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Honestly I think intelligence is a vector, not a scalar. There are lots of things that contribute to it. If you have to boil it down to a single thing, I'd say the ability to make connections between seemingly unrelated facts or ideas. In fact I seem to remember there was a show called Connections with this as its premise, tracing cause and effect between historical events that seemed otherwise unrelated. I remember watching it and feeling very dumb.
I've hit what I think are the limits of my cognition on a few occasions, and it's always a scary experience. First was probably failing calculus II in college for the second time. I had this distinct feeling that no amount of studying or sheer willpower was going to make me understand it. The latest was when I kept failing a certification exam. I had been trying over and over, but my score was actually getting worse. I still maintain that I could have passed the test if it were presented differently, like if there was more time, or if I were given better tools than just a bunch of unsearchable JPGs of log output scattered around the screen.
This doesn't answer your question, but I thought I'd put it out there.
EDIT: my spatial reasoning is nonexistent, so I have a hard time comparing the sizes of two objects if they're not directly in front of me. This comes up most often in the kitchen. I can't deduce the most appropriate size pot or bowl for a given task, so I default to the largest, which is of course hardest to clean and takes up more room in the fridge. And I don't think it's down to inexperience either. The only way I can figure out if a leftover container will fit said leftovers is by actually placing them in the container, which of course dirties it, so if it doesn't fit I have to get another one. So again I just use the largest one I can find. I'm sure there's a visual comedy routine in there somewhere.
I have met people who were confidently wrong, and no I don't mean people who's worldview differed from mine. When I was in 5th grade, I had an argument with a grown man who thought ants weren't animals. I think he just thought "animal" meant terrestrial vertebrate. Pretty sure he had gone to college, too.
That is a good analogy, esp as because intelligence changes over time. It is not a fixed value.
It's more like a physical ability. The more you practice it, the easier and stronger it becomes. The less you do, the more it atrophies. And just like our bodies, it's growth and it's decline are largely linked to our aging processes.
I don't understand why people are so insistent intelligence is this fixed property that is innate. If is, however, limited. Some folks have the gift of a life and environment which lets their intelligence flourish, others, do not. Same with athletics.
Not just aging, I would say intelligence is highly variable just on an individual level due to all sorts of factors. How much rest you get, the quality of said rest, current physical comfort level, distractions, stress, whether you're hungry or have eaten recently, time of day, whether there's a time constraint, etc etc etc. I wonder how many "stupid" people are genuinely that way even in the best conditions, or if the majority are just suffering from any of multiple detractors on them. Because of this I try not to judge, because I don't know their lives.