For this reason, we use a combination of psychometric and dynamic assessment. .
When faced with the question of what is intelligence many psychologists disagree. They even differ concerning the way in which it functions, or how it should be measured. This makes it very difficult to understand the concept of cognitive functioning, and to develop ways in which to measure it (Van Eeden & De Beer, 2005). .
Despite the huge body of information about cognitive ability, there is still no agreement as to the extent that it is fixed, heritable or modifiable through experience. It is generally acknowledged that genetic factors play an important role, but differences in culture, socio-economic background, educational opportunity, language, values and customs also need to be taken into account when assessing cognitive ability, or intelligence (De Beer, 2000). Additionally, Van Eden and De Beer (2005) specify that in general there are three types of intelligence; biological intelligence where the emphasis is on the structure and functioning of the brain, psychometric intelligence in which standardised psychological tests are used to measure intelligence, intelligence here is defined as whatsoever these tests measure, and social or contextual intelligence wherein intelligence is defined in terms of adaptive behaviour specific to the context in which it is used. .
According to Walsh and Betz (1995), the way in which we conceptualise the construct intelligence will influence the way in which we measure it and interpret scores obtained from these tests. A psychological test is an operational definition or observable translation of the abstract called intelligence. The results from these various measures, contribute to a further understanding of the meaning of intelligence. There are three main types of approaches to studying intelligence; the psychometric approach deals with the structure of intelligence, the cognitive approach deals with the processes underlying cognitive functioning and the dynamic assessment approach deals with the measurement of learning potential (Tutorial Letter 103, PSY4988, 2011).
