Crystallized and Fluid

I really liked the differentiation between fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence in our text for Adult Learning and Adult Development. It was in chapter 12. It discusses the differences between crystallized intelligence vs fluid intelligence. 

The text states "crystallized intelligence normally underlies tasks that test knowledge that is accumulated through experience and years of education" (p. 234) then fluid intelligence is defined as "an ability used for spatial and abstract reasoning tasks such as solving numerical or spatial puzzles" (p. 234). 

When I think about these definitions I think about our work with virtual reality where we are trying to challenge our learners to use both their crystallized and fluid intelligence. We ask the learners to use their experience and education on theory as well as their fluid intelligence to work on a problem in a virtual world. 

Then there is this on personal agency and mental time travel. The ability of learners to put themselves into situations using their minds and their perceptions of the world. This too has tie-ins to virtual reality. 

In our VR courses, we are asking our learners to transport themselves into a virtual world where their minds make them feel as if they are in an actual refinery work site. Sure we help them with immersive realism and other facets, but it's the learner's job to believe it. 

The text states that forming a sense of self and social identity "enables individuals to select and shape the environments they encounter, to develop skills to meet future challenges" (p. 217).  The reason we do this for our adult learners is in a sentence in the next column; "knowing what one can and cannot do is vital to one's self-concept because it can influence goal-setting, effort expenditure, and feeling of self-efficacy and self-worth" (p. 217). 

Greater self-efficacy for our learners can have payoffs for our learners, the worksites, and the communities. 

Reference

Hoare, Carolyn (Ed.) (2011) The Oxford Handbook of Reciprocal Adult Development and Learning. 2nd Edition. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. ISBN: 978-0199736300.