Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
When a layperson thinks of individual differences in reasoning they think of IQ tests. It is quite natural that this is their primary associate, because IQ tests are among the most publicized products of psychological research. This association is not entirely inaccurate either, because intelligence – as measured using IQ-like instruments – is correlated with performance on a host of reasoning tasks (Ackerman, Kyllonen, and Roberts 1999; Carroll 1993; Hunt 1999; Lohman 2000; Lubinski 2004; Rips and Conrad 1983; Sternberg 1977, 1985). Nonetheless, a major theme of this chapter will be that certain very important classes of individual differences in thinking are ignored if only intelligence-related variance is the primary focus. A number of these ignored classes of individual differences are those relating to rational thought.
In this chapter, I will argue that intelligence-related individual differences in thinking are largely the result of differences at the algorithmic level of cognitive control. Intelligence tests thus largely fail to tap processes at the intentional level of control. Because understanding rational behavior necessitates understanding processes operating at both levels, an exclusive focus on intelligence-related individual differences will tend to obscure important differences in human thinking.
This argument obviously depends strongly on differentiating the algorithmic from the intentional level of analysis. Therefore, in the next section I will outline the sources that I rely on for this conceptual distinction and how I will utilize the distinction to provide a framework for thinking about individual differences in reasoning.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.