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Theories of Intelligence
There are almost as many theories of intelegence as there are definitions. The first, as example fied in the theories of Spearman, Thurstone, Guilford, and Cattell and Horn. These theories’ emphasis on individual differences in intelligence has had great impact on the development of intelligence tests in use today. In fact, the approach is often called the psychometric approach because it emphasizes the measurement of intelligence. The second major approach is seen in Sternberg’s work. Instead of indentifying the particular factors that define intelligence, Stenberg looks at the processes by which a person uses information to solves problems.
Charles Spearman
Charles Spearman was born on September 10, 1863 in the town of London. One the earliest theorists, Charles Spearman, proposed a “g” and several “s” factors in intelligence. The “g” factor (general intelligence), was thought to be an inherited intellectual capacity that influences all-around performance, and the “s” factors (specific abilities) were said to account for the differences between scores on different tasks, say, verbal and mathematical. Spearman justified this division by pointing to the common phenomenon that people who score high on one kind of test usually do well on others but that their scores on various abilities do differ somewhat.
Spearman's most notable contribution to intelligence testing is the idea that all aspects of intelligence, to a certain extent, are correlated with each other. In particular, Spearman believed that only two factors are measured by intelligence tests, a general intelligence factor common to all tests and a specific factor that is distinctive in each test (Williams, Zimmerman, Zumbo, & Ross, 2003). This means that there is a general ability factor that will determine how well each individual does on any particular assessment of cognitive functioning. However, in addition to this general factor, there is also a specific factor unique to each test that will also influence the overall assessment levels. Spearman believed both factors jointly determined the measured value of human intelligence on any particular test.
Spearman came to the two factor conclusion by using methods of factor analysis comparing intelligence measures across a diverse range of samples. By organizing the measured data into matrices, Spearman isolated the factors that were correlated with other factors in determining intelligence levels (Williams, Zimmerman, Zumbo, & Ross, 2003). The end, Spearman found that every single variable was linked to each other to some degree and that a single general intelligence factor could account for all variables. Furthermore, any small inconsistencies in the variables are due to the specific intelligence factors that are unique to each assessment. In this way, all aspects of cognitive functioning can be represented in terms of two distinct factors of intelligence.