Intelligence (trait)

Intelligence is usually said to involve mental capabilities such as the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend ideas and language, and learn. Although nonscientists generally regard the concept of intelligence as having much broader scope, in psychology, the study of intelligence generally regards this behavioral trait as distinct from creativity, personality, character, or wisdom.

Definitions of intelligence

At least two major "consensus" definitions of intelligence have been proposed. First, from "Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns" a report of a task force convened by the American Psychological Association:

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:Individuals differ from one another in their ability to understand complex ideas, to adapt effectively to the environment, to learn from experience, to engage in various forms of reasoning, to overcome obstacles by taking thought. Although these individual differences can be substantial, they are never entirely consistent: a given person?s intellectual performance will vary on different occasions, in different domains, as judged by different criteria. Concepts of "intelligence" are attempts to clarify and organize this complex set of phenomena. http://www.lrainc.com/swtaboo/taboos/apa_01.html

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A second definition of intelligence comes from "Mainstream Science on Intelligence", which was signed by 52 intelligence researchers in 1994:

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:a very general mental capability that, among other things, involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly and learn from experience. It is not merely book learning, a narrow academic skill, or test-taking smarts. Rather, it reflects a broader and deeper capability for comprehending our surroundings—"catching on", "making sense" of things, or "figuring out" what to do. (reprinted in Gottfredson, 1997, p. 13) http://www.lrainc.com/swtaboo/taboos/wsj_main.html

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Individual intelligence experts have offered a number of similar definitions.

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• David Wechsler: "... the aggregate or global capacity of the indiviudal to act purposefully, to think rationally, and to deal effectively with his environment."
• Cyril Burt: "...innate general cognitive ability."
• Howard Gardner: "To my mind, a human intellectual competence must entail a set of skills of problem solving?enabling the individual to resolve genuine problems or difficulties that he or she encounters and, when appropriate, to crate an effective product?and must also entail the potential for finding or creating problems?and thereby laying the groundwork for the acquisition of new knowledge."
• Herrnstein and Murray: "...cognitive ability."
• Sternberg and Salter: "...goal-directed adaptive behaviour."