The other half of intelligence: An obstacle-racecourse performance-based model of intelligence in action

Abstract

Intelligence in action, or as performance, is almost inevitably at a different level from intelligence as some theoretical level of competence. The article considers a metaphor of an obstacle race as illustrating how intelligence functions in everyday practice. Intelligence as performance always includes responses to the obstacles one confronts. The article opens with an introduction explaining the racetrack metaphor. The article then considers the various obstacles to the deployment of intelligence, including both primarily internal and primarily external obstacles. The article then considers three models for the relationship between intelligence as competence and intelligence as performance. Finally, the article draws some conclusions about intelligence as it acts in the everyday world.