Conscious and Non-conscious Intelligence
Intelligence has historically been measured only through consciously reportable cognitive performance, but this article argues that this reflects a conceptual gap rather than a necessary boundary. Drawing on functional definitions of intelligence and consciousness, and using the Global Neuronal Workspace model to specify the conscious–unconscious distinction, the authors identify six behavioral phenomena—sleep-based memory consolidation, infant statistical learning, motor adaptation, touch typing, automatized language use, and sleepwalking—that meet functional criteria for intelligence while occurring outside awareness. They propose a two-component framework distinguishing Conscious Intelligence and Non-conscious Intelligence (NCI) as parallel, independent systems, with NCI being developmentally and evolutionarily prior and sometimes degraded by conscious intervention.