ABSTRACT
In pursuit of theorizing a framework from which to conceptualize and eventually measure the development of intelligence, the scientific community has created a variety of approaches to the study of intellectual development, and of the development of specific thought processes. Three of the most widely accepted, and rigorously promoted approaches to children's cognitive, or intellectual, development are described as the psychometric, Piagetian, and information processing approaches. The chapter focuses on briefly defining each approach and outlines some of the research which has followed it, considering some of the instruments applied to individual assessment, and a comparison of the primary factors of intelligence as identified by the approach. It discusses the similarities and differences within the approaches will then attempt to show that in many areas, the theories converge, joining to offer a more comprehensive model of intelligence than that offered by any individual approach.
