Manifestation of intellectual competencies when solving cognitive tasks of different types

Abstract

Background. The concept of “competence” was introduced into the psychology of intelligence in the 1970s as an alternative to the test approach to studying mental abilities, but until now it has been used primarily in the business environment and in pedagogy. In our study, we attempted to bring the concept of “competency” back to intelligence research and defined intellectual competencies (ICs) as relatively stable patterns of individual cognitive behavior that manifest in the process of solving cognitive tasks and ultimately lead to finding the respective solutions.

Objectives. The study had its purpose to test the following hypotheses: 1) manifestations of ICs while solving cognitive tasks of different types correlate positively with success in finding the solutions for these tasks; 2) manifestations of ICs are characterized by trans-situational stability; 3) manifestations of ICs correlate positively with psychometric IQ and conceptual abilities.

Study Participants. 49 self-reported healthy adult volunteers (29 females; aged 18–49, Меan = 22) participated in the study.

Methods. Participants were administered J. Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices and M.A. Kholodnaya’s Generalization of Three Words and Conceptual Synthesis tests. Then, they solved two cognitive tasks (one propositional and one performative). The efficiency of each solution as well as manifestations of ICs during the solving process were assessed through expert evaluation.

Results. Participants who manifested ICs known as “transformative efforts”, “ability to compose conceptual gestalts based on past experiences” and “active information acquisition” demonstrated greater success when solving cognitive tasks of both types compared to participants who did not manifest these ICs. Differences in manifestations of ICs while solving tasks of different types were found for “transformative efforts” only. Conceptual (categorial) abilities of participants who manifested “active information acquisition” when solving both tasks were higher than those of participants who did not manifest this IC. No difference in the levels of conceptual abilities and IQ was found between participants who did manifest ICs in the process of solving cognitive tasks and those who did not.

Conclusions. ICs are an independent psychological formation which is not directly based on either IQ or conceptual abilities. This may be related to the existence of “core” and “peripheral” ICs which remains to be addressed in the future studies.

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