Test #3 Flashcards
(200 cards)
what is intelligence?
Intelligence is the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use our knowledge to adapt to new situations
intelligence consists of what 4 abilities
Reason abstractly
Adapt to novel environmental circumstances
Acquire knowledge
Benefit from experience
what were the first intelligence tests
- Galton’s tests
- Sensory-motor tests including two-point thresholds, just noticeable differences, reaction time for sounds, and time for naming colours
- low correlations with academic performance
where did intelligence tests originate
- The French government wanted to identify slow and fast learners.
- Alfred Binet & Theodore Simon (1904) - first intelligence test
- They developed questions to predict children’s progress based on their mental age
- Diverse content:
Object naming
Drawing pictures from memory
3 word sentence completion
Word meanings
Incomplete sentences - Virtually all items on modern intelligence tests have followed in Binet and Simon’s footsteps
general intelligence
explains the overall difference in intellect among people
specific abilities
particular ability level in a narrow domain
fluid intelligence
The ability to learn new ways of solving problems
Like the first time we try to solve a puzzle or task or skill we’ve never encountered before (e.g., driving a motorcycle for the first time)
more likely to decline with age
fluid intelligence may better capture the power of the “mental engine”
crystallized intelligence
Accumulated knowledge of the world we acquire over time.
We rely on our crystallized intelligence to answer questions such as “What’s the capital of Italy?”
crystallized abilities may increase with age, including old age
Intelligence Quotient (IQ) Test
Lewis Terman adapted Binet’s test for school children and named the test the Stanford-Binet test
The formula for Intelligence Quotient (IQ), introduced by William Stern that Terman adopted early on in the Stanford-Binet test.
Terman’s great achievement was to eventually establish a set of norms for the Stanford-Binet
norms
baseline scores in the general population from which we can compare each individual’s score
Sternberg’s 3 types of intelligences (Triarchic theory)
- Analytical intelligence: assessed by intelligence tests, which present well defined problems having a single right answer (“book smarts”)
- Creative intelligence: reacting adaptive to novel situations. Creating novel ideas (“creating music”)
- Practical intelligence: required for everyday tasks, which are frequently ill-defined, with multiple solutions (“street smarts”)
Brain size and intelligence
Recent studies indicate some correlation (about +.40) between brain size and intelligence.
As brain size decreases with age, scores on non-verbal intelligence tests also decrease
Studies of brain functions show that people who score high on intelligence tests perceive stimuli faster, retrieve information from memory quicker, and show faster brain response times.
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)
- David Wechsler, a psychologist who developed this test, was a Romanian immigrant who was among those classified as feebleminded by early, flawed IQ tests used with immigrants arriving to the U.S. in the early 1900s.
- The Wechsler scales are designed to measure mental abilities such as vocabulary, arithmetic, spatial ability, verbal reasoning, and general knowledge about the world.
- yields 5 major scores: (VPPW)
overall IQ
verbal comprehension
perceptual reasoning
processing speed
working memory
Is IQ Useful
- IQ scores predict academic success. They correlate about .50 with high school and college grades
- The correlation between IQ and job performance is higher in more mentally demanding occupations, such as physician or lawyer, than in clerk or newspaper delivery positions.
- Restricted range - explains why SAT and GRE are not strong predictors of grades in college. Like height is not a good predictor of NBA performance, because everyone is tall!
restricted range
correlations tend to decrease when we limit the range of scores
test bias
tendency of a test to predict outcomes better in one group than in another
are IQ tests racially biased
no
culture fair test
a test that involves abstract reasoning items and don’t depend on language and are often believed to be less influenced by cultural factors than other IQ tests
racial differences in IQ
- On average, African and Hispanic Americans score lower than Caucasians on standard IQ tests, and Asian Americans score higher than Caucasians
- Yet - the variability within any given race tends to be considerably larger than the variability between races. So IQ scores for different races overlap substantially
- As a result, many African Americans and Hispanic Americans have higher IQs than many Caucasians and Asian Americans. So we can’t use race as a basis for inferring any given person’s IQ.
is IQ biologically determined
Twin studies reveal that scores of identical twins raised in different environments were significantly more alike than those of fraternal twins raised together
is IQ due to environment
- The average IQ scores of poor Whites in the U.S. is 10 to 20 points lower than the average score of middle class Whites
- That poor Southern Whites test lower than middle class Blacks living in Northern states also suggests environmental factors
- U.S. Black children adopted by White families show higher IQ and school achievement than Whites
the Flynn effect
IQ scores have been increasing in many countries at about 3 points per decade influences: - increased test sophistication - increased complexity of modern world - better nutrition - changes at home and school
intelligence test
diagnostic tool designed to measure overall thinking capacity/ability
abstract thinking
capacity to understand hypothetical concepts