Brief Introduction
Raymond Bernard Cattell (1905-1998)
was a British and American psychologist, worked on the basic dimensions of
personality, cognitive abilities, motivation and emotion, abnormal personality,
and social behavior. The upheavals of WWI forced him to study psychology so
that he can apply science to solve human problems. He started his PhD in
Psychology from King's College, London and completed in 1929. He worked with EL
Thorndike and Gorden Allport in various capacities. He refined Factor Analysis
method for use in psychometric assessment. He was pioneer of multivariate
research and played instrumental role in systemizing the psychometric
assessment. He constructed most famous and highly significant personality
assessment tool generally known as 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF).
During working on the intelligence he identified two types of intelligence i.e.
fluid and crystallized.
Theory
R. B. Cattell with John L. Horn
jointly developed and proposed that intelligence is of two types: -
(i) Fluid (Gf) and
(ii) Crystallized (Gc) intelligence.
The Gf and Gc explains the cognitive
ability of an individual in two different perspectives. One is based on the
inherited biological components and other is based on the availability of
opportunities through the learning and stimulating environment. The individual
with high Gf tend to acquire more Gc i.e. knowledge and at faster rates. It
means if Gf is better Gc is tends to be better.
(i) Fluid
(Gf) – It
in inductive and is synergetic, because its conclusions do not mechanically
follow from their premises (Wikipedia). This is a basic capacity developed to
genetic potentiality that have biological basis. It has been found the Gf is
independent of learning, schooling and experience. It has its own specific
developmental pattern where it grows up to initial decade of adulthood and
starts to decline with increasing age. The measures of this intelligence are
speed and accuracy of recalling and solving of puzzles, abstract and
quantitative reasoning, ideational fluency etc. The Gf is assessed with
Cattell’s Culture Fair IQ Test, Raven’s Progressive Matrices, Bhatia
Performance Battery of Intelligence and WAIS. It involves brain regions
associated with Short Term Memory &
Attention.
(ii) Crystallized
(Gc) – It
is deductive and is asynergetic, because its conclusions mechanically follow
from their premises (Wikipedia). Crystallized intelligence increases gradually,
stays relatively stable across most of adulthood, and then begins to decline
after age 65 (Cavanaugh & Blanchard-Fields, 2006). This is an ability
resultant of experiences, learning and environment. The each type of Gc is independent of each other but depends upon
the Gf. The measures of Gc are verbal ability, language development, reading
comprehension, sequential reasoning, and general information. The Gc can be
assessed using Reading Comprehension and Level of Vocabulary type tests. It
involves those brain regions that are associated with Long Term Memory.
Conclusion
The theory suggests that
intelligence has two components i.e. Gf and Gc. Both have their different
measures and developing process. They are basis on the Nature and Nurture. Gf has its origin in biological structures while
Gc in stimulating learning environment. Gf represent inductive while Gc
deductive process. One (Gf) initially rise through adulthood and then declines
while other (Gc) constantly improves with age and starts to declines after 65
years. Finally an individual uses Gf when he or she doesn't already know what
to do and Gc in the event of testing of knowledge and general information.
References:
1. Cavanaugh, J. C.; Blanchard-Fields, F
(2006). Adult development and aging (5th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth
Publishing/Thomson Learning. ISBN 978-0-534-52066-3.
2. https://www.britannica.com/biography/L-L-Thurstone.
3. https://www.intelltheory.com/rcattell.shtml.
*******
No comments:
Post a Comment