Chapter 10: Intelligence, Problem Solving, & Creativity Key Terms

Question 1

Intelligence:

Answer 1

A set of cognitive skills that includes abstract thinking, reasoning, problem solving, and the ability to acquire knowledge.

Question 2

Verbal intelligence:

Answer 2

The ability to solve problems and analyze information using language-based reasoning.

Question 3

Spatial intelligence:

Answer 3

Defined as ability or mental skill to solve spatial problems such as navigating and visualizing objects from different angles.

Question 4

Quantitative intelligence:

Answer 4

The ability to reason and solve problems by carrying out mathematical operations and using logic.

Question 5

G-factor theory:

Answer 5

Spearman’s theory that intelligence is a single general (g) factor made up of specific components.

Question 6

Multiple-factor theory of intelligence:

Answer 6

The idea that intelligence consists of distinct dimensions and is not just a single factor.

Question 7

Fluid intelligence:

Answer 7

Raw mental ability, pattern recognition, and abstract reasoning that can be applied to a problem one has never confronted before.

Question 8

Crystallized intelligence:

Answer 8

The kind of knowledge that one gains from experience and learning, education, and practice.

Question 9

General intelligence:

Answer 9

One of Carroll’s three levels of intelligence; very similar to Spearman’s concept of “g.”

Question 10

Broad intelligence:

Answer 10

One of Carroll’s three levels of intelligence; includes abilities such as crystallized and fluid intelligence, memory, learning, and processing speed.

Question 11

Narrow intelligence:

Answer 11

One of Carroll’s three levels of intelligence; includes many distinct abilities.

Question 12

Successful intelligence:

Answer 12

According to Sternberg, an integrated set of abilities needed to attain success in life.

Question 13

Triarchic theory or intelligence:

Answer 13

Sternberg’s three-part model of intelligence, including analytic, creative, and practical intelligence.

Question 14

Mental age:

Answer 14

The equivalent chronological age a child has reached based on his or her performance on an IQ test.

Question 15

Reliability:

Answer 15

The consistency of a measurement, such as an intelligence test.

Question 16

Test-retest reliability:

Answer 16

The consistency of scores on a test over time.

Question 17

Internal reliability:

Answer 17

A characteristic of an intelligence test in which questions on a given subtest tend to correlate very highly with other items on the subtest.

Question 18

Validity:

Answer 18

The degree to which a test accurately measures what it purports to measure, such as intelligence, and not something else, and the degree to which it predicts real-world outcomes.

Question 19

Construct validity:

Answer 19

The degree to which a test measures the concept it claims to measure, such as intelligence.

Question 20

Predictive validity:

Answer 20

The degree to which intelligence test scores are positively related to real-world outcomes, such as school achievement or job success, and thus have predictive value.

Question 21

Cultural test bias:

Answer 21

The notion that group differences in IQ scores are caused by different cultural and educational backgrounds, not by real differences in intelligence.

Question 22

Test bias:

Answer 22

A characteristic of a test that produces different outcomes for different groups.

Question 23

Test fairness:

Answer 23

A judgment about how test results are applied to different groups based on values and philosophical inclinations.

Question 24

Intellectual disability:

Answer 24

Significant limitations in intellectual functioning as well as in everyday adaptive behavior, which start before age 18.

Question 25

Adaptive behavior:

Answer 25

Adjustment to and coping with everyday life.

Question 26

Down syndrome:

Answer 26

A chromosomal disorder characterized by mild to profound intellectual disability.

Question 27

Familial-cultural intellectual disability:

Answer 27

Occurs when environmental deprivation, such as neglect and poor nutrition, is to blame for some cases of milder intellectual disability. Genetics play no role in this form of disability.

Question 28

Prodigy:

Answer 28

A young person who is extremely gifted and precocious in one area and at least average in intelligence.

Question 29

Savant syndrome:

Answer 29

A very rare condition in which people with serious mental handicaps also show isolated areas of ability or brilliance.

Question 30

Connectome:

Answer 30

The map of all neural networks in the human brain; the wiring diagram of the brain.

Question 31

Reaction range:

Answer 31

For a given trait, such as IQ, the genetically determined range of responses by an individual to his or her environment.

Question 32

Convergent thinking problems:

Answer 32

Problems that have known solutions and require analytic thinking and the use of learned strategies and knowledge to come up with the correct answer.

Question 33

Divergent thinking problems:

Answer 33

Problems that have no known solutions and require novel solutions.

Question 34

Algorithm:

Answer 34

A step-by-step procedure or formula for solving a problem.

Question 35

Eureka insight (insight solution):

Answer 35

A sudden solution that comes to mind in a flash.

Question 36

Thinking outside the box:

Answer 36

An approach to problem solving that requires breaking free of self-imposed conceptual constraints and thinking about a problem differently in order to solve it.

Question 37

Fixation:

Answer 37

The inability to break out of a particular mind-set in order to think about a problem from a fresh perspective.

Question 38

Mental set:

Answer 38

A tendency to continue to use problem-solving strategies that have worked in the past, even if better solutions are available.

Question 39

Functional fixedness:

Answer 39

A mindset in which one is blind to unusual uses of common, everyday things or procedures.

Question 40

Default mode network:

Answer 40

A brain network that consists of regions of the frontal and parietal lobes that are active when a person is not focused on anything in particular from the outside and becomes less active when a person is focused on a particular stimulus.

Question 41

Ideational fluency:

Answer 41

The ability to produce many ideas.

Question 42

Flexibility of thought:

Answer 42

The ability to come up with many different categories of ideas and think of other responses besides the obvious one.

Question 43

Originality:

Answer 43

The ability to come up with unusual and novel ideas.