Genes, Brains, and Human Potential The Science and Ideology of Intelligence

212 A CREATIVE COGNITION

cognition is and how it works remains very much a work in pro gress.
Instead of characterization, nearly all textbooks of cognitive science
start with a list of approaches and then pres ent (more- or- less confused)
students with a theoretical salad, as if from a grocery store. Th e result-
ing frustration explains why many psychologists are turning to neuro-
science for the insights that cognitive science has failed to deliver.
So it is perhaps hardly surprising that psychologists who claim to mea-
sure cognitive potential have only a very rudimentary cognitive theory,
and are not sure what they are mea sur ing. Although some specialized
tests may be useful for identifying categorical cognitive disorders (which
will manifest in many other ways) there is no fi rm basis in cognitive
theory. Th is has serious implications for the notion of cognitive ability,
the nature of individual diff erences in it, and for expensive searches for the
genes and brains that “determine” those diff erences.
In my view, the diffi culties describing cognitive functions arise because
the nature of experience is misunderstood. As mentioned several times
already, cognitive psychologists, imbued with mechanically and ideolog-
ically derived meta phors, tend not to have appreciated the complexity
of the structure of natu ral experience. So they fail to connect cognitive
functions in explicit terms with evolution, including what the brain and
cognition are really for.

A DYNAMICAL SYSTEM

In my view, these prob lems can be ameliorated by realizing that what

has evolved is a system of dynamical, nonlinear pro cesses that deals in

patterns or structures, not specifi c contents (e.g., symbols, features,

codes, or images). Th e patterns/structures are condensed as the statistical

par ameters (or grammars) assimilated from experience. Th ey refl ect

the deeper correlations among interacting variables, not simple asso-

ciations. Because experience consists of ever- changing environments

these are rules that can be constantly updated. Th is is life’s universal

grammar, through which predictability can be tracked in the midst of

change.

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