# CONTEXTUAL CONSTRAINTS ON INTELLECTUAL COMPETENCE

> **NIH NIH R01** · CORNELL UNIVERSITY · 1992 · $59,021

## Abstract

The proposed five-phase program of research is designed to
investigate the nature, generality, and developmental course of
"intelligence", focusing on the role of knowledge and context in
shaping cognitive performance.

In PHASE 1 of the research plan, a set of familiar semantic and
alphanumeric stimuli will be presented to subjects as part of two
covergent scaling exercises.  The purpose of these tasks is to
determine the representation of these stimuli in long term
memory, as the arguments, predictions, and interpretations in
later phases of the research plan depend upon such a
determination.

In PHASE 2 a micro-level assessment of intellectual components
will be conducted (speed of encoding).  Subjects will be presented
these and novel stimuli (moving baseball images) at the minimum
onset durations and interstimulus intervals necessary to encode
them.  If encoding operations can be differentiated on the basis of
the structure of a stimulus' underlying representation, this would
complicate notions of intelligence that are based on the
neurological underpinnings of information processing constructs,
as such constructs would be shown to be context- and stimulus-
specific and not indicative of neural functioning in any direct
sense.

In PHASE 3 of the research plan, another micro-level assessment
will be undertaken of three mechanisms governing the sequence of
operations in retrieving information from semantic memory.
"Semantic distance effects", "reverse distance effects", and the
"same/different effect" will be explored as a function of the
degree of elaborateness of a stimulus' representation.

In PHASE 4 a macro-level assessment of intelligence will be
carried out, focusing on complex thinking and reasoning skills.
The goal here will be to determine the interrelationship between:
a) complexity at a distance perdiction task, b) micro-level
information processing parameters, and c) one traditional indicant
of intellectual functioning, IQ.  The reasoning tasks will be
"driven" by algorithms of varying complexity and in novel vs
familiar contexts.

In PHASE 5, a bio-ecological model will be further developed to
account for the findings from the four previous phases.  Several
empirical tests involving the complexity of expert and novice
gamblers' thinking and reasoning skills will be carried out and the
bio-ecological model will be evaluated and extended in light of
these results.

If time permits, PHASE 6 will be conducted.  This is comprised of
two sets of experiments that are as yet only partially formulated.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 2198679
- **Project number:** 5R01HD022839-05
- **Recipient organization:** CORNELL UNIVERSITY
- **SAM.gov UEI:** G56PUALJ3KT5
- **Principal Investigator:** STEPHEN J CECI
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1992
- **Award amount:** $59,021
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1988-05-01 → 1994-10-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/2198679

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 2198679, CONTEXTUAL CONSTRAINTS ON INTELLECTUAL COMPETENCE (5R01HD022839-05). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/2198679. Licensed CC0.

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