Which term describes a broad, overarching cognitive ability that underlies performance across many cognitive tasks and is often measured by factor analysis?

• A. Intelligence
• B. Latent learning
• C. General intelligence (g)
• D. Factor analysis

Answer: (C)

General intelligence, often called g, is the broad cognitive ability that underlies performance across many different tasks. When people take a wide range of cognitive tests, their scores tend to move together—the positive manifold. Factor analysis on those test scores tends to reveal a single dominant factor that accounts for most of the shared variance among the tests. This dominant factor is what we refer to as g, the underlying resource that supports reasoning, problem-solving, and learning across diverse domains. That’s why this option best captures the idea of a single, overarching cognitive ability inferred from multiple measures.

Latent learning is about acquiring knowledge without immediate reinforcement showing up in behavior, so it’s not about a general cognitive factor. Factor analysis is the statistical method used to uncover underlying factors like g, not a cognitive ability itself. Intelligence is a broad term, but the specific concept described by the idea of a single overarching factor identified across many tasks is general intelligence (g).