Assessing intelligence without intelligence tests : Future perspectives

Abstract

Intelligence is one of the most important psychological constructs and influences many decisions. Unsurprisingly, a large number of measurement instruments are available. However, conceptual development related to intelligence has been stagnant for many years despite recent technological trends that would enable new approaches to assessing human intelligence. One such approach would be to develop intelligence tests in virtual-reality scenarios, enabling researchers to observe how people interact with problems to solve them. Furthermore, artificial intelligence and machine learning could be used to gain even more insights from test data or use data arising from people's everyday lives to predict intelligence. Endeavors to assess intelligence without tests may eventually also lead to approaches using physiological variables related to the brain to make predictions. This article proposes several visions of plausible future developments in intelligence assessment over the coming decades and examines potential problems that might arise with these new methods.