• In contrast to animals, man is considered to be endowed with certain cognitive abilities that make him a rational being.
• But human beings themselves are not alike. Some learn with a good speed while others remain lingering for long.
• No doubt, interest, attitude, desired knowledge and skill etc., count towards this achievement.
• But still there is something that contributes significantly towards these varying differences.
• In psychology, it is termed as ‘INTELLIGENCE’.

INTELLIGANCE

Dr. Narayana Simha R L

Associate Professor

Central Sanskrit University

Bhopal

1. Intelligence, the major topic of this chapter, is indeed an important human characteristic.
2. By itself, through it is not a guarantee of success, accomplishment, of personal happiness

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But what, precisely, is intelligence?

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CONCEPT AND NATURE OF INTELLIGENCE

CONCEPT AND NATURE OF INTELLIGENCE

Intelligence, like love, is one of those concept that are easier to recognize than to define.

The preconception is that people think that intelligence is a noun which refers to things or concrete objects which can be directly perceived but actually it is an abstraction from the behaviour of the individual. It is, therefore, better to use the adjective ‘intelligent’ instead of intelligence.

MEANING AND DEFINITION OF INTELLIGENCE

What is intelligence that contributes towards success, is a question that has been attempted by psychologists in different ways resulting in so many varied definitions:

• Woodworth & Marquis : “Intelligence means intellect put to use. It is the use of intellectual abilities for handling a situation or accomplishing any task”.
• Stern: “Intelligence is a general capacity of an individual consciously to adjust his thinking to new requirements. It is general mental adaptability to new problems and conditions of life.
• Terman: “An individual is intelligent in proportion as he is able to carry on abstract thinking”.
• David Wechsler: “Intelligence is the aggregate or global capacity of an individual to act purposeful to think rationally, and to deal effectively with his environment”.

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Before said definitions emphasize that intelligence is the ability-

• To learn
• To deal with abstraction
• To make adjustment or to adapt to new situation

With the above said qualities we can conclude :

“Intelligence consists of an individual’s those mental or cognitive abilities which help him in solving his actual life-problems and leading a happy and well-contented life”.

ESTABLISHED FACTS ABOUT INTELLIGENCE

1. THE RELATION OF INTELLIGENCE WITH NATURE AND NURTURE :- Intelligence is the product of heredity and environment. Both are necessary for the intellectual growth of an individual and neither can be considered more important than the other.
2. DISTRIBUTION OF INTELLIGENCE :- In the distribution majority of people are average, a few very bright and a few very dull.

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3. GROWTH OF INTELLIGENCE :-

The age of cessation of mental growth varies from individual to individual. However, in majority of cases, intelligence reaches its maximum somewhat at the age of 16 or 20 in an individual. After that the vertical growth of intelligence cesses. But the horizontal growth – accumulation of knowledge & acquisition of skills – continuous throughout the life span of an individual.

4. INTELLIGENCE & SEX DEFFERENCE:- Various studies have been concluded that difference in sex does not contribute towards the difference in intelligence.

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• INTELLIGENCE AND RATIAL CULTURAL DIFFERENCES:- It has been established that intelligence is not the birth right of a particular race group. The ‘bright’ and the ‘dull’ can be found in any race, caste or cultural group .

MISCONCEPTION ABOUT INTELLIGENCE

1. Intelligence is not knowledge though acquisition of knowledge depends, to a great extent, on intelligence and vice versa.
2. Intelligence is not memory. A very intelligence person may have a dull memory and vice versa.
3. Intelligence is not guarantee against abnormal behaviour, backwardness and delinquency in spite of the fact that it is one of the major factors contributing towards achievement, adjustment and character formation.

THEORIES OF INTELLIGENCE

THEORIES OF INTELLIGENCE

1.UNIFACTOR THEORY:-

Oldest theory. Emphasised by Binet, Terman, & Stern.

This theory holds that intelligence consists of one factor, a fund of intellectual competency, which is usual for all the activities of an individual.

It stands rejected.

Ex, A person may be good at maths, may not in English

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2. TWO FACTOR THEORY:-

Advocated by Spearmen.

This theory considers that intelligence consists of two factor:

i) General intelligence factor – G

ii) Several specific factor – S

In this way, he suggested that there is something which might be called general intelligence – a set of general mental energy, running through all the different activities and this maximum quantity is fixed.

In addition to this ‘G’ there are specific capacities which give an individual the ability to deal with specific problem.

For ex, the individual's performance in Hindi is partly due to his general intelligence and partly some kind of specific ability in language which he might possess, i.e. G+S1 .

In Mathematics his performance would be due to G+S2

Draying G+S3

Therefore the total ability of intelligence of such an individual (symbolized as A) = G+S1+S2+S3+…… = A

3. GROUP FACTOR THEORY:-

Propagator: L.L. Thurston

While working on a test of Primary Mental Abilities (PMA) he came to the conclusion that certain mental operations have a primary factor in common which give them psychological and functional unity and differentiates them from other mental operations. This mental operations constitute a group factor.

So there are a number of groups of mental abilities each of which has its own primary factor. Cont…

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These are:-

1. Verbal factor (V) –comprehension of verbal relation, word & ideas.
2. Spatial factor (S) –Subject manipulates an object imaginatively in space.
3. Numerical factor (N) -
4. Memory factor (M)
5. Word Fluency factor (W) – is involved whenever the subject is asked to think or isolated words at a rapid rate.
6. Inductive Reasoning factor (RI) – Concerns with the ability to generalize through specific examples.
7. Deductive reasoning factor(RD) – concerns with the ability to make use of generalize result.
8. Perceptual factor (P)–Perceive objects accurately
9. Problem-solving ability factor(PS)

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4. MULTYFACTOR SAMPLING THEORY:-

Developed by E.L. Thorndike.

He proposed that there are specific stimuli and specific mental responses. Intelligence to him is nothing more than a convenient name for an almost infinite number of actual or potential specific connections between this S & R.

This theory considers intelligence a combination of numerous separate elements or factors, each one being a minute element of one ability

So, there is no such thing as general intelligence (a single factor) and there are only many highly independent specific abilities which go into different tasks.

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He distinguished four attribute of intelligence-

1. LEVEL - This attribute refers to the difficulty of a task that can be solved. If we think all of tasks or test items arranged in sequential order of increasing difficulty then the height that we can attain on this ladder of difficulty determines our level or altitude of intelligence.

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2. RANGE:- Range or width refers to the number of tasks at any given degree of difficulty that we can solve. Range of intellectual growth is determined not only by level but also by breadth of experiences and by opportunity to learn.
3. AREA:- Area means the total number of situations at each level to which the individual is able to respond. Area is summation of all the ranges at each level intelligence processed by an individual.
4. SPEED:- This is the rapidity with which we can respond to test items.

5. GUILFORD MODEL OF INTELLECT:-

J,B. Guilford & his associates come to the conclusion that any mental process or intellectual activity of the human being can be described in terms of three basic determinations or parameters known as ‘operations’, ‘content’ & ‘product’.

1. OPERATIONS:- The act of thinking or way of processing the information.
2. CONTENTS:- The terms in which we think or the type of information involved.
3. PRODUCTS:- The idea we come up with, i.e. the fruits of thinking

Each of these parameters subdivided into some specific factors or elements. As a result, operations subdivided into 5 specific factors, contents into 4 and operations into 6 thus results into the 5 * 4 * 6 = 120.

1. CONTENTS:- (the type of information involved)
1. FIGURAL – The properties of stimuli we can experience through visual or auditory senses. Ex, colour, size, shape , voice, sound, etc.
2. SYMBOLOIC – numbers, letters, symbols, designs etc.
3. SEMANTIC –The meaning of words and ideas.
4. BEHAVIOURAL – The actions and expressions of people.

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2. OPERATIONS:- (The way of processing)
1. COGNITION:- Recognizing and discovering
2. MEMORY:- Retaining and recalling the contents of thought
3. DIVERGENT PRODUCTION:- Producing a variety of ideas or solutions to a problem.
4. CONVERGENT THINKING:- Producing a single best solution to a problem.
5. EVALUATION:- Decision making capacity. Good or bad, positive or negative etc.

Three men in a cafe order a meal the total cost of which is Rs. 15. They each contribute Rs. 5. The waiter takes the money to the chef who recognizes the three as friends and asks the waiter to return Rs. 5 to the men.

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The waiter is not only poor at mathematics but dishonest and instead of going to the trouble of splitting the Rs. 5 between the three he simply gives them Rs. 1 each and pockets the remaining $2 for himself.

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Now, each of the men effectively paid Rs. 4, the total paid is therefore Rs. 12. Add the Rs. 2 in the waiters pocket and this comes to Rs.14.....where has the other Rs. 1 gone from the original Rs. 15?

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Solution: The payments should equal the receipts. It does not make sense to add what was paid by the men (Rs.12) to what was received from that payment by the waiter (Rs. 2)

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Although the initial bill was Rs.15 , one of the five Rs notes gets changed into five ones. The total the three men ultimately paid is Rs. 12, as they get three ones back. So from the Rs. 12 the men paid, the owner receives Rs. 10 and the waiter receives the Rs. 2 difference. Rs.15 – Rs. 3 = Rs.10 + Rs.2.

3. PRODUCTS:- (the result obtained through operations)
1. UNITS:- Individual pieces of information limited in size, e.g. a single number, letter or word.
2. CLASSES:- Some common characteristics involving a higher order concept (e.g. men + women = people)
3. RELATIONS:- A connection between concepts.
4. SYSTEMS:- An ordering or classification of relations.
5. TRANSFORMATION:- Altering or restructuring intellectual contents.
6. IMPLICATIONS:- Making inferences from separate pices of information.

MEASUREMENT OF INTELLIGENCE

CONCEPT OF M.A. & I.Q