Chapter 9 Flashcards

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1
Q

Intelligence test

A

a diagnostic tool designed to measure overall thinking ability

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2
Q

Abstract thinking

A
  • the capacity to understanding hypothetical concepts, rather than concepts in the here and now
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3
Q

g (general intelligence)

A
  • Charles Spearman

- hypothetical factor that accounts for overall difference in intellect among people

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4
Q

s (specific abilities)

A
  • Charles Spearman

- particular ability level in a narrow domain

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5
Q

Fluid intelligence

A
  • Raymond Cattell
  • the capacity to learn new ways of solving problems
  • used the first time we try to solve a puzzle we’ve never seen
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6
Q

Crystallized intelligence

A
  • Raymond Cattell

- accumulated knowledge of the world we acquire over time

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7
Q

Multiple intelligences

A
  • Howard Gardner
  • idea that people vary in their ability levels across different domains of intellectual skill
  • 8+ types of intelligences
  • intelligences appear to be correlated; is this evidence of g?
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8
Q

Alfred Binet

A
  • goal to identify “slow learners” in school
  • developed first intelligence test
  • used the idea of “mental age”
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9
Q

Stanford-Binet Test

A
  • Modified Alfred Binet’s test
  • Still one of the most widely used tests for children
  • Different questions depending on person’s age
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10
Q

David Wechsler

A
  • invented Wechsler Intelligence test
  • thought the other IQ tests depended too much on verbal skills
  • didn’t like how other IQ tests only gave one score
  • Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) for adults
  • Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)
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11
Q

Wechsler Intelligence Test

A
  • invented by David Wechsler
  • most common
  • contains 4 subscales: verbal communication (ie. recalling information, seeing similarities), perceptual reasoning (blocks and arranging pictures in logical order), working memory (digit span, digit span backwards, arithmetic), and processing speed (digit symbol/coding)
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12
Q

Triarchic Model

A
  • Robert Sternberg
  • model of intelligence proposed by Robert Sternberg positing three distinct types of intelligence: analytical, practical, and creative
  • Analytic intelligence: ability to reason logically
  • Practical intelligence: ability to solve real-world problems
  • Creative intelligence: ability to come up with new answers to questions
  • The three types of intelligence tends to be correlated
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13
Q

Charles Spearman

A
  • believed that there was one ability that underlies overall differences in intellect “g”
  • also proposed the existence of “s” (specific skills)
  • our abilities depend on both “g” and “s” depending on the skill we are testing
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14
Q

Raymond Cattell

A
  • Proposed g consists of 2 types of intelligence
  • Crystallized intelligence: factual knowledge, specific knowledge
  • Fluid intelligence: ability to learn new ways of solving problems; thinking on the spot
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15
Q

List the common tests of IQ

A
  1. Alfred Binet’s test - The original; foundation for current IQ tests
  2. Stanford-Binet test - Widely used for children
  3. Wechsler Intelligence Test - Most common; 4 subscales (verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning, working memory, processing speed)
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16
Q

List the difficulties in creating IQ tests

A
  1. Standardization
  2. Reliability
  3. Validity
    - Predictive validity
    - Construct validity
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17
Q

IQ tests - Standardization

A
  • defining meaningful scores in comparison to others
  • need to know what the average score is for each age
  • have to be re-standardized every few years because people’s intelligence test scores keep getting better
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18
Q

The Flynn Effect

A
  • the substantial and long-sustained increase in both fluid and crystallized intelligence test scores that were measured in many parts of the world over the 20th century
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19
Q

IQ tests - Reliability

A
  • the extent to which a test gives consistent results
  • will you get the same score on the test if you take it twice?
  • for intelligence tests, short term-reliability is good
  • long term reliability is okay
    • infant IQ test score not related to childhood/adulthood score)
    • child/adult IQ test scores are correlated, but not perfectly
20
Q

IQ tests - Validity

A
  • the extent to which the test measures what it’s supposed to be measuring
  • predictive validity: the extent to which the test is able to predict future performance/success
    • intelligence tests are correlated with future performance in school, income, health, creativity and job productivity
  • construct validity: do IQ tests actually measure intelligence?
21
Q

List the 4 main theories of intelligence

A
  1. Spearman’s g
  2. Cattell’s 2 types of intelligence
  3. Sternberg’s triarchic theory
  4. Gardner’s multiple intelligences
22
Q

Howard Gardner

A
  • 8+ types of intelligence
  • Different developmental patterns
  • Can be disassociated in the brain
  • Savants: individuals with mental delay but remarkable abilities in one area
  • But are these intelligences or abilities/interests/personality?
  • Popular in educational settings
  • But controversial, and not much scientific support
  • Intelligences still appear to be correlated → evidence of g?
  • Conflated with “learning styles”
23
Q

List the influences on intelligence/IQ test scores

A
  1. Genetics
    2, Poverty and socioeconomic status
  2. Education
24
Q

Influences on Intelligence - Genetics

A
  • Intelligence is likely highly influenced by genes, because there’s a higher correlation between intelligence in identical twins than between fraternal twins
25
Q

Influences on Intelligence - Poverty/Socioeconomic Status

A
  • children growing up with less money tend to do worse on IQ tests
  • food and nutrition
  • education differences
26
Q

Influences on Intelligence - Education

A
  • going to school makes people smarter
  • the longer a person has been in school, the higher their IQ scores tend to be
  • IQ scores rise during the school year and drop during the summer
27
Q

List the problems and controversies with intelligence/IQ

A
  1. The question of group differences
    - Race/Ethnicity
    - Stereotype threat
  2. Eugenics
28
Q

Culture-fair IQ tests

A
  • abstract reasoning measure that doesn’t depend on language and is often believe to be less influenced by cultural factors than other IQ tests
  • aim for reduced use of language and to avoid questions based on factual knowledge questions
  • test takers who aren’t fluent in the native language may do poorly on IQ tests
  • cultural factors can affect people’s familiarity with test materials and therefore their performance
29
Q

Intellectual disability

A
  • condition characterized by (1) an onset prior to adulthood, (2) an IQ below 70, and (3) an inability to engage in adequate daily functioning
  • 2/3 of children with an intellectual disability lose this diagnosis in adulthood because of the adaptive functioning criterion
  • some experts have also recently placed heightened emphasis on gullibility
  • those diagnosed with intellectual disability qualify for additional government services
  • more severe intellectual disability is less likely to be genetic
30
Q

Mental giftedness

A
  • top 2% of the IQ range qualifies for a membership in Mensa
  • a large proportion of individuals with IQs at or near this range populate occupations such as doctors, lawyers and engineers
  • not true that almost all child prodigies burnout in adulthood; a population of child prodigies has a greater proportion become doctors/lawyers/go to grad school compared to the general population
  • not true that there is a link between mental giftedness and madness (ie. depression/suicide)
31
Q

List three major ways that scientists can study genetic influences on psychological characteristics

A
  1. Family studies
  2. Twin studies
  3. Adoption studies
32
Q

Family studies

A
  • allow us to examine the extent to which a trait runs in intact family (those in which all family members live in the same home)
  • intellectually brilliant individuals had many first-degree relatives who were also brilliant, but fewer second-degree relatives
  • IQ runs in families, but not sure if it’s for genetic reasons or environmental reasons or both
33
Q

Twin studies

A
  • compare correlations in a trait between identical twins and fraternal twins
  • identical twins share twice as many of those genes on average as fraternal twins, so we can compare the correlations in IQ between the two types of twins
  • higher identical twin than fraternal twin correlations indicate that IQ is influenced by genetic factors
  • identical twin correlations for IQ are less than perfect, providing evidence for environmental influences on IQ
  • identical twins reared apart vs those reared together scored similarly on IQ tests (and both showed higher correlation than fraternal twins reared together!)
34
Q

Adoption studies

A
  • studies of intact family members are limited because they can’t isolate genetic from environment
  • adoption studies examine the extent to which children adopted into new homes resemble their adoptive versus biological parents
  • one potential confound is selective placement; tendency to place children in homes similar to those of their biological parents
  • children from deprived environment adopted into enriched environment had higher IQ compared to children who weren’t
  • IQs of adopted children tend to be similar to the IQs of their biological parents, supporting genetic influence
  • as young children, adoptees tend to resemble the adoptive parents in IQ but the resemblance dissipates in adolescence
35
Q

What are 4 possible explanations for the Flynn Effect?

A
  1. People becoming more experienced at taking tests – however, the Flynn effect is more pronounced on culture-fair tests, to which people have had the least exposure
  2. Increased complexity of the modern world; forced to process more information due to technology
  3. Better nutrition – supported by the fact that the effect is most pronounced for the lower tail of the bell curve
  4. Changes at home and school; more emphasis on education
36
Q

Test bias

A
  • tendency of a test to predict outcomes better in one group than another
  • does not matter if one group outperforms another group!
37
Q

Controversy: Sex Differences in IQ

A
  • most researchers have found no average sex differences in IQ
  • men are more variable in their overall IQ scores than women
  • women tend to do better on verbal tasks (ie. spelling, writing, pronunciation), arithmetic calculation (in childhood) and recognizing feelings
  • men tend to do better on spatial tasks
38
Q

Controversy: Racial Differences in IQ

A
  • average IQ scores differ between racial and ethnic groups
  • no evidence of genetic influence
  • social class differences (ie. poverty, education) may play a role
  • tests may be written in a way that reflects the culture of the test creators
39
Q

Controversy: Stereotype Threat

A
  • fear that we may confirm a negative group stereotype

- creates a self-fulfilling prophecy; anxiety increases the likelihood of confirming a negative group stereotype

40
Q

Within-group heritability

A
  • extent to which the variability in a trait within a group is genetically influenced
41
Q

Between-group heritability

A
  • extent to which the difference in a trait between groups is genetically influenced
  • ie. remember that environment can play a role on the IQ differences observed between races
42
Q

Emotional Intelligence

A
  • EQ
  • ability to understand our own emotions and those of others, and to apply this information to our daily lives
  • no evidence that different measures of EQ are highly correlated
  • research suggests that EQ does not predict job performance
43
Q

Divergent thinking

A
  • capacity to generate many different solutions to a problem
44
Q

Convergent thinking

A
  • capacity to generate the single best solution to a problem
45
Q

Creativity vs Intelligence

A
  • we shouldn’t confuse intelligence with creativity
  • measures of these two capacities are only weakly or moderately associated
  • many intelligent people aren’t especially creative and vice-versa
46
Q

Controversy: Eugenics

A
  • Movement in early 1900s
  • Encourage those with “good genes” to reproduce
  • Discourage/disable those with “bad genes” from reproducing, immigrating
47
Q

List the pros and cons of IQ

A

Pros:

  1. Identify individuals with very high/low IQ and support
  2. Predict some aspects of success

Cons:

  1. Don’t predict all aspects of success (other skills/abilities matter too!)
  2. Scores can be interpreted as a measure of a person’s worth
  3. Differences in scores can be interpreted as measure of group’s worth