The Search for the Elusive Basic Processes Underlying Human Intelligence: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives

Abstract

This article discusses the issues of the basic processes underlying intelligence, considering both historical and contemporary perspectives. The attempt to elucidate basic processes has had, at best, mixed success. There are some problems with pinpointing the underlying basic processes of intelligence, both in theory and as tested, such as what constitutes a basic process, what constitutes intelligence, and whether the processes, basic or not, are the same across time and space (cultural contexts). Nevertheless, the search for basic processes has elucidated phenomena of intelligence that the field would have been hard-pressed to elucidate in any other way. Intelligence cannot be fully understood through any one conceptual or methodological approach. A comprehensive understanding of intelligence requires the converging operations of a variety of approaches to it.

The Evolution of Intelligence: Analysis of the Journal of Intelligence and Intelligence

“…No articles were ranked in the core (motor) topic’s quadrant. This journal also showed three separate niched clusters indicating only few researchers used the keywords working memory and executive function (see Panesi et al 2022 ; Rosas et al 2022 ) cultural intelligence and the g -factor ( Alifuddin and Widodo 2022 ; Sternberg 2022 ; Sternberg et al 2022 ), and items carelessness and guessing ( Antoniou et al 2022 ; Sideridis and Alahmadi 2022 ). Figure 8 shows the thematic map of keywords in JOI.…”

Critical Thinking, Intelligence, and Unsubstantiated Beliefs: An Integrative Review

“…Because modern working memory theory is, itself, a powerful theory (Chai et al 2018), this lends construct validity to the fluid intelligence construct. Although cognitive scientists have clearly made progress in understanding the executive processes underlying intelligence, they have not yet identified the specific cognitive components of intelligence (Sternberg 2022). Moreover, theorists have acknowledged that intelligence must also include components beyond g, including domain-specific knowledge (Ackerman 2022;Conway and Kovacs 2018) which are not yet clearly understood, This review also pointed to limitations in the research that should be addressed.…”

“…In other theorizing, Sternberg (1988) has proposed three additional types of intelligence: analytical, practical, and creative intelligence, to more fully capture the variety of intelligent abilities on which people differ. Critical thinking is considered part of analytical skills which involve evaluating the quality and applicability of ideas, products, and options (Sternberg 2022). Regarding adaptive intelligence, Sternberg (2019) has emphasized how adaptive aspects of intelligence are needed to solve real-world problems both at the individual and species levels.…”

An Historical Causal-Chain Theory of Conceptions of Intelligence

“…What a 3-year-old can do in terms of information processing is very different from what a 13-year-old can do. Other than that, the software is fairly constant, consisting of what we have called "metacomponents" or "executive processes," which plan, monitor, and evaluate information processing (Sternberg, 2022b).…”