Chapter 7

Question 1

Which of the following was included among Galton’s tests of “intelligence” at his 1884 anthropometric laboratory?

Answer 1

reaction time

Question 2

A flaw in Galton’s tests of intelligence at the 1884 anthropometric laboratory was the

Answer 2

underlying assumption of a strong correlation between practical intelligence and sensory acuity.

Question 3

Unlike Wundt and Fechner, who focused on establishing general psychological princi-ples, Francis Galton was interested in developing a psychology that focused on

Answer 3

individual differences.

Question 4

A psychology that focuses on the measurement and study of variations among people on a psychological characteristic rather than general qualities of that characteristic is known as

Answer 4

psychology of individual differences.

Question 5

Francis Galton’s formal academic training was primarily in the fields of

Answer 5

medicine and mathematics.

Question 6

Which of the following is NOT true of Francis Galton’s early life?

Answer 6

He earned the title of senior “wrangler” on the Mathematical Tripos Examination at age 18.

Question 7

Francis Galton’s first entrée into the British scientific world came primarily through his

Answer 7

African exploration and affiliation with the Royal Geographical Society.

Question 8

As a young man, Francis Galton was profoundly influenced by

Answer 8

a phrenologist who told him his brain and intelligence were naturally better suited to practical than to academic pursuits.

Question 9

Francis Galton made important contributions to all of the following fields EXCEPT

Answer 9

geology.

Question 10

Which of the following books first made a strong case for the inheritance of human psychological characteristics?

Answer 10

Galton’s Hereditary Genius

Question 11

The fact that physical variables such as height or weight fall into normal distributions when measured in large numbers of people was initially documented by

Answer 11

Adolph Quetelet.

Question 12

When measurements such as height and weight are collected from large populations, the collective data will invariably show all of the following features EXCEPT

Answer 12

it will demonstrate the effect called regression towards the mean.

Question 13

If we randomly select 100 people and arrange them in order of height, which of the following pairs will probably show the greatest differences between their two heights?

Answer 13

shortest to second shortest

Question 14

According to Galton’s data in Hereditary Genius, which kinds of relatives are most likely to share the trait of eminence?

Answer 14

brothers

Question 15

The idea that the human race may be improved by selective breeding, in much the same manner as animal breeders carefully select for certain traits, is known as

Answer 15

eugenics.

Question 16

The major purpose for which Galton devised the idea of intelligence tests was to

Answer 16

select the most able young people for eugenic breeding.

Question 17

Swiss botanist Alphonse de Candolle’s 1872 book History of the Sciences and Scien-tists over Two Centuries was important for all the following reasons EXCEPT

Answer 17

it fully supported the strongly hereditarian position of Hereditary Genius.

Question 18

Galton’s book English Men of Science is notable today because it was

Answer 18

the first to use the self-questionnaire method to study a psychological problem and to analyze the results statistically.

Question 19

Francis Galton and Alphonse de Candolle both studied scientific eminence and each a published book on the subject. Although they investigated the same subject matter, Gal-ton emphasized the relative importance of __________ for scientific eminence, while de Candolle placed more importance on __________.

Answer 19

heredity; environment

Question 20

Galton’s personal conviction that differences in intellectual ability are largely innate arose in part because

Answer 20

in school he found that he could not compete successfully against the very top students, despite his own privileged background.

Question 21

The phrase nature and nurture was introduced and popularized by

Answer 21

Galton in English Men of Science.

Question 22

As a result of organizing his data into __________, Galton noticed a pattern he termed regression toward the mean.

Answer 22

scatter plots

Question 23

When a student scores extremely poorly on one examination but then improves on the next, he or she demonstrates what statisticians call

Answer 23

regression toward the mean.

Question 24

When there is a complete absence of a relationship between two variables, the regression line representing that relationship will be

Answer 24

horizontal.

Question 25

Who devised the computing formula now commonly used to calculate correlation coefficients?

Answer 25

Karl Pearson

Question 26

All of the following are true of Galton’s studies of mental imagery EXCEPT that he

Answer 26

found scientists possessed an extremely vivid visualizing capacity.

Question 27

When Galton studied his own associations, he discovered that

Answer 27

many dated from childhood and some were embarrassing to recall.

Question 28

In the 1920s behavioral geneticists realized that research on “separated” twins could be used to determine the “heritability” of any measurable trait, but only if certain condi-tions were met. Which of the following was NOT one of those conditions?

Answer 28

The twins must be dizygotic.

Question 29

The first major study of separated twins was done in 1937 by a biologist, a psycholo-gist, and a statistician. All of the following are true about this study EXCEPT

Answer 29

the study involved more than 100 twin pairs.

Question 30

Studies of separated identical twins have had the purpose of measuring the “heritability” of various characteristics including IQ. That heritability figure is defined as the

Answer 30

proportion of the IQ variability within the tested population that was determined by heredity.

Question 31

In the 1960s British psychologist Sir Cyril Burt published a study on separated twins indicating that nature was much more important than nurture in determining intelli-gence. All of the following statements about Burt’s study are true EXCEPT it

Answer 31

introduced new research techniques that have continued to be employed in later twin studies.

Question 32

Which of the following has NOT been a problem in conducting a scientifically definitive study of separated identical twins?

Answer 32

finding intelligence tests suitable for administration to close relatives

Question 33

Which of the following represents the strongest correlation coefficient?

Answer 33

b. +.7

Question 34

Although Galton is best known to psychologists for his work on behavior genetics, statistical methods, and intelligence testing, he also contributed importantly to

Answer 34

meteorology.

Question 35

Galton’s word association experiments may well have had an influence on

Answer 35

Sigmund Freud.

Question 36

Galton justified his neurophysiological approach to intelligence testing with all of the following arguments EXCEPT that

Answer 36

people with quick reaction times also have large vocabularies.

Question 37

Arthur Jensen relied heavily on the work of __________ in making his argument that Head Start programs have been ineffective because intelligence is primari-ly__________.

Answer 37

Cyril Burt; hereditary

Question 38

Cyril Burt’s study of separated identical twins was briefly considered to be the best of its kind primarily because of its claim that

Answer 38

its twin pairs had been placed completely randomly in a full range of adoptive fami-lies.

Question 39

If the educational environments of all children could be made more equal, then the her-itability value for their IQ scores would tend to

Answer 39

increase.

Question 40

The most definitive estimate of the heritability of intelligence is currently represented by

Answer 40

the Minnesota study (MISTRA)’s estimate of about .70 for a middle-class popula-tion that did not include impoverished or underprivileged subjects.

Question 41

Leon Kamin has said that his initial questions about Burt’s twin research were aroused because

Answer 41

Burt’s reported results were too theoretically “perfect” to be statistically credible.

Question 42

Galton’s theories were substantially influenced by all of the following scientists EX-CEPT

Answer 42

John Stuart Mill.

Question 43

Arthur Jensen’s analysis of the effectiveness of compensatory education programs for inner-city children arose especially great controversy because it

Answer 43

hypothesized that racial differences may have played a role in the disappointing per-formance of African American children.

Question 44

Galton’s stated arguments in support of his anthropometric tests as measures of intel-lectual ability included all of the following EXCEPT his belief that

Answer 44

children’s poorer performance than adults on these tests was because of their still undeveloped intelligence.

Question 45

After adopting the concept of “nature and nurture” Galton argued that

Answer 45

in general nature is more important than nurture.

Question 46

For Galton, the most important goal of an ideal eugenic society would be to

Answer 46

promote breeding among the most gifted young men and women.