Reading Practice

The beginning of intelligence

A No one doubts that intelligence develops as children grow older. Yet the oncept of
intelligence has proved both quite difficult to define in unambiguous terms and
unexpectedly controversial in some respects. Although, at one level, there seem to be
almost as many definitions of intelligence as people who have tried to define it, there is
broad agreement on two key features. That is, intelligence involves the capacity not only to
learn from experience but also to adapt to one’s environment. However, we cannot leave
the concept there. Before turning to what is known about the development of intelligence, it
is necessary to consider whether we are considering the growth of one or many skills. That
question has been tackled in rather different ways by psychometricians and by
developmentalists.

B The former group has examined the issue by determining how children’s abilities on a
wide range of tasks intercorrelate, or go together. Statistical techniques have been used to
find out whether the patterns are best explained by one broad underlying capacity, general
intelligence, or by a set of multiple, relatively separate, special skills in domains such as
verbal and visuospatial ability. While it cannot be claimed that everyone agrees on what the
results mean, most people now accept that for practical purposes it is reasonable to
suppose that both are involved. In brief, the evidence in favour of some kind of general
intellectual capacity is that people who are superior (or inferior) on one type of task tend
also to be superior (or inferior) on others. Moreover, general measures of intelligence tend
to have considerable powers to predict a person’s performance on a wide range of tasks
requiring special skills. Nevertheless, it is plain that it is not at all uncommon for individuals
to be very good at some sorts of task and yet quite poor at some others.

C Furthermore the influences that affect verbal skills are not quite the same as those that
affect other skills. This approach to investigating intelligence is based on the nature of the
task involved, but studies of age-related changes show that this is not the only, or
necessarily the most important, approach. For instance, some decades ago, Horn and
Cattell argued for a differentiation between what they termed‘fluid’ and‘crystallised’
intelligence. Fluid abilities are best assessed by tests that require mental manipulation of
abstract symbols. Crystallised abilities, by contrast, reflect knowledge of the environment in
which we live and past experience of similar tasks; they may be assessed by tests of
comprehension and information. It seems that fluid abilities peak in early adult life, whereas
crystallised abilities increase up to advanced old.

D Developmental studies also show that the interconnections between different skills vary
with age. Thus in the first year of life an interest in perceptual patterns is a major
contributor to cognitive abilities, whereas verbal abilities are more important later on. These
findings seemed to suggest a substantial lack of continuity between infancy and middle
childhood. However, it is important to realise that the apparent discontinuity will vary
according to which of the cognitive skills were assessed in infancy. It has been found that
tests of coping with novelty do predict later intelligence. These findings reinforce the view
that young children’s intellectual performance needs to be assessed from their interest in
and curiosity about the environment, and the extent to which this is applied to new
situations, as well as by standardised intelligence testing.

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E These psychometric approaches have focused on children’s increase in cognitive skills
as they grow older. Piaget brought about a revolution in the approach to cognitive
development through his arguments ( backed up by observations) that the focus should be
on the thinking processes involved rather than on levels of cognitive achievement These
ideas of Piaget gave rise to an immense body of research and it would be true to say that
subsequent thinking has been heavily dependent on his genius in opening up new ways of
thinking about cognitive development. Nevertheless, most of his concepts have had to be
so radically revised, or rejected, that his theory no longer provides an appropriate basis for
thinking about cognitive development To appreciate why that is so, we need to focus on
some rather different elements of Piaget’s theorising.

F The first element, which has stood the test of time, is his view that the child is nactive
agent of learning and of the importance of this activity in cognitive development Numerous
studies have shown how infants actively scan their environment; how they prefer patterned
to non-patterned objects, how they choose novel over familiar stimuli, and how they explore
their environment as if to see how it works. Children’s questions and comments vividly
illustrate the ways in which they are constantly constructing schemes of what they know
and trying out their ideas of how to fit new knowledge into those schemes or deciding that
the schemes need modification. Moreover, a variety of studies have shown that active
experiences have a greater effect on learning than comparable passive experiences.
However, a second element concerns the notion that development proceeds through a
series of separate stages that have to be gone through step-by-step, in a set order, each of
which is characterised by a particular cognitive structure. That has turned out to be a rather
misleading way of thinking about cognitive development, although it is not wholly wrong.

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Questions 1-4
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D. Write your answers in boxes 1-4 on your answer
sheet

1. Most researchers accept that one feature of intelligence is the ability to

A change our behaviour according to our situation.

B react to others’ behaviour patterns.

C experiment with environmental features.

D cope with unexpected setbacks.

2. What have psychometricians used statistics for?

A to find out if cooperative tasks are a useful tool in measuring certain skills

B to explore whether several abilities are involved in the development of intelligence

C to demonstrate that mathematical models can predict test results for different skills

D to discover whether common sense is fundamental to developing children’s abilities

3. Why are Horn and Cattell mentioned?

A They disagreed about the interpretation of different intelligence tests.

B Their research concerned both linguistic and mathematical abilities.

C They were the first to prove that intelligence can be measured by testing a range of
special skills.

D Their work was an example of research into how people’s cognitive skills vary with age.

4. What was innovative about Piaget’s research?

A He refused to accept that children developed according to a set pattern.

B He emphasised the way children thought more than how well they did in tests.

C He used visually appealing materials instead of traditional intelligence tests.

D He studied children of all ages and levels of intelligence.

Questions 5-10
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage? In
boxes 5-10 on your answer sheet, write

YES if the sataement agrees with the information

NO if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

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5..................... A surprising number of academics have come to the same conclusion about
what the term intelligence means.

6..................... A general test of intelligence is unlikely to indicate the level of performance

in every type of task.

7..................... The elderly perform less well on comprehension tests than young adults.

8..................... We must take into account which skills are tested when comparing
intelligence at different ages.

9..................... Piaget’s work influenced theoretical studies more than practical research.

10..................... Piaget’s emphasis on active learning has been discredited by later

researchers.

Questions 11-14
Complete the summary using the list of words, A-I, below. Write your answers in boxes 11-
14 on your answer sheet.

Researchers investigating the development of intelligence have shown

that 11..................... skills become more significant with age. One good predictor
of 12..................... intelligence is the degree to which small children
are 13..................... about their surroundings and how much interest they show on finding
themselves in an 14..................... setting.

A adult

B practical

C verbal

D spatial

E inquisitive

F uncertain

G academic

H plentiful

I unfamiliar

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Solution:
1. A 8. YES
2. B 9. NOT GIVEN
3. D 10. YES
4. B 11. C
5. YES 12. A
6. YES 13. E
7. YES 14. I

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