The Psychology of Intelligence

1. Intelligence is the highest form of biological adaptation, balancing assimilation and accommodation.

To define intelligence in terms of the progressive reversibility of the mobile structures which it forms is therefore to repeat, in different words, that intelligence constitutes the state of equilibrium towards which tend all the successive adaptations of a sensori-motor and cognitive nature, as well as all assimilatory and accommodatory interactions between the organism and the environment.

Adaptation is key. Intelligence is not a separate faculty but the most advanced form of adaptation, an equilibrium between the organism's action on the environment (assimilation) and the environment's action on the organism (accommodation). Assimilation is incorporating reality into existing mental structures or "schemata," while accommodation is modifying those structures to fit new reality.

Functional continuity. This adaptive view places intelligence on a continuum with all biological and cognitive processes, from basic reflexes and perception to complex reasoning. It is the ultimate state of equilibrium for these processes, characterized by its plasticity and durability. Intelligence allows interaction with the environment at increasing distances in space and time, freeing action from the immediate "hic et nunc."

Equilibrium achieved. The balance between assimilation and accommodation becomes increasingly mobile and stable as intelligence develops. This dynamic equilibrium, culminating in reversible operations, allows the individual to understand and interact with the world in a flexible and powerful way, extending adaptive processes to encompass broader reality.

2. Intelligence is fundamentally operational, built from internalized, reversible actions forming structured systems called groupings.

The specific nature of operations, as compared with empirical actions, depends, on the other hand, on the fact that they never exist in a discontinuous state.

Operations are actions. Logical and mathematical thought is not merely apprehending external ideas but consists of "operations," which are internalized actions. These are not isolated acts but are organized into coherent systems, unlike simple empirical actions or intuitive representations.

Systems are groupings. These operational systems are called "groupings," characterized by specific properties:

• Combinativity: Operations can be combined.
• Reversibility: Every operation has a converse that can undo it.
• Associativity: The path taken to a result doesn't change the outcome.
• Identity: An operation combined with its converse is annulled.
• Tautology (for qualitative groupings): Repeating an operation doesn't change the result (A+A=A).

Living logic. Groupings represent the state of equilibrium for thought, providing mobility and permanence. They are the psychological reality underlying formal logic, which is seen as the axiomatic model of this equilibrium, not a pre-existing structure imposed on the mind.

3. Perception differs from intelligence by its irreversible, statistical nature, while intelligence achieves objective relativity through mobile, reversible operations.

A perceptual structure is characterised, as the Gestalt theory itself has insisted, by its irreducibility to additive combination—it is thus irreversible and non-associative.

Perception's limitations. While Gestalt theory highlights the "whole" nature of perceptual structures, these structures are fundamentally different from operational groupings. Perception is characterized by:

• Irreversibility: Perceptual changes are often uncompensated.
• Non-additivity: The whole is not simply the sum of parts.
• Non-associativity: Perception depends on the path taken.
• Distorting relativity: Perception accentuates differences (Weber's Law) and is subject to illusions.

Statistical nature. Perceptual mechanisms operate based on probabilities and statistical distributions of attention or "centrings." This leads to "uncompensated changes" and "displacements of equilibrium," unlike the exact compensations and permanent equilibrium of operational thought.

Operational objectivity. Intelligence, through its mobile and reversible operations, achieves a different kind of relativity – objective relativity. By coordinating multiple viewpoints and compensating transformations, operational thought overcomes the distortions inherent in perception, leading to stable concepts like conservation.

4. Habit and sensori-motor intelligence share origins in sensori-motor assimilation, with intelligence extending beyond immediate, rigid responses.

The affinity between habit and intelligence thus becomes manifest, both arising, although at different levels, from sensori-motor assimilation.

Shared foundation. Habit formation and the beginnings of intelligence both stem from sensori-motor assimilation, the process of incorporating new experiences into existing action schemata. Even simple conditioned responses involve integrating new elements into pre-existing behavioral patterns, not just passive association.

Beyond rigidity. While habits are characterized by stereotyped, unidirectional responses to recurring circumstances, intelligence emerges when this assimilatory activity extends beyond immediate, rigid connections. It involves:

• Increased mobility: Schemata become more flexible and can be combined in new ways.
• Extended scope: Action anticipates and reconstructs events beyond the immediate present.
• Differentiation of means and ends: Goals are set before the means are applied.

Continuum of activity. Trial-and-error, often seen as the basis of habit and early intelligence, is not purely random but is guided by existing schemata and meanings. This active accommodation, working alongside assimilation, drives the development from simple habits to more complex, intelligent behaviors.

5. Sensori-motor intelligence develops through stages of increasingly complex action schemata, culminating in practical object permanence and spatial groups.

Early intelligence, therefore, is simply the form of mobile equilibrium towards which the mechanisms adapted to perception and habit tend; but the latter attain this only by leaving their respective fields of application.

Pre-verbal foundation. Before language, intelligence develops through six stages of sensori-motor coordination. Starting from reflexes and primary habits, the infant progresses through:

• Primary circular reactions (body-focused repetition)
• Secondary circular reactions (action on external objects)
• Coordination of secondary schemata (means-end behavior)
• Tertiary circular reactions (active experimentation)
• Invention through mental combination (internalized action)

Object and space construction. This development is intrinsically linked to the construction of fundamental concepts like the permanent object and spatial relations. Object permanence, the understanding that objects exist when not perceived, emerges gradually through the coordination of sensori-motor schemata, particularly those involving searching and displacement.

Practical group. By the end of this period (around 1.5-2 years), the child constructs a practical "group of displacements." This is an empirical understanding of spatial transformations (movements, reversals, detours) and the conservation of position, achieved through the coordination of physical actions, not conceptual thought.

6. Thought develops through pre-operational stages (symbolic, preconceptual, intuitive) marked by egocentricity, phenomenalism, and irreversible mental experiments.

Intuitive thought, therefore, always evinces a distorting egocentricity, since the relation that is recognised is related to the subject’s action and not decentralised into an objective system.

Symbolic function. The transition from sensori-motor intelligence to thought is marked by the emergence of the symbolic function (around 1.5-2 years), enabling representation through distinct significants (symbols, signs). This includes deferred imitation, symbolic play, mental imagery, and language acquisition.

Preconceptual thought. The first stage (approx. 2-4 years) uses "preconcepts," notions midway between individual instances and general classes. Reasoning is "transductive," moving from particular to particular based on immediate analogies or imagined actions, lacking logical structure and reversibility.

Intuitive thought. The next stage (approx. 4-7 years) is "intuitive," characterized by mental representations closely tied to perceptual configurations. Thought is still:

• Egocentric: Centered on the subject's viewpoint, failing to coordinate perspectives.
• Phenomenalistic: Focused on immediate appearance rather than underlying reality.
• Irreversible: Mental transformations are unidirectional.

Regulations, not operations. Intuitive thought progresses through "articulated intuition," where regulations (analogous to perceptual adjustments) correct distortions and lead to more accurate representations. However, these are still not fully reversible operations and lack the combinatorial structure of true logic.

7. Concrete operational thought emerges with the formation of reversible groupings, enabling conservation and logical reasoning tied to manipulable objects.

where there is “grouping” there will be the conservation of a whole, and this conservation itself will not merely be assumed by the subject by virtue of a probable induction, but affirmed by him as a certainty in his thought.

The operational shift. Around 7-8 years, a significant change occurs: intuitive regulations coalesce into reversible operations, forming "concrete groupings." This transition is often rapid and marked by the child's certainty about conservation.

Conservation as hallmark. The key indicator of operational thinking is the understanding of conservation – that a quantity remains the same despite changes in appearance. This applies to:

• Substance (around 7-8 years)
• Weight (around 9-10 years)
• Volume (around 11-12 years)

Concrete logic. These operations are "concrete" because they are tied to objects that can be manipulated or directly perceived. They enable logical reasoning about classes (classification), relations (seriation), and numbers, as well as spatio-temporal concepts like measurement and time. However, this logic is not yet generalized and may apply to one type of content (e.g., substance) before another (e.g., weight).

8. Formal operational thought, appearing in adolescence, involves operating on operations, enabling hypothetico-deductive reasoning independent of concrete reality.

Formal thought, on the other hand, consists in reflecting (in the true sense of the word) on these operations and therefore operating on operations or on their results and consequently effecting a second-degree grouping of operations.

Thinking about thinking. Beginning around 11-12 years, adolescents develop the capacity for "formal operations." This involves thinking not just about concrete objects and their transformations, but about the operations themselves. It is a "second-degree" level of thinking.

Hypothetico-deductive reasoning. Formal thought allows for:

• Reasoning from hypotheses: Considering possibilities that may not be real.
• Deduction based on form: Drawing conclusions based on the logical structure of arguments, independent of content.
• Manipulation of propositions: Reasoning about statements and their logical relationships (implication, contradiction).

Abstract and general. This stage marks the ability to reason abstractly and systematically explore all possible solutions to a problem. It is the foundation for scientific and philosophical thinking, extending intelligence beyond the realm of the immediately real to the realm of the possible.

9. Intellectual development is a hierarchy of successive constructions, where each level coordinates and differentiates structures from the preceding one.

Each of the transitions from one of these levels to the next is therefore characterized both by a new co-ordination and by a differentiation of the systems constituting the unit of the preceding level.

Building blocks. Development is not a smooth, continuous accumulation but a series of distinct stages, each building upon and transforming the structures of the previous one. Higher-level structures are new coordinations of lower-level elements.

Differentiation. Alongside coordination, development involves differentiation. Initially, various functions (like logical, spatial, and practical reasoning) are undifferentiated within sensori-motor schemata. As development progresses, these functions differentiate into distinct operational systems (e.g., logical vs. spatio-temporal groupings).

Progressive equilibrium. Each stage represents a more stable and mobile form of equilibrium than the last. Sensori-motor intelligence achieves a practical equilibrium, intuitive thought is unstable, concrete operations achieve a stable equilibrium for concrete problems, and formal operations achieve a general equilibrium for abstract problems.

10. Social interaction, particularly cooperation, is crucial for the development of logic by fostering the coordination and decentralization of viewpoints.

co-operation is the first of a series of forms of behaviour which are important for the constitution and development of logic.

Social influence. Society profoundly influences intelligence through language (signs), shared knowledge (values), and collective norms (logic). However, the nature of this influence changes with the child's developmental stage.

Pre-operational egocentricity. In the pre-operational period, the child's egocentricity (inability to differentiate their viewpoint from others) makes them susceptible to external suggestion and constraint but hinders true intellectual exchange. They assimilate social input into their own perspective without fully coordinating it with others.

Operational cooperation. The emergence of operational thinking (concrete and formal) is closely linked to the development of cooperation. Cooperation involves:

• Reciprocity: Mutual understanding and respect for different viewpoints.
• Coordination: Integrating diverse perspectives into a coherent whole.
• Decentralization: Moving beyond one's own viewpoint to consider others objectively.

Logic as social norm. Logic itself, with its rules of consistency and deduction, can be seen as the internalized outcome of cooperative intellectual exchange. The need for verification and demonstration arises from the mutual control inherent in discussion and collaboration, making logic a "morality of thinking" sanctioned by the collective.

Last updated: May 4, 2025