Chappy 1: Intell Flashcards
What is intelligence? How do we define intelligence?
Problem-solving skills and the ability to adapt to and learn from life’s everyday experiences
Definition varies: Western: emphasize adaptation to enviro, basic mental processes, higher order thinking + speed of processing
Other cultures: suspicious of the quality of work done very quickly - emphasize depth of processing over the speed
How might we criticize traditional definitions of intelligence?
They are narrow, and rely on western knowledge w/out accounting for cultural differences in what is worth learning
How do other cultures define Intelligence?
Hint: Confucian, Taoist, Taiwanese Chinese (Yang & sternberg), Chinese (Chen), Buddhist/Hindu (Das), Africa (Ruzgis & Grigorenko), Zambia (Serpell), Kenyan parents (Super & Harkness), Zimbabwe (Dasen), Yoruba (Durojaiye)
Confucian: benevolence + doing what is right - intell person is a lifelong, dutiful learner
Taoist: humility, freedom from convention + self-understanding / knowledge of external conditions
Taiwanese Chinese (Yang & sternberg): five factors of Taiwanese Chinese conception of intell General cognitive factor, interpersonal intell, intraperson intell, intel self-assertion + intel self-effacement
Chinese (Chen): three factors of Chinese conception of intel
Nonverbal reasoning, verbal reasoning, rote memory
Buddhist/Hindu (Das): Waking up, noticing, recognizing, understanding, comprehending, determination, mental effort + feelings, opinions
Africa (Ruzgis & Grigorenko): view of intell in Africa - emphasis on peacemaking social skills (intragroup)
Zambia (Serpell): social responsibilities (obedience, cooperation)
Ex: smart kids listen to their parents
Kenyan parents (Super & Harkness): responsible participation in family/social life is intell
Zimbabwe (Dasen): prudence, particularly in social relations
Yoruba (Durojaiye): depth, ability to see all sides and put a problem into context (listening skills)
How did Galton define, and propose to test, intelligence?
2 components of Intell
Energy: capacity for learning
Sensitivity: strength of perception - how much enviro info can reach the mind
Conducted psychophysical tests:
Weight discrim: people decided dif between weight
Pitch pick-up: how high frequency can you hear
Results: Discovered this declines with age, and is never as good as a cat (cat thing is a problem for theory of intell testing)
Difference between aptitude/achievement testing?
Aptitude: ability to perform a task w/out previous knowledge (measure specific types of mental ability)
Achievement: ability to perform a task w/prior knowledge (gage mastery)
How did Wissler show Galton’s testing to be faulty?
What component of a good test was he missing? Who proved this?
Galton’s test scores did not intercorrelate & did not correlate with grades
Lack of Validity (later proved by Binet)
What is Binet’s approach to defining & testing intelligence?
What are IQ, mental age, and chronological age?
3 elements of intell thought:
Direction: Knowing what has to be done/how it is accomplished
Adaptation: selection/monitoring of strategy during task performance
Control: the ability to criticize own thought/action
Developed age appropriate testing - IQ (intell quotient) - 1st useful/objective test
Mental age divided by # age times 100
IQ of 100 = average for person’s age
Examples of tests
Infant: Le regard - light in front, see if eyes follow
Age 2: shapes into holes board
Age 8: linguistics - recognizing verbal weirdness, recognizing/explaining similarities or differences between objects
Age 14: solve arithmetic math problems
How do we evaluate whether tests are good or not? Reliability & Validity.
How do we develop testing standards and norms?
Reliability: extent to which a test yields a consistent, reproducible measure of performance
Test-retest
Alternate forms - giving diff versions of a test on two separate occasions
Validity: does it measure what it sets out to measure
Content V: test’s ability to test a broad range of content to be measured
Criterion-related V: test’s ability to predict performance when assessed by other measures
Construct V: whether the test actually measures the essence of theoretical construct
Standardization: developing uniform procedures for admin/scoring + norms/performance standards for test
Ex: testing enviro, directions, time limits
Norms are established by giving the test to a large group representative of the population for whom test is intended
What is a percentile score?
What is a correlation coefficient? How do they work?
Percentile score: % is at or below personal score
Correlation coefficient: 0 = weak, positive or negative = strong
How has intelligence testing historically been biased?
Cultural differences in intell def - historically did not account for culture diff in knowledge/experience/norms of intell
Socio-economic status, not race/ethnicity, accounts for majority of observed diff
What has the Prifitera, Weiss & Saklofske (1998) research demonstrated about cultural bias in intelligence testing?
African A, Hispanic, White - measures of IQ and demographic variables
Found differences in measures of IQ - largely depending on which scale is used
Investigate relation, they matched their subjects on variables (sex, age, etc) - differences between groups significantly reduced
Differences become even smaller for younger groups
Implication: research needs to look more at SES and related factors
Discuss the Mozart effect. What is it, and what do we know about it?
Rauscher (1993)
36 students placed in 3 conditions: listening to Mozart, listening to relaxation tape & silence
Assessed spatiotemporal ability (ex: pattern analysis/paper-cutting)
Enhances cognitions for abstract operations (ex: math or spatial reasoning) - 10-15 minutes
The shellenberg study, how does it relate to the mozart effect/ exposure to music and cog?
Hint: 2 studies within this study, japanese kids and undergrads
Overall results:
Mozart effect is not specific to the composer/music - rather is a result of an arousal effect that is produced by tempo of music
Music-enhanced cog performance is by-product of arousal and mood - it extends to tests of creativity
Enhancement depends on match between the music/listener
Study 1: 48 undergrads listen to Mozart (upbeat, fast) and Albinoni (funeral)
Result: only when arousal and mood were elevated was there a difference in performance on IQ measure
Study 2: 39 Japanese children age 5 - made “baseline drawing” (establish a measure of creativity), four conditions: Mozart, Albinoni, listen to familiar children’s songs, singing those songs, after music draw again
Dependant V: adults rate 1st - 2nd drawing based on drawing times, creativity, energy, technical proficiency
Results: listening/singing familiar music increased drawing times/creativity/energy/technicality
How does Spearman conceptualize intell?
Who contradicts him?
The G factor
Two-factor theory:
General factor - common to all tasks requiring intell (ex: comprehension, rational, deductive operations), believes this to be most important underlying factor of intell
Specific factor - unique to each different type of task
Contrarily: Thurstone
7 main abilities: word fluency, verbal comprehension, spatial ability, perceptual speed, numerical ability, inductive reasoning, memory
How does Sternberg conceptualize intell? Define, three facets, relate to school?
three facets
act/responding to the enviro, ability to compensate for weakness, recognize and apply strengths
Analytical: analytical thinking/abstract reasoning
Creative: insightful, automatic and creative thinking- new ideas/being inventive
Practical: street smarts, practical know-how - effective at solving everyday problems
Only analytic ability is good for school, creative won’t listen and practical can’t relate to the demands