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Journal ArticleDOI

Why g matters: The complexity of everyday life

01 Jan 1997-Intelligence (JAI)-Vol. 24, Iss: 1, pp 79-132
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide evidence that intelligence has pervasive utility in work settings because it is essentially the ability to deal with cognitive complexity, in particular, with complex information processing, and the more complex a work task, the greater the advantages that higher g confers in performing it well.
About: This article is published in Intelligence.The article was published on 1997-01-01 and is currently open access. It has received 1300 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Everyday life & Cognitive complexity.

Summary (1 min read)

Why g Matters: The Complexity of Everyday Life

  • 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.
  • Few claims in the social sciences are backed by such massive evidence but remain so hotly contested in public discourse.
  • Besides demonstrating that g is important in practical affairs, I seek to demonstrate why intelligence has such surprisingly pervasive importance in the lives of individuals.
  • I then use both the employment and literacy data to sketch a portrait of life’s challenges and opportunities at different levels of intelligence.

WHAT DOES “IMPORTANT” MEAN?

  • The nature of the job and its context seem to determine whether g has any direct effect on task proficiency, net of job knowlege.
  • As is well known in psychometrics (see also Gordon, 1997), the fact that an individual passes or fails any single test item says little about that person’s general intelligence level.

INFLUENCE OF INTELLIGENCE ON OVERALL LIFE OUTCOMES

  • The effects of intelligence-like other psychological traits-are probabilistic, not deterministic.
  • White adults in this range marry, work, and have children (Hermstein & Murray, 1994), but, as Table 10 shows, they are nonetheless at great risk of living in poverty (30%), bearing children out of wedlock (32%), and becoming chronic welfare dependents (31%).
  • At this IQ level, fewer than half the high school graduates and none of the dropouts meet the military’s minimum AFQT enlistment standards.
  • Most occupations are within reach cognitively, because these individuals learn complex material fairly easily and independently.
  • Such as divorce, illness, and occasional unemployment, they rarely become trapped in poverty or social pathology.

THE FUTURE

  • Complexity enriches social and cultural life, but it also risks leaving some individuals behind.
  • Society has become more complex-and g loaded-as the authors have entered the information age and postindustrial economy.
  • Accordingly, organizations are “flatter” (have fewer hierarchical levels), and increasing numbers of jobs require high-level cognitive and interpersonal skills (Camevale, 1991; Cascio, 1995; Hunt, 1995; Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills, 1991).
  • There is evidence that increasing proportions of individuals with below-average IQs are having trouble adapting to their increasingly complex modern life (Granat & Granat, 1978) and that social inequality along IQ lines is increasing (Herrnstein & Murray, 1994).
  • As the military experience also illustrates, however, what is good pedagogy for the low-aptitude learner may be inappropriate for the high-aptitude person.

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Citations
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Dissertation
11 Jan 2017

13 citations


Cites background from "Why g matters: The complexity of ev..."

  • ...Based on the arguments of Gottfredson (1997) and Schmidt (2002), that suggested that organisations with employees with lower mental ability will tend to perform worse and produce less than organisations with employees of higher mental ability, and on the findings of Hunter and Hunter (1984), who demonstrated that the correlation between mental ability and work performance increases as the job complexity increases, it becomes clear why armies employ such tests....

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  • ...Based on the arguments of Gottfredson (1997) and Schmidt (2002), that suggested that organisations with employees with lower mental ability will tend to perform worse and produce less than organisations with employees of higher mental ability, and on the findings of Hunter and Hunter (1984), who demonstrated that the correlation between mental ability and work performance increases as the job complexity increases, it becomes clear why armies employ such tests. Another argument is provided by one of the most important research conclusions as provided by Ree, Carretta and Teachout (1995) who made a path analysis for general mental ability, job knowledge and work performance for USAF trainee pilots....

    [...]

  • ...Based on the arguments of Gottfredson (1997) and Schmidt (2002), that suggested that organisations with employees with lower mental ability will tend to perform worse and produce less than organisations with employees of higher mental ability, and on the findings of Hunter and Hunter (1984), who…...

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The paper proposes a Differential–Developmental Model (DDM), which focuses on factors common to intelligence and cognitive development (e.g., mental speed and attention lapses), and proposes a complementary method based on Jensen’s box, a chronometric device.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to provide a parsimonious account of developmental and individual differences in intelligence (measured as g). The paper proposes a Differential–Developmental Model (DDM), which focuses on factors common to intelligence and cognitive development (e.g., mental speed and attention lapses). It also proposes a complementary method based on Jensen’s box, a chronometric device. The device systematically varies task complexity, and separates two components of mental speed that differentially predict intelligence and cognitive development (reaction time and movement time). The paper reviews key assumptions of DDM, preliminary findings relevant to DDM, and future research on DDM.

13 citations


Cites background from "Why g matters: The complexity of ev..."

  • ..., 4–button CRT), a pattern consistent with the view that intelligence represents the ability to handle complexity [33]....

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  • ...A second problem is that the effects of speed and working memory on intelligence are examined without controlling for task complexity, which is sensitive to intelligence differences [33]....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Extensive study may go along with great interest in and persistence at chess but apparently lacks a major causative role in chess performance level.
Abstract: Evidence that chess expertise rests on practice alone mostly comes from studies using a correlational retrospective recall paradigm, which confounds amount of study with number of games played and possible innate talent. Researchers also often use latest performance rating and include participants who play and study little. Study 1 partially replicated such studies with improvements such as use of peak rating and a large, skilled sample. Number of internationally-rated games played was the strongest predictor of peak rating. Total study hours was a significant but weaker predictor. Study 2 controlled for sampling confounds by including only very well-practiced players who had played at least 350 internationally-rated games. Total study hours did not predict rating at 350 games. Study 3 found that the subjective phenomenon of reaching a performance ceiling and undertaking specific practice to get beyond it does occur but does not distinguish between stronger and weaker players. Study 4 found that many players play relatively few internationally-rated games mostly because of other commitments, such as work and education. Extensive study may go along with great interest in and persistence at chess but apparently lacks a major causative role in chess performance level.

13 citations

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 1986
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on cognitive aptitude for learning from formal instruction and show that cognitive aptitudes correlate positively with complex cognitive outcomes of learning, in treatments described as "conventional" instruction.
Abstract: As an example of how work toward a particular aptitude theory progresses within the framework for aptitude theory previously given, this lecture concentrates on cognitive aptitude for learning from formal instruction. Call this aptitude construct “general ability”, or “academic intelligence”, or G for short. Since this is an aptitude construct that has been studied extensively, the first step is to consider what the facts in hand already imply for theory. A first fact is that G routinely correlates positively with complex cognitive outcomes of learning, in treatments described as “conventional” instruction. The obtained correlations typically range from. 30 to. 80. The aptitude measures that yield these correlations are those that typically show high loadings on a G factor in a factor analysis and go into defining higher-order factors such as crystallised intelligence (Gc), fluid intelligence (Gf) and to a lesser extent visualisation (Gv). A second fact is that variation in the G-cognitive outcome correlation is associated with variation in instructional treatments — an aptitude-treatment-interaction. As the instructional treatment appears to be less structured, less complete, and less controlling of step-by-step learning activities, it places a heavier information-processing burden on learners, and the G-outcome regression slope is thus made steeper. As the instructional treatment appears to be more structured, more complete, and more controlling of learning activities, it removes information-processing burden from learners, and the G-outcome regression slope is thus made shallower. There is both a cognitive and motivational interpretation. High G students do best when challenged and motivated with processing burdens and allowed to use their own learning strategies; they do worse when the treatment structures learning from them, due to cognitive interference with their own learning strategies, or motivational turn-off, or both. Lower G students are unable to cope cognitively with the burden of low-structure treatments and tune out motivationally; they are both guided and reinforced by structured treatments.

13 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article examined the role of school-level socioeconomic status (SES) in moderating genetic and environmental influences on verbal intelligence at the individual level and found that genetic factors have greater influence on IQ in the presence of higher levels of SES.

13 citations

References
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The ten-year edition of the 10th anniversary edition as mentioned in this paper is devoted to the theory of multiple intelligences and its application in the socialization of human intelligence through Symbols Implications And Applications.
Abstract: * Introduction to the Tenth Anniversary Edition Background * The Idea of Multiple Intelligences * Intelligence: Earlier Views * Biological Foundations of Intelligence * What Is an Intelligence? The Theory * Linguistic Intelligence * Musical Intelligence * Logical-Mathematical Intelligence * Spatial Intelligence * Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence * The Personal Intelligences * A Critique of the Theory of Multiple Intelligences * The Socialization of Human Intelligences through Symbols Implications And Applications * The Education of Intelligences * The Application of Intelligences

11,512 citations

Book
01 Jan 1983
TL;DR: The Tenth Anniversary Edition of Intelligence explains the development of intelligence in the 21st Century through the applications of language, linguistics, mathematics, and more.
Abstract: * Introduction to the Tenth Anniversary Edition Background * The Idea of Multiple Intelligences * Intelligence: Earlier Views * Biological Foundations of Intelligence * What Is an Intelligence? The Theory * Linguistic Intelligence * Musical Intelligence * Logical-Mathematical Intelligence * Spatial Intelligence * Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence * The Personal Intelligences * A Critique of the Theory of Multiple Intelligences * The Socialization of Human Intelligences through Symbols Implications And Applications * The Education of Intelligences * The Application of Intelligences

9,611 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the relation of the Big Five personality dimensions (extraversion, emotional stability, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience) to three job performance criteria (job proficiency, training proficiency, and personnel data) for five occupational groups (professionals, police, managers, sales, and skilled/semi-skilled).
Abstract: This study investigated the relation of the “Big Five” personality dimensions (Extraversion, Emotional Stability, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience) to three job performance criteria (job proficiency, training proficiency, and personnel data) for five occupational groups (professionals, police, managers, sales, and skilled/semi-skilled). Results indicated that one dimension of personality, Conscientiousness, showed consistent relations with all job performance criteria for all occupational groups. For the remaining personality dimensions, the estimated true score correlations varied by occupational group and criterion type. Extraversion was a valid predictor for two occupations involving social interaction, managers and sales (across criterion types). Also, both Openness to Experience and Extraversion were valid predictors of the training proficiency criterion (across occupations). Other personality dimensions were also found to be valid predictors for some occupations and some criterion types, but the magnitude of the estimated true score correlations was small (ρ < .10). Overall, the results illustrate the benefits of using the 5-factor model of personality to accumulate and communicate empirical findings. The findings have numerous implications for research and practice in personnel psychology, especially in the subfields of personnel selection, training and development, and performance appraisal.

8,018 citations

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TL;DR: An up-to-date handbook on conceptual and methodological issues relevant to the study of industrial and organizational behavior is presented in this paper, which covers substantive issues at both the individual and organizational level in both theoretical and practical terms.
Abstract: An up-to-date handbook on conceptual and methodological issues relevant to the study of industrial and organizational behavior. Chapters contributed by leading experts from the academic and business communities cover substantive issues at both the individual and organizational level, in both theoretical and practical terms.

7,809 citations

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TL;DR: Because of the extraordinary clarity and importance of the Commission's Report, the editors of the Communica t ions decided to reprint the Report's main section in its entirety and present it to you here.
Abstract: released a remarkab le report, A Nation at Risk. This Report has s t imulated in the media considerable discussion about the problems in our schools, speculation about the causes, and ass ignment of blame. Astonishingly, f e w of the media reports have focused on the specific f indings and recommendat ions of the Commission. A lmos t none of the med ia reports tells that the Commission i tsel f re frained f rom speculation on causes and f rom assignment of blame. Because of the extraordinary clarity and importance of the Commission's Report, the editors of the Communica t ions decided to reprint the Report's main section in its entirety. We are p leased to present it to you here.

5,832 citations