intelligence Flashcards
intelligence
efficient and important reasoning
- learning from experience
- adapting to environment
- acting purposely
the ability to generalize memories, flexibly use knowledge and solve new problems
- memory, concepts, problem solving
thinking and reasoning abilities beyond algorithms
varies across individuals
standardized tests
standardization: test scores are compared to pre tested ‘standardization’ or ‘norm’ groups
falls under psychometrics : study of psychological assessment
results of the tests are thought to follow a normal distributions (bell curve)
- means a lot of scores in the middle, and fewer on the extreme ends
reliability
consistency across instances of testing
IQ scores have high test retest reliability
- evidence: score at age 6 correlates with scores at age 18
validity
the test is measuring what is is intended to measure
IQ scores should have predictive validity if they predict performance on something requiring intelligence
- correlations of .5 with job performance
- but what is intelligence varies across content and culture…
francis galton
start of intelligence testing
- developed tests to found the eugenics movement
- racially motivated view of how to ‘improve’ society
alfred binet
designed a test to identify kids that needed special education in school (made for french gov’t)
thought that the test only measured academic output, not intelligence
simon-binet test
30 questions on increasing difficulty
standardization - a child’s mental age was caculated bu comparing the score to a score of a group of children the same age
- test was never meant to measure intelligence!
stanford binet test
based on simon binet test
mental age/actual age x 100
if MA>CA, ability is above average of peers (gifted)
if MA<CA, ability is below average of peers (delayed)
wechsler tests
separate intelligence scales for children and adults and separate scales to measure different types of intelligence - different components of intelligence are expressed to different degrees in people
gives one number, but made up of performance on verbal part and performance part
raven’s progressive matrices
meant to measure intelligence without the influence of culture and language ability
non verbal assessment:
shown patterns with a missing section and asked to determine the missing piece from a set of options
what are intelligence tests measuring
working memory (WM) capacity shares at least half its statistical variance with ‘general intelligence’
can predict intelligent behaviours, including reasoning and adaptability
genetics and IQ scores
shared genetics is better predictor of IQ correlations among twins than the environment
- even in dif environments, they still have more overlap than siblings that don’t share as much genetics
twin studies: raised in same or dif environment
downsides of IQ scores
helpful to identify kids that need extra help, but can be used to exclude marginalized communities
other factors affect performance
- socioeconomies
- gender differences in self estimated intelligence
- culture: familiarity with task and stimuli can affect performance
the flynn effect
looked at IQ scores over 100 years
- have increased 3 points per decade - hold for all the types of IQ tests
could be impacted by:
- education
flynn effect: complexity and health
complexity: over time, more focus on abstract and critical thinking, especially in wealthier countries
health: there is a greater focus on health, which improves brain function and enhances IQ test scores
