ABSTRACT
The information-processing perspective transformed intelligence theory because it led to a more molecular view of intelligent functioning than was possible within the psychometrician’s theoretical framework. Information-processing psychology helped researchers identify the cognitive elements of intelligent functioning and describe their operations and interactions. Yet, to many investigators, the reconceptualization of intelligence did not go far enough. It still seemed to have a narrow quality, partly because it was often aimed at explaining those information-processing competencies that facilitate success on tests of cognitive ability—hardly ends in themselves. The parochial quality of the psychometric paradigm was largely inherited by cognitivists because they, too, restricted the phenomena of interest to a rather narrow range of tasks and contexts (Cattell, 1987).
