GENERAL INTELLIGENCE IN MODERN SOCIETY

Chapter Nine

GUESS WHAT?

IT’S MY BIRTHDAY! My general intelligence has

led me to successfully survive for 22 years! Yay!

How evolutionary issues and mechanisms associated with these two might relate to

outcomes in modern society

How socioeconomic status (SES) and its components can influence individual differences in general intelligence

How general intelligence and the ability to learn in school and the workplace might

have underlying mechanisms

EVOLUTION & SOCIAL COMPETITION

Alexander’s (1989) proposal stated that following ecological dominance by our hominid ancestors, the primary pressure that drove hominid then human evolution was social competition

Higher social status and better resource control are associated with:

• Improved survival prospects and better reproductive outcomes

• Better physical health and a longer life span

MOTIVATION TO CONTROL

Motivation-to-control models includes a nexus of affective, conscious-psychological, cognitive, and modular systems.

• Guides the simulation and generation of behavioral strategies in attempt to gain access to and to control 2 types of resources:• Social• Biological and physical

In most modern societies, resource control is now pegged to money and other symbolic resources.

Control of resources can be achieved in many ways. • Marriage, theft, inheritance, & employment

MOTIVATION TO CONTROL

Employment is the most common way to secure resources.

High paying jobs not only provide higher income, but also often result in greater control of one’s work environment and greater influence on the behavior of others.

Competition for these jobs is high, so how do individuals get the edge?

•Additional or specialized education

MOTIVATION TO CONTROLA

broad indicator of one’s social status within a society is an individual’s or family’s Socioeconomic status (SES)

• SES is a combination of education level, occupational status, and income.

The basic dynamics and forms of social cooperation and conflict seen today are almost certainly the same dynamics that contributed to evolution. • The struggle is same and the outcome is the same.

GENERAL INTELLIGENCE & MODULARITY

General Intelligence, especially gF, should be associated with individual differences in the ability to compete for resource control in these societies.

Associated variability in behavior creates conditions that favor evolution of brain and cognitive systems that can adapt during the individual’s life span.

• Allowed for the elaboration of executive systems that support general intelligence.

• Lead to the generation of abstractions of social and ecological conditions

GENERAL INTELLIGENCE & MODULARITY

There are individual differences in the brain and cognitive systems that support folk psychology, folk biology, and folk physics, as well as individual differences in the motivation to pursue activities in these areas.

Individual differences differences in modular domains, whether they are heritable or the result of experiences, should contribute to individual differences in academic focus and ease of learning in these domains.

• Darwin & Wallace’s near obsessive interest in the natural world

GENERAL INTELLIGENCE & SOCIAL OUTCOMES

General intelligence is the BEST predictor of an array of important life outcomes above and beyond education, occupation, and income, including physical health and life span.

National Longitudinal Study of Youth Findings

• Comparison between 5th-25th individuals and 75th-95th individuals and probability of negative life experiences

This demonstrates that individual differences in intelligence covary with individual differences in many of life’s outcomes.

EDUCATION: GENERAL INTELLIGENCE

Walberg (1984) reviewed 3,000 studies of the relation between performance on academic achievement tests and a variety of student attributes, home environment factors, and classroom variables.

• Between 36% and 64% of the differences in performance on tests can be explained by general intelligence differences

Longitudinal studies have been conducted.

• Preschool IQ study• Lubinski, Benbow, and colleagues study

Of course, high school intelligence is NOT a guarantee of success in school, but it does increase the likelihood of earning an undergraduate degree as well as advanced degrees.

EDUCATION: GENERAL INTELLIGENCE

Walberg’s analysis suggested that motivation, with IQ, was significantly related to academic achievement and explained 10% of the individual differences.

• None of the studies he reviewed took into account both motivation and achievement

Gagne and St. Pere (2003) study

• 200 high school participants

Composites of risk factors of broader social conditions are sometimes found to be very influential on educational outcomes.

Family influences on schooling varied across generations

• 47% before war, 10% after

EDUCATION: MECHANISMSA

causal relation can be shown by demonstrating that the same cognitive processes that contribute to individual differences in intelligence also contribute to differences in educational outcomes.

LA Thompson, Detterman and colleagues demonstrated this relation in their twin studies

• Related to genetic and shared family influences

The genetic influences on individual differences in academic achievement appear to be the SAME genetic influences that contribute to differences in intelligence.

EDUCATION: MECHANISMSD

.C. Rowe, Vesterdal, and Rodgers (1999) found that IQ predicted years of education and that 64-68% of the differences could be attributed to genetic influences.

Luo et al. study (2003) findings

• Used cognitive tasks• Mediated by genetic influences

These studies suggest that the genetic influences that results in high general intelligence contribute to superior academic achievement and more years of formal education.

WORK: STATUSI

n modern society, there is great variation in occupation prestige and the accompanying level of income and social influence.

• Highest level: professional occupations • Lowest level: semi or unskilled workers

The debate is whether occupational status is more related to years of education or intelligence.

C.R. Reynolds took a national sample of Americans given the Wechsler Adult Intelligent Scale

• Score of professionals was about 75Th percentile while unskilled workers was about 25th percentile

WORK: STATUS W

hile this study concluded that intelligence was more strongly correlated, Gottfredson (1997) found otherwise.

• She found that high intellectual ability is needed to obtain the education for these jobs

• BUT that not all individuals choose to enter these jobs or obtain the education needed.

In conclusion, high intelligence simply increases the odds and being able to successfully compete in these areas.

WORK: JOB PERFORMANCE

IQ is the BEST predictor of job performance and the BEST predictor of the ability to learn on the job.

• Professional, high-status jobs include demands that vary from day to day

Personality traits, especially conscientiousness and integrity, are another predictor of job performance.

• Conscientiousness reflects individual differences in the extent to which the individual is dependable, careful and responsible in social relationships and day-to-day activities.

WORK: JOB PERFORMANCEI

ntegrity tests assess conscientiousness, emotional stability, and the degree to which the individual is socially cooperative.

• Individuals who score HIGH perform better than most others.• Individuals who score LOW show more job-related theft, absenteeism, and

disciplinary problems than others.

Self-efficacy, the belief that one can be successful at a task, is also related to job performance.

In conclusion, as the complexity of job demands increase, the importance of fluid intelligence increases.

INCOMET

he typical correlation between IQ and income is moderate, 0.3 and 0.4 and the interpretation is difficult.

Ceci & Williams (1997) found that weekly wages increase with increases in years of schooling and increases in cognitive ability levels.

Evidence has shown that our society has shifted from a manufacturing base to an information based economy.

• Because of this, the wage benefits associated with additional years of schooling and higher intelligence increased.

INCOMEM

urray (2002) used the NLSY to compare the educational and occupational outcomes of siblings from the same family.

• Siblings with higher IQ scores had obtained more formal education and earned more money.

D.C. Rowe, Vesterdal, and Rodgers (1999) found that a significant proportion of the individual differences in income are related to heritable influences and the other portion of influences was due to intelligence.

SUMMARY & INTEGRATIONT

he main idea is that higher general intelligence facilitates the ability to acquire school-related competencies.

• Because of this, their odds of obtaining advanced education increases.

Through an advanced education, an individual can successfully compete for high status jobs with high wages.

General intelligence appears to be causally related to each component of SES (education, occupational status, and income) and thus the ability to compete with others.

ACADEMIC LEARNING: FLUID INTELLIGENCE

The evolution of fluid intelligence, driven by social competition, paved the way for the ability to develop evolutionarily novel cognitive competencies during life span.

• Ex. Reading and writing

The relationship between general intelligence and academic achievement, years of education, and on the job learning supports this hypothesis.

LEARNING & COGNITION: TRAINING STUDIES

It has already been shown that higher intelligence individuals learn information more easily BUT these correlations do not show how fluid intelligence affects the learning process.

Ackerman (1988) has done studies and had proposed that the learning process has three stages:

• Cognitive• Perceptual speed• Psychomotor

LEARNING & COGNITION:TRAINING STUDIES

The cognitive stage refers to the relation between general intelligence and initial task performance.

Once the steps to solve the problem are sequences, the last two stages can commence.

With a certain amount of practice, the result is automatic, implicit processing.

Explicit Implicit shift

LEARNING & COGNITION: TRAINING STUDIES

I

ndividual differences depend on…• In early phases: gF and task relevant crystallized intelligence • After extensive practice: measures on speed of perceptual and

motor processes

When the task requires integral information and constantly changing patterns, fluid intelligence must remain strong throughout.

• Air traffic controller

LEARNING & COGNITION: MECHANISMS

How do new competencies emerge?

Synchronization is important and crucial to a new competency.

• With repeated synchronization, the results is a formation of a neural network that automatically links the processing of these information patterns.

The BEST example is the learned process of reading.

• Decoding leads to synchronization between letter and sound.• Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DPC)• Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)

LEARNING & COGNITION: MECHANISMS

R

eading example continued…• Ackerman’s final learning stages are shown after extended practice. • No longer engages DPC, ACC, working memory AND no longer needs gF. • The concept of reading is automatic.

I

llustrates how processes may work for more complex tasks.

Conclusion is that as the complexity of academic and job demands increases, the part of the population suited to handle these demands decreases.

LEARNING & BRAIN MECHANISMS

There is recent evidence that shows the DFC and ACC are only used in Ackerman’s first phase of learning.

Problem: few studies on learning and the brain imaging during general intelligence tasks

Gevins & Smith (2000)

• Found that the engagement of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex declines as the task is learned.

It is believed that possibly the primary goal of the DPC, ACC, and posterior attentional system is to ensure synchronized activity so forms are made.

FOLK SYSTEMS: PLASTICITY

Acquiring secondary abilities, such as reading, requires mechanisms associated with gF, but also something else.

• These systems represent gC and includes:• Folk knowledge and information processing biases• Knowledge constructed during individual’s lifetime (experience)

Plasticity can result from:

• Expansion of corresponding brain region • Evolved plasticity in the system

Are individual differences in plasticity correlated with individual differences in gF?

FOLK SYSTEMS: PLASTICITY

T

wo arguments:• 1. One finding says the genes that support gF and gC overlap

can insinuate that higher than average modular plasticity is associated with higher than level intelligence

• 2. It has been found that there are genes unique to gF and gC. This suggests some independence between plasticity and intelligence.

FOLK PSYCHOLOGY & READING AND WRITING

Secondary abilities of reading and writing might be related to folk psychological modules. Why?

• Writing must have emerged culturally (motivation to communicate)• Also must engage language and theory of mind

Acquisition of reading-related abilities requires:

• Co-optation of primary language• Language related systems

1

st grade children’s study • Children with explicit awareness of basic language sounds succeed more than others

with associating with a symbol system.

FOLK PSYCHOLOGY & READING AND WRITING

Reading comprehension involves theory of mind

• Especially in literary works that involve human relationships

“Books involve imagination” because reader has to make inferences about relationships.

Individual can possibly attribute their own characteristics to a character (sense of self).

MOTIVATION: HUMAN INTELLECTUAL HISTORY

Modern scientific and academic domains are based on three pillars in which these advances were originally built:

• Folk psychology: humanities and social sciences

• Folk biology: biology, zoology, forestry, medicine and so on…

• Folk psychics: mathematics, engineering, physics

Building of disciplines was an interaction between folk domains, gF, and the reasoning and problem solving competencies.

Either ended in a solid frame for a field or a false start.

• Greek system of four basic elements…FAIL.

MOTIVATION: ACADEMIC & FOLK KNOWLEDGE

The gap between people’s intuitive understanding of the biological world and the knowledge base of the biological sciences is widening rapidly because of naïve understanding of physical phenomena.

• Ex. Illusion of a forward force called ‘impetus” when throwing a baseball.

Another Example: Darwin’s natural selection

• 1. One bias focuses on similarities within a species in order to predict behavior without recognizing that differences contribute to selection.

• 2. Another bias focuses on the maturation through a single life span and not cross-generational time scale.

MOTIVATION: MOTIVATION TO LEARN

As scientific and technological advances increases, the change in type and level of academic competency changes.

• In education, it is no longer crucial to have folk knowledge for occupational and social functioning.

If the goal is to fine-tune ecologies, then children should innately want to engage in social relationships and explore the world.

• But…because of the gap, another gap between children’s motivational dispositions to participant in folk-related activities versus mastering academic fields.

• How is the this gap created? By minor individuals. • Why are sports more valued? Social competition.

RECAPP

ressures that drove evolution of motivation to control and nexuses are almost identical to pressures we all experience now.

The struggle for control of both symbolic and concrete resources has remained constant.

Most commonly used measure of success is SES (education, occupation, income) and this is BEST predicted by general intelligence.

RECAPC

omponents of gF are the key to understanding how humans create new

competencies.

g

F is involved in the first phase of the learning process while gC are involved in

fully developed competencies.

K

nowledge gap is created by the minority individuals who push scientific,

technological, and intellectual boundaries.

THE END

Kristen Hoover