AN INFORMATION-PROCESSING VIEW OF GF-GC THEORY

Gf-Gc theory is described as the major empirical theory of multiple intelligences available today. This theory has important implications for practitioners in their roles as psychological examiners and interpreters of test results. The cognitive portion of the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery-Revised has its foundations in that theory. Gf-Gc theory is described in the context of the Cognitive Performance Model, which differentiates the components that contribute to cognitive performance into four functional categories: shortterm memory, stores of acquired knowledge, thinking abilities, and facilitator-inhibitors. Tests from several intelligence batteries are identified as examples in each of the four categories. The Cognitive Performance Model is then extended into a proposed information processing model of Gf-Gc theory. This theoretical model combines Gf-Gc theory with the input-processing-output dimension of information processing models and with a lower-to-higher dimension of cognitive processing. The Cognitive Performance Model and the information processing model of Gf-Gc theory have implications for research, test development, clinical practice, and education. It is predicted that the most useful cognitive batteries of the future probably will be more complex, not simpler, as test technology tries to reduce its lag behind cognitive science.