General intelligence, g, is empirically well established, although its psychological nature is debated. Reductionists ascribe individual differences in g to basic processes, such as attention control and working memory. Interactionists strip g of any psychological process, postulating that it is an index of interactions between processes. Here we postulate that the cognitive profile of g varies at successive developmental phases according to the understanding priorities of each phase. This study combines a large cross-sectional sample of children from 6 to 12 years (N = 381) with a longitudinal sample tested twice (N = 109) to examine changes in the relations between attention control, working memory, and reasoning. A combination of structural equation modeling, differentiation modeling, and latent transition modeling demonstrated that g does change in development; at 6–8 years, g was primarily dominated by changes in attention control; at 9–12 years it was primarily dominated by changes in working memory. Developmental transitions in reasoning levels were driven by the process dominating in each phase. A theory is proposed integrating psychometric and developmental models of intelligence into a comprehensive system. A strong assumption of the theory is an ever-present central meaning-making core, noetron, involving Alignment, Abstraction, and Cognizance processes, is systematically transformed with age in differing developmental phenotypes.

一般智力，g，在经验上已经很好地建立起来，尽管它的心理性质是有争议的。还原论者将 g 的个体差异归因于基本过程，例如注意力控制和工作记忆。相互作用论者剥离了任何心理过程，假设它是过程之间相互作用的指标。在这里，我们假设 g 的认知特征在连续的发展阶段根据每个阶段的理解优先级而变化。本研究将 6 至 12 岁儿童的大型横断面样本 ( N  = 381) 与两次测试的纵向样本 ( N = 109) 检查注意力控制、工作记忆和推理之间关系的变化。结构方程模型、微分模型和潜在转变模型的组合表明 g 在发展过程中确实发生了变化；在 6-8 岁时，g 主要由注意力控制的变化主导；在 9-12 岁时，它主要由工作记忆的变化主导。推理水平的发展转变是由每个阶段的主导过程驱动的。提出了一种将智力的心理测量和发展模型整合到一个综合系统中的理论。该理论的一个强有力的假设是一个永远存在的中心意义制造核心，noetron，涉及对齐、抽象和认知过程，随着年龄的增长而系统地转变为不同的发育表型。