Intelligence as an Information Processing Concept.
Abstract
This paper examines the relationship between general cognitive competence and several aspects of information processing. Three sources of individual differences in information processing are proposed: structure, strategy, and general attentional resources. Structural factors set limits on the effectiveness of specific information processing steps. These factors appear to be important when we contrast the cognitive capacities of extreme groups, such as normal and mentally retarded persons but they account for only a small amount of the variability in homogeneous groups such as college students. The reason may be that within such groups, strategy of attacking problems is a more important source of variation, and moderates the relationship between simple information processing steps and complex reasoning. Finally, the fact that scores on almost all measures of cognitive competence are positively correlated may be related to the fact that all mental processes seem to compete for general attentional resources, and that individuals differ in the attentional resources they can bring to bear on any cognitive task. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1979
- Accession Number
- ADA069953
Entities
People
- Earl Hunt
Organizations
- University of Washington