The primary problem with looking at multiple measures of intelligence is that multiple measures require either a larger effect size for each measure or larger datasets. The effect sizes are already small in most cases, and gathering data is expensive. As far as I can tell, the common assumption that intelligence is a single scalar is primarily an assumption we make because it’s convenient and we have no reason to expect it to be wrong in any particular direction.
The single scalar approach isn’t a perfect model, but it’s good enough for most purposes and it’s expensive to fix.
(By the way, you failed to close your first parentheses. (relevant xkcd)
The primary problem with looking at multiple measures of intelligence is that multiple measures require either a larger effect size for each measure or larger datasets. The effect sizes are already small in most cases, and gathering data is expensive. As far as I can tell, the common assumption that intelligence is a single scalar is primarily an assumption we make because it’s convenient and we have no reason to expect it to be wrong in any particular direction.
The single scalar approach isn’t a perfect model, but it’s good enough for most purposes and it’s expensive to fix.
(By the way, you failed to close your first parentheses. (relevant xkcd)
Ironically, you also failed to close your first parentheses. (Was that deliberate? (Mine is.)
It was. Let’s end this now.)))
:-)
http://xkcd.com/541/