Intelligence? A Definition
The Psychological Clinic Copyright, 1919, by Lightner Witmer, Editor. Vol. XIV, Nos. 3-4 May, June, 1922
By Lightner Witmer, Ph.D. Intelligence is the ability to solve a new problem. An old problem remains in some sense new, so long as an unsurmounted difficulty confronts an individual or a group, and the way to solve it is unknown.
When a problem is difficult enough or the solution is sufficiently novel and important, the intelligence displayed in productive invention will be considered “genius.” Intelligence may appear at any intellectual level, even a low one, and is divined from what the individual makes of opportunity and resources. Intelligence is not to be measured by conventional standards but by the successful outcome of performance. The discrimination of intelligence from other abilities is concerned only with the criteria that distinguish the variable and novel creations of free initiative from the more constant and familiar effects of established habits. The originality of a performance is proportional to the number of novel elements entering into its composition, and to the amount by which a successful production varies from the prevailing mode.
Competency is an aggregate of many congenital abilities, some of them specific abilities, like talking or singing; others more general, like intelligence, intellect, discernment, will and motivation. By the time a child is six years old he will ordinarily display all his congenital competency, from which the discerning observer may estimate how much ability he has, and judge if he has enough to be considered normal.
No one has ever devised an intelligence test that tests intelligence and nothing else. In consequence, the results of so-called intelligence tests have significance, only when analyzed and interpreted in relation to a particular set of antecedent conditions and attending circumstances. The Binet Intelligence Quotient for example, is not necessarily a measure of intelligence, and in those making low scores it may indicate anything in the way of ability, or deficiency, except intelligence. The Intelligence Quotient is in fact an index of proficiency, and the so-called “Mental Age” is only a performance level determined by roughly averaging the efficiency indices derived from a relatively small number of arbitrarily selected performances. In order to test the ability to solve a new problem, an intelligence test must provide that many members of a homogeneous group will fail and that all but a very few will make many errors before they achieve success. If all the members of a group pass a supposed intelligence test, either the test is not an intelligence test because it is too easy for them, or some of the group knew beforehand how to solve it. The ratio which the number of those who succeed in solving a new problem bears to the number of those who fail measures the relative novelty of the problem. From the number of failures an individual makes before he succeeds, one may roughly estimate the originality of the solution as well as of the performer. Intelligence, therefore, is directly proportional to initiative and inversely proportional to the number of errors made, provided the errors are not too few. To measure a performer’s intelligence, one must know the time required to achieve success, but one must not neglect to observe the performer at work and to take into consideration the number and kind of errors made and how he corrects them. An intelligence test is adjusted to the intellectual level of a group of individuals when the number of individuals who succeed do not more than equal the number who fail. The eleven-block formboard used at the Psychological Clinic is a satisfactory intelligence test at or about the four-year-old intellectual level, because not more than fifty per cent of four-year-old children pass it. No two-year-old child has ever passed it; about twenty-five per cent of three-year-old children have passed it, and approximately one hundred per cent of six-year-olds. If I know nothing about a particular child except that he is four years old, the odds are even that he will pass the test. If he is three years old, the odds are three to one that he will fail. Intelligence is displayed in a performance that succeeds against adverse odds; stupidity is failure despite favoring odds. The diagnosis of intelligence is a statement of our expectation that an individual or a group will succeed in a significantly large number of performances, under circumstances that make failure more probable than success. The diagnosis of stupidity is the statement of our expectancy that the individual or the group will fail, even though the odds favor success. While the differential diagnosis depends upon the ratio of successes to the total number of attempts at achievement, an expectation of intelligence is also to be derived from the observation of traits of character most frequently associated with creative imagination. Amongst these are ambition, audacity, aspiration, the love of adventure and, most significant of all, a disregard of authority, leading perhaps to a defiance of privilege and public opinion.
The meeting point of intellect and intelligence is interesting. Imagination belongs to the category of intellect, and also to the category of intelligence. A civilization implies an average intellectual level. The farther an individual’s intellectual level falls below the mode, the more intelligence he will need. Creative imagination produces order out of chaos, and memory is an established order become habitual.
A civilization is a social order, the developmental level of a group?it may be large or small. It is to be measured in the number and diversity of material and intellectual resources, but its chance of survival depends on intelligence, that is to say, on its ability to change. The social order of tomorrow is the invention of a few individuals whose intelligence operates at a high intellectual level. Change is the predominant characteristic of uterine life; stability, of the adult. Youth combines the plasticity of initiative with the efficiency of acquired skill and thus produces the successful inventions from which a new order is evolved. Old age brings wisdom but is handicapped by deficiency of initiative and dislike of change. The vitality of a civilization is directly proportional to the creative intelligence of its young men and young women.
Observation of the behaviour of children and adults leads to the conclusion that intelligence is not to be acquired through education. It is a congenital endowment, though not inheritable, and its amount is not increased by training. Efficiency, on the other hand, may be increased by training, and knowledge is being constantly acquired through experience and education.
The best single index of the developmental level of an individual’s competency is to be found in his “judgment.” With age, we are supposed to increase in wisdom and judgment, what the business man calls “good common sense.” In the last analysis, good judgment is my judgment, or the judgment of some group, large or small. The only other criterion of good judgment is the successful outcome of adventured action.
Specialized intelligence is the ability to solve new problems in one particular field. General intelligence is proportional to the area over which the ability to solve new problems is spread. Intelligence is seldom considered “superior” unless it operates at a high intellectual level. To reach a high intellectual level, the individual or a group needs discipline, education and industry as well as intelligence.
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