Intelligence and task structure complexity

The idea

This is the PhD, undertaken at the University of Western Australia in the School of Psychological Science, supervised by Mike Anderson. The thesis tests a mental-program account of intelligence: fluid g is tied to building a program for a problem, not only to holding facts in mind. Goal neglect is the failure that program is measured by. A requirement can be understood and remembered, and still drop out of behaviour at the moment it has to be carried out.

The approach

Two lines of experiments raise the complexity of the task structure by changing the instructions people are given. One line studies goal neglect in typically developing children. The other uses EEG. Across the studies, a more complex task structure worsens performance and increases goal neglect, and the conditions that force a more complex structure also tighten the link between neglect and fluid g. The EEG work separates an early evaluation of whether a stimulus is relevant to the task from later interactions among theta, alpha, and beta.

• Doctor of Philosophy, University of Western Australia, 2013
• Supervisor: Mike Anderson
• Children’s goal neglect, and an EEG account of task structure complexity