Chapter 10

Question 1

What is ratio IQ?

Answer 1

a statistic obtained by dividing a person’s mental age by the person’s physical age and then multiplying the quotient by 100; i.e. a 10 yr old w/same test score as the average 10 yr old has ratio IQ of 100 b/c (10/10) x 100 = 100. But a 10 yr old w/test score as avg 8 yr old has ratio of 80 bc (8/10) x 100 = 80

Question 2

What is deviation IQ?

Answer 2

a statistic obtained by dividing an adult’s test score by the average adult’s test score and then multiplying the quotient by 100; an adult who scores the same as the average has an IQ of 100

Question 3

How did early psychologists estimate a student’s mental level?

Answer 3

computing average test score of many students in different age groups and finding the age group whose average test score best matched the test score of that particular student

Question 4

Why is ratio IQ problematic?

Answer 4

b/c differences in intelligence over the childhood years are much more pronounced than differences between adults

Question 5

What important life outcomes do intelligence test scores predict?

Answer 5

happiness, income, education, job performance, health, length of life

Question 6

What is the two-factor theory of intelligence?

Answer 6

a person’s performance on a test is due to a combination of 1) general ability, and 2) skills that are specific to the test

Question 7

What did Spearman find out about intelligence?

Answer 7

ppl who did well on one test tended to do well on other tests, though this correlation was strong but not perfect (didn’t perform well on every test)

Question 8

How did ppl disagree with the two factor theory?

Answer 8

though performances among different tests were positively correlated, they were much stronger when the tests had something in common i.e. focused on verbal skills; primary mental abilities were neither g nor s

Question 9

Describe the 3-level hierarchy of intelligence

Answer 9

• general intelligence at the top
• mid-level abilities like memory and verbal skills
• specific abilities at the bottom

Question 10

Use Michael Jordan to describe intelligence hierarchy

Answer 10

his specific abilities made him better at bball than baseball, but his general abilities allowed him to outperform 99% of worlds population in both sports; hard to drill down mid-level abilities i.e. speed vs. power

Question 11

Describe data-based approach to mid-level abilities

Answer 11

compute correlations between a large # of ppl’s performances and see how they cluster

Question 12

What is crystallized intelligence?

Answer 12

the ability to apply knowledge that was acquired through experience

Question 13

What is fluid intelligence?

Answer 13

the ability to solve and reason about novel problems

Question 14

(T/F) Impairment of crystallized intelligence ALWAYS leads to impairment of fluid intelligence and vice versa

Answer 14

FALSE– i.e. autism and Alzheimers impair crystallized more than fluid

Question 15

What are the limits of the correlation approach to finding mid-level intelligence?

Answer 15

it is incapable of discovering any middle-level ability that the hard evidence doesn’t happen to prove

Question 16

What is emotional intelligence?

Answer 16

the ability to reason about emotions and use emotions to enhance reasoning

Question 17

How have researchers measured genes vs. environment w/regards to intelligence? What has this research shown?

Answer 17

study identical twins (100% shared genes) and siblings (~50% shared genes) raised together and apart; research showed identical twins raised apart had stronger correlated intelligence than fraternal twins raised together; genes have large impact

Question 18

How does environment affect intelligence? What research shows this?

Answer 18

intelligence scores of unrelated ppl in same household are only modestly correlated, showing genes play a more vital role

Question 19

What is the heritability coefficient?

Answer 19

a statistic that describes the proportion of the difference between ppls IQ scores that can be explained by differences in their genes; ranges from 50-70%, meaning 50-70% of difference in ppls intelligence is due to genetic differences

Question 20

Why is heritability of intelligence higher among wealthy ppl than poor ppl?

Answer 20

b/c wealthy ppl tend to have similar environments, so the difference in their intelligence have to come from the factor that they dont have in common–> their genes

Question 21

What is the shared environment?

Answer 21

features of the environment that are experienced by all relevant members of a household i.e. siblings w/nutrition, book access, etc.

Question 22

What is the nonshared environment?

Answer 22

features of the environment that are not experienced by all relevant members of a household i.e. siblings w/diff friends

Question 23

What is the trend of intelligence tests over a person’s age?

Answer 23

intelligence increases upward between adolescence and middle age and downward thereafter

Question 24

What is the Flynn effect?

Answer 24

the average IQ score today is much higher than a century ago

Question 25

Genes may establish the ____ in which a person’s intelligence MAY fall, but environment determines the ______ ____ ___ _____ at which the person’s intelligence WILL fall.

Answer 25

range; point in that range

Question 26

What environmental factors affect intelligence?

Answer 26

socioeconomic status (affects nutrition, medical care, stress, toxins, amount of intellectual stimulation)

Question 27

What is stereotype threat? What did it reveal about intelligence?

Answer 27

the fear of confirming the negative beliefs that others may hold; revealed that situations in which tests are administered can affect members of different groups in ways that dont reflect actual intelligence

Question 28

What accounts for difference in black and white intelligence scores ?

Answer 28

SES in their respective communities

Question 29

What are cognitive enhancers?

Answer 29

drugs that improve the psychological processes that underlie intelligent performane