Doctoral Dissertation Research in DRMS: Individual differences in Type 1 thought: The other half of human intelligence

这个研究项目的目的是将我们对智力的理解扩展到智力文献中基本上被忽视的思维类型。智商测试是预测个人成就和结果的最有力指标之一，包括教育、工资和健康。著名的智力和智商测试理论集中在一系列认知能力上，这些能力需要努力的、深思熟虑的、大量工作记忆的处理，比如逻辑、空间和语言能力，它们属于心理学家所说的第2型推理。智力研究在很大程度上忽视了第二类能力，即所谓的第一类能力，这种能力自动、毫不费力地运作，不需要工作记忆（比如在照片中认出你的母亲，或者解决1+1 = X的问题）。这个研究项目将调查1型能力的个体差异是否与2型能力一样是人类智力的“另一半”。这项工作可能会改善能力倾向测试和在教育和专业设置的安置。此外，拟议的工作有可能改善教育和培训方法，提供前所未有的以证据为基础的方法来开发个性化的学习技能概况，使教育能够根据个人能力进行调整。目前，关于智力本质的主流理论认为它是一个统一的实体。研究一直发现，对一般智力的单一测量（g因子）可以预测所有其他特定的认知能力（如语言技能、数学技能，甚至人际交往能力）。然而，这项工作在很大程度上未能测试1型能力，因为一些假设已经被证明是错误的，比如个体在1型能力上没有变化的观念。令人惊讶的初步证据表明，尽管g因子具有广泛的预测能力，但它可能与1型能力无关。这意味着我们从传统智商测试中了解到的2型智力可能不适用于1型能力。该项目将开发测试来衡量1型能力的个体差异，并利用它们来调查1型能力是单一的还是包含多种因素。其次，该项目将通过检查第一类能力与一系列现有智商测试之间的关系，为第一类能力与第二类能力的独立性提供新证据。最后，我们将通过调查1型智商预测的生活结果来解决测量1型智商能力的现实意义。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This research project is designed to extend our understanding of intelligence to types of thinking that have been largely ignored in the intelligence literature. IQ tests are among the most powerful predictors of individual achievement and outcomes, including education, salary, and health. Prominent theories of intelligence and IQ tests have focused on a cluster of cognitive abilities that require effortful, deliberative, working memory-heavy processing such as logical, spatial, and verbal abilities, which fall under the umbrella of what psychologists call Type 2 reasoning. Intelligence research has largely ignored a second class of abilities—called Type 1 abilities—which operate automatically, effortlessly, and without working memory (such as recognizing your mother in a photo, or solving 1+1 = X). This program of research will investigate whether individual differences in Type 1 abilities are the “other half” of human intelligence, alongside Type 2 abilities. This work may improve aptitude testing and placement in educational and professional settings. Additionally, the proposed work has potential to improve education and training methods by providing an unprecedented evidence-based approach to developing individualized learning skill profiles, allowing education to be tailored to individual abilities.Currently, the dominant theory about the nature of intelligence holds that it is a unitary entity. Research has consistently found that a single measure of general intelligence (the g factor) can predict all other specific cognitive abilities (such as verbal skills, math skills, and even interpersonal skills). However, this work has largely failed to test Type 1 abilities due to a number of assumptions that have since been demonstrated to be false, such as the notion that individuals do not vary in their Type 1 abilities. Surprising preliminary evidence suggests that despite the g factor’s broad predictive ability, it may be unrelated to Type 1 abilities. This would mean that what we know about Type 2 intelligence from traditional IQ tests may not apply to Type 1 abilities. This project will develop tests to measure individual differences in Type 1 abilities and use them to investigate whether Type 1 abilities are unitary or contain multiple factors. Second, the project will contribute to emerging evidence about the independence of Type 1 abilities from Type 2 abilities by examining the relationship between Type 1 abilities and a battery of existing IQ tests. Finally, we will address the real-world implications of the ability to measure Type 1 IQ by investigating what life outcomes Type 1 IQ predicts.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.