A THEORY OF INTELLIGENCE AS PROCESS

A THEORY OF INTELLIGENCE AS PROCESSING
Implications for Society
Joseph F. Fagan III
Case Western Reserve University
Defining intelligence as processing allows one to predict intelligence from infancy,
discover causes of mental retardation, test the intelligence of people with disabilities,
develop culture-fair tests of intelligence, and demonstrate that groups that differ
in IQ do not necessarily differ in intelligence. An early estimate of intellectual
disability allows a child to qualify quickly for remedial programs. Economic and
emotional benefits would ensue from discovering and eliminating the causes of a
small percentage of cases of mental retardation. The measurement of intelligence as
processing reveals intellectual strengths that may otherwise be masked by physical
or emotional disability or by cultural circumstances. Cultures may differ in the types
of knowledge their members have but not in how well they process. Cultures may
account for racial differences in IQ.
The purpose of this article is to consider the implications for society of
defining intelligence as processing. My belief is that controversy surrounding the
term intelligence has arisen and continues because intelligence has historically
been defined as how much one knows rather than as how well one processes. IQ
scores, by convention, are based on how much one knows relative to one's age
peers. My theoretical position (Fagan, 1992; Fagan & Haiken-Vasen, 1997) is that
intelligence is processing and that processing can be measured by performance on
certain elementary cognitive tasks. An IQ score, on the other hand, depends not
only on processing ability but on what one has been taught. To state my theory
briefly, as information is processed, the mind changes. That change is called
knowledge. Knowledge is a state of mind. How well we process depends on our
genetic plan and on the good or ill that the world has physically inflicted on our
brain. Culture provides us with information. What we know depends on how well
we process and on what our culture teaches us.
Defining intelligence as processing frees intelligence from its historic definition
as the score (IQ) on an intelligence test and makes intelligence an integral and
legitimate object of study across all areas of psychology and disciplines related to
psychology. Defining intelligence as processing has the additional practical advantage
of providing a common metric with which to study intelligence across
species. Most important for our present purposes, defining intelligence as processing
clarifies theoretical issues in the field of intelligence and, in so doing, may
change lives.