Chapter 10 - Intelligence

Question 1

Intelligence

Answer 1

Concept or construct that refers to the ability to acquire knowledge, to think and reason effectively, and to deal adaptively with the environment

Question 2

Sir Francis Galton

Answer 2

• Showed through study of family trees that eminence and genius seemed to occur across generations with certain families
• Exhibited belief bias, and dismissed fact that successful people often came from privileged environments
• Approach to mental skills measurement fell into disfavour because measures of nervous system efficiency proved unrelated to socially relevant measures of mental ability

Question 3

Alfred Binet

Answer 3

• Developed test to help identify children who require educational help at early age*Made two assumptions about intelligence:
  
  • Mental abilities develop with age
  • Rate at which people gain mental competence is a characteristic of the person and is fairly constant over time
• Tests would result in score called mental age (age at which a child can solve problems for)*William Stern provided a relative score called intelligence quotient
  
  • IQ = (Mental age / Actual age) x 100
• Problem is that increases in mental age begin to slow down dramatically around age 16
  
  • Deviation IQ ? modern score that represents how much standardized distance a score is above or below the mean of a particular sample

Question 4

The Stanford-Binet and Wechsler Scales

Answer 4

• Lewis Terman revised Binet’s test, creating the Stanford-Binet test
• David Wechsler developed intelligence tests for adults (WAIS), children (WISC), and preschoolers (WPPSI)
  
  • Most widely used intelligence tests**Consists of series of subtests that fall into verbal tests and performance test

Question 5

Group tests of aptitude and achievement

Answer 5

• Using written tests for selective purposes highlights an issue Binet faced:
  
  • Should university applicants be given an achievement test (how much they have learned in high school) or an aptitude test (measure applicant’s potential for future learning and performance)?

Question 6

Two major approaches to studying intelligence

Answer 6

• Psychometric: maps the structure of intellect and specifies the kinds of mental ability that underlie test performance
• Cognitive: studies specific thought processes that underlie mental competencies

Question 7

Factor Analysis

Answer 7

• Psychometrics: statistical study of psychological tests
  
  • Standardization, reliability, and validity are all psychometric concepts
  • Tries to identify and measure abilities that underlie individual differences in performance on tests
  • Factor analysis - analysis of patterns of correlation between test scores in order to discover clusters of measures that correlate highly with one another but not with measures in other clusters (Example: if four tests were highly correlated with each other, and all required subjects to solve mathematical problems, the underlying factor may be mathematical reasoning ability)
  • Some believe intelligence is a single global mental capacity, while others regard it is a set of specific abilities to do different types of thinking

Question 8

The ?g? factor

Answer 8

Charles Spearman found that school grades among different subjects were highly correlated, but were not perfect*Found also in intelligence tests *Concluded that intellectual performance is determined partly by general intelligence (?g?) and partly by other special abilities required to perform a particular task*Example: performance in a mathematics course would depend mainly on the ?g? factor of the individual, but also ability to learn mathematics

Question 9

Intelligence as specific mental abilities

Answer 9

L. L. Thurstone concluded that human mental performance depends not on a general factor, but seven distinct abilities, called primary mental abilities (spatial, perceptual speed, numerical, verbal meaning, memory, verbal fluency, and inductive reasoning)

Question 10

Crystallized and fluid intelligence

Answer 10

Horn and Cattell divided Spearman?s ?g? factor into two correlated but distinct abilities*Crystallized intelligence ? the ability to apply previously acquired knowledge to current problems*Depends largely on ability to retrieve information and previously learned problem solving schemas from long term memory*Fluid intelligence ? the ability to deal with novel problem solving situations for which personal experience does not provide a solution*Throughout life, people progress from using fluid intelligence to crystallized intelligence

Question 11

Cognitive process theories

Answer 11

try to explain why people vary in intelligence by relating types of individual variation described in the psychometric approach to various cognitive skills

Question 12

Sternberg?s triarchic theory

Answer 12

addresses both the psychological processes involved in intelligent behaviour and the diverse forms that intelligence can take

Question 13

Divides the cognitive processes into three classes

Answer 13

Metacomponents ? higher order processes used to plan and regulate task performance (include identifying problems, formulating hypotheses and strategies, etc.)**Fundamental sources of individual differences in fluid intelligence*Performance components ? actual mental processes used to perform a task (include perceptual processes, memory retrieval, etc.)*Knowledge acquisition components ? allow us to learn from experience, store information in memory, and combine new insight with previously acquired information**Underlie individual differences in crystallized intelligence

Question 14

Environmental demands may call for three different manifestations of intelligence

Answer 14

*Analytical ? involves kinds of academically oriented problem solving skills assessed by traditional intelligence tests*Practical ? refers to skills needed to cope with everyday demands and to manage oneself and other people effectively (includes emotional intelligence)*Creative ? mental skills needed to deal adaptively with novel problems

Question 15

Gardner?s Multiple intelligences

Answer 15

*Howard Gardner advanced a theory of multiple intelligences that define six distinct varieties of intelligence (linguistic, mathematical, visual-spatial, musical, body-kinesthetic, and personal) *Bases argument on studies of brain damaged, which leave some abilities devastated, while sparing others **Savants ? intellectually disabled in a general sense, but exhibit striking skills in specific areas

Question 16

Emotional intelligence

Answer 16

the ability to read others? emotions accurately, to respond to them appropriately, to motivate oneself, to be aware of one?s own emotions, and to regulate and control one?s own emotional responses

Question 17

Psychological test

Answer 17

a method for measuring individual differences related to some psychological concept, or construct, based on a sample of relevant behaviour in a scientifically designed and controlled situation

Question 18

Reliability

Answer 18

*consistency of measurement **Test-retest reliability ? extent to which scores on a presumably stable characteristic are consistent over time **Internal consistency ? extent to which an experiment produces clear causal conclusions (will be high when there is no confounding of variables) **Interjudge reliability ? extent to which different observers or scorers agree in their scoring of a particular test or observed behavior

Question 19

Validity

Answer 19

*how well a test actually measures what it is designed to measure **Construct validity ? extent to which a test measures the psychological construct (e.g. intelligence, anxiety) that it is purported to measure **Content validity ? extent to which the test items adequately sample the domain that the test is supposed to measure **Predictive validity ? ability of a test to predict future outcomes that are influenced by the characteristic measured by that test

Question 20

Standardization and norms

Answer 20

*Standardization ? refers to (1) creating a standard set of procedures for administering a test or making observations, and (2) deriving norms to which an individual?s performance can be compared *Norms ? test scores derived from a relevant sample used to evaluate individuals? scores *Normal distribution of intelligence tests has an average of 100

Question 21

Galton resurrected

Answer 21

*Modern attempts to relate neural measures to IQ*Electrophysiological studies of brain responses to visual and auditory stimuli have modest correlation*Studies of brain metabolism show lower levels of glucose consumption in people of high intelligence

Question 22

Brain size and intelligence

Answer 22

*Studies of Einstein?s brain found overall brain size smaller than average **However, parietal lobes were densely packed with both neurons and glial cells

Question 23

Ethnic group difference

Answer 23

*various differences in IQ found across different races **May be attributed to various causes, including nature vs. nurture argument

Question 24

Sex differences

Answer 24

*men and women differ in abilities to perform different kinds of intellectual tasks **Men perform better on spatial tasks, target-directed skills, and mathematical reasoning **Women perform better on tests of perceptual speed, verbal fluency, mathematical calculation, and precise manual tasks requiring fine motor coordination

Question 25

Beliefs, Expectation, and Cognitive Performance

Answer 25

Beliefs and expectations can affect how we respond to certain people

Question 26

Intellectually gifted

Answer 26

\*IQ of 120 or above \*Often show giftedness in one area

Question 27

Cognitively disabled

Answer 27

\*Vast majority of retarded are mildly disabled, with IQ around 50-70 \*25% of disabled have biological cause