the development of intelligence

7/30/2019 The Development of Intelligence

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THE DEVELOPMENT OF INTELLIGENCE

Alan Challoner MA(Phil.) MChS

The environmental influence on the development of intelligence and adaptation is now

understood. The deprivation of growth-stimulating experiences among seriously

disadvantaged children is a well known cause of mild to moderate learning disability.

However, the nature, intensity, and the optimal age of intervention are still not fully

understood and this may be because each child is an individual with an individual

background, dissimilar genes and parents who will also have their own characteristics and

way of life.

Whether the emphasis should be primarily social, educational or family-based it ought be

determined for each child. This approach should be linked with the overall socio-economic

growth and improvement in quality of life as a whole. So far, there has been a great

reluctance from UK governments to get involved in the way that parents bring up their

child. This may be because politicians have not suffered in the way that these children

have; their childhood development has been one that has (usually) been well-supported

by their parents and they have probably inherited genes that give them the ability to gain

from their experiences and education in ways that others have not. Thus they are daunted

by the possibility of getting involved in any legislation that might benefit children, not only

because of the lack of understanding but also because the consequences of any

intervention would not be known for a generation or two.

It may be of help then if the way that intelligence develops is better understood and how

the set-backs that some children will find in their lives play a part in delaying or interfering

with this process.

INTRODUCTION

A child soon comes to understand that during his development towards an adult he will

constantly come across people who seem to be more capable than he is. He will see this

as a challenge or a failure depending upon his upbringing and the support he has gained

from his family. He will strive courageously to capture the winning ways that he sees about

him or he will demonstrate his weaknesses and expect others to carry him through. This

state of mind will forever colour his belief and ambition towards the environment and the

society in which he lives.

His saving grace may be his educability. This can compensate him for his weaknesses bystimulating him to recover from his inadequacy to cope with the hostility of life. Should he

not so recover he will live in an alien world, and as he continues to meet difficulties with

anxiety he may develop psychosomatic disorders that relate to his genetic inheritance.

Children will find innumerable obstacles in their path as they develop during the early years

of their lives. However these obstacles are the means by which each child can learn to

adapt to the world in which he lives. Given the right amount of support and

encouragement by his family, a child will be guided and have his learning abilities

enhanced by the experience that is passed on to him by those who have trodden this path

before. The support that is given needs to be chosen carefully and with insight. Children

should not be lifted over hurdles but taught how to jump over them or, if too high, to get

around them. They should not only be allowed to learn from their experience but should beallowed to gain confidence and encouragement from their success.


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If the child is deficient in any way or if his life is conditioned by ill-health his learning path will

be shallower and in some areas it may be regressive. Added to these difficulties may be a

sense of isolation and discouragement brought about by the knowledge that those about

him are developing differently and that society is treating them oppositely. There may be a

continuing frustration for a child in being unable to match desire, hope and expectation to

his ability. Life seems hostile and its sharpness is often exaggerated unconsciously and from

this may stem a degree of belligerency. They can demand more and perhaps try to take

what is not rightly theirs, or else they relapse into introspection and depression. Depression itis said is anger turned onto oneself.

A comparable set of difficulties may arise if a child experiences an absence of normal love

and tenderness from its parents. This will change the pattern of development and because

the child then fails to learn the value of love and does not feel the warmth that flows from it,

his abilities in this area of human contact will be deficient. This situation may be worsened

by those who teach the child that love and tenderness are ridiculous or not required. In

these situations it may be that a chance encounter with a person who provides an

opportunity for harmony and serenity will produce a growth towards better social

relationships and may be better opportunities. Of course there can also be too much

tenderness, too much pampering, and where this exceeds normal boundaries it may result

in that person becoming perpetually attached. This in turn brings about irrational demandsin the name of love.

The important work of J. W. B. Douglas1 involved the long-term follow-up of an almost

complete cross-section of a child population, and it proved for the first time that

environmental handicaps continue to operate cumulatively through middle childhood.

The sample was made up of some 5,000 children born in one week of 1946. Their home

conditions and maternal care were studied in infancy, then at 8, and again at 11. Douglas

was able to show their influence even when social class was held constant, and that they

operate differently at different social class levels. For example, poor attendance records

do not pull down the scores of the upper-middle class and have less effect in the best

primary schools. However, frequent absences are associated with poorer performance in

lower-middle and lower social class children.2

One of the most important influences in raising scores was seen to be the childs attitudes,

i.e. whether he was assessed as hardworking or lazy. From the work of other researchers we

are told that teachers judgements of personality are mainly based on school

achievement, hence this cannot be taken at its face value. 3 More lower social class

children tend to be rated as lazy, also as lacking concentration or poor discipline or

having difficulties with other children. The most important factor in achievement (over

and above social class) would appear to be parental interest and aspirations, as

evidenced by school visits; intention to continue schooling beyond 16, and desire for a

grammar school place. When this factor is held constant, other factors often cease to

show any significant effects.

Bloom4 has researched the stability of intelligence and age. He argues that the main bases

of mental, as well as of physical, growth are created during the very early years, and that

there is progressively less change in later years. His analysis of follow-up studies with

intelligence tests indicated that 50 per cent of the 17 year-old intelligence level was

already determined by age 4 years, and over 90 per cent by age13 years. These figures

support the overlap hypothesis, i.e., that the correlation of IQs from one age group to

1 Douglas, J.W.B. The Home and the School. London: McGibbon and Kee. 1964.

2 Douglas, J.W.B., & Ross, J.M. The effects of absence on primary school performance. Brit. J.

Educ. Psychol.; 35, [pp., 28-40.]; 1965.

3 Walker, A. S. Pupils School Records. London: Newnes. 1955.

4 Bloom, B. S. Stability and Change in Human Characteristics. New York: John Wiley. 1964.


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another is a direct function of the percentage of development at the later age which has

been achieved at the earlier age.

Studies of the physiological conditions underlying development show that new pathways

and neural connections are cumulatively laid down from the undifferentiated brain tissue

as the organism acquires its successively more complex schemata. But it is also widely

believed that particular kinds of connections must be established at particular stages.

Sendens work on cataract patients suggests that individuals who only receive vision whenfully grown have far greater difficulty in building up perceptual schemata5 than do normally

stimulated infants.6 Vernon asks whether this implies that intellectual impairment through

early rearing in an unstimulating environment or through defective schooling is also

irremediable. He says it is not possible to give a definite answer, but the indications are that

there is rather more give and take in conceptual development than there is in the building

of the sensory and motor foundations of mental activity.

On the other hand Vernon considers that this give and take may well be limited, and that

the impairment may be due to a more serious delay. He thinks that the evidence from the

so-called wolf children is unreliable. (See Newton) 7 However, there are some fairly well

authenticated cases of children who have suffered almost complete deprivation of human

company for the first five years or more of life (cf. L. J. Stone).8 Apparently they had theutmost difficulty in learning to speak and were reported to be largely uneducable.

A lack of normality or of acceptance by society leads to isolation. The introvert will

withdraw, but the extrovert will seek others of a similar character and together they may set

up a sub-culture that may be anarchistic. They will support each other in an effort to

achieve individual goals regardless of the lack of morality that may be involved. They will

however pursue their individual demands regardless of temporary friendships because they

think more of themselves than they do of anyone else. They will forever be seeking a

happiness that their own personality will deny them.

Intelligence, even when it has already developed in young children may disintegrate if

subsequently there is inadequate direction. This is shown quite clearly in William GoldingsLord of the Flies9; a story that has as its plot a situation where, in the midst of a wartime

evacuation, a British plane crashes onto an isolated island in a remote region of the Pacific

Ocean. The only survivors are male children below the age of thirteen. Some of the

marooned characters are ordinary students, while others arrive as a musical choir under an

established leader. Most (with the exception of the choirboys) appear never to have

encountered one another before. The book portrays their descent into savagery; left to

themselves in a paradisiacal country, far from modern civilisation, the well-educated

children regress to a primitive state.

It can be seen that a childs objectives are set by his experiences. His goal setting and

achievement may be arrived at one extreme by model expediency or at the other by

sheer evil. Each person can be judged only on his particular situation in the world and inthe context of his personality. The influences that have patterned a person's life in his early

days will colour his attitude throughout his life. A well-defined pattern can be traced back

5 Perceptual Schema is accomplished through an incredible period of sensory motor

development and what Piaget calls pre-operational development. It is through experience

that a baby learns relationships. She learns the concept of over and under by crawling over

and under. This lays the foundation for visual perceptual of form and space perception. She

can then project this onto the environment, the plate is on the table, and the ball is under it.

6 von Senden, M. Space and sight; the perception of space and shape in the congenitally

blind before and after operation. Glencoe, Ill., Free Press, 1960.

7 Newton, M. Savage Girls and Wild Boys: A History of Feral Children. London, Faber & Faber 2002;

ISBN 0571201393.

8 Stone, L. J. A critique of studies of infant isoIation. Child Devlpmt.; 25: [pp.,9-20]; 1954.

9 Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. London, Faber & Faber; 1954.


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to the first few months of life when he searched for tenderness and the proximity of adults.

A childs love is normally directed towards others and unless this is reciprocated these early

strivings will be dashed into incongruity.

ASSESSMENT AND MEASUREMENT OF INTELLIGENCE

Ever since 1908, when psychologist Alfred Binet invented the intelligence quotient (IQ) test,

scientists have worked to develop reliable standardized tests to measure children'sintelligence. Binet believed that intelligence is composed of an aggregate of abilities and

used a battery of about a dozen subtests tapping a variety of skills. Although the tests have

been considerably refined, this approach is still the most prevalent one today. By

administering tests to thousands of children, test-makers developed norms that enable

them to compare any child's score to the average for children of the same age. Thus they

obtain an IQ that shows how a child stands, overall, on the skills tested. On the most

commonly used tests, an IQ of 100 is average, with the average range 85 to 115.

Until the 1930s the predominant view among American psychologists was that all abilities

were highly specific. In Britain, the importance of the general factor, g, was demonstrated

by Spearman, but the existence of additional sub-types of ability or group factors gradually

emerged from the work of Burt, Kelley, Stephenson, El Koussy, Alexander, and others.Results obtained from analyses among recruits during the 1939-45 war confirmed the

hierarchical theory. This holds that there are certain main types of ability over and above g

(in particular the educational and the practical types), and that these themselves can be

subdivided into numerous minor group factors.

Thurstone, Guilford, and other factorists in America from 1938 on, opposed the notion of a

general factor and hierarchy. Instead they showed that test inter-correlations could be

accounted for by a number of independent types of ability or multiple factors, not unlike

the nineteenth-century faculties. However, later work suggested a rapprochement

between the hierarchical and the Thurstonian viewpoints.

Zangwill holds that factor analysis has value in classifying individuals for educational oroccupational purposes, but it does not contribute materially to an understanding either of

the nature of intelligence or of the rationale of individual differences. It is therefore unlikely

to make a decisive contribution to psychological theory.10

P. E. Vernon11 has proposed that intelligence can be described as comprising abilities at

varying levels of generality: at the highest level of generality (the top of the hierarchy) is

general ability as identified by Spearman; at the next level are 'major group' factors, such

as verbal educational ability (the kind of ability needed for successful performance in

courses such as English, history, and social studies) and practical-mechanical ability (the

kind of ability needed forsuccessful performance in courses such as draughtsmanship andcar mechanics); at the next level are 'minor group' factors, which can be obtained by

subdividing the major group factors; and at the lowest level (the bottom of the hierarchy)are specific factors, again of the kind identified by Spearman. This description of

intelligence may be viewed as filling in the gaps between the two extreme kinds of factors

proposed by Spearman: in between the general and specific factors are group factors of

intermediate levels of generality.

Vernon has criticised the ascription of human abilities and behaviour to hypothetical

faculties, traits or powers of the mind, as exemplified in phrenology and in various

educational and other theories. An ability or factor should, he believes, be thought of as a

class or group of performances, and it should be admitted only if a number of

10 Zangwill, O.L. In Gregory, R.L. [Ed.] The Oxford Companion to The Mind. Oxford, Oxford Univ.

Press, 1987.

11 Vernon, Philip E.The Structure of Human Abilities. London, Methuen & Co. 1971


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measurements in this class (e.g. test results) overlap or correlate positively with one

another.12

He has consistently put forward the basic mathematical methods of factor analysis as

being a quite straightforward method of assessing and measuring intelligence. He has

shown what he believes to be the things that tests, examinations, etc., really measure, i.e.

their factor content.

Vernon suggests that the strict hierarchical picture of mental structure is an over-

simplification. For the results of any factor analysis depend largely on the composition of

the population tested (e.g. its degree of selection), and on the number and kind of tests

studied. Since by choosing suitable tests almost any specific factor can be turned into a

group factor, it is suggested that only those group factors shown to have significant

practical value in daily life are worth incorporating in the picture. It is doubtful whether

group factors differentiate merely as a result of ageing or mental growth. Rather, their

pattern or structure changes according to the type of education and training.

Vernons definition of intelligence is determined at two levels:

Intelligence A is the basic potentiality of the organism, whether animal or human, to learnand to adapt to its environment. Intelligence A is determined by the genes but is mediated

mainly by the complexity and plasticity of the central nervous system.

Intelligence B is the level of ability that a person actually shows in behaviour cleverness,

the efficiency and complexity of perceptions, learning, thinking, and problem solving. This is

not genetic. Rather, it is the product of the interplay between genetic potentiality and

environmental stimulation. He also suggests that there should be a third usage to Hebbs

Intelligence A and B, namely Intelligence C, which stands for the score or IQ obtained from

a particular test. 13

The g factor (short for "general factor") is a construct developed in psychometric

investigations of cognitive abilities. It is a variable that summarizes the consistent finding ofpositive correlations among different cognitive tasks, reflecting the fact that an individual's

performance at one type of cognitive task tends to be comparable to his or her

performance at other kinds of cognitive tasks. The g factor typically accounts for 40 to 50

percent of the variance in IQ test performance, and IQ scores are frequently regarded as

estimates of individuals' standing on the g factor.14 The terms IQ, general intelligence,

general cognitive ability, general mental ability, or simply intelligence are often used

interchangeably to refer to the common core shared by cognitive tests.15

In discussing educational attainments, Vernon has indicated that school marks yield adifferent structure from objective psychological tests because of theX-factora complex

of personality traits, interests and background. This, together with g and V:ed form the

major influence in all educational attainments in unselected groups of children and adults,though differentiation according to subject-matter can readily be established in selected

secondary school pupils or university students. (see chart below) The more drilled and

mechanical aspects of v (verbal) and n (number) abilities differentiate most clearly, but

there is insufficient evidence to justify contrasting rote with reasoning attainments. Many

a priori classifications of types of reading and number ability lack empirical substantiation.

12 Vernon, Philip E.The Structure of Human Abilities. London, Methuen & Co. 1965.

13 Vernon, P. E. Intelligence: Heredity and environment. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman &

Company; 1979.

14 Kamphaus, R. W., Winsor, A. P., Rowe, E. W., & Kim, S. A history of intelligence test

interpretation. In D. P. Flanagan and P. L. Harrison (Eds.), Contemporary intellectualassessment: Theories, tests, and issues (2nd Ed.)(pp. 2338). New York: Guilford; 2005.

15 Deary, I.J., Penke, L., & Johnson,W. The neuroscience of human intelligence differences.

Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 11, 201211; 2010..


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For example word-knowledge (vocabulary) and comprehension in reading come to much

the same thing. However, mechanical, rate, vocabulary and comprehension aspects are

partially distinguishable at advanced levels.

There are not any single definitive criteria for intelligence. Two people may be compared

and found to be quite intelligent but they may have absolutely nothing in common they

resemble the prototype but along different dimensions. The main consequences of

acquiring intelligence are to understand the world around us and to understand those withwhom we form a society. None of us achieve these in their entirety an impossibility but

we can arrive at a state where we have enough intelligence to achieve intellectual

stability that is consistent with the way we need to lead our lives and to enable us to

cooperate effectively with others.

The essential components of this state of intelligence may be seen to comprise:

Metacomponents these are higher order control processes that are used for planning

how a problem should be solved, for making decisions regarding alternative courses of

action during 'problem-solving, and for monitoring one's progress during the course of

problem solution.

Performancecomponents these are processes that are used in the actual execution of aproblem-solving strategy.

Acquisition components these are processes used in learning, that is, in the acquisition of

knowledge.

Retention components these are processes used in remembering; that is, in the retrieval

of previously acquired information.

Transfer components these are used in generalization; that is, in the transfer of

knowledge from one task or task context to another. 16

There can be no doubt that environmental circumstances play a large part in determining

whether we achieve our potential or not.

Vernons Hierarchical Theory of Intelligence

16 Gregory, RL. The Oxford Companion to the Mind. OUP; 1987.

the development of intelligence

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