Intelligence Flashcards
1
Q
Are any machines considered intelligence?
A
despite achievement, none of these machines would be considered “intelligent” by psychologists.
2
Q
Do psychologists disagree on what intelligence is?
A
yes
3
Q
What is genetic essentialism?
A
a general tendency for us to (falsely) think about certain psychological traits as “fixed” and caused by our genes.
4
Q
What is Eugenics?
A
the social movement aimed at improving the human “genetic pool” through selective breeding.
5
Q
What is intelligence? What does this definition focus on?
A
- the ability to direct one’s thinking, adapt to one’s changing environment, and learn from experience.
- Intelligence is under this definition about aptitude/potential, and not about what you already know or have done (achievement).
6
Q
Why is the emphasis on aptitude over achievement important?
A
There may be reasons out of ones control that have prevented them from doing these things but psychologists believe that doesn’t necessarily take away from intelligence
7
Q
What is a psychological factor?
A
a unique mechanism that predicts performance in a domain. This is a mechanism that predicts a lot but not everything. As a result of how this mechanism works we can predict other things. But we can also dissociate other things that don’t depend on it like hearing.
8
Q
Why is visual acuity a factor? What does it predict?
A
Visual acuity (e.g., 20/20 vision) is a factor that predicts how well you can see, how
well you can read, how well you can drive, but not how well you can hear.
9
Q
Why is physical endurance a factor? What does it predict?
A
Physical endurance is a factor that predicts how far you can run, how long you can swim, whether you are likely to enter a marathon, etc., but not how fast you type words on a keyboard.
10
Q
What is the single factor theory?
A
Our performance on one test correlates well with another in a different subject. One theory proposes on the basis of this that intelligence is made up of g and specific factors.
11
Q
What is general intelligence factor (g)?
A
the hypothesized single factor of intelligence that partly explains each person’s aptitude in all domains of knowledge.
12
Q
What are specific factors (s)?
A
the remaining, selectively learned factors that account for the lack of perfect correlations. For most, this is about achievement in particular subjects, and therefore not intelligence.
13
Q
What does the theory of g imply about people who lack g?
A
Some people have a lot of g, and they tend to do well on any intellectual activity.
14
Q
What does the theory of g imply about people who lack a lot of g?
A
People who lack a lot of g would generally do poorly on most intellectual things, except when they acquire very specific and selective skills (s).
15
Q
What does the theory of g say about savants?
A
Under this view, “savants” are people who lack overall g but have an overabundance of one very specific s factor.
16
Q
What is the issue with g?
A
how do we know that correlations between tests are not third variables?
17
Q
What does the many factor of intelligence suggest?
A
That there is no one intelligence
18
Q
What are independent factor theories?
A
there is no such thing as intelligence (singular), but instead many different intelligences (plural).
- Theories vary dramatically in how many “factors” of intelligence are thought to exist
- Each theory believes that one factor (e.g., mathematical ability) is not related to another (e.g., verbal ability) at all, except through third variable correlations.
19
Q
What does independent factor theory imply?
A
- There are no generally intelligent people – only people who are more/less intelligent on specific types of activities (e.g., math, language, etc.).
- There are generally no people who truly lack intelligence – they might often just be misclassified by our culturally narrow view of intelligence.
- “Savants” are individuals who are outliers on one specific subtype.
20
Q
What do independent factor theories imply about the ability to improve intelligence?
A
These theories also suggest that you can’t improve your intelligence as a
whole, because intelligence is many things at once.
21
Q
What is the hybrid theory of intelligence?
A
the most popular theory that states that intelligence has several “middle-levels” that g fuels, but that various factors can also improve without contributions from g.
22
Q
Under the hybrid theory what is true of a person with high g?
A
Under such theories, a person with high g would be better in all the subfactors, but various other things could change a subfactor without affecting overall g.
23
Q
Does g allows some factors to worsen over time (e.g., due to brain injury) without affecting all the others.
A
yes
24
Q
What are the 2 middle levels in the hybrid theory of intelligence?
A
Fluid intelligence
Crystalized intelligence
25
What is fluid intelligence?
type of intelligence used in learning new information or dealing with novel situations (e.g., speed of processing, memory).
26
What is Crystalized intelligence?
type of intelligence used when drawing on experiences from the past (e.g., creativity).
27
how does crystalized intelligence change overtime?
you acquire more crystalized intelligence with education
28
how does fluid intelligence change overtime?
fluid intelligence tends to stay more constant with education and time.
29
What is true of all modern intelligence tests?
All modern intelligence tests are standardized: they have a common unit that can meaningfully tell you how your score compares to the general population.
30
What do we need to standardize a test?
- A standard unit (e.g., like “20/20 vision”).
-To give the test to thousands of people so we can have a baseline of performance and an understanding of how many different people do on the same questions.
-This “norms” the difficulty and appropriateness of the questions.
31
What is the intelligence quotient?
the standard unit of intelligence, where 100 is the average score, and 15 is a single standard deviation.
32
What is the Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-IV)? What model is it based off of?
the most popular and commonly used intelligence test still used today, based on a hybrid model of
intelligence.
33
What is the WAIS broken down into?
The Full scale IQ, General ability index, cognitive proficiency index
34
What is the general ability index broken down into?
verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning
35
What type of intelligence is the general ability index measuring?
crystalized intelligence
36
What type of intelligence is the cognitive proficiency index measuring?
Fluid intelligence
37
What does the general ability index measure?
measures a person’s intellectual abilities in the absence of time pressure (mostly taps crystalized intelligence).
38
What are examples of what verbal comprehension test (test questions)?
- What does this saying mean: “A stich in time saves nine”?
- What does “sanguine” mean?
- In what way are pencils and pens alike?
39
What is and example of a question that would measure perceptual reasoning?
Which three pictures make the top one?
40
What is the cognitive proficiency index?
measures a person’s intellectual speed and
capacity for processing (mostly measuring fluid intelligence).
41
What is working memory measuring?
Forward Digit Span
Backwards Digit Span.
42
What is processing speed measuring?
Find all symbols that follow a particular rule on the page.
43
What is the Ravens Progressive matrices?
a non-verbal intelligence test based on matching pictures that follow particular types of rules.
44
What is the ravens especially good for?
Especially used for fluid intelligence, and for cross-cultural testing.
45
What are the major problems with modern intelligence tests?
cultural bias
education
test-taking ability
stereotypes
46
What is the cultural bias aspect of intelligence test problems?
are intelligence tests only capturing our culturally-biased definition of intelligence (e.g., emotional intelligence is not seen as intelligence)?
47
What is the education aspect of intelligence test problems?
intelligence tests often depend on skills that are taught in school (e.g., vocabulary). Are we measuring intelligence or education?
48
What is the Test-taking ability aspect of intelligence test problems?
some people are more practiced at taking tests than others. Are we measuring intelligence or test practice?
49
What is the stereotypes aspect of intelligence test problems?
people’s performance depends strongly on their expectations; how well somebody does on a test depends on whether they think they should be doing well or not.
50
What have classic theories on intelligence been?
either single- or multi-factor. Modern theories are hybrids of the two.
51
What are the ravens and the WAIS both based on?
the Gf/Gc hybrid model.
52
What are individual differences?
variability in a psychological trait within the broader population (e.g., personality, taste preferences, anxiety levels, etc.).
53
What do individual differences come from?
Environmental variability
Genetic Variability
Interaction between genes and environment
54
What is environmental variability?
people have different lives, grow up with different family styles, go to different schools, live in different places, etc.
55
What is genetic variability?
people differ (to a lesser extent) in their genetic makeup.
56
What is the interaction between genes and environment?
genetic effects can lead to changes in environments, and environments lead to changes in gene expression.
57
What is the interaction between genes and environment?
genetic effects can lead to changes in environments, and environments lead to changes in gene expression.
58
What is an example of gene environment interaction?
If anxiety levels are genetically high, you will probably avoid situations that lead to anxiety which affects other things as well
59
What are behavioral genetics?
the subfield of psychology that broadly attempts to characterize the contributions of genetics and environment to explaining individual differences in psychological traits.
60
What is not the goal of behavioural genetics?
The goal is not to explain causation through genetics, but to capture whether specific traits are better predicted by genes or environmental variability.
- We do not care about the absolute contribution of genes (do they or don’t they).
-We care about the relative contribution of genes (do they contribute more or less
compared to a stable environment).
61
What is the goal of behavioural genetics?
behavioural geneticists are interested in understanding the situations and interactions, they are curious about the most consequential environmental factors. they do not care about what the absolute contribution of genes is, they care about the relative contribution (how much they matter)
62
What is genetic determinism?
the (entirely false) belief that if a person carries some set of genes, that their expressed phenotype is fixed and immutable. This is never the case (“genes ≠ destiny”)
63
Why do no single genes predict a single trait?
there is no intelligence gene, no anxiety gene, no language gene, no Alzheimer’s gene.
64
What can the results of behavioural genetics predict?
even in when genes can strongly predict individual differences, for you environment may have mattered more.
65
How does the gene environment correlation work?
he environment influences genes, but genes also shape the environment.
66
What is intelligence akin to in terms of heritability?
height which is moderately predicted by your genes (medium range of expression). The influence of the environment is moderate.
67
What can we think about genetic prediction as?
(1) the genetic range of possible phenotypes that could be expressed; and (2) how strong the influence of the environment has to be to affect that expression.
68
Why do we use Quasi-experiments?
We cannot ethically manipulate people’s genes to create experiments.
69
What are Quasi-Experiments?
designs in which the experimental “manipulation” of interest occurs naturally, but has no random assignment.
70
In Quasi-experiments how do we manipulate genes?
Nature gives us a manipulation – identical vs. fraternal twins.
71
In quasi-experiments how do we manipulate the environment?
Our society (often sadly) gives us a manipulation – study identical twins
separated at birth who grow up in different environments.
72
What are Fraternal (Dizygotic) Twins?
twins conceived from two different eggs/zygotes; they share 50% of their genes, just like regular siblings.
73
What are Identical (Monozygotic) Twins?
twins conceived from a single egg/zygote that split itself into two, effectively creating a clone. They share 100% of their genes.
74
What can we assume if monozygotic twins have a higher correlation in IQ scores compared to dizygotic twins?
this higher correlation is likely due to the higher overlap in their genetics.
75
What does correlational twin data show?
- The correlation in intelligence scores for identical twins (0.86) is higher than for fraternal twins (0.60).
- Therefore, even given near-identical environments, higher genetic overlap shows higher correlations in intelligence.
76
What can we quantify if we compare monozygotic twins raised in the same household vs. those raised apart?
the degree to which the environment helps sets the range.
77
What is true of identical twins reared apart?
correlate nearly as strongly in intelligence (0.78) as twins reared together (0.86).
Therefore, even when their environment is different, individuals with more similar genes have more similar intelligence.
78
What is the influence of genes and environment in qualitative terms?
moderately ranged by genes and moderately perturbed by environment.
79
What is comparative cognition?
a subfield of psychology interested in comparing and contrasting psychological processes, including intelligence, in human and non-human animals.
80
Why is doing good comparative work challenging?
How do we make definitions that aren’t human-centric?
How do we make analogous tests for intelligence in non-human animals?
How do we not get deceived by projecting our own intelligence onto other animals?
81
What can we conclude about the intelligence of non-human animals? Example?
Non-human animals have a parallel to g: individual rats or mice, for example, who are fast to solve mazes also tend to do well in a variety of other cognitive tasks, though correlations are much weaker than in humans.
82
Can animals engage in social learning?
extensive evidence for social learning and collective decision making in insects, mammals, and birds
83
Can animals have Tool-use and Innovation
this behaviour is documented in less than 1% of non- human animals, but can be relatively easily trained in mammals and birds; some documented cases of non-human primate tool teaching, as well.
84
Is language used by animals?
no non-human animal has even been successfully taught to use language creatively the way that even human 2-year-olds can.
85
How does intelligence change with age?
Intelligence is relatively stable with age, and predicted more by genes as we age.
After age 50, fluid intelligence tends to decrease. Crystallized intelligence tends to decrease only with dementia.
86
What is the Flynn effect?
average intelligence increases with each successive generation (current average compared to old norms is 115!).
87
What might be reasons for the Flynn effect?
improved environments, improved education, improved test-taking abilities
88
How have environments improved over centuries?
nutrition and public health have improved over the past few centuries.
89
How has education improved?
mandatory schooling.
90
How have test taking abilities improved?
we’ve all learned how to take tests.
91
What does the data show about intelligence differences based on gender?
Men and women have identical average intelligence, but more men are the tails of the distribution.
-Men tend do better on tests of spatial intelligence. Women tend to do better on tests of emotional intelligence
92
What are most of the gender related intelligence differences related to?
Most of these differences are accounted by differences in socialization. These differences are slowly disappearing.
93
Is race a scientifically valid category? what does research focus on instead?
no. research focuses on recent
ancestry/ethnicity.
94
What does the data show about differences in intelligence based on ethnicity?
Asian Canadians typically outperform White Canadians, who outperform both Black and First Nation Canadians.
Average IQ scores in Global South are lower than in Global North.
Differences range between 2 IQ points to 15 IQ points (i.e., higher variability within
any of these groups, than differences between these groups).
95
can gene correlations (intelligence) be translated across populations that have dramatically different environments?
no. in populations where environments are stable for the whole population, genetic estimates will be higher; in populations where there is a lot of environmental variability, they will be lower.
96
What do psychologists today believe about the differences in intelligence between groups?
due to sociological reasons or third variables.
97
Is the difference in intelligence within groups higher than the differences between groups?
Even in situations where psychologists believe that some underlying biological cause might be at play, the differences within groups are significantly higher than between, making the usefulness of such causes limited.
98
What are psychologists most interested in when focusing on cross-cultural differences in intelligence?
Instead of focusing on how to use these differences to divide, psychologists are much more interested in how we can eliminate sociocultural barriers to people maximizing the range of their expressed intelligence.
99
What is phrenology? What did it promote?
the (discredited) attempt to assess each person’s intelligence and abilities by measuring differences in “specialized” brain area size through bumps on the skull.
was also consistently used to promote white supremacist views of intelligence.
100
What century showed a rapid influx of tests to rapidly classify people in school
and military? Why?
The 20th century. This is because mandatory schooling became very important in the West. Becuase of the military they needed to draft people into the right careers
101
What is the Stanford Binet test?
the first widely used intelligence test for school children, developed in 1904 in France and then translated into English.
102
What did the Stanford Binet test include?
included over 20 different types of questions, including abstract word puzzles, food recognition, drawing objects from memory, rhyming, reading time, etc.
103
how did the intentions of the creators of the Stanford Binet differ from its widespread use?
While the creators of the test believed that intelligence was malleable, famous American psychologists argued that it measures inherent and fixed differences amongst children.
104
What were the Army Alpha/Beta Tests?
two prominent US Army tests for determining each person’s capability as a soldier, leadership, etc.
105
Why did the Army Alpha/Beta Tests emerge?
This testing movement happened due to the influx of draftees for the two World Wars, and marked a massive uptake of testing and test development.
106
What were the Alpha army/ beta tests based on?
based on the Stanford-Binet, it also tested a variety of items like rhymes, verbal reasoning, puzzles, knowledge of world facts, etc.
107
What did the stanford binet and alpha army/beta tests famously equate?
intelligence with achievement, not aptitude?
108
What were key limitations of early intelligence tests?
They measured intelligence through achievement, especially economic class knowledge.
They aimed to quickly segregate people into designated roles or classes; there was no attempt to understand why performance varied.
They were not standardized and used for a specific purpose, not as tests that could compare across cultures or groups.
109
What is beyondism?
a pseudo-religion started by Raymond Cattell, laid out it’s claim as:
1. Society’s structure and moral values should be completely informed by science.
2. There is incontrovertible scientific evidence that heredity is the primary cause of intelligence, and that the environment has little-to-no impact on it.
3. On the basis of intelligence testing, there is evidence that IQ is lower in some groups.
4. These groups are also the ones that are having significantly more children, when
poverty and disease are natural checks on “evolutionarily unfit” people.
5. Therefore, the global IQ of society is decreasing at an alarming rate and must be stopped by major intervention, including the cutting off welfare.
109
What is beyondism?
a pseudo-religion started by Raymond Cattell, laid out it’s claim as:
1. Society’s structure and moral values should be completely informed by science.
2. There is incontrovertible scientific evidence that heredity is the primary cause of intelligence, and that the environment has little-to-no impact on it.
3. On the basis of intelligence testing, there is evidence that IQ is lower in some groups.
4. These groups are also the ones that are having significantly more children, when
poverty and disease are natural checks on “evolutionarily unfit” people.
5. Therefore, the global IQ of society is decreasing at an alarming rate and must be stopped by major intervention, including the cutting off welfare.
110
What is the Bell Curve book?
a 1994 book by Herrnstein and Murray which advocates for radical changes in public policy in order to protect high IQ individuals and reduce reproduction amongst low IQ individuals.
111
What are the claims of the bell curve?
1. Intelligence is stable, largely (though not entirely) heritable, and measured by intelligence tests.
2. There are no biases in intelligence tests – these tests are valid and reliable.
3. Intelligence is the best predictor of life outcomes, job and school success, etc.
4. Government welfare allows low IQ individuals to have many more children than high IQ individuals, therefore decreasing the overall fitness of our society.
112
Why is the claim that intelligence is hereditary wrong?
Heredity is a measure of prediction, not causation, and is therefore relative to the population we are studying and not a universal fact.
113
Why is the claim that differences in intelligence across groups are due to genetics wrong?
This claim is only valid if the environment for both groups is identical. we would have to be able to control for environment.
114
Why is the claim that intelligence is different amongst different social/ethnic groups wrong?
This is only true if there are no third variables that conflate test results with the groups.
115
What factors are testes widely known to be affected by?
The match between the communicative standards between test makers and test takers. Test taking skills, as well as motivation to take the test and do well on it. Lack of negative affect, stress, or consequence for testing outcomes.
116
Why is the claim that intelligence is the best predictor of life outcomes and success wrong?
This is only true if no other third variable is responsible for correlation between IQ and life outcomes.
But, given widespread socioeconomic disparities we have a vicious cycle (e.g., quality of education is significantly lower in poorer neighbourhoods).
Intelligence becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: we believe some groups are more intelligent, so we treat them as such, so they get to succeed and others do not get the opportunity.
117
How much of our IQ scores is affected by genetics?
40-60%
118
What is the effect of education on intelligence scores?
the years and quality of one’s education is the strongest predictor of g, Gf, and Gc; education is for IQ what nutrition is for height.
119
What accounts for the addition part of IQ scores that is not heritabile?
some exmaples are education, birth weights, birth order.
120
How can birth weight effect intelligence scores?
small but positive correlation, though might be confounded with many other variables.
121
How can birth order affect intelligence scores?
Birth Order: first-born children have marginally higher IQ than their younger siblings.
122
What is the most important factor if we want to generally increase intelligence?
If we want to generally increase performance on intelligence tests, increasing
educational opportunities is the most important factor.
123
What might work to help with your intelligence?
training working memory
Video-game training
Emotional Intelligence training
124
What is working memory training?
tasks that have participants practicing ”n-back” tasks shows a small but statistically significant benefit for Gf.
125
What is videogame trianing?
action video games have significant benefits for perceptual/motor skills, including in older adults, and seems to have a small-but- significant effect on Gf in older adults.
126
What is Factor Analysis?
A statistical technique developed by Charles Spearman that involves analyzing the interrelations, among different tests look for the common factors underlying the scores.
127
What is General intelligence (g) factor?
A general mental ability that Charles Spearman hypothesized is required for virtually any mental test.
o According to Spearman, people with a lot of g have an advantage over those with less g, on all mental tasks.
o Further research suggests that although g can be thought of a single ability, it is made up of different components (Fluid and crystallized intelligence)
128
What is Fluid intelligence?
a component of general intelligence that involves the ability to deal with new and unusual problems. You are using it when thinking your way through a challenging problem.
129
What is crysatallized intelligence?
A component of general intelligence that involves accumulated knowledge and skills. Used when dealing with familiar problems, and for things like language and knowledge of important facts.
130
What is analytical intelligence?
“book smarts”, the ability to break down problems into component parts for problem
131
What is creative intelligence?
the ability to deal with new problems and generate innovative ideas and solutions.
132
What is practical intelligence?
“street smarts”, is the ability to reason skillfully in day-to-day life.
133
what is Verbal-linguistic intelligence ?
the ability to perceive and use language
134
What is logical/mathematical intelligence?
ability to percieve logical and numerical paterns and to reason about long complex problems
135
What is visual spatial intelligence?
the ability to percieve the visual spatial world accurately and represent the spatial world accurately in your mind
136
What is bodily/kinesthetic intelligence?
The ability to use ones whole body or parts of the body to solve problems or communicate through performance
137
What is musical intelligence?
The ability to percieve and produce music including rythm etc
138
What is naturalistic intelligence?
ability to discriminate among natural things ans sensitivtiy to features and patterns in the natural world
139
What is interpersonal intelligence?
The ability to understand other people and respond and recognize their moods
140
What is intrapersonal intelligence?
the ability to understand oneself
141
What was Alfred Binet's test meant to measure?
mental age. (A number that represents the average age at which children perform closest to a given child’s score on an intelligence test. )
142
What was Alfred Binet's test meant to measure?
mental age. (A number that represents the average age at which children perform closest to a given child’s score on an intelligence test. )
143
What is the intelligence quotient?
A measure of intelligence that is calculated by dividing a child’s mental age by his or her chronological age and multiplying it by 100.
Will be 100 if child performs at her age, less than 100 id performs under her age, over 100 if performs better.
144
What is an achievement test?
A test design to measure a person’s potential to learn new skills.
145
What are the most common intelligence tests?
The WAIS and WISC
146
What is standardization?
A process of making test scores more meaningful by defining them in relation to the performance of the protested group.
147
What is reliabiltiy in intelligence?
The extent to which a test of measure produces consistent results.
148
What is predictive validity?
whether they can predict how well a person will do in settings that require intelligence.
149
What is predictive validity?
whether they can predict how well a person will do in settings that require intelligence.
150
What is test anxiety made up of?
emotionality and worry
151
What is emotionality?
: the feeling of the anxiety itself, including the pounding heart, dry mouth, sweaty palms, and other bodily symptoms. This part of test anxiety does not actually hurt performance
152
What is Worry?
people may start to worry that they will fail and what the consequences of that failure might be. That worry eats up mental resources that the person needs in order to perform
153
What are achievement gaps?
Persistant differences in the performance of certain groups of people, usually based on characteristics like race and gender.
154
What is the heritability of intelligence?
about 50%
155
What is heritability?
%: A measure that describes for a given population in a given environement, what proportion of the varience of a trait is due to genetic differences.
156
What is the self-fulfilling prophecy?
A cycle by which others’ beliefs or our own can affect behaviour in ways that make the beliefs true.
157
What are IQ tests predictive of?
school and work performance
