Oppong Seth
Department of Psychology, University of Botswana, Gaborone, Botswana.
Front Psychol. 2020 Dec 4;11:538072. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.538072. eCollection 2020.
Studies that investigate cognitive ability in African children and estimate the general cognitive abilities of African adults tend to work with existing models of intelligence. However, African philosophy and empirical studies in cross-cultural psychology have demonstrated that conceptualizations of human cognitive ability vary with location. This paper begins with the assumption that the existing Anglo-American models of cognitive abilities are valuable but limited in their capacity to account for the various conceptualizations of valued cognitive abilities in different human societies. On the basis of this assumption, I employ extant empirical evidence generated through ethnographic studies across Africa to formulate what an African model of valued human cognitive ability ought to be. The output of this formulation has been so christened a model of valued cognitive ability in order to draw attention to the fact that models of cognitive abilities have currency and values in each human society. This value allocation is expected to influence which elements of cognitive ability each human society will promote and develop. In addition, implications for theory, research and praxes are discussed.
研究非洲儿童认知能力并估算非洲成年人一般认知能力的研究往往采用现有的智力模型。然而，非洲哲学以及跨文化心理学的实证研究表明，人类认知能力的概念化因地域而异。本文开篇假设现有的英美式认知能力模型虽有价值，但在解释不同人类社会中重要认知能力的各种概念化方面能力有限。基于这一假设，我运用通过非洲各地人种志研究产生的现有实证证据，来阐述非洲重要人类认知能力模型应该是怎样的。这一阐述的成果被命名为重要认知能力模型，以引起人们对认知能力模型在每个人类社会都有其流行度和价值这一事实的关注。这种价值分配预计会影响每个人类社会将促进和发展认知能力的哪些要素。此外，还讨论了对理论、研究和实践的影响。
