Why g matters: The complexity of everyday life

Abstract

Personnel selection research provides much evidence that intelligence (g) is an important predictor of performance in training and on the job, especially in higher level work. This article provides evidence that g has pervasive utility in work settings because it is essentially the ability to deal with cognitive complexity, in particular, with complex information processing. The more complex a work task, the greater the advantages that higher g confers in performing it well. Everyday tasks, like job duties, also differ in their level of complexity. The importance of intelligence therefore differs systematically across different arenas of social life as well as economic endeavor. Data from the National Adult Literacy Survey are used to show how higher levels of cognitive ability systematically improve individuals' odds of dealing successfully with the ordinary demands of modem life (such as banking, using maps and transportation schedules, reading and understanding forms, interpreting news articles). These and other data are summarized to illustrate how the advantages of higher g, even when they are small, cumulate to affect the overall life chances of individuals at different ranges of the IQ bell curve. The article concludes by suggesting ways to reduce the risks for low-IQ individuals of being left behind by an increasingly complex postindustrial economy.

The Challenge and Promise of Cognitive Career Assessment

“…Requirements for general intelligence level (the Stratum III factor, g) create the vertical dimension, which coincides with occupational prestige, DOT ratings of complexity of work with data, and cognitive complexity of work (Gottfredson, 1980(Gottfredson, , 1986b(Gottfredson, , 1997b The vertical and horizontal dimensions also reflect the two major concerns in career choicewill my occupation give me high enough social standing and will I enjoy doing the work?…”

“…Early in my career I analyzed every set of job analysis data I could locate that provided ratings for some large set of jobs in the United States economy (see especially Gottfredson, 1978Gottfredson, , 1980Gottfredson, , 1986aGottfredson, , 1997b independent problem solving and decision making vs. routine, repetitive, and highly supervised activities) and only secondarily in the content (dealing with people, things, numbers) to which one's brain or brawn is applied (Gottfredson, 1997b).…”

Cognitive Enhancement: Methods, Ethics, Regulatory Challenges

“…One study estimates the increase in income from one additional IQ point to 2.1% for men and 3.6% for women (Salkever 1995). Higher intelligence is correlated with prevention of a wide array of social and economic misfortunes (Gottfredson 1997(Gottfredson , 2004 5 and to promote health (Whalley and Deary 2001). Economic models of the loss caused by small intelligence decrements due to lead in drinking water predict significant effects of even a few points change (Salkever 1995;Muir and Zegarac 2001), and it is plausible that a small increment would have positive effects of a similar magnitude.…”

Long-term positive associations between music lessons and IQ.

“…For example, children who take music lessons tend to have well-educated and financially successful parents (Sergeant & Thatcher, 1974). IQ is known to have a substantial genetic component (Petrill et al, 2004;Plomin, Fulker, Corely, & DeFries, 1997) and to be associated positively with educational achievement (Ceci & Williams, 1997;Neisser et al, 1996;Wechsler, 1991) and with career status (Gottfredson, 1997(Gottfredson, , 2002Schmidt & Hunter, 1998). Previous correlational research has failed to account for these potential confounding variables, either through statistical means or by recruiting groups that are equivalent on these dimensions.…”