Chapter 8 - Intelligence and Individual Differences in Cognition Flashcards
What are psychometricians?
Psychologists who specialize in measuring psychological characteristics such as intelligence and personality
How do psychometricians go about researching a particular question?
- Usually begin by administering a large number of tests to many individuals
- Then they look for patterns in performance across the different tests
- If changes in performance on one psychological test are accompanied by changes in the second test, then the tests appear to measure the same attribute or factor
What would you believe if a child’s performance were consistent across tasks?
- Intelligence is very broad and general
- Some people are smart regardless of the situation, task, or problem, whereas others are not so smart
- Smart children would always receive high scores and less smart youngsters should always get lower scores
What did Charles Spearman report?
Findings supporting the idea that a general factor for intelligence, or g, is responsible for performance on all mental tests
What did Thurstone and Thurstone analyze and find?
- Analyzed performance on a wide range of tasks and identified seven distinct patterns, each reflecting a unique ability
- Found that intelligence consists of distinct abilities
- Acknowledged a general factor that operated in all tasks, but emphasized that the specific factors were more useful in assessing and understanding intellectual ability
Due to conflicting findings, what did psychometric theorists start proposing?
Hierarchal theories of intelligence that include both general and specific components
What did John Carroll propose?
The hierarchical theory with three levels:
- g, general intelligence, 8 broad categories of intellectual skills, and skills at a specific level
What is fluid intelligence?
The ability to perceive relations among stimuli
What is crystallized intelligence?
Compromises a person’s culturally influenced accumulated knowledge and skills, including understanding printed language, comprehending language, and knowing vocabulary
What is Howard Gardner’s theory?
Theory of multiple intelligences in which he identified seven distinct intelligences, and later on two additional ones
How did Howard Gardner use his resources to develop his theory?
Rather than using test scores as the basis for his theory, Gardner drew on research in child development, studies of brain-damaged persons, and studies of exceptionally talented people
Which intelligences are included in psychometric theories of intelligence?
Linguistic, logical-mathematical, and spatial
Which intelligences are unique to Gardner’s theory?
Musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic, and existential
What is linguistic intelligence?
Knowing the meanings of words, having the ability to use words to understand new ideas, and using language to convey ideas to others
What is logical-mathematical intelligence?
Understanding nations that exist among objects, actions, and ideas, as well as the logical or mathematical operations that can be performed on them
What is spatial intelligence?
Perceiving objects accurately and imagining in the “mind’s eye” the appearance of an object before and after it has been transformed
What is musical intelligence?
Comprehending and producing sounds varying in pitch, rhythm, and emotional tone
What is bodily-kinesthetic intelligence?
Using one’s body in highly differentiated ways, as dancers, craftspeople, and athletes do
What is interpersonal intelligence?
Identifying different feelings, moods, motivations, and intentions in others
What is intrapersonal intelligence?
Understanding one’s emotions and knowing one’s strengths and weaknesses
What is naturalistic intelligence?
Recognizing and distinguishing among members of a group (species) and describing relations between such groups
What is existential intelligence?
Considering “ultimate” issues, such as the purpose of life and the nature of death
How did Gardner arrive at these nine distinct intelligences?
- First, each has a unique developmental history
- Second, each intelligence is regulated by distinct regions of the brain
- Third, each has special cases of talented individuals
What individuals often have musical intelligence?
Savants (individuals with mental retardation who are extremely talented in one domain)
Which intelligence is known best?
Emotional intelligence (ability to use one’s own and other’s emotions effectively for solving problems and living happily)
What several distinct facets does emotional intelligence include?
Perceiving emotions accurately, understanding emotions, and regulating emotions
What important implication did the theory of multiple intelligence have for education?
- Schools should foster all intelligences, rather than just the traditional linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligences
- Teacher should capitalize on the strongest intelligences of individual children
- Teachers need to know a child’s profile of intelligence (strengths and weaknesses) and gear instruction to the strengths
- No matter the subject, instruction should try to engage as many different intelligences as possible
What did Robert Sternberg study?
Intelligence by beginning to ask how adults solve problems on intelligence tests
What have traditional theories of intelligence been rooted in?
Test scores (tody many scientists believe that these theories are too narrow)
How does Robert Sternberg define successful intelligence?
As using one’s abilities skillfully to achieve one’s personal goals