General intelligence is actually a conglomeration of perhaps 100 abilities working together in various ways in different people to bring out different intelligences. Gf-Gc theory separates these abilities broadly into, first, two different sets of abilities that have quite different trajectories over the course of development from childhood through adulthood. Fluid abilities (Gf) drive the individual’s ability to think and act quickly, solve novel problems, and encode short-term memories. They have been described as the source of intelligence that an individual uses when he or she doesn’t already know what to do. Fluid intelligence is grounded in physiological efficiency, and is thus relatively independent of education and acculturation. The other … Continue reading Raymond Cattell, John Horn