What is general intelligence (G factor)? (2023)

General intelligence, also known asgrama Factor, refers to the existence of a broad mental capacity that affects the performance of measures of cognitive capacity. Other terms such as intelligence,FOR, general cognitive ability and general mental ability are also used interchangeably to mean the same as general intelligence.

What is general intelligence (G-factor)?

General intelligence can be defined as a construct composed of different cognitive abilities. These skills allow people to acquire knowledge and solve problems.

This general mental capacity underlies specific mental abilities related to areas such as spatial, numerical, mechanical, and verbal skills. The idea is that this general intelligence influences the performance of all cognitive tasks.

Psychologist Charles Spearman helped develop a statistical technique known as factor analysis, which allows researchers to use many different test items to measure overall ability. For example, researchers may find that people who do well on vocabulary questions also do better on reading comprehension questions.

In 1904, he suggested that this g factor was responsible for overall performance on tests of mental ability. He observed that people who succeeded and often excelled in certain areas, people who did well in one area tended to do well in other areas as well.

Components of General Intelligence

There are several key components that are believed to make upintelligence. These include:

• fluid reasoning: This implies the ability to think flexibly and solve problems.
• Knowledge: This is a person's general understanding of a variety of subjects and can be equated with crystallized intelligence.
• Quantitative argumentation: This is the ability of an individual to solve problems involving numbers.
• visual-spatial processing: Refers to a person's abilities to interpret and manipulate visual information, such as B. putting together puzzles and copying complex shapes.
• working memory: This involves using short-term memory, e.g. B. the ability to repeat a list of items.

How measured?

Many modern intelligence tests measure some of the cognitive factors thought to be responsible for general intelligence. Such tests indicate thatintelligencecan be measured and expressed as a single number, such as B. an IQ score.

The Stanford Binet, which is one of the most popularintelligence tests, aims to measure the g factor. In addition to providing an overall score, the current version of the test also offers a variety of composite scores, as well as subtest scores in ten different areas.

impact

Although the concept of intelligence is still debated in psychology, researchers believe that general intelligence correlates with overall success in life. Some of the effects it can have on a person’s life include areas such as:

academic achievement

One of the most obvious effects of general intelligence is in the area of ​​academic performance. Although intelligence plays an academic role, there has been much debate about how much it influences academic performance.

Research has shown that there is a strong link between overall mental ability and academic performance, but it doesn't work on its own. Some research suggests that 51-75% of performance cannot be explained by the g-factor alone.

Professional success

It has long been assumed that IQ scores correlate with professional success. This is why psychological testing for pre-employment screening and entry into the workforce is so widely used. However, many have questioned whether a general mental ability is really more important than specific mental abilities.

A 2020 study published inJournal of Applied Psychologyconcluded that both general intelligence and specific intellectual abilities play important roles in determining career success, including income and job performance.

The importance of the g-factor for professional success increases as the complexity of the job increases. For professions with a high degree of complexity, greater general intelligence becomes a great asset.

health and longevity

The field of cognitive epidemiology studies the links between general intelligence and health. Such asHealth may play a role in influencing intelligence, a person's intelligence can affect their health. Studies have found that people with high IQs have a lower risk of:

• coronary heart disease
• hypertension
• obesity
• Career
• some cancers

income

Research also suggests that people with higher intelligence scores also tend to earn higher incomes. However, it is important to note that other factors play a mediating role, including education, occupation, and socioeconomic background.

While the g-factor has several implications, other variables are also important. Factors such as socioeconomic status andemotional intelligence, for example, can interact with general intelligence and play an important role in determining a person's success.

challenges

The idea that intelligence could be measured and summarized by a single number on an IQ test was controversial even in Spearman's day. IQ and intelligence tests have been topics of discussion ever since. The G factor, while influential, is just one way of thinking about intelligence.

Thurstone's Primary Mental Abilities

Some psychologists, including L.L. Thurstone, challenged the g-factor concept. Instead, Thurstone identified a series of what he calledprimary mental skills:

• associative memory
• number setting
• perceived speed
• argumentation
• Raumvision
• linguistic understanding

He suggested that all humans possess these mental abilities, albeit to varying degrees. People can be small in some areas and big in others.

Gardner's multiple intelligences

More recently, psychologists such asHoward Gardnerspoke out against the idea that a single general intelligence can accurately capture all of human intellectual capacity. Gardner proposed insteadmultiple intelligencesexist.

A Word from Verywell

Current research points to an underlying mental capacity that contributes to performance on many cognitive tasks. It is believed that IQ scores, which measure this general intelligence, also affect a person's overall success in life.

However, duringIQ may play a role in academic and life success, other factors such as childhood experiences, educational experiences, socioeconomic status,Motivation, maturity and personality also play a crucial role in determining overall success.