ABSTRACT
Although we all may think we know the meaning of the word intelligence, there is little agreement on what to measure, how to measure it, and how to compare the result across individuals, cultures or species (see e.g., Sternberg & Kaufman, 1998). Are there multiple intelligences, corresponding to various discrete abilities, and how might they correlate? Is there a general (g) underlying or unifying factor? In this chapter, I ask how intelligence might relate to problem-solving ability (speed, accuracy, efficiency), where in the brain might it be mediated, how it might correlate with measurable brain processes (electrophysiological, metabolic, or conductive), and what selective processes might have operated in hominid evolution. I then ask how it might be reflected in such behaviors as tool use, language and art on the one side, and social or Machiavellian intelligence on the other. What might a comparative study of our closest relatives, the African apes, tell us about our common ancestors’ intellectual capacities, and what is there to be seen in the fossil or archaeological record? This chapter surveys developments relevant to the evolution of intellect from the basic elements of response processes, via mediating brain structures and mechanisms, upward to gross aspects of behavior and culture, in the contexts of neuropsychology, primatology, and paleoanthropology.
