Crystallized Vs. Fluid Intelligence

Crystallized versus Fluid Intelligence

The brain is a sophisticated survival organ. And, according to variable selection theory, we survived because we could adapt to rapidly changing circumstances – we adapted to change itself. What cognitive gadgets in the grain best aided our ability to survive the ever-changing environment of Northeast Africa?

A model that answers this question best is an old one, first championed by researchers Raymond Cattell and John Horn in the middle years of the 20th century. The idea that you use previous knowledge to improvise solutions to present problems lies at the heart of the ideas of Cattell and Horn.

The first category is called crystallized intelligence, which is the ability to learn from experience, constructing a database retrievable on demand. You got scorched when you put your hand on an orange-colored burner on a stove. You recall this experience the next time and see a hot stove – using your crystallized intelligence – and move away.

Crystallized intelligence is that suite of gadgets that allows you to memorize and recall. Those who could remember prior experience best might have distinct survival advantages over those who could not. Crystallized intelligence skills tend to get better as you get older.

The second category is called fluid intelligence, which is roughly the ability to improvise off the database established with your crystallized talents. You got scorched on an orange-colored burner on a stove. Now you see an orange-colored fire in a fire pit. That's not a stove, but still you stay away from it.

That's improvising: coming to conclusions in reaction to situations with which you have no direct experience. You create unique combinations from the database – in this case, solving a pattern-matching problem. Such creative, inductive problem-solving ability is the hallmark of fluid intelligence. Fluid intelligence skills do not improve with age; the skills reach their maximum in your early twenties and then begin a long, slow decline. 

We obviously used both types of intelligence to survive the wild, woolly world of the meteorologically unstable Serengeti. Those people who had them working in concert, quickly absorbing the knowledge the world had to offer and then improvising off it, could adapt to changes much more quickly than those who could not.

(From Your Best Brain, Course Guidebook, by Professor John J. Medina).

Interpersonal intelligence is a social skill. It is the ability to understand and be sensitive to the emotions and feeling of others.