Why g matters: The complexity of everyday life
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)
Jump to: [Why g Matters: The Complexity of Everyday Life] – [WHAT DOES “IMPORTANT” MEAN?] – [INFLUENCE OF INTELLIGENCE ON OVERALL LIFE OUTCOMES] and [THE FUTURE]
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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3 citations
TL;DR: In this paper , the importance of process-theories for any serious attempt to build a within-person account of intelligence is discussed. But, the focus is on between-person accounts and not on within-individual accounts.
Abstract: Despite substantial evidence for the link between an individual’s intelligence and successful life outcomes, questions about what defines intelligence have remained the focus of heated dispute. The most common approach to understanding intelligence has been to investigate what performance on tests of intellect is and is not associated with. This psychometric approach, based on correlations and factor analysis is deficient. In this review, we aim to substantiate why classic psychometrics which focus on between-person accounts will necessarily provide a limited account of intelligence until theoretical considerations of within-person accounts are incorporated. First, we consider the impact of entrenched psychometric presumptions that support the status quo and impede alternative views. Second, we review the importance of process-theories, which are critical for any serious attempt to build a within-person account of intelligence. Third, features of dynamic tasks are reviewed, and we outline how static tasks can be modified to target within-person processes. Finally, we explain how multilevel models are conceptually and psychometrically well-suited to building and testing within-individual notions of intelligence, which at its core, we argue is cognitive flexibility. We conclude by describing an application of these ideas in the context of microworlds as a case study.
3 citations
TL;DR: The authors argued that gifted educators must lead with their heads instead of their hearts and emotions if the best services are to be provided to the heart of this field: the children themselves, and they provided case studies that illustrate Robinson's statements, both acknowledging the issues on which she has expounded and in trying to arrive at some solution for these issues.
Abstract: In this response to Dr. Robinson’s essay, the arguments set forth are supported and elaborated upon from this author’s personal experiences. Robinson has helped educators reconsider political correctness in order to reshape their vision of what the focus of the field should be. The argument is made that gifted educators must begin once again to lead with their heads instead of their hearts and emotions if the best services are to be provided to the heart of this field: the children themselves. Case studies that illustrate Robinson’s statements, both in acknowledgement of the issues on which she has expounded and in trying to arrive at some solution for these issues, are provided.
3 citations
Cites background from "Why g matters: The complexity of ev..."
...But, unlike some who, in recent years, have put forth similar arguments more to alienate or to eliminate affirmative action initiatives, such as Gottfredson (1997); Herrnstein and Murray (1994); and Plomin, DeFries, McClearn, and Rutter (1997), Robinson used the research in gifted education—our…...
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01 Apr 2017
TL;DR: For instance, a recent study as discussed by the authors showed that correlacoes de parentesco possuem, geralmente, maiores valores quando as tarefas sao altamente carregadas de g, fenomeno conhecido como "efeito Jensen".
Abstract: Estudos familiares demonstram que grande parte da variância das habilidades cognitivas e atribuida a variância genotipica. Alem disso, correlacoes de parentesco possuem, geralmente, maiores valores quando as tarefas sao altamente carregadas de g, fenomeno conhecido como "efeito Jensen". No entanto, em outra linha de investigacao, estudos sugerem que o nivel socioeconomico e um fator importante para explicar as diferencas cognitivas. O presente estudo investigou essas premissas em uma amostra de 141 maes (idade media = 36,6; DP = 6,0) e seus filhos (53,2% meninas;idade media = 11,0; DP = 2,1). Administrou-se as Matrizes Progressivas de Raven (em maes e filhos) e seis outras medidas cognitivas (nos filhos). Os resultados sugeriram uma evidencia de herdabilidade em g (efeito Jensen). No entanto, os coeficientes de correlacoes familiares foram menores (0,041 a 0,177) a outros comumemente publicados. Por outro lado, a diferenca entre os scores de QI das maes e de seus filhos foi influenciada pelo nivel socioeconomico (NSE) e pelo nivel de escolaridade da mae. No geral, advoga-se por uma interacao gene x ambiente das diferencas de habilidades cognitivas dependente do contexto socio-economico.
3 citations
01 Jan 2015
TL;DR: In this article, the authors design a laboratory experiment to test for image motives in a setting where decisions signal intelligence to a social audience and find that intrinsic only subjects were significantly more likely to choose the high-type action than the control when doing so was publicly observed.
Abstract: We design a laboratory experiment to test for image motives in a setting where decisions signal intelligence to a social audience Money-maximizing behavior in the experiment sorts subjects by academic ability, as measured by performance on verbal analogy questions, across two levels of question difficulty Sorting behavior is publicly revealed in our “audience” treatment, facilitating social signaling In the “intrinsic only” treatment, the signaling mechanism was explained but decisions were kept private In the control, there was no discussion of the signaling mechanism and all decisions were private We find that intrinsic only subjects were significantly more likely to choose the high-type action than the control In comparison, subjects were significantly less likely to choose the signal in the audience treatment, when doing so was publicly observed The effects are more pronounced in males The results suggest that social observation can demotivate individuals when decisions signal intelligence, despite evidence that the underlying trait was privately considered desirable Audience effects have a less predictable impact on behavior in this setting as compared to the near universally positive findings from the altruism and trust literature Our experimental design can be easily adapted to study image motives in a broad set of environments using revealed preferences
3 citations
References
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