This article discusses the nature of intelligence, introducing a new distinction between macrocomponents and microcomponents of human intelligence. Microcomponents are fairly elementary operations such as inference and application of analogical relations. Macrocomponents are the global-level constellations of processes that are formed from…

A three-stage model for the evolution of theories of intelligence is proposed and applied to understanding the evolution of correlationally based and experimentally based theories of intelligence. In stage one, alternative conceptions compete. In subsequent stages, alternative conceptions, which combine elements of prior approaches, emerge and…

In a discussion of intellectual giftedness, the author describes the main characteristics that differentiate information processing theories from psychometric theories. Interrelationships between components and factors are considered, and implications of the theory for the training of the gifted are pointed out. (SB)

The "transitive-chain" theory of syllogistic reasoning proposes that information about set relations is presented in memory by pairs of informational components and that information about set relations is integrated by applying a small set of rules to transitive chains that are found by rearranging informational components stored in…

The centrality of intellectual abilities is discussed in terms of two evaluative criteria, given the combined acronym GENECES: (1) the "generality" of the ability in performances on tasks requiring adaptation to, selection of, and shaping of real-world environments; and (2) the "necessity" of these abilities in performing tasks. (Author/LMO)

This final report reviews the main theoretical and empirical developments concerning components of individual differences in human intelligence. The report is divided into three main sections. The first briefly reviews alternative approaches to understanding the nature of intelligence. The second provides the proposed componential metatheory, a…

Although there seems to be widespread agreement that new approaches to studying intelligence should combine the differential and cognitive (information processing) approaches in isolating components of intelligence, researchers disagree about how the approaches should be combined and, consequently, about how elementary components of intelligence…

This paper presents a description of four schools of thought on the nature of intelligence, some findings that have emerged from them, and an indication of how these findings reveal a common core of generalizations across the various schools. (Author/SJL)

Mental abilities can be analyzed at four levels: composite tasks, subtasks, components, and metacomponents. Each level of analysis reveals something about the structure and content of mental abilities responsible for intelligent performance. (Author/WI)

The unified theory described in this paper characterizes human reasoning as an information processing system with a hierarchical sequence of components and subtheories that account for performance on successively narrower tasks. Both deductive and inductive theories are subsumed in the unified componential theory, including transitive chain theory…

A triarchic model for identifying, teaching, and assessing children who are gifted is presented. The model involves three abilities: memory-analytic, creative-synthetic, and practical-contextual. Results are presented of the Yale Summer Psychology pilot project that is based on this model. Expanding the model to other fields beyond psychology is…

Two influential theories of intellectual development are reviewed and analyzed: the psychometric framework, based on the factorial composition of intelligence, and the Piagetian model, based on assimilation and accomodation through four stages of intellectual development. A third concept is the componential theory of intelligence, based on…

Reviews three alternative cognitive approaches for verbal comprehension. Discusses a theory of learning from context and cites empirical data to support the theory. Presents a componential framework for understanding verbal comprehension and suggests that the ability to acquire information from context is a key source of individual differences in…

The article describes the triarchic theory of human intelligence, which is composed of three subtheories: componential, experiential, and contextual. Deficient cognitive strategies and inadequate knowledge in certain domains may result from the inability of the learning disabled to selectively encode, compare, and combine information, or from an…