Earl hunt's interesting comments about Demetriou, Spanoudis & Mouyi's model of intelligence - interesting beyond the context of this model

The renowned intelligence scholar Earl Hunt wrote a short review of Demetriou,   Spanoudis  & Mouyi's model of intelligence that was presented in the previous post.

Here is Hunt's paper:

 Hunt, E. (2012). Educating the Developing Mind: The View from Cognitive Psychology. EducationalPsychology Review, 24(1), 1- 7

Here are some of his comments which I found especially interesting, beyond the context of this specific model:

About the representational capacity system – Hunt refers to it as the working memory/attentional control system.   People can store and retrieve information without the involvement of the working memory system (it's possible to perform storage and retrieval processes outside of conscious awareness, for example during statistical learning about which I wrote here) – but information that we want to be able to retrieve later,in a controlled and conscious way, in order to integrate it with information currently perceived, must pass through the working memory/ attentional control system.  Whatever makes this system more efficient, greatly influences cognition.  That's why the functioning of working memory/attentional control has a great influence on g.

Demetriou,   Spanoudis  & Mouyi consider working memory/ attentional control to be a separate system, an autonomic entity, like a theater stage, upon which the actors perform their parts in the unfolding drama (for instance the "drama" of solving a crossword puzzle).  However, Hunt says, the efficiency of the working memory/attentional control system is determined by the way information is coded in long term memory.  According to Miller, short term memory usually doesn’t contain meaningful symbols, but pointers to information that is well organized in long term memory.  For instance, when we hear the phrase "an integration is needed", the word "integration" is a pointer to an organized structure of ideas in long term memory.  Such structures are involved in the performance of every task, according to its content. 

About the inference system – Hunt writes that as children grow up, they acquire ways of thinking that are more and more powerful, like the use of inference processes based on categorical thinking.  It's possible to implement these thought processes in many areas of cognition.  Demetriou,   Spanoudis  & Mouyi suggest that a lot of our knowledge about the world is based on inference, not on direct observation.  Thus anything that improves our general ability to draw conclusions, including math and logic skills, will improve our ability to acquire knowledge. This is the reason the inference system is an important part of intelligence

About the Specialized structural systems  (SSS) and their development -Demetriou,   Spanoudis  & Mouyi argue that intelligence develops as a result of interactions between the different SSSs – interactions between different kinds of thinking, that include knowledge in specific content areas and knowledge about thought processes specific to each SSS.  The knowledge and thought processes develop in each SSS and are available to other SSSs.  That is to say, Demetriou,   Spanoudis  & Mouyi assume the existence of a lot of transfer between different learning situations. 

Hunt thinks this is an overoptimistic supposition.  He argues that there is a large body of knowledge indicating that human thought is organized in cognitive "silos" – isolated from the (cognitive) environment.  Ways of thought are influenced very much by the specific context in which the thinking takes place.  In one study, for example, graduate physics students had difficulties applying basic laws of physics to problems presented outside of physics lessons.  When we learn "rules of thought", for example statistical rules of thought, we link those rules to a specific context.  We don’t acquire only a rule or a thought process. We  acquire, in conjunction with it, a rule defining the context in which the rule or thought process is to be applied.  The rules or processes we acquire contain an action constituent that tells us what to do, and a constituent that tells us when to do it. The reliance of   Demetriou,   Spanoudis  & Mouyi on interactions between the SSSs in order to form and shape general intelligence is not supported enough by research, according to Hunt, because transfer of procedures from one SSS to another occurs less than we would have wanted

Every model that looks at intelligence as developing out of interactions between expert systems has to emphasize, according to Hunt, the importance of the development of thought in preschool.  Learning is built upon prior learning.  The thinking ability the child acquires in second grade depends on the thinking ability he acquired in first grade.  Learning and thought procedures acquired very early in life, in preschool, influence the child's learning rate in the early school years.  What the child acquires in the early school years determines what he'll acquire in later school years, and so on.  Investing in developing cognitive skills in preschool is more efficient than investing in older ages and classes.

Important points to consider.