Intelligence trait: Encyclopedia II - Intelligence trait - Definitions of intelligence

Intelligence trait - Definitions of intelligence

At least two major "consensus" definitions of intelligence have been proposed. First, from "Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns" a report of a task force convened by the American Psychological Association:

A second definition of intelligence comes from "Mainstream Science on Intelligence", which was signed by 52 intelligence researchers in 1994:

Individual intelligence experts have offered a number of similar definitions.

• David Wechsler: "... the aggregate or global capacity of the individual to act purposefully, to think rationally, and to deal effectively with his environment."
• Cyril Burt: "...innate general cognitive ability."
• Howard Gardner: "To my mind, a human intellectual competence must entail a set of skills of problem solving—enabling the individual to resolve genuine problems or difficulties that he or she encounters and, when appropriate, to create an effective product—and must also entail the potential for finding or creating problems—and thereby laying the groundwork for the acquisition of new knowledge."
• Herrnstein and Murray: "...cognitive ability."
• Sternberg and Salter: "...goal-directed adaptive behavior."

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Definitions of intelligence", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki