Raymond Cattell and the theory of intelligence

Raymond Cattell was one of the most important psychologists of the twentieth century. Their investigations focused mainly In the intelligence and personality of the human being. These studies resulted in the theory of intelligence. Do you want to know what is it about? Let's deepen.

Who was Raymond Cattell

Raymond Cattell was a British psychologist who dedicated virtually his entire life to conducting research on the human mind. These studies investigated mainly in all aspects that make up human personality and intelligence.

Thus, this psychologist was interested in issues such as motivation, emotion, learning, creativity, academic and professional orientation and social interaction. This set of issues are those that vertebrate their research and their results are collected in their famous intelligence theory.

But what is this theory based? First, Cattell realized that there were a series of factors that structure intelligence. Of these, there were two that identified as the main ones, and that explain the rest of their theory. These are fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence.

THE THEORY OF INTELLIGENCE

Raymond Cattell's intelligence theory broken down a series of skills at the cognitive level. The first two that identified are fluid reasoning and understanding-knowledge. These two factors are those that, according to their studies, explain the rest.

The first of them, fluid or intelligence reasoning, refers to the mental operations that a person does to solve problems of which he does not have prior knowledge.

This means, therefore, that they cannot be performed automatically, but requires the individual Analyze, reason, identify and make use of past experiences To solve this new task or face a new problem to solve.

Biography of Raymond Cattell (1905-1998)

This type of intelligence is also closely associated with the age of each individual, and it is considered that it begins to deteriorate from the age of 20. This indicator is used to check the potential that each person has to achieve academic success and high professional performance.

The other type of intelligence is crystallized, also called understanding-knowledge. In this case, this meaning calls the amplitude and depth of the knowledge already acquired. That is, the individual uses this type of reasoning to solve problems with previously acquired resources.

These resources can be, for example, language or education received. Therefore, this type of intelligence derives from learning and is very influenced by culture and the socialization of the person throughout his life.

Other aptitudes of intelligence theory

These are the two great features that support the theory of intelligence, although there are other aspects that compose it. One of them is quantitative knowledge, which is defined as the quantity and depth of numerical and mathematical knowledge.

Also, other of the traits analyzed are the aptitude for reading or writing. This factor is similar to the previous one, although instead of referring to the mathematical field. Here they enter skills such as reading comprehension, The ability to spell or language learning.

Another aspect are those related to memory. On the one hand, there is short -term memory, which is the ability to retain and manage the information obtained more recently.

On the other hand, it is he long -term storage and reproduction, which allows you to store information in memory and then be able to recover it and, in this way, associate ideas fluently or call things.

He Visual processing It is another aspect that addresses the theory of intelligence. In it, Cattell refers to the visual process as the aptitude to store, recover and modify images.

He auditory processing It is an aptitude similar to the latter, only that it is related to the perception of sounds and the operation of the auditory system. Here is the ability to discriminate frequencies and tones, resistance to sound distortion and memory for sounds.

Also very important are the processing speed or the reaction and decision time. The first one is associated with the ability to perform Easy or Over -up cognitive tasks in an efficient way.

For its part, the reaction and decision time is the aptitude that allows us to respond and make decisions quickly in the face of the appearance of concrete stimuli. What measures, therefore, is the time it takes to choose between several alternatives and information processing speed.

In short, Raymond Cattell dedicated his life to investigating the factors that influence intelligence to develop this theory, one of the most important in this regard.

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