometric theory 1904. His theory noted
that people who excelled on one mental ability test often did well on the
others, and people who did poorly on one of them tended to do poorly with
others. Using this concept, Spearman devised a technique of statistical
analyzing that examined patterns of individual scores. This analysis helped him
discover what he believed to be the two sources if these individual
differences: the ―general factor‖ which is our general intellectual ability,
and a test-specific factor.
American psychologist
L.L. Thurstone disregarded with Spearman‘s theory and his isolation of
the ―general factor‖ of intelligence.
Thurstone believed that the ―general factor ―resulted from Spearman‘s method of
analysis, and that if analysis were more thorough, seven factors would emerge.
These seven factors were collectively called the ―primary mental abilities‖ and included verbal
comprehension, verbal comprehension, verbal fluency, numbers, spatial
visualization, inductive reasoning, memory, memory and perceptual speed.
Most psychologists
agree that a broader subdivision of abilities than Spearman‘s classification is
necessary, but only some agree with hierarchal subdivision. It quickly became
apparent to many psychologists that were problems that could not be addressed
by psychometric theories. The number of abilities could not be positively
identified, and the differences between them could not be clearly defined due
to the limitations of testing and analysis. However, the most significant
problem extended beyond the number of abilities: what happens in someone‘s mind
when they are using the ability in question? Psychometric theories had no means
of addressing this issue, and cognitive theories began to fill this gap.
2.
Cognitive
Theories. During the era of psychometric theories, people‘s test scores
dominated the study of intelligence. In 1957, American psychologist Lee
Cronbach criticized how some psychologists study individual differences and
other study commonalities in human behavior, but the two methods never meet.
Cronbach voiced the need for two methods to be united, which led to the
development of cognitive theories of intelligence.
Without understanding
the processes underlying intelligence, we cannot come to accurate conclusions
when analyzing test scores or assessing someone‘s performance. Cognitive
analysis helps the interpretation of the test scores by determining to what
degree the score reflects reasoning ability and the degree to which it is a
result of not understanding the questions or vocabulary. Psychometric theories
did not differentiate between these two factors, which have a significant
effect on the determination of intelligence. Many people are excellent
reasoners but have modest vocabularies, and vice versa.
Underlying the
cognitive approach to intelligence is the assumption that intelligence is
comprised of a set of mental representations of information, and a set of
processes that operate the mental representations. It is assumed that a more
intelligent person represents information better, and operates more quickly on
these representations than does a less intelligent person.
Several different
cognitive theories of intelligence have emerged over the years. One was introduced
by Earl Hunt, Nancy Frost, and Clifford Lunneborg, who in 1973 showed one way
on which psychometric and cognitive modeling could be combined. Instead of
using conventional psychometric tests, they used tasks that allowed them to
study the basis of cognition-perception, learning and memory. Individual
differences in the tasks became apparent, which they related to differing
patterns of performing and operating manual representations.
Several years later,
Robert Stemberg suggested an alternative approach to studying cognitive
process. He argued, based on evidence he had gathered, that there weak only a
weak relationship between basic cognitive tasks and psychometric test scores
because the tasks being used were too simple. Although simple task involve
cognitive processes, they are peripheral rather than central.
Although opposing
cognitive theories exist, they are all based on the serial processing of
information, which means that cognitive processes are executed one after
another in a series.
The assumption is
that we process chunks of information one at a time, trying to combine the
processes into an overall problem-solving strategy. Other psychologists have
challenged this idea, arguing that cognitive processing is parallel, meaning
that we process large amounts of information simultaneously. However, it has
proved difficult to distinguish between serial and parallel models of
information processing.
Despite evidence and
support of cognitive intelligence theories, a major problem remains regarding
the nature of intelligence. Cognitive theories do not take into account that
the description of intelligence may differ from one cultural group to another.
Even within mainstream cultures, it will know that conventional tests do not
reliably predict performance. Therefore in addition to cognition, the context
in which the cognition operates also needs to be accounted for.