g was observed as a correlation between test scores. That is by definition a scalar value, but we don’t know exactly how the underlying mechanism works or how it can be modeled; we just know that it’s not very domain-specific. It’s the underlying mechanism, not the correlation value, that I was referring to in the grandparent, and I’m pretty sure it’s what ialdabaoth is referring to as well.
g is an unobserved value, a scalar. It cannot say anything about “causes of intelligence” or shapes of curves. It doesn’t aim to.
g was observed as a correlation between test scores. That is by definition a scalar value, but we don’t know exactly how the underlying mechanism works or how it can be modeled; we just know that it’s not very domain-specific. It’s the underlying mechanism, not the correlation value, that I was referring to in the grandparent, and I’m pretty sure it’s what ialdabaoth is referring to as well.
To be more precise, the existence of g was derived from observing the correlation of test scores.
Moreover, g itself is not the correlation, it is the unobservable underlying factor which we assume to cause the correlation.
It is still a scalar-valued characteristic of a person, not a mechanism.