Conveners
Symposium: Current perspectives on intelligence: Nature, g, and giftedness
- Jakob Pietschnig (University of Vienna)
Description
Research into human intelligence, its nature, meaning, and effects has a long tradition in Psychology. Especially questions about the role of nature vs. nurture for the development of intelligence, the role of its often-assumed general factor (i.e., psychometric g), and the potential benefits of exceptionally high IQs continue to spark debate in the scientific community as well as the informed public. In the present symposium, five contributors provide novel evidence that address these questions. Pietschnig presents intelligence heritability estimates from the so far largest meta-analysis of twin data. Kovacs provides data from a simulation approach to introduce the process overlap theory as an alternative explanatory framework for psychometric g. Patzl shows meta-analytic evidence for substantial and reproducible associations of self- and psychometrically-assessed intelligence, that appears to be stronger for more g-loaded constructs. Baudson reports associations between IQ and partner attractiveness in members of a high-IQ society. Fries shows results suggesting larger prevalences of physical and mental overexcitabilities in a high-ability sample than in the general population.
There is a broad consensus among the scientific community that human intelligence is affected by both nature and nurture components. However, researchers disagree on the strength of cognitive ability heritabilities with h² estimates ranging from the lower .20s to the upper .80s. Based on data of more than 30,000 mono- and 39,000 dizygotic twin-pairs from 20 different countries, we show in the...
Performance on diverse cognitive tests always correlate positively. This is called the positive manifold, which can be statistically accounted for by a general factor, g. g is usually identified with a domain-general cognitive ability. An alternative explanation, process overlap theory (POT) assumes that any item or task requires a number of domain-specific as well as domain-general cognitive...
Past research indicates a moderate correlation between psychometric intelligence (IQ) and self-assessed intelligence (SAI). However, ever-increasing publication numbers, the development of more refined research synthesis methods, and recent findings suggesting potential bias due to declining effects in empirical research have rendered previous meta-analytic accounts outdated. Consequently, a...
Due to its evolutionary value—significant positive correlations with numerous measures of success, health, and even longevity—, intelligence is among the most highly valued characteristics in potential partners. This is especially true for long-term relationships, and more so for women than for men. Some individuals even consider high intelligence in itself to be sexually attractive, a...
Intelligence is well-established to be positively associated with health and longevity, among various other “positive life outcomes”. Recent findings have added a potential caveat to this evidence, suggesting that individuals with exceptionally high intelligence are disproportionately afflicted by a specific set of physical and mental health conditions, so-called overexcitabilities. Thus far,...
