Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T06:01:03.387Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

General intelligence is an emerging property, not an evolutionary puzzle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 August 2017

Franck Ramus
Franck Ramus*
Affiliation:
CNRS, Ecole Normale Supérieure, EHESS, PSL Research University, 75005 Paris, [email protected]://www.lscp.net/persons/ramus/en/
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Burkart et al. contend that general intelligence poses a major evolutionary puzzle. This assertion presupposes a reification of general intelligence – that is, assuming that it is one “thing” that must have been selected as such. However, viewing general intelligence as an emerging property of multiple cognitive abilities (each with their own selective advantage) requires no additional evolutionary explanation.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 40 , 2017 , e217
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bartholomew, D. J., Deary, I. J. & Lawn, M. (2009) A new lease of life for Thomson's bonds model of intelligence. Psychological Review 116:567–79. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016262.Google Scholar
Gottfredson, L. S. (1997) Mainstream science on intelligence: An editorial with 52 signatories, history, and bibliography. Intelligence 24:13–23.Google Scholar
Jackendoff, R. (1999) Possible stages in the evolution of the language capacity. Trends in Cognitive Science 3:272–79.Google Scholar
Kahneman, D. & Frederick, S. (2002) Representativeness revisited: Attribute substitution in intuitive judgment. In: Heuristics and Biases: The Psychology of Intuitive Judgment, ed. Gilovich, T., Griffin, D. & Kahneman, D., pp. 49–81. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mackintosh, N. J. (2011) IQ and human intelligence (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Pinker, S. & Bloom, P. (1990) Natural language and natural selection. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 13:707–84.Google Scholar
Spearman, C. (1904) “General intelligence,” objectively determined and measured. The American Journal of Psychology 15:201–92.Google Scholar
Thomson, G. H. (1916) A hierarchy without a general factor. British Journal of Psychology 8:271–81.Google Scholar
van der Maas, H. L. J., Dolan, C. V, Grasman, R. P. P. P., Wicherts, J. M., Huizenga, H. M. & Raijmakers, M. E. J. (2006) A dynamical model of general intelligence: The positive manifold of intelligence by mutualism. Psychological Review 113(4):842–61. doi: 10.1037/0033-295X.113.4.842.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed