Assessment of Intelligence

Question 1

Brief history - Galton 1980

Answer 1

Cousin of Charles Darwin

-Wrote ‘The Hereditary Genius of Mankind
’-Used reaction times, hearing acuity etc
-Main contribution – operationalised intelligence

Question 2

Alfred Binet (1904)

Answer 2

French psychologist

• How to identify pupils who might need more assistance…?
• Worked with Theodore Simon to produce the Binet-Simon test
• Original hypothesis – children of a certain age ‘should’ be able to do certain ‘things’
• ‘Things’ – measured judgment, comprehension, and reasoning which Binet deemed the key characteristics of intelligence
• Created a 30 item test for each age level from three years to 10 years

Question 3

Binet-Simon 1911

Answer 3

Mental age (MA) vs Chronological age (CA)

• Most pupils performed at the ‘average’, some pupils performed above their age expectation, some below
• Published in 1911 for 3 to 10 year olds, plus 12 and 15 year olds and adults
• Main problem – separate test required for each age level

Question 4

Stanford-Binet 1916

Answer 4

To the US (obviously) and Terman (adapted for US students)

• Five features of cognitive ability - fluid reasoning, knowledge, quantitative reasoning, visual-spatial processing and working memory
• Both verbal and nonverbal responses are measured
• Still used today

Question 5

Stern (1912)

Answer 5

German psychologist-

Worked with larger number of pupils using the Binet-Simon tests

• Noticed that the ratio (MA/CAx100) remained relatively consistent for individuals
• First suggested IQ using this formula
• Thus, 10 year old (CA) with 12 year MA would have an IQ of 12/10x100 = 1

Question 6

Wechsler 1939

Answer 6

First assessment tool was called the Wechsler-Bellevue Scale (1939)

• Developed three scales – WPPSI (ages 2:6 – 7:6), WISC (6 – 16) and the WAIS (16 and up)
• Revised over the years – WPPSI-IV (2012), WISC-V (2014), WAIS-IV (2008, WAIS-V, expected soon)
• The most utilised tests of IQ in the world

Question 7

Wechsler’s major contributions

Answer 7

designed so that all people of all ages could take them

• Used a Deviation IQ
• IQ not based on ‘ages’ but on actual scores
• Deviation IQ = (Actual score/Expected score for that age) x 100
• Measured by how much a person ‘deviated’ from the average (of 100

Question 8

Wechslers major contributions

calculations

Answer 8

standardisation – determining the ‘expected score’ for any age

• Used Stratified sampling – people at all ages and in all demographic groups - sex, region, socio-economic
• Used ‘norms’ to compare a person’s score to the mean for that person’s group, set at 100-Used the old notion of average IQ = 100
• Found that IQ is normally distributed – mean = 100, SD = 15

Question 9

normally distributed IQ scores - normal distributions

Answer 9

67% of the population fall + 1SD from the mean, between 85 (low average) and 115 (high average)

• 95% of the population fall + 2SD from the mean, between 70 and 130
• 5% of the population fall outside these extremes

Question 10

normally distributed IQ scores - in the extremes

Answer 10

people with IQ’s above 130 are considered to be ‘gifted’

• Langan, an American horse rancher, has an IQ score around 200
• Einstein and Hawking had IQ’s of 160 (Dr Field has an IQ of…? )
• Scores below 70 indicate intellectual disability, marked by substantial motor, cognitive, and speech delays
• Some of these disabilities are the product of genetic mutations, eg Down syndrome
• In Savant syndrome individuals with significant mental disabilities, demonstrate far above average abilities such as incredible memory, rapid mathematical or calendar calculations or advanced musical talent

Question 11

reliability of assessment toosl

Answer 11

reliability means that they are consistent over time

• Three common types – test-retest, alternate form and internal consistency measures
• For test-retest, if you take a test at two different points in time, there will be very little change in performance or, in the case of intelligence tests, IQ score-

Scores will fluctuate when taking the same test on different occasions or different tests at the same age

-IQ tests demonstrate high reliability (Tuma & Appelbaum, 1980)

Question 12

validity of assessment tools

Answer 12

validity means that the test is measuring what it is supposed to measure-

Four common types – Face, Concurrent, Predictive and Construct

-However, intelligence tests are really measuring IQ

– and they do that very well-The main question is whether an IQ score equates to Intelligence..

Question 13

construct validity

Answer 13

higher scores intelligence tests predict

• Higher education
• Better qualification
• Higher socio-economic standing
• Better job performance
• Longer life
• Higher IQ scores predicted superior job performance better than CV, qualifications, previous experience, interview findings (Hunter & Hunter, 1984)
• However, these relationships are correlational rather than causative

Question 14

issues in the assessment of intelligence

Answer 14

critics claim that IQ tests are biased in favour of white, middle-class people

• Created by western psychologists (primarily) to measure euro-centric values
• Negative stereotypes about a person’s ethnicity, gender, or age may cause the person to suffer a variety of ‘stereotype threats’
• Doubts about their own abilities can create anxiety that result in lower scores

Question 15

culture specifcity - cross cultural issues

Answer 15

majority of the world’s population does not reside in Europe or North America

• Different cultures hold different values and have different perceptions of intelligence, so is it fair to have one universal marker of this increasingly complex concept
• Kenyan parents defined intelligence as the “ability to do without being told what needed to be done around the homestead” (Harkness et al., 1992)
• Ugandans define intelligent people as “being slow in thought and action”. Compare this to the American and European emphasis on speed (Wober, 1974)
• Intelligence takes many forms, ranging from country to country and culture to culture
• IQ tests have high reliability and validity, however understanding the role of culture is very important in forming the bigger picture of an individual’s intelligence
• IQ tests accurately measure academic intelligence in the West, but more research must be done to discern whether they truly measure practical or general intelligence in all cultures

Question 16

social and Environmental Factors

Answer 16

threat of social exclusion can greatly decrease the expression of intelligence

• One study gave participants an IQ test and a personality inventory and some were randomly chosen to receive feedback from the inventory indicating that they were “the sort of people who would end up alone in life” (Baumeister et al., 2002)
• On a second test of intelligence, those who were told they would be ‘loveless and friendless in the future’ answered significantly fewer questions than they did on the earlier test
• In the real world, the threat of social exclusion can decrease the expression of intelligence
• The threat of social exclusion can also be seen as a perceived threat to physical safety
• A child’s poor academic performance may well be attributed to the disadvantaged, potentially unsafe, communities in which they grow up

Question 17

stereotype Threat

Answer 17

phenomenon in which people risk conforming to stereotypes about their social group

• A whole range of negative stereotypes can also create anxiety that result in lower scores
• Black and White college students were given part of the verbal section from the Graduate Record Exam (GRE)
• In the ‘stereotype threat’ condition, students were told that the test diagnosed intellectual ability
• This potentially bought to life the stereotype that Blacks are less intelligent than Whites
• In the stereotype threat condition, Blacks performed worse than Whites, but in the no stereotype threat condition, Blacks and Whites performed equally well (Steele & Aronson, 1995)

. -Even simply recording your race can result in worsened performance

-Stereotype threat is a real threat that can be detrimental to an individual’s performance on these tests

Question 18

self Fulfilling Prophecy

Answer 18

closely related to Stereotype Threat

-An individual’s expectations about another person can result in the other person acting in ways that conform to that very expectation

. -Students in a California elementary school were given an IQ test after which their teachers were given the names of students who would become “intellectual bloomers” that year based on the results of the test (Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1968)

• At the end of the study, the students were tested again with the same IQ test, and those who were labelled as “intellectual bloomers” had significant increases in their scores
• Teachers may subconsciously behave in ways that encourage the success of certain students, thus influencing their achievement (Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1968), and provides another example of small variables that can play a role in an individual’s intelligence score and the development of their intelligen

Question 19

The FLYNN EFFECT

Answer 19

James R Flynn

• Year-on-year rise in IQ scores – worldwide
• People who had the revised test and ‘old’ test - get higher scores on the old
• For example, WISC – 108 then on WISC-R only get 100•

Meta-analysis of 73 studies showed white US subjects gained 14 IQ points over a 46 year period (from 1932 to 1978), equivalent to 0.3 IQ point per year

•Then demonstrated this phenomenon around the world

Question 20

the flynn effect - why did this happen?

Answer 20

five factors (Neisser, 1998)

• Schooling/education
• Test-taking sophistication
• Parental rearing styles
• Visual-technical environment
• Nutrition

•Maybe coming to an end – recent European studies indicat

Question 21

Diff versions of the WAIS

Answer 21

four versions

• WAIS (1955)
• WAIS-R (1981)
• WAIS-III (1997)
• WAIS-IV (2008)
• WAIS-V (was due 2020)

•Originally the Wechsler-Bellevue (1939)

Question 22

WAIS-IV

Answer 22

Used for 16 – 90 years old •Time limit depends on the subtest

•Standardized on 2,200 healthy people between the ages of 16 and 90 years
•Uses 10 scales with five supplementary scales
•Gives FSIQ
-Plus four specific domains-Verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning, working memory and processing speed

Question 23

vOCAB SECTION overview

Answer 23

The measure of examinee’s vocabulary
•Picture items (naming task)
•Verbal items (explaining task)

Question 24

picture items in the vocab sect

Answer 24

examiner might require further information if:

-Marginal, but appropriate answer (e.g., wicker bag), Examiner: “Yes, but what else is it called?”
-Response is too general (e.g., container), Examiner: “Yes, but what kind of container?”
-Functional description (e.g., to go shopping),
Examiner: “Yes, but what is it called?”
-Hand gesture, Examiner: “Yes, but what is it called?

Question 25

verbal items in vocab

Answer 25

examiner reads aloud and points to the word on a sheet

-Examinee must explain what a ‘bed’

1 point for correct response

• 0 for incorrect or no response after 30 seconds
• 0 for inappropriate, general or functional response

Question 26

information section

Answer 26

The examinee answers a broad range of general knowledge questions
•“What is a thermometer used for?”-1 point – “For measuring temperature.”
-0 points – “When you are sick.”

Question 27

arithmetic

Answer 27

items 1 – 5 are presented with corresponding picture

how many carrots and bugs are there all together?

• Items 6 – 22 are read aloud
• Peter has twice as many bananas as Joe. Peter has 100 bananas; how many bananas does Joe have?
• 1 point - correct response within the time limit (30s)