The Wiring of Intelligence

Alexander O. Savi, Maarten Marsman, Han L. J. van der Maas, Gunter K. J. Maris

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

The positive manifold of intelligence has fascinated generations of scholars in human ability. In the past century, various formal explanations have been proposed, including the dominant g factor, the revived sampling theory, and the recent multiplier effect model and mutualism model. In this article, we propose a novel idiographic explanation. We formally conceptualize intelligence as evolving networks in which new facts and procedures are wired together during development. The static model, an extension of the Fortuin–Kasteleyn model, provides a parsimonious explanation of the positive manifold and intelligence’s hierarchical factor structure. We show how it can explain the Matthew effect across developmental stages. Finally, we introduce a method for studying growth dynamics. Our truly idiographic approach offers a new view on a century-old construct and ultimately allows the fields of human ability and human learning to coalesce.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1034-1061
Number of pages28
JournalPerspectives on Psychological Science
Volume14
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 24 Oct 2019

Funding

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9271-7476 Savi Alexander O. 1 Marsman Maarten 1 van der Maas Han L. J. 1 Maris Gunter K. J. 1 2 1 Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam 2 ACTNext by ACT, Inc., Iowa City, Iowa Alexander O. Savi, VU University Amsterdam, Department of Educational and Family Studies, Van der Boechorststraat 7-9, 1081 BT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. E-mail: o.a.savi@gmail.com 11 2019 14 6 1034 1061 © The Author(s) 2019 2019 Association for Psychological Science This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License ( http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ ) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages ( https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage ). The positive manifold of intelligence has fascinated generations of scholars in human ability. In the past century, various formal explanations have been proposed, including the dominant g factor, the revived sampling theory, and the recent multiplier effect model and mutualism model. In this article, we propose a novel idiographic explanation. We formally conceptualize intelligence as evolving networks in which new facts and procedures are wired together during development. The static model, an extension of the Fortuin–Kasteleyn model, provides a parsimonious explanation of the positive manifold and intelligence’s hierarchical factor structure. We show how it can explain the Matthew effect across developmental stages. Finally, we introduce a method for studying growth dynamics. Our truly idiographic approach offers a new view on a century-old construct and ultimately allows the fields of human ability and human learning to coalesce. cognition child development idiographic science individual differences intelligence quantitative methodology network model Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek https://doi.org/10.13039/501100003246 314-99-107 We sincerely thank Abe Hofman and Frederik Coomans for their valuable contributions during the early stages of this research and Lourens Waldorp for the invaluable consults. Action Editor Laura A. King served as action editor for this article. ORCID iD Alexander O. Savi https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9271-7476 Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author(s) declared that there were no conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship or the publication of this article. Funding A. O. Savi, H. L. J. van der Maas, and G. K. J. Maris were supported by Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) Creative Industries Grant 314-99-107, and M. Marsman was supported by NWO Veni Grant 451-17-017.

FundersFunder number
NWO VENI451-17-017
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek314-99-107

    Keywords

    • child development
    • cognition
    • idiographic science
    • individual differences
    • intelligence
    • network model
    • quantitative methodology

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