Meta-Intelligence: Understanding, Control, and Coordination of Higher Cognitive Processes

Higher cognitive processes are often characterized as fitting into categories that, while treated as natural kinds, actually are human-made inventions, such as intelligence, creativity, and wisdom. Other germane categories include reasoning, problem solving, and concept formation. The different cat...

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Main Author: Robert J. Sternberg
Format: Article
Language:deu
Published: Heidelberg University Publishing 2022-10-01
Series:Heidelberger Jahrbücher Online
Subjects:
Online Access:https://heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/index.php/hdjbo/article/view/24399
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author Robert J. Sternberg
author_facet Robert J. Sternberg
author_sort Robert J. Sternberg
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description Higher cognitive processes are often characterized as fitting into categories that, while treated as natural kinds, actually are human-made inventions, such as intelligence, creativity, and wisdom. Other germane categories include reasoning, problem solving, and concept formation. The different categories generate their own journals, their own tests, their own training programs, and, of course, their own cadres of researchers who specialize in one (or, more rarely, more than one) of the categories. I suggest in this article that the mental structures and processes underlying these various categories are largely the same. For example, all of them require metacomponents, or executive processes, such as recognizing the existence of problems, defining the nature of problems, formulating strategies to solve problems, and so forth. Their utilization also requires certain attitudes. What differs is the purpose to which processes and attitudes are utilized. In intelligence, the processes and attitudes are used primarily for knowledge acquisition, utilization, and analysis. In creativity, the processes and attitudes are used to generate new, useful ideas. In wisdom, the processes and attitudes are used to seek a common good. The arbitrariness of these separate categories serves artificially to isolate related theoretical and empirical work that should integrate intelligence, creativity, and wisdom. In this article, I discuss how the construct of meta-intelligence helps bring unity to theory and research endeavors that are now viewed as being largely independent of each other.
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spelling doaj.art-bcf51add9f02434f8fd774ef608fefcb2022-12-22T02:28:01ZdeuHeidelberg University PublishingHeidelberger Jahrbücher Online2509-78222509-24642022-10-016110.17885/heiup.hdjbo.2021.1.243991123Meta-Intelligence: Understanding, Control, and Coordination of Higher Cognitive ProcessesRobert J. Sternberg0College of Human Ecology, Cornell University Higher cognitive processes are often characterized as fitting into categories that, while treated as natural kinds, actually are human-made inventions, such as intelligence, creativity, and wisdom. Other germane categories include reasoning, problem solving, and concept formation. The different categories generate their own journals, their own tests, their own training programs, and, of course, their own cadres of researchers who specialize in one (or, more rarely, more than one) of the categories. I suggest in this article that the mental structures and processes underlying these various categories are largely the same. For example, all of them require metacomponents, or executive processes, such as recognizing the existence of problems, defining the nature of problems, formulating strategies to solve problems, and so forth. Their utilization also requires certain attitudes. What differs is the purpose to which processes and attitudes are utilized. In intelligence, the processes and attitudes are used primarily for knowledge acquisition, utilization, and analysis. In creativity, the processes and attitudes are used to generate new, useful ideas. In wisdom, the processes and attitudes are used to seek a common good. The arbitrariness of these separate categories serves artificially to isolate related theoretical and empirical work that should integrate intelligence, creativity, and wisdom. In this article, I discuss how the construct of meta-intelligence helps bring unity to theory and research endeavors that are now viewed as being largely independent of each other. https://heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/index.php/hdjbo/article/view/24399intelligencecreativitycognitive processescontrolwisdommetacognition
spellingShingle Robert J. Sternberg
Meta-Intelligence: Understanding, Control, and Coordination of Higher Cognitive Processes
Heidelberger Jahrbücher Online
intelligence
creativity
cognitive processes
control
wisdom
metacognition
title Meta-Intelligence: Understanding, Control, and Coordination of Higher Cognitive Processes
title_full Meta-Intelligence: Understanding, Control, and Coordination of Higher Cognitive Processes
title_fullStr Meta-Intelligence: Understanding, Control, and Coordination of Higher Cognitive Processes
title_full_unstemmed Meta-Intelligence: Understanding, Control, and Coordination of Higher Cognitive Processes
title_short Meta-Intelligence: Understanding, Control, and Coordination of Higher Cognitive Processes
title_sort meta intelligence understanding control and coordination of higher cognitive processes
topic intelligence
creativity
cognitive processes
control
wisdom
metacognition
url https://heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/index.php/hdjbo/article/view/24399
work_keys_str_mv AT robertjsternberg metaintelligenceunderstandingcontrolandcoordinationofhighercognitiveprocesses