Fluid and Crystalline Intelligence

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In psychology, fluid and crystalline intelligence (Gf and Gc) are factors of general intelligence that go back to Raymond Cattell . Fluid intelligence or fluid thinking is the ability to think logically and solve problems. Fluid thinking includes inductive thinking and deductive thinking.

Measurement of fluid intelligence

There are different ways to measure fluid intelligence: The Cattell Culture Fair IQ test , the Raven Progressive Matrices (RPM), and the performance in WAIS are measurements of the Gf. The RPM is one of the most widely used measurements of fluid capabilities. It is a non-verbal multiple choice test.

Fluid versus crystalline

Fluid intelligence includes skills such as problem solving, learning and pattern recognition. It generally correlates with the measurement of abstract thinking and the ability to solve puzzles. Research has shown that Gf is more likely to be affected by brain injury.

Crystalline intelligence correlates with skills that depend on knowledge and experience, such as vocabulary knowledge, general information and analogies. Paul Kline identifies a number of factors that have a correlation of min. Divide r = .60 with Gf and Gc.

Development and physiology

Fluid intelligence, like reaction time, has a peak in young adulthood and then decreases continuously. This decrease may have something to do with local atrophy of the right cerebellum. Other researchers suggested a lack of exercise associated with age-related changes in the brain. The crystalline intelligence increases gradually, it remains relatively stable during the lifetime and only begins to decrease at 65. Working memory is closely tied to fluid intelligence and it has been suggested to relate it to individual differences in Gf.

Furthermore, recent research has shown that practicing cognitive skills can improve working memory and Gf.

Improving fluid intelligence

According to David Geary, Gf and Gc can be localized in different brain regions. Fluid intelligence, for example, involves the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex , the cingulate gyrus and other systems that affect attention and short-term memory. For this reason, an improvement in these basic skills should also have a positive effect on fluid intelligence. Crystalline intelligence, on the other hand, appears to be a function of the brain that involves memory and the use of long-term memory; the hippocampus is also affected.

Training of working memory

Susanne M. Jaeggi from the University of Michigan has found in healthy adults that practicing demanding thinking tasks ( dual n-back ) that use working memory with a training time of 25 minutes a day over a period of 8 to 19 days produces a statistically significant improvement can be determined in the results of a matrix test that measures fluid intelligence - in comparison with a control group, before and after training.

An independent study at the University of Technology (Hangzhou, China) confirmed Jaeggi's results. After students were subjected to a ten-day training regime - based on the dual-n-back working memory theory - they achieved significantly better results in Raven's matrix test .

Promote inductive thinking

In addition to improving basic cognitive skills, teaching strategic behavior also seems to have positive effects on fluid intelligence. In particular, mind training for children and adolescents and the newer programs developed in connection with this seem to bring about a robust improvement. There are now over 100 evaluation studies that prove positive effects on fluid intelligence and show that school performance is also improved.

Footnotes

  1. ^ RB Cattell: Abilities: Their structure, growth, and action. Houghton Mifflin, New York 1971, ISBN 0-395-04275-5 .
  2. ↑ J. Raven, JC Raven, JH Court: Manual for Raven's Progressive Matrices and Vocabulary Scales. Section 1: General Overview. Harcourt Assessment, San Antonio, TX 1998. (updated 2003)
  3. ^ RB Cattell: Theory of fluid and crystallized intelligence: A critical experiment. In: Journal of Educational Psychology. 54, 1963, pp. 1-22.
  4. ↑ Y. Suchy, A. Eastvold, WJ Whittaker, D. Strassberg: Validation of the behavioral Dyscontrol Scale Electronic Version: Sensitivity to subtle sequelae of mild traumatic brain injury. In: Brain Injury. 21, 2007, pp. 69-80.
  5. ↑ P. Kline: The new psychometrics: Science, psychology and measurement. Routledge, London 1998.
  6. ↑ J. Lee, I. Lyoo, S. Kim, H. Jang, D. Lee: Intellect declines in healthy elderly subjects and cerebellum. In: Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences. 59, 2005, pp. 45-51.
  7. ^ A b J. C. Cavanaugh, F. Blanchard-Fields: Adult development and aging. 5th edition. Wadsworth Publishing / Thomson Learning, Belmont (CA) 2006, ISBN 0-534-52066-9 .
  8. ↑ PC Kyllonen, RE Christal: Reasoning ability is (little more than) working-memory capacity ?! In: Intelligence . 14, 1990, pp. 389-433.
  9. ↑ DC Geary: The origin of mind: Evolution of brain, cognition, and general intelligence. American Psychological Association, Washington DC 2005.
  10. ^ Susanne M. Jaeggi, Martin Buschkuehl, John Jonides, Walter J. Perrig: Improving fluid intelligence with training on working memory. In: PNAS-Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2008.
  11. ^ Qiu Feiyue, Wei Qinqin: Study on Improving Fluid Intelligence through Cognitive Training System Based on Gabor Stimulus. In: Information Science and Engineering. IEEE, Piscataway, NJ 2010, ISBN 978-1-4244-4909-5 .
  12. ↑ KJ Klauer, GD Phye: Inductive Reasoning: A Training Approach. In: Review of Educational Research. 78 (1), 2008, pp. 85-123. doi: 10.3102 / 0034654307313402 .
  13. ↑ Karl Josef Klauer: Positive effects for intelligence and school learning. In: Report Psychology. 28 (3), 2003, pp. 162-167.