11- Cognitive Development Flashcards
What is intelligence
The capacity of a person to understand the world and meet its demands
What intelligence is not
- Learning
- General knowledge
- Practical ability
- Creativity
- Common sense
- Success
Spearman 1904
General intelligence
Collected test score data from English schools
Evidence of positive correlations across abilities
Created factor analysis to analyse this covariance
Majority of variance due to general cognitive ability
Fluid intelligence
Basic reasoning ability that can be applied to a wide range of problems
Crystallised intelligence
Factual knowledge about the world
Three Stratum Theory
Carroll 1993
- Stratum 1 narrow abilities
- Stratum 2 broad abilities
- Stratum 3 general cognitive ability
Solution to measuring intelligence
Observe an individual’s actions on tasks that require aspects of intelligence
Measuring intelligence
Verbal comprehension
Intelligence tests for different ages
IQ practical application
Created to identify children that are not likely to benefit from mainstream education
IQ tests predictability
IQ scores match, to a degree, whatever it is that people mean when they use the word ‘intelligent’ in ordinary language
IQ scores show impressive continuity from age 5 onward
IQ scores are great predictors of both academic and occupational attainment (external validity)
IQ Tests internal validity
IQ tests are arguably culturally biased Heavily reliant on verbal ability
- Questions may assume cultural knowledge
- Score higher with crystalized intelligence
IQ tests rely on representative population testing but populations change over time
IQ tests ethical issues
- Judgements made on the basis of IQ scores often lead to BIG environmental changes
- Knowledge of one’s IQ score can impact self-concept and educational aspirations
- Is there any benefit in knowing your IQ score? - Do we really need a cut-off IQ score to classify someone as ‘gifted’?
- Group differences in IQ scores (e.g. race differences) readily lead to prejudice and stereotype threat leads to poor academic performance (Steele, 1997)
Individual differences compared to cultural differences
Individual differences are larger as compared with differences between countries
Differences between schools accounts for
10% of variance
90% is within schools
Heritability of IQ
- Varies from 40% to 80% across dozens of family studies
- Average MZ correlation is .86
- Average DZ correlation is .60
TEDS
Twins Early Development Study
Heritability in intelligence
Literacy and numeracy are more heritable than intelligence in primary school
Heritability of IQ throughout life
Heritability of IQ increases from 40% in childhood to 80% in later adulthood
Passive gene environment correlation
The association between genotype a child inherits from their parents and the environment in which the child is raised
Evocative gene environment correlation
When as individuals heritable behaviour evokes an environmental response
Active gene environment correlation
When an individual possesses a heritable inclination to select environmental exposure
Comorbidity between reading and maths learning disability
67% of the variance in individuals who have comorbid issues with reading and maths is explained by genetic influence
Polygenic trait model
-Cognitive traits are controlled by more than one genetic variant -Each genetic variant is additive to the others
-The hallmark of polygenic traits:
A bell curve distribution
A continuous distribution
Positive sibling ties can facilitate
Cognitive development
Parenting and intellectual environment influenced by
Genetic factors
Home correlates __ with IQ scores
Positively
Within family variations have a
Greater impact than between family variations
Poverty on children’s IQ
Negative effects on IQ 10 to 15 points below middle class children
The Flynn effect
A rise of 3 points per 10 years in IQ scores across a population
