Intelligence: A New Look

234 Pages·2000·22.321 MB·English

by  Hans Eysenck

INTELLIGENCE

A NEW LOOK
INTELLIGENCE
HANS J.
EYSENCK
First published 1998 by Transaction Publishers
Published 2017 by Routledge
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Copyright © 1998 by Taylor & Francis
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are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Number: 98-14308
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Eysenck, H.J. (Hans Jurgen), 1916-
Intelligence : a new look / Hans J. Eysenck
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 1-56000-360-X (cloth: alk. paper) 0-7658-0707-6 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Intellect 2. Intelligence tests. 3. Nature and nuture.
BF431.B97 1998
153.9-dc21 98-14308
CIP
ISBN 13: 978-0-7658-0707-6 (pbk)
ISBN 13: 978-1-56000-360-1 (hbk)
Contents
Introduction 1
1. The Paradox of Intelligence and Its Measurement 7
2. Origin and Meaning of the IQ 17
3. Nature and Nurture: The Great Partnership 29
4. Intelligence, Reaction Time, and Inspection Time 49
5. The Biological Basis of Intelligence 61
6. What is the Use of IQ Tests? 81
7. Can We Improve IQ? 97
8. Many Intelligences? 107
9. Creativity in History: What is Genius? 115
10. Creativity and Intelligence 125
11. Conditions for Excellence and Achievement 135
12. Genius and Heredity 147
13. Psychopathology and Creativity 161
14. Cognition and Creativity 173
15. Much Ado About IQ 187
Endnotes, References, and Comments 197
Appendix: Mainstream Science on Intelligence 213
Index 221

Introduction
“Nothing is so unequal as the equal
treatment of unequal people. ”
—Thomas Jefferson.
Why another book on intelligence? There are several reasons. A lot
has happened in the past dozen years or so that has completely changed
our perspective on intelligence and IQ testing. For a beginning, recent
work on much larger and better selected samples has extended our evi­
dence on the hereditarian aspects of intelligence, as well as on the envi­
ronmental ones, with important consequences. In addition, advances in
molecular genetics have enabled us to discover DNA markers which
can be used to identify a chromosomal region, and, eventually to iso­
late a gene for simple genetic-traits; multiple-gene traits, like intelli­
gence, are just beginning to be investigated by these methods. But
already we have much more detailed and certain knowledge in this
field, and a review seems timely.
There is also much new evidence on the biological intermediaries
between DNA and behaviour. Clearly, DNA cannot directly influence
behaviour; it can lead to the development of neurological structures,
psychophysiological mechanism, glandular and hormonal emissions,
transmitter receptors, and many other biological mechanisms the study
of which has thrown a flood of new light on the nature of intelligence,
and measurement of differences in intelligence.
A third line of research has been concerned with ECTs—elementary
cognitive tasks such as reaction-time and inspection-time, offering the
subject tasks which are so easy that even severely mentally retarded
children can carry them out, but where speed of execution is the vari­
able measured. Older theories of intelligence predicted a lack of corre­
lation with IQ: the observed positive correlations suggest a return to
Sir Francis Galton’s theories of mental speed, theories which also find
support from the biological studies mentioned above.
1
2 Intelligence
It has been part of the theory of intelligence for over fifty years that in
addition to general intelligence, measured by IQ tests there are many
special abilities (verbal, numerical, visuo-spatial, memory, etc.) which
independently contribute to our cognitive behaviour. Recently several
authors have begun to talk about “multiple” intelligence, and advocated
the notion of “social” or “practical” intelligence; it seemed opportune to
look at these new ideas and see whether they had any scientific meaning.
Finally, I include a fairly lengthy study of one of these special fac­
tors that interact with general intelligence to produce certain effects in
the actual world, and I chose creativity and intuition, and the produc­
tion of works of art and science by the geniuses of this world. The topic
was chosen because of its general interest, because it illustrates the
way I believe the relation between IQ and other special abilities and
personality can best be studied, and because to many people it is strictly
beyond the capability of science to investigate. I do not believe that
anything that exists cannot be measured; as Thorndike said memora­
bly, everything that exists, exists in some quantity and can therefore be
measured.
These, then, are some of the changes that have taken place in recent
years; most have not yet gotten into textbooks; together, they approxi­
mate a general paradigm which could form the firm basis for future
research—a paradigm not too unlike the one I envisaged in my book, A
Model for Intelligence. There are, of course, many anomalies and prob­
lems still remaining; that is the inevitable fate of any scientific theory.
Even Newton’s theory of gravitation, one of the most famous of all
scientific theories, was riddled with anomalies, and Newton had to fudge
and fiddle to get even the most exiguous fit between prediction and
activity. But I do feel that things are beginning to hang together, and
the next few years should see an even closer coming together of experi­
mental findings and theoretical expectations.
I have not, of course, covered everything that relates to intelligence;
this is not meant to be a textbook, but a fairly concise outline of what
science has to say about the topic at the present moment. I have been
particularly careful to depart as little as possible from the great ortho­
doxy. What is orthodoxy? One approach is via textbooks that have been
highly praised and widely adopted; I have used Nathan Brody’s Intelli­
gence as an objective survey of the existing literature. Mark Snyderman
and Stanley Rothman surveyed the opinions of over 600 experts on
certain important and potentially controversial questions in the field of
intelligence; I have taken cognizance of the agreements published in
Introduction 3
their book, The IQ Controversy, and while I was a member of the Board
of Scientific Affairs of the American Psychological Association, we set
up a Task Force, charged with making a report on the present standing
of the intelligence concept; I have paid much attention to this report.
Finally, the Wall Street Journal published a statement by over fifty ex­
perts in intelligence testing, outlining the major conclusions they thought
were justified about intelligence; its meaning, its measurement, its in­
heritance, and its social importance. I have reproduced this statement
in the appendix. I did not find any particular discrepancies between my
account and what these voices of orthodoxy had to say. Where there are
slight differences in interpretation (not in facts!), I shall say so and
argue the case.
It is important to point out the existence of considerable agreement
on the basic facts in this field. What you read in the newspapers, hear
on the radio and see on television, is hardly even the truth as seen by
experts; it is the wishful thinking of journalists, seen through filters of
prejudice and ignorance. What you read in popular, books, like S.J.
Gould’s Mismeasure of Man, is a palaeontologist’s distorted view of
what psychologists think, untutored in even the most elementary facts
of the science. (A palaeontologist is an expert in the study of fossils to
determine the structure and evolution of extinct animals and plants—
hardly the background for a far-ranging critique of the complex field of
intelligence!) Would an astronomer accept the criticism of the Big Bang
theory offered by a professor of immunology, patently lacking in fac­
tual knowledge of astronomy?
I am mentioning Gould as one of a group of politically motivated
scientists who have consistently misled the public about what psycholo­
gists are doing in the field of intelligence, what they have discovered,
and what conclusions they have come to. Readers who may feel that
such an indictment is intemperate are invited to compare the contents
of the second edition of Gould’s book with a lengthy critique of it by R
Rushton that appeared recently, and goes in great detail into the factual
content of Gould’s book, with devastating results. Gould simply re­
fuses to mention unquestionable facts that do not fit into his politically
correct version; he shamelessly attacks the reputation of eminent sci­
entists of whom he disapproves, on completely nonfactual grounds,
and he misrepresents the views of scientists who take into serious ac­
count the experimental and empirical material available. Readers are
invited to look at the writings of these two antagonists, and decide on
their own who is more credible.