chapter 7 Flashcards
Intelligence in Everyday Life
Intelligence involves more than just a particular fixed set of characteristics.
Laypersons and experts agree on three clusters of intelligence:
- Problem-solving ability
- Verbal ability
- Social competence
The Big Picture: A Life-Span View
– Theories of intelligence have four concepts:
▪ Multidimensional (many domains)
▪ Multidirectionality (different patterns for different abilities)
▪ Plasticity (range of ability modification)
▪ Interindividual variability (adults differ in direction of intellectual development)
The Dual-Component Model of Intellectual Functioning: two types
Mechanics of intelligence and pragmatics of intelligence
Mechanics of intelligence governed more by biological and genetic forces
• Subject to an overall downward trajectory across adulthood
– Pragmatics of intelligence
- Governed more by environmental–cultural factors
* Maintain an upward trajectory across adulthood
– The psychometric approach
• Measuring intelligence as a score on a standardized
test
o Focus is on getting correct answers and information- processing mechanisms
– The cognitive-structural approach
• Ways in which people conceptualize and solve problems emphasizing developmental changes in modes and styles of thinking
– The structure of intelligence
the organization of interrelated intellectual abilities
• Lowest level—word fluency
• Second level—tests
• Third level—primary mental abilities
• Fourth level—secondary mental abilities
• Highest level—general intelligence
– Factor:
The abilities measured by two interrelated tests
if performance on test is related to performance on another
Primary and Secondary Mental Abilities
– Primary mental abilities: hypothetical constructs into which related skills are organized – Secondary mental abilities: related groups of primary mental abilities (not measured directly) – Primary mental abilities: ▪ Number ▪ Word fluency ▪ Verbal meaning ▪ Inductive reasoning ▪ Spatial orientation
• Secondary mental ability =
− Primary mental ability (e.g., verbal comprehension)
− Primary mental ability (e.g., experiential evaluation)
(e.g., crystallized intelligence)
− Primary mental ability (e.g., verbal comprehension) • Vocabulary
• Similarities
− Primary mental ability (e.g., experiential evaluation)
• Social translations
• Social situations
• Fluid Intelligence:
The abilities that:
– Make you a flexible and adaptive thinker
– Allow you to make inferences
– Enable you to understand the relations among concepts
• Crystallized Intelligence:
The knowledge you have gained through life experiences and education.
Fluid intelligence _____ throughout adulthood
Crystallized intelligence _____ throughout adulthood
declines
improves
• Moderators of Intellectual Change – Cohort differences – Information processing – Social and Lifestyle variables – Personality – Health
– Cohort differences
• Cross-sectional studies document significant differences in intellectual performance with age
• Longitudinal investigations show no decrement and even an increase in performance
– Information processing
• Perceptual speed may account for age-related decline
• Working memory decline may account for poor performance of older adults if coordination between old and new information is required
– Social and Lifestyle variables
• Differences in cognitive skills needed in different occupations make a difference in intellectual development
• Higher education and socioeconomic status also related to slower rates of intellectual decline
– Personality
• High levels of fluid abilities and a high sense of internal control lead to positive changes in people ’s perception of their abilities
• Being open to experiences helps buffer declines in fluid intelligence
– Health
• A connection between disease and intelligence has been established in general
• Cardiovascular disease has implications for intellectual functioning
• Physical exercise has considerable benefit
• Terminal decline is the gradual decline in cognitive function that occurs relatively near death
• Piaget’s Theory
Basic Concepts
– Basic concepts
▪ Assimilation
o Use of currently available information to make sense out
of incoming information
▪ Accommodation
o Changing one’s thought to make a better approximation
of the world of experience
• Piaget’s Theory periods
– Sensorimotor Period- infants intillegnece is seen in their actions
▪ Object permanence - objects continue to exist even if out of sight
– Preoperational Period
▪ Egocentrism-children believe all people and all inanimate objects experience the world as they do
– Concrete Operations Period
▪ Classification, conservation, mental reversing – Formal Operations Period
▪ Abstract thought
– Postformal thought:
haracterized by recognition that:
• Truth may vary from situation to situation
• Solutions must be realistic to be reasonable
• Ambiguity and contradiction are the rule
• Emotion and subjective factors usually play a role in thinking
– Reflective judgment:
a way adults reason through dilemmas involving affairs, religion, science, personal relationships
• Occurs in stages
• Integrating Emotion and Logic
– Adults make decisions on
Neuroimaging evidence:
• Integration of emotion and logic occurs in the
– Adults make decisions on emotional grounds
• As people grow older, two things happen in terms of the integration of emotion and thought
o Rich emotional experience accumulated over time can be brought to bear on tasks that are not too difficult
o When the demands of the task are great, arousal narrows the ability to bring emotions to bear
– Neuroimaging evidence:
• Integration of emotion and logic occurs in the prefrontal cortex and anterior insula
• These pathways are disrupted in mental disorders
• Decision Making
Older adults use ____ optimal strategies
Older adults do not perform well when decision making involves a
Older adults may not be as motivated to do well in
In common everyday decision-making situations
▪ Older adults are less susceptible to
– Older adults use less optimal strategies
– Older adults do not perform well when decision making involves a high degree of working memory capacity
– Older adults may not be as motivated to do well in artificial situations
– In common everyday decision-making situations
▪ Older adults are less susceptible to irrational biases
• Fluid versus crystallized intelligence
Age differences are likely when decisions rely on
Age differences are much less likely when decisions rely on
– Age differences are likely when decisions rely on
speedy mental processing
– Age differences are much less likely when decisions rely on acquired knowledge and experience
• Emotion and decision making
Older adults focus more on______information when
making health-related decisions
Older adults are more_____ with their decisions
– Older adults focus more on positive information when
making health-related decisions
– Older adults are more satisfied with their decisions
• Problem-Solving
– We use our_________ to solve problems
– We use our intellectual abilities to solve problems
• Some people are better than others at problem-solving
• Why is that? Could it have to do with the kinds of abilities we use regularly versus the ones we use only occasionally?
