Chapter 11 Flashcards
Reifiction
viewing an abstract, immaterial concept as if it were a concrete thing. (“She has an IQ of 120,” reifying IQ as a thing someone has)
Intelligence
mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations
Factor analysis
a statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items (called factors) on a test; used to identify different dimensions of performance that underlie one’s total score
Charles spearman
helped develop factor analysis, believed there is also a general intelligence, or g factor that underlies the various clusters
General intelligence
a general intelligence factor that according to Spearman and others underlies specific mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test
L.L. Thurstone
rejected g-factor. Didn’t rank his subjects on a single scale of general aptitude. Argued that factor analysis revealed seven independent mental abilities
Howard Gardner
stated that people have specific intellectual potentials, or “intelligences,” each involving a set of problem-solving skills. (Linguistic, Logical-mathematical, Musical, Spatial, Bodily-kinesthetic, Intrapersonal (self), Interpersonal (other people), Naturalist)
Savant syndrome
a condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill, such as in computation or drawing
Robert sternburg
triarchic theory distinguishes three intelligences: analytical (academic problem-solving) intelligence, creative intelligence, and practical intelligence
Emotional intelligence
the ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions
Creativity
the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas
Intelligence tests
: a method for assessing an individual’s mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of
others, using numerical scores.
Alfred Binet
started the modern intelligence-testing movement by developing questions that helped predict children’s future progress in the Paris school system. (determining which students needed to be placed in Special Education classrooms)
Mental age
: a measure of intelligence test performance devised by Binet; the chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance. Thus, a child who does as well as the average 9-year-old is said to have a mental age of 8.
Lewis turman
a Stanford University Professor, Terman revised Binet’s original IQ test by establishing new age norms and extending the upper end of the test’s range from teenagers to “superior adults.” Supported the Nature side of the debate
Standford-binet
The widely used American revision (by Terman at Stanford University) of Binet’s original intelligence test.
Intelligence quotient
defined originally as the ration of mental age (ma) to chronological age (ca) multiplied by 100 (thus, IQ = ma/ca x 100). On contemporary intelligence tests, the average performance for a given age is assigned a score of 100.
Aptitude test
a test designed to predict a person’s future performance; aptitude is the capacity to learn.
Achievement test
a test designed to assess what a person has learned.
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)
the WAIS is the most widely used intelligence test; contains verbal and performance (nonverbal)
Standardization
defining meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested standardization group.
The flynn effect
intelligence test performance has been improving.
Normal curve
the symmetrical bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many physical and psychological attributes. Most scores fall near the average, and fewer and fewer scores lie near the extremes
Reliability
the extent to which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test, on alternate forms of the test, or on retesting
Validity
the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to
Content validity
the extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest (such as a driving test that samples driving tasks)
Criterion
the behavior (such as future college grades) that a test (such as the SAT) is designed to predict; thus, the measure used in defining whether the test has predictive validity
Predictive validity
: the success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict; it is assessed by computing the correlation between test scores and the criterion behavior. (Also called criterion-related validity.)
Mental retardation
a condition of limited mental ability, indicated by an intelligence score of 70 or below and difficulty in adapting to the demands of life; varies from mild to profound.
Down syndrome
a condition of retardation and associated physical disorders caused by an extra chromosome in one’s genetic makeup.
Stereotype threat
a self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype.
