Intelligence versus cognition: time for a (good) relation - a summary of an article by Kan and van der Maas (2010)

Critical thinking
Article Kan, K., and van der Maas, H. (2010)
Intelligentie versus cognitie: tijd voor een (goede) relatie

Cognition versus intelligence, universal traits versus differential traits

Inter-individual differences: differences between people
Intra-individual differences: differences within people

Diverse use of the term intelligence

There are many difference views regarding intelligence. This makes it difficult to pin down what people in psychology call intelligence.

Alternative theories

In some cases, mutual interactions between populations lead to a situation in which parties take profit of each other.
The growth of one population leads the other population to grow. This is mutual.
This dynamical interaction is mutualism.

As a result of individual differences in limited capacities and as a result of mutualistic interactions between cognitive processes, cognitive processes become correlated in the course of development.
The functionally independent cognitive functions within each individual become positively correlated.
The functionally independent cognitive functions within each individual become statistical dependent over groups of people.

Implications

It is possible that the positive cohesion between cognitive abilities is caused by mutualistic interactions that are a result of cognitive development and measurement-problems.
It can’t be ruled out that some influences have effect on the development of all (or multiple) cognitive abilities.
Intelligence can best be compared with an index of general health; it isn’t a real property like cognitive processes are.