Frequent Concepts in Intelligence

Intelligence seems to be a fuzzy concept, one that cannot be clearly defined, and one that cannot be agreed upon. Instead, it seems that intelligence is something that several ideas revolve around, concepts that one might consider in IQ testing or another form of intelligence assessment. These concepts can be addressed in terms of three general ideas about the nature or classification of intelligence.

Environment: One's ability to interact with, or the level of interaction with, the environment. One's adaptability to new situations, and the ability to deal with a variety of different situations.

Environmental interaction seems to be a key concept in intelligence, and one's way of dealing with it can often cause us to classify an individual as intelligent or not following with the very "prototypical" formula one tends to informally use as a judge.

Ability to learn: One's ability to take in new information. One's ability to apply new information.

The ability to learn and to apply knowledge effectively is also a key issue in intelligence; and also a very common one. It's hard to imagine labeling an individual as intelligent when they are unable to learn. On the other hand, those who learn easily are often viewed as highly intelligent. Again, without any formal criteria or testing, this would be a "prototype" diagnosis of intelligence.

Abstract thinking: One's ability to "think outside the box." One's ability to make sense of characters and symbols.

The concept of abstract thinking as a measure of intelligence deals with one's ability to pull meaning from verbal and numerical symbols. Being able to think in a non-traditional sense understanding a variety of different concepts.

While there are theories of intelligence, the definition is still quite elusive. Some even believe intelligence cannot be defined at all. However, one thing does seem clear, in the attempts that have been made to define intelligence, the aforementioned concepts are always present. In fact, they generally also play a role in our personal prototype of intelligence.

*"Prototype": As put forth by Nesser (1979). See Trull (2005).

Trull, T. (2005). Clinical Psychology, 7^th Edition. Belmont, CA. Thomson Wadsworth.