ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how the extent to which the concept of general intelligence or g is adequate for both a theoretical understanding of human cognitive function and for practice. We specifically focus on the value of g in comparison to an alternative and contemporary conceptualization that includes assessment, delineation of individual differences in cognitive processing, and serves as a guide for instruction and remediation when a deficit is diagnosed. We review the background literature on the alternative conceptualization that divides mental processes into Planning, Attention, Simultaneous and Successive processing (PASS; Naglieri & Das, 1997b), and discuss its advantages over a single-score measure of general intelligence.
