I subscribe to the position that cognitive ability, which is often loosely termed “intelligence”, is an important determinant of a number of life parameters, with higher cognitive ability generally being correlated with life outcomes that are objectively more desirable by most people. This includes, on average, better job conditions, more success in relationships, and less attraction to crime, addiction, and personal and social “evils”.
The most relevant single measure of cognitive ability is the Spearman g or “general mental ability” factor, originally proposed by Spearman around 1904, and brought into full prominence by Arthur Jensen. IQ tests are often largely g-loaded (though they measure other things as well) and the Raven’s IQ test, which makes no direct demands on literacy and numeracy, have g-loadings in the range of 0.8-0.9.
This position is not a belief but rather based on the evidence I have come across and my interpretation of various events. While I’m unlikely to abandon the position completely, I am always looking to make Bayesian modifications and refinements as new information comes my way.
Below are listed some of the resources and writings that have led me to these views.
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The work of Linda Gottfredson: Gottfredson is a professor at the school of education and human development at the University of Delaware. A great place to get started is Why g matters: the complexity of everyday life (PDF, 51 pages). Gottfredson also looks at the impact of intelligence on health, social inequality, employment testing, and multiculturalism.
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The Bell Curve by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray. The book documents the correlation between intelligence and many other measures and makes an attempt to tease out causation by controlling for socio-economic status.
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Steve Hsu’s blog posts on IQ. Hsu is a theoretical physicist at the University of Oregon but he has an interest in questions related to intelligence. Hsu has a collection of useful links to the literature in this blog post. Some particularly interesting blog posts by Hsu are IQ, compression and simple models, If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich?, and Annals of psychometry: IQs of eminent scientists.
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Bryan Caplan’s blog posts on the subject: Does it matter if IQ matters?
[...] role of genes in shaping intelligence and personality: Quite aside from the various arguments about intelligence, its definition, and the factors shaping it, are the arguments that a belief in innate abilities creates a “fixed mindset” as [...]
Pingback by Meta-debates « Thinking Beyond Competition — December 22, 2010 @ 4:26 am
I don’t think too many people would disagree that higher levels of cognitive ability will positively affect their lives. The difficult part is actually acting based on these beliefs. For instance, do you invest time in pursuing activities that have proven to increase your memory recall and fluid intelligence like Spaced Repetition or Dual N-Back tasks on a regular basis?
I think most people agree that intelligence is good, but don’t believe in it strongly, not even enough to improve their mental abilities on a regular basis. This is somewhat surprising since a good fraction of the very same people do engage in regular physical exercise, but take their mental capabilities for granted.
Comment by Chidambaram Annamalai — June 8, 2011 @ 10:13 am
Oops, first line should’ve read:
I don’t think too many people would disagree with the idea that higher levels of cognitive ability will positively affect their lives
Comment by Chidambaram Annamalai — June 8, 2011 @ 10:14 am