He gives the example of one question which required contestants to make new words from British postal codes (CANE from the codes for Carlisle and Newcastle, a recent example). In other words, most questions are of the knowledge recall, crystallised variety, but he does say this series has featured more "two-step" questions, which do need more than this. "We don't set out to test intelligence but I think we do test a certain aspect - the part that is reactive rather than creative." this would be a good starter question," he says. Thomas Benson is the question editor for University Challenge and writes a fifth of the questions on the programme. There are scientists who argue that people with high fluid intelligence will more quickly acquire crystallised intelligence. They're much more likely to ask you what the capital of Upper Volta is."Ĭountdown is in general a much better test of this type of mental ability, he suggests. "They try and have a bit of that for the physicists but they don't have many of those items. He admits they have some analytical questions which test fluid intelligence, requiring contestants to solve equations or process information, but suggests they are by no means the majority. It is a good index but it is only one branch of intelligence," he says. "They measure, almost entirely, crystallised intelligence. Prof Furnham thinks University Challenge is skewed towards this type of intelligence. Knowing all of the counties in the British Isles is a piece of crystallised intelligence. You don't have to have had an education."Ĭrystallised intelligence on the other hand is knowledge you have learnt and then access from memory. "Fluid intelligence is analysis, maybe doing Sudoku or a Rubik's cube - speed of analysis with problem solving. Their testing of other forms is debatable
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |