Quote:
Originally Posted by queball
Yeah, intelligence is all-encompassing.
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Well the word or concept is - but that doesn't mean that it represents anything "real". We can reify a whole bunch of concepts down, but I'm not sure that's helpful. Saying things like "general cognitive capacity"may sound fairly sexy but I'm not convinced they actually mean much.
If we take it down to a physical level it seems fairly possible that different segments of the brain (or different characteristics in the brain) could be more pronounced in certain individuals over others. So I could be excellent at crosswords but rubbish at Sudoko (theoretically).
Moreover, even though "general problem solving" is a fairly broad skill (so might account for your maths/programming aceness and your ability to work out movie plots) it doesn't take into account for memory, concentration, etc - which most people seem to include (subconsciously) in the term 'intelligence'. At work people think I'm smart not because I solve great connundrums but because I happen to know things.