What Do We Mean By Intelligence?

Bruce HargraveMilitary Education Group

Are you intelligent?• Are you more intelligent than me?• Are you more intelligent than the person

on your left, right, in front of/behind you?• Is there an accepted definition of

‘intelligence’?• If so, is that definition universal?

Dictionary definition• intelligence• ɪnˈtɛlɪdʒ(ə)ns/• noun• the ability to acquire and apply knowledge

and skills.

If we can define it…• Can we measure it?• Can we say that one person is more or

less intelligent than another?• How could that information be used?• Can you do anything to become more

intelligent?

IQ Tests• Stern (1912) coined the term

Intelligenzquotient (German)• Median raw score of an IQ test is 100• SD is 15• About 67% of the population score

between 85 and 115• About 5% score above 125• About 5% score below 75.

Lots of different IQ tests• Verbal reasoning• Non-verbal reasoning• Abstract reasoning• Mathematical reasoning• Vocabulary?• General knowledge?

Charles Spearman 1904• first formal factor analysis of correlations

 between the tests.• He observed that children's school grades

across seemingly unrelated school subjects were positively correlated, and reasoned that these correlations reflected the influence of an underlying general mental ability that entered into performance on all kinds of mental tests.

Is Spearman’s g factor…• The only form of intelligence?• Or are there other forms of intelligence?• Cattell (1941) proposed two types of

cognitive abilities– Fluid intelligence (Gf)– Crystallised intelligence (Gc).

• Horn (1966) identified nine or ten more cognitive abilities.

Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) Theory

• Carroll (1993) proposed his three stratum theory

• A hierarchical model with three levels• Most IQ tests now based on a combination

of these three theories – CHC theory.

Multiple Intelligences

• Howard Gardner (1983) Frames of Mind – the theory of multiple intelligences

Gardner’s MIs• musical–rhythmic• visual–spatial • verbal–linguistic • logical–mathematical • bodily–kinaesthetic• interpersonal • intrapersonal • and naturalistic.

Gardner’s MIs • Did not/do not meet with universal

acclaim!• “Useful fictions” (Bruner, 1983)• “Every child is intelligent in some way”

(Any school teacher, any year since 1983!)• "uniquely devoid of psychometric or other

quantitative evidence.” (Murray and Herrnstein, 1994)

Conclusions and Questions•There is no universal agreement about what constitutes ‘intelligence’.• Well designed IQ tests measure something that seems to be correlated to academic performance.•What (if anything) does this say about ‘artificial intelligence’?