Scientists 'locate' intelligence

David Prince deprince at
Mon Aug 14 23:03:43 EST 2000

> Abstract: C. Spearman's remarkable contributions to psychology centered
>around his identifying the general factor in human cognition / he developed
>numerous methods--still in use today--for analyzing ability test scores,
>including reliability and factor analysis / these methods, particularly
>factor analysis, enabled Spearman to establish the necessity of a general
>factor of cognition, that is, a factor that influences virtually every
>cognitive performance / [suggests] that working memory capacity is more
>highly related to performance on cognitive tests, and is more highly
>/ [suggests that] working memory capacity may indeed be essentially C.
>Spearman's g /// working memory and other information processing abilities
>[findings from traditional psychometrics, ties to cognitive psychology,
>evaluation of the CAM framework] / working memory and reasoning ability /
>working memory and cognitive skill acquisition [logic gates study, computer
>all rights reserved)

If you look at a Wechsler scale you will see that most objectives test
ability to concentrate and retain items in short term memory. Repeat
numbers...Repeat numbers numbers in your head...solve
puzzles...none of these involve reading and thinking about things for long
periods of time. None of these things involve creativity. All of them test
what I call the "human calculator factor" which is "g." Furthermore, g is a
huge factor to indicate success in our society. Most tasks in our society
revolve around listening to instructions, holding them in memory, and
executing them as rapidly as possible. Human calculator functions. They do
not invovle creative problem solving, or best solutions answers. Anyway
something to think about.


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