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Is domain-general thinking a domain-specific adaptation?

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Abstract

According to Kanazawa (Psychol Rev 111:512–523, 2004), general intelligence, which he considers as a synonym of abstract thinking, evolved specifically to allow our ancestors to deal with evolutionary novel problems while conferring no advantage in solving evolutionary familiar ones. We present a study whereby the results contradict Kanazawa’s hypothesis by demonstrating that performance on an evolutionary novel problem (an abstract reasoning task) predicts performance on an evolutionary familiar problem (a social reasoning task).

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Acknowledgements

Preparation of this paper was supported by a COFIN (2005117840_003) grant from the Italian Ministry of Universities and by a CIMeC grant from the SMC/Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Trento e Rovereto. We thank Vicenzo Crupi, Robert Lickliter, Luigi Lombardi and three anonymous referees for their comments on a previous version of the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Arts and Industrial Design, University IUAV of Venice, Convento delle Terese, DD 2206, 30123, Venice, Italy

    Vittorio Girotto

  2. Department of Cognitive Sciences and Education/CIMeC, University of Trento, Via Matteo del Ben 5, 38068, Rovereto (TN), Italy

    Katya Tentori

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  1. Vittorio Girotto
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  2. Katya Tentori
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Correspondence to Vittorio Girotto.

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Girotto, V., Tentori, K. Is domain-general thinking a domain-specific adaptation?. Mind Soc 7, 167–175 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11299-007-0045-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11299-007-0045-3

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