“Cognitive Correlates of General Intelligence: Toward a Process Theory of g”, 1989 (; similar):
The cognitive correlates literature suggests that a general ability, probably Spearman’s g, underlies most information processing/intelligence relationships.
In the present paper we suggest that the nature of g is clarified by the following patterns: (a) response consistency has better predictive and convergent validity than does response speed, and (b) tasks which demand dynamic memory processing predict intelligence better than do tasks which require only stimulus encoding and simple stimulus/response translations. Accordingly, g appears related to the ability to flexibly and consistently reconfigure the contents of working memory.
A possible physiological basis of this ability is the recruitment of the transient neural assemblies which underlie thought (after 1949).