The 4 differences between fluid and crystallized intelligence

A summary of the characteristics that help distinguish between fluid and crystallized intelligence.

One of the most important models that has influenced the understanding of intelligence is the Cattell-Horn theory, a theory in which intelligence is presented as the combination and joint work of two components: fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence.

While these two intelligences are very important for our ability to solve problems, both new and those we have experienced before, they have a few differences.

We will now take a look at the differences between fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence..

Differences between fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence, and their characteristics.

Throughout history there have been different definitions of what intelligence is. Although each model has proposed its own concept, most of them agree on the essential capabilities that make up this idea, understanding intelligence as the set of capabilities that allow the understanding and comprehension of problems, solve them and that in one way or another is related to the acquisition of knowledge and new learning.

There are those who have considered that intelligence is a purely genetic and inherited component, something that one has and that cannot be improved in any way throughout life.

Others, on the other hand, have treated intelligence as something that can change during life, and that receives an important influence from the learning that takes place throughout the life trajectory. Finally, we have models that integrate both ideas, we have models that integrate both ideas, such as Raymond Cattell's theory of intelligence..

The British psychologist Raymond Cattell is widely known in psychology for his particular model of intelligence. Together with the collaboration of John Horn, Cattell put forward a model in which two components for intelligence are conceived, which interact and work together to produce overall individual intelligence: fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence.

The Cattell-Horn theory combines the aforementioned ideas in which intelligence is conceived of as dependent on the individual's genetics but also nurtured by learning throughout life. Thus, there would be the intellectual component highly dependent on inherited factors, which would be fluid intelligence, and the component that would depend more on the environment in which one grows up, which would be crystallized intelligence.

Fluid intelligence

According to the Cattell-Horn model, fluid intelligence is related to the ability to think and reason abstractly.. This ability, which has an important genetic component, is the capacity of people to adapt and face new situations in an agile way without previous learning or experience.

Examples where this type of intelligence would be applied would be in solving puzzles, making a rubik's cube, developing a new strategy to solve a mathematical exercise or filtering irrelevant information from or filtering irrelevant information from a text.

The components of fluid intelligence are these:

• Ability to reason with abstract content.
• Logical reasoning
• Ability to establish relationships or extract differences

It can be understood why this intelligence is so closely related to the genetic component in the fact that is closely linked to neurophysiological variables such as the development of neural connections.. Likewise, this does not mean that it depends exclusively on our genetics, since these same connections can be fostered by living in culturally enriching environments, i.e., the environmental factor also influences fluid intelligence.

Fluid intelligence acquires its most intense moment of development at the earliest ages.This is when there is a great development of brain structures. It could be said that it is during adolescence when the individual is as close as possible to having fully developed his fluid intelligence, although it has also been seen that we continue to develop it, although at a slower pace, until the decade of the forties.

It is just after the age of 40 that this intelligence begins to decline. This decrease in fluid intelligence, especially noticeable after the age of 60 and 70, is due to different factors that involve a reduction in the functionality of brain structures, such as normal aging, accidents, development of brain pathologies and/or substance abuse.

Crystallized intelligence

Crystallized intelligence is the component of general intelligence related to knowledge and learning related to the individual's knowledge and learning, i.e., it is a component of general intelligence.In other words, it is an intellectual component closely related to the experience and environment in which the person has developed. The situations in which this intelligence is involved are all those in which it is necessary to rescue learned information and put it to good use, as for example in a language exam, applying mathematical formulas or giving a lecture.

The components of crystallized intelligence are the following.

• Language comprehension
• Assessment of experience
• Ability to make judgments and draw conclusions
• Mechanical knowledge
• Orientation in space

Crystallized intelligence, being based on experience, is technically improvable throughout our lives.In the sense that we will always be able to learn something new, unless we suffer from some kind of pathology that prevents us from storing new knowledge. In other words, this intelligence increases with age, since the longer we live the more experiences we gain.

It must be said that this intelligence does not only depend on the environment in which the individual has been able to develop, but also on factors related to personality and motivation. An individual who is curious to learn something new every day, is motivated to investigate and discover new things, will be a person whose crystallized intelligence tends to be higher than that of a person who does not share these same traits.

How to distinguish between the two types of intelligence?

The main difference between these two types of intelligence is what they are used for.. Fluid intelligence is that capacity that allows us to solve new problems, situations of which we have no previous experience or learning already done and that we have to use our creativity to see how we can emerge victorious from them. On the other hand, crystallized intelligence is the one in which we make good use of the knowledge we have already acquired to solve a situation we have already experienced.

Another difference is how it evolves throughout life.. Fluid intelligence usually reaches its highest level during adolescence, although it is true, as mentioned above, that it can continue to develop until the age of 40, although at a slower rate. On the other hand, crystallized intelligence is always increasing, as long as one does not suffer from a disease that involves the acquisition of new knowledge.

There are also age differences as to when these intelligences go into decline. Fluid intelligence begins to decline very gradually from the age of 40 onwards, with the decline accelerating from the age of 60 onwards. On the other hand, crystallized intelligence decreases in a very varied way, depending more on whether the person suffers from some type of brain alteration. In case there is no brain damage whatsoever, it is normal that even when a person is 70 years old, he or she continues to learn new things.This could at most be affected by the memory lapses typical of that age.

Curiously enough, these two intelligences share a fact that also depends on age. Both fluid and crystallized intelligence develop with great intensity during early ages, especially in childhood and adolescence. This can be observed with primary school children, since they are learning many new contents and words per day (crystallized intelligence) while as the months go by they are able to solve increasingly complex problems (fluid intelligence).

But in addition to the age factor another differentiating aspect between fluid and crystallized intelligence is the weight of genetics and environment.. Actually, both factors influence both intelligences, but as we have mentioned, fluid intelligence depends a lot on genetics and is highly hereditary, being difficult to modify once the maximum peak has been reached during adolescence.

On the other hand, crystallized intelligence is highly dependent on environment and learning. While it is true that each person is born with a more or less innate capacity to memorize content, experience is an aspect that depends a lot on the environment in which we have grown up, whether it is culturally more enriching or whether, on the contrary, it has deficiencies that prevent us from expanding our knowledge.