Physics Wallah is an Indian edtech platform that provides accessible & comprehensive learning experiences to students from Class 6th to postgraduate level. We also provide extensive NCERT solutions, sample paper, NEET, JEE Mains, BITSAT previous year papers & more such resources to students. Physics Wallah also caters to over 3.5 million registered students and over 78 lakh+ Youtube subscribers with 4.8 rating on its app.
We Stand Out because
We provide students with intensive courses with India’s qualified & experienced faculties & mentors. PW strives to make the learning experience comprehensive and accessible for students of all sections of society. We believe in empowering every single student who couldn't dream of a good career in engineering and medical field earlier.
Our Key Focus Areas
Physics Wallah's main focus is to make the learning experience as economical as possible for all students. With our affordable courses like Lakshya, Udaan and Arjuna and many others, we have been able to provide a platform for lakhs of aspirants. From providing Chemistry, Maths, Physics formula to giving e-books of eminent authors like RD Sharma, RS Aggarwal and Lakhmir Singh, PW focuses on every single student's need for preparation.
What Makes Us Different
Physics Wallah strives to develop a comprehensive pedagogical structure for students, where they get a state-of-the-art learning experience with study material and resources. Apart from catering students preparing for JEE Mains and NEET, PW also provides study material for each state board like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and others
Intelligence involves the ability to learn from experience and adapt to the environment.
What is the difference between fluid and crystallized intelligence?
Fluid intelligence involves abstract problem-solving and peaks in early adulthood, while crystallized intelligence is based on knowledge and experience, increasing with age.
How do psychometricians study intelligence?
They examine how different abilities correlate using statistical techniques to determine general and specific intelligence.
What types of questions are included in this IELTS reading practice?
The passage features multiple-choice, true/false/not given, and summary completion questions to test comprehension and analytical skills.
Can intelligence in infancy predict later intelligence?
Yes, studies show that tests assessing novelty responses in infants can predict future cognitive abilities.
The Growth of Intelligence Reading Answers
The Growth of Intelligence Reading Answers explores how intelligence develops, the difference between fluid and crystallized intelligence, and Piaget’s contributions to cognitive development. Find IELTS reading questions, answers, and explanations to enhance your preparation.
Porishmita .24 Feb, 2025
Share
The Growth of Intelligence Reading Answers: The passage delves into the complex nature of intelligence, exploring how it develops from childhood to adulthood. The passage examines key psychological theories, including the debate between general intelligence and multiple cognitive abilities, as well as the differences between fluid and crystallized intelligence.
This reading passage is an excellent resource for IELTS aspirants, featuring various question types such as multiple-choice, true/false, and summary completion. By practicing with these IELTS Reading section questions, candidates can improve their reading comprehension skills, enhance their ability to locate key information, and develop effective test-taking strategies. Understanding the “The Growth of Intelligence Reading Answers” passage is a valuable tool for IELTS exampreparation in 2025.
The Growth of Intelligence Reading Answers Passage
The Growth of Intelligence
No one doubts that intelligence develops as children grow older. Yet the concept of intelligence has proved both quite difficult to define in unambiguous terms and unexpectedly controversial in some respects. Although at one level, there seem to be almost as many definitions of intelligence as people who have tried to define it, there is broad agreement on two key features. That is, intelligence involves the capacity not only to learn from experience but also to adapt to one’s environment. However, we cannot leave the concept there. Before turning to what is known about the development of intelligence, it is necessary to consider whether we are considering the growth of one or many skills. That question has been tackled in rather different ways by psychometricians and by developmentalists.
The former group has examined the issue by determining how children’s abilities on a wide range of tasks intercorrelate, or go together. Statistical techniques have been used to find out whether the patterns are best explained by one broad underlying capacity, general intelligence, or by a set of multiple, relatively separate, special skills in domains such as verbal and visuospatial ability. While it cannot be claimed that everyone agrees on what the results mean, most people now accept that for practical purposes it is reasonable to suppose that both are involved. In brief, the evidence in favour of some kind of general intellectual capacity is that people who are superior (or inferior) on one type of task tend also to be superior (or inferior) on others. Moreover, general measures of intelligence tend to have considerable powers to predict a person’s performance on a wide range of tasks requiring special skills. Nevertheless, it is plain that it is not at all uncommon for individuals to be very good at some sorts of task and yet quite poor at some others.
Furthermore the influences that affect verbal skills are not quite the same as those that affect other skills. This approach to investigating intelligence is based on the nature of the task involved, but studies of age-related changes show that this is not the only, or necessarily the most important, approach. For instance, some decades ago, Horn and Cattell argued for a differentiation between what they termed ‘fluid’ and ‘crystallised’ intelligence. Fluid abilities are best assessed by tests that require mental manipulation of abstract symbols. Crystallised abilities, by contrast, reflect knowledge of the environment in which we live and past experience of similar tasks; they may be assessed by tests of comprehension and information.
It seems that fluid abilities peak in early adult life, whereas crystallised abilities increase up to advanced old age. Developmental studies also show that the interconnections between different skills vary with age. Thus in the first year of life an interest in perceptual patterns is a major contributor to cognitive abilities, whereas verbal abilities are more important later on. These findings seemed to suggest a substantial lack of continuity between infancy and middle childhood. However, it is important to realise that the apparent discontinuity will vary according to which of the cognitive skills were assessed in infancy. It has been found that tests of coping with novelty do predict later intelligence. These findings reinforce the view that young children’s intellectual performance needs to be assessed from their interest in and curiosity about the environment, and the extent to which this is applied to new situations, as well as by standardised intelligence testing.
These psychometric approaches have focused on children’s increase in cognitive skills as they grow older. Piaget brought about a revolution in the approach to cognitive development through his arguments (backed up by observations) that the focus should be on the thinking processes involved rather than on levels of cognitive achievement. These ideas of Piaget gave rise to an immense body of research and it would be true to say that subsequent thinking has been heavily dependent on his genius in opening up new ways of thinking about cognitive development. Nevertheless, most of his concepts have had to be so radically revised, or rejected, that his theory no longer provides an appropriate basis for thinking about cognitive development. To appreciate why that is so, we need to focus on some rather different elements of Piaget’s theorising.
The first element, which has stood the test of time, is his view that the child is an active agent of learning and of the importance of this activity in cognitive development. Numerous studies have shown how infants actively scan their environment; how they prefer patterned to non-pattemed objects, how they choose novel over familiar stimuli, and how they explore their environment as if to see how it works. Children’s questions and comments vividly illustrate the ways in which they are constantly constructing schemes of what they know and trying out their ideas of how to fit new knowledge into those schemes or deciding that the schemes need modification. Moreover, a variety of studies have shown that active experiences have a greater effect on learning than comparable passive experiences. However, a second element concerns the notion that development proceeds through a series of separate stages that have to be gone through step-by-step, in a set order, each of which is characterised by a particular cognitive structure. That has turned out to be a rather misleading way of thinking about cognitive development, although it is not wholly wrong.
The Growth of Intelligence Reading Answers Sample Questions
Questions 1-4 (Multiple Choice)
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C, or D.
What is a widely accepted feature of intelligence? A. The ability to memorize facts B. The ability to solve mathematical problems C. The ability to adapt and learn from experience D. The ability to communicate effectively
How do psychometricians study intelligence? A. By analyzing how children’s brain structures change over time B. By observing how intelligence is used in daily activities C. By examining how different abilities correlate with each other D. By identifying personality traits that influence intelligence
What is suggested about general intelligence? A. It is the only factor determining intelligence B. It helps predict performance in various tasks C. It has no scientific basis D. It is purely inherited and cannot be developed
According to Horn and Cattell, how do fluid and crystallized intelligence differ? A. Fluid intelligence remains constant, while crystallized intelligence declines B. Fluid intelligence peaks early, while crystallized intelligence increases with age C. Fluid intelligence applies to real-world knowledge, while crystallized intelligence is abstract D. Both fluid and crystallized intelligence decline after middle age
Questions 5-10 (Yes/No/Not Given)
Write: YES – if the statement agrees with the views of the writer NO – if the statement contradicts the views of the writer NOT GIVEN – if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks
Intelligence is defined in the same way by all researchers.
People with high verbal skills always perform well in all types of tasks.
There is no connection between intelligence in infancy and later intelligence.
Piaget’s research helped change the way people study cognitive development.
The idea that intelligence develops in fixed stages is still widely accepted.
Infants show curiosity by exploring their surroundings.
Questions 11-14 (Summary Completion)
Complete the summary using the list of words A-I below. Write the correct letter A-I in boxes 11-14 on your answer sheet.
Horn and Cattell proposed that intelligence consists of two main types: 11______ intelligence, which is linked to abstract problem-solving, and 12______ intelligence, which is based on experience and accumulated knowledge. Studies suggest that while 13______ intelligence declines with age, 14______ intelligence can continue to grow in later years.
A. physical B. verbal C. mathematical D. crystallized E. fluid F. observational G. emotional H. environmental I. logical
The Growth of Intelligence Reading Answers with Explanations
Answer: C (The ability to adapt and learn from experience) Location: Paragraph 1 Reference: "That is, intelligence involves the capacity not only to learn from experience but also to adapt to one’s environment." Explanation: The passage clearly defines intelligence as the ability to learn and adapt, making option C the correct choice.
Answer: C (By examining how different abilities correlate with each other) Location: Paragraph 2 Reference: "The former group has examined the issue by determining how children’s abilities on a wide range of tasks intercorrelate, or go together." Explanation: Psychometricians study intelligence by analyzing how different abilities are related, which aligns with option C.
Answer: B (It helps predict performance in various tasks) Location: Paragraph 2 Reference: "Moreover, general measures of intelligence tend to have considerable powers to predict a person’s performance on a wide range of tasks requiring special skills." Explanation: The passage states that general intelligence helps predict performance, making B the right answer.
Answer: B (Fluid intelligence peaks early, while crystallized intelligence increases with age) Location: Paragraph 3 Reference: "It seems that fluid abilities peak in early adult life, whereas crystallised abilities increase up to advanced old age." Explanation: The passage confirms that fluid intelligence declines early, while crystallized intelligence grows with age.
Answer: NO Location: Paragraph 1 Reference: "There seem to be almost as many definitions of intelligence as people who have tried to define it." Explanation: The passage states that intelligence has multiple definitions, contradicting the idea that all researchers define it the same way.
Answer: NO Location: Paragraph 2 Reference: "Nevertheless, it is plain that it is not at all uncommon for individuals to be very good at some sorts of tasks and yet quite poor at some others." Explanation: The passage indicates that people can excel in one skill but struggle in others, so high verbal skills don’t guarantee overall high performance.
Answer: NO Location: Paragraph 4 Reference: "It has been found that tests of coping with novelty do predict later intelligence." Explanation: The passage states that intelligence in infancy can predict later intelligence, contradicting the statement.
Answer: YES Location: Paragraph 5 Reference: "Piaget brought about a revolution in the approach to cognitive development." Explanation: Piaget’s research changed how people study cognitive development, confirming the statement.
Answer: NO Location: Paragraph 6 Reference: "That has turned out to be a rather misleading way of thinking about cognitive development." Explanation: The passage suggests that fixed stages are not entirely accurate, contradicting the statement.
Answer: YES Location: Paragraph 6 Reference: "Numerous studies have shown how infants actively scan their environment; how they prefer patterned to non-patterned objects, how they choose novel over familiar stimuli." Explanation: The passage confirms that infants explore and show curiosity about their surroundings.
Answer: E (Fluid) Location: Paragraph 3 Reference: "Fluid abilities are best assessed by tests that require mental manipulation of abstract symbols." Explanation: Fluid intelligence involves problem-solving and abstract thinking.
Answer: D (Crystallized) Location: Paragraph 3 Reference: "Crystallised abilities, by contrast, reflect knowledge of the environment in which we live and past experience of similar tasks." Explanation: Crystallized intelligence is based on accumulated knowledge and experience.
Answer: E (Fluid) Location: Paragraph 3 Reference: "It seems that fluid abilities peak in early adult life." Explanation: Fluid intelligence declines early in life.
Answer: D (Crystallized) Location: Paragraph 3 Reference: "Crystallised abilities increase up to advanced old age." Explanation: Crystallized intelligence continues to grow with age.
