Chapter 9- Intelligence Flashcards
Intelligence
Set of cognitive skills that includes abstract thinking, reasoning, problem solving, and the ability to acquire knowledge
May be our inherent potential for learning
How fast we are able to learn
The body of knowledge we possess
Different theorists add other components to this definition, but they are not uniformly accepted
Less agreed-on qualities of intelligence
mathematical ability, general knowledge, and creativity
There are two distinct theories of intelligence
1) Intelligence as One General Ability
2) Intelligence as Multiple Abilities
Intelligence as One General Ability
First theory of intelligence developed by Charles Spearman
Human intelligence is a single general capacity or ability
If you’re smart, your smart at everything
Came to this conclusion after research showed that spatial, verbal, perceptual, and quantitative factors of intelligence strongly correlated with each other, suggesting that they were all measuring the same thing
In other words: people who achieve high scores on the verbal section of an intelligence test are also likely to have high scores on the spatial, perceptual, and quantitative sections
Is now known as a g-factor theory
G-factor theory
Spearman’s theory that intelligence is a single general (g) factor made up of specific components
Strongly influenced intelligence test construction for most of the 20th century
Overall intelligence is determined by the person’s specific scores on subtests
Implies that a single number can accurately reflect a person’s intelligence
Illustrated by the question: “How intelligent are you?”
Intelligence as Multiple Abilities
Critics of Spearman’s theory argue that it does not do justice to the complexity of intelligence
Noted that correlations are low enough to say that verbal, quantitative, and other abilities are distinct dimensions of intelligence
Multiple-factor theory of intelligence
Theory that intelligence consists of distinct dimensions and is not just a single factor
Illustrated by the question: “How are you intelligent?”
A single test score cannot accurately reflect a person’s intelligence
Raymond Cattell
developed fluid and crystallized intelligence
Fluid intelligence
The ability to think through a problem one has never confronted before and recognize patterns that may lead to a solution
Raw mental ability, pattern recognition, and abstract reasoning
Examples of things that require fluid intelligence: finding relationships, understanding implications, and drawing conclusions. Speed of reasoning
Not influenced by culture or vocabulary
Less dependent on experience
Measured by Raven’s Progressive Matrices Test
Matrix reasoning
Requires fluid intelligence
Is non-verbal and requires pattern recognition, NOT PRIOR KNOWLEDGE
Is “culture fair” because does not require culturally acquired experience
Crystallized intelligence
Knowledge from experience and learning, education and practice
Influenced by how large one’s vocabulary is as well as knowledge of one’s culture
Dependent upon experience
Ex: Being asked, “Whether Dalmatian is to dog as oriole is to bird”
Language comprehension
The Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) Model of Intelligence
Hierarchical model that integrates the concept of a general intelligence with fluid and crystallized intelligence
States that there are 3 levels of intelligence: general intelligence, broad intelligence, narrow intelligence
General Intelligence
Very similar to Spearman’s g factor: intelligence is one single ability. Is a single general (g) factor made up of specific components
Broad Intelligence
includes abilities such as crystallized and fluid intelligence, as well as memory, learning, and processing speed
Narrow Intelligence
Consists of nearly 70 distinct abilities
Includes specific cognitive, perceptual, and speed tasks used in studies of cognitive ability
Ex: Speed of reasoning and general sequential reasoning for fluid intelligence
Reading, spelling, and language comprehension for crystallized intelligence
Successful intelligence
Radical theory of multiple intelligence proposed by Robert Sternberg and Howard Gardner
Broader view of intelligence than g-factor theory
Skills and cognitive abilities needed to attain success in life
Made up of three interrelated but distinct abilities: analytic, creative, and practical intelligence
Triarchic Theory of Intelligence
Sternberg’s three-part model of intelligence, including analytic, creative, and practical intelligence
Analytic Intelligence
Involves judging, evaluating, or comparing and contrasting information
Resembles academic intelligence that leads to high scores on tests of intelligence
Ex: An analytic problem might require a person to figure out an uncommon word from its content in a sentence, or ask the person to determine the next number in a series of numbers
2) Creative Intelligence
Involves coming up with fresh and useful ideas for solving problems
Is not measured well by traditional measures of intelligence
Ex: A person might be given a number of cartoon images and then be asked to come up with a caption for each
3) Practical Intelligence
The ability to efficiently solve problems of everyday life
Plays a role in knowing how to do one’s job well
Requires street knowledge and skills rather than classroom
“Street smart”, common sense intelligence
Ex: Coming up with three solutions to a real everyday problem they are experiencing in life
Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Theory
Argues that intelligence is composed of at least 8 distinct capacities
Different people can have different combinations of strengths
1) Linguistic Intelligence
Ability to learn, understand, and use both spoken and written language
Ex: Poets, writers, lawyers, politicians
2) Logical-mathematical intelligence
Ability to analyze information and problems logically and to perform mathematical operations
Ex: Scientists, engineers, accountants
3) Musical intelligence
Ability in performing, composing, or appreciating musical patterns
Ex: Musicians, dancers, songwriters
4) Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence
Ability to use one’s body or parts of it to solve problems or create products
Ex: Athletes, dancers, mechanics, craftspeople
5) Spatial intelligence
Ability to think about and solve problems in three-dimensional space
Ex: Navigators, pilots, architects, sculptors
6) Interpersonal intelligence
Ability to understand and be aware of other people’s intentions, motivations, thoughts, and desires
Also the ability to work well and get along with others
Ability to perceive and understand other people’s intentions, motives, and behaviours
Ex: Psychologists, social workers, teachers, politicians
7) Intrapersonal intelligence
Ability to be aware of, understand, and regulate one’s own behaviour, thoughts, feelings, and motivations
Ex: Psychologists, monks, priests
8) Naturalistic intelligence
Ability to recognize, classify, and understand the plants and animals in one’s environment
Ex: Naturalists, biologists, botanists, veterinarians, hunters, farmers
Opposition against Gardner’s Theories
Psychologists are critical of it: see little value in calling skills like music, movement, and social skills “intelligence”
Gardner hasn’t provided tests of these intelligences
Few direct empirical tests on Gardner’s theory, his ideas are more theory than science
Gardner’s ideas addresses two real problems:
Different students learn in different ways
Some students who have demonstrated ability in some areas fail academic subjects and door poorly on traditional intelligence tests
Early Measures of Intelligence
First Period
1910-1980
People constructed tests around practical and clinical concerns rather than theories and other understandings of intelligence
Second Period
Second Period
1980s
First theory-driven intelligence tests were developed
Third Period
1990s
Major shift
Creators of intelligence tests acknowledged that intelligence may be many things rather than just one
Integrated theory and measurement
Developed intelligence tests that assess several aspects of intelligence
Sir Francis Galton
First person to suggest measuring intelligence
Believed that intelligence was inherited
Wanted to prove that people who were more socially and occupationally successful would perform better on a series on intelligence tests
Set up a laboratory at the 1884 London International Health Exhibition
Measured reaction speed, muscular strength, and sensory acuity
Though big heads meant bigger brains
Performance on his measures wasn’t related to social and occupational success
Generated interest in testing mental abilities, but unsuccessful in developing a useful measure of intelligence
Alfred Binet (early 1900s)
Developed the first practical measure of intelligence
Developed a measure for children who would benefit from extra assistance in schools
Developed a test containing 30 problems of increasing difficulty
Believed that ability to solve increasing difficult problems depends on age
Mental age
The equivalent chronological age a child has reached based on his/her performance on an intelligence test
Not based on how old a person is in years
Based on the level or age group at which an individual can solve problems
The average of what most children at a particular age level can do
Compares a person to people their age
William Stern
Introduced the intelligence ratio= mental age (MA) x100%
chronological age (CA)Intelligence quotient (IQ)
The ratio of mental age over chronological age
Very useful in the early years of IQ testing with children, but no longer used
Problem with IQ testing/Stern’s intelligence ratio
Doesn’t work very well for adults
By age 16, peoples mental age levels out while chronological age increases
Stern’s ratio yields increasingly lower IQ scores as people get older
Today, IQ scores are based on how well a child does on tests relative to norms established by testing children of the same age
Lewis Terman
Translated Binet’s test for American students
Named the test the Stanford-Binet Test
Changes he made were to establish national norms and to adopt and apply the ratio score of MA/CA to a widely used IQ test
David Wechsler (1930’s)
Measured adult intelligence
Developed a test known as the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)
Later developed a test for children: Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children (WISC)
These two tests are the most frequently used in Canada and the US
Include scores on four dimensions: verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning, working memory, and processing speed
Verbal comprehension
measures general verbal skills, such as verbal fluency
Perceptual reasoning
assesses the ability to examine a problem, drawing upon motor and visual spatial skills
Processing speed
assesses how quickly a person can focus attention and quickly scan, discriminate between, and sequentially order visual information
Working memory
holds information in mind for a short period so that it can be used to solve a problem at hand, one of the dimensions that were missing before 1985
Newest version of Stanford-Binet assesses:
Quantitative reasoning: Dealing with knowledge and the application of numbers
Visual-spatial processing: Involved timed tasks such as completing a puzzle
Working memory
Kaufman-Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) (1983)
The first theory based IQ test and one of two major shifts in intelligence testing
Differed from the Stanford-Binet and Weschler tests in 4 ways:
It was the first IQ test to be guided by theories of intelligence
In particular: Cattell and Horn’s concepts of fluid and crystallized intelligence and Piaget’s theory of cognitive development
2) Included different kinds of problems for children of different ages and problems at varied levels of difficulty
3) Measured several distinct aspects of intelligence
4) Assessed different types of learning styles
Reliability
consistency of results
Test-retest reliability
the extent to which scores on a test are similar over time
EX: good test-retest reliability= a person who takes the same test at two different times and receives similar scores on both occasions
Internal consistency
the extent to which items within a test correlate with one another
EX: high test internal consistency= when questions on a given subtest correlate very highly with other items on a subtest
IQ Tests Reliability
extremely reliable, with test-retest correlations of +.90 or higher
has high test internal consistency
Validity
accuracy of test
The degree to which a test accurately measures what its supposed to measure
Must measure intelligence and not something else
An indicator is the ability of its test scores to predict real world outcomes
More difficult to establish than reliability
Evidence that the Weschler and Stanford-Binet tests are valid, but Sternberg and Gardner argue that they only measure verbal, spatial, and mathematical intelligence, not the other forms like social, emotional, musical, bodily, practical, and natural history
There are two forms of validity:
construct and predict
Construct Validity
he degree to which a test measures the concept it claims to measure, such as intelligence
Predict Validity
the degree to which intelligence test scores are positively related to real-world outcomes, such as school achievement or job success
IQ Tests Validity
Do predict certain real-world outcomes: academic performance
IQ scores predict student’s grades, school performance and class rank with coefficients between +0.50 and +0.60
Preschool scores on two IQ tests taken by American children accurately predicted the children’s academic achievement scores from kindergarten to Grade 6
Scores from WAIS predict one’s academic class rank in high school and one’s college GPA
IQ scores predict people’s occupations and job performance within their chosen occupations fairly well
People scoring higher in intelligence are more likely to end up in more prestigious occupations
People with higher intelligence perform better across a wide variety of occupations, with a correlation of +0.51
Cultural Test Bias Hypothesis
The notion that group differences in IQ are caused by different cultural and educational backgrounds, not by real differences in intelligence
Used by the general public
Test bias
Characteristic of a test that produces different outcomes for different groups
Refers to whether a test produces outcomes equally well for different groups
A test is bias if it is a more valid measure for one group than for another
Mathematical differences
Does a test produce different outcomes for different groups?
EXAMPLE: If an IQ test predicts academic achievement better for Hispanics than for Asians, it is biased
Very little evidence for this kind of bias existing in contemporary IQ tests
Standardization
The process of giving a test to a large group of people to establish norms or standards by which all other people who take the test are compared
Norms that reflect the makeup of the general population
Intelligence tests are developed using this
Separate norms are established for the use and interpretation of intelligence tests within different countries
EXAMPLE: Canadian norms have been published for the WAIS-III.
Just because different groups score differently on a given test does not mean that it is biased
If a test is equally valid for different groups and they still score differently on it, the test is not biased. May be unfair, but not biased.
Test fairness
Reflects values, philosophical differences, and the ways in which the test results are applied
Judgment about how test results are applied to different groups based on values and philosophical inclinations
Does a test apply equally to people with different backgrounds, based on various value differences?
EXAMPLE OF EXTREME TEST UNFAIRNESS:
Alberta woman, Leilani Muir in 1995
Muir was awarded almost a million dollars in damages for her involuntary standardization
When she was 14, she was labelled as mentally deficient based on her low IQ score and was sterilized
When her IQ was tested several years later, Muir scored almost 20 points higher, suggesting that her initial performance on the IQ test was not a valid indicator of her cognitive ability
Intellectual disability
Formerly known as mental retardation
Significant limitations in intellectual functioning as well as in everyday adaptive behaviour before the age of 18
Used to be defined based on an IQ score of 70
There are four levels of intellectual disability, depending on how adaptive the behaviour or thinking is:
Mild: IQ of 50-70
Moderate: IQ of 35-50
Severe: IQ of 20-35
Profound: IQ below 20
Adaptive Behaviour
Adjustment to and coping with everyday life
How well a person adjusts to and copes with daily life
Example:
How well can the person feed or dress himself/herself?
Does the person have the ability to understand the time, make change, or read simple words?
One might ask whether the person can take a bus or subway or follow the news on TV
If the criteria of adaptive behaviour had been applied to Muir , it is unlikely that she would have been labelled as mentally deficient
Origins of Intellectual Disability
in 50% of cases, the cause of intellectual disability is organic, meaning that it is genetic or the result of brain damage
Down syndrome
Trisomy 21
A person has three number 21 chromosomes
Chromosomal disorder characterized by mild to profound intellectual disability
An example of organic intellectual disability
Genetic cause is unknown, but related to maternal age: children born to older women are more likely to develop downs syndrome
In the case where its not caused by genetics, it may result from environmental factors
Familial-cultural Intellectual Disability
Down syndrome caused by environmental factors, like neglect and poor nutrition
More prevalent among people of low socioeconomic status
Tends to occur in more than one family member
Is mild
Extreme giftedness usually takes various forms, two of which are
Extreme giftedness usually takes various forms, two of which are prodigies and savants
Prodigy
(like math, music, art, or chess) and at least average in intelligence
Under the age of 20
Sometimes they possess extreme talent in more than one domain
Savant syndrome
A very rare condition in which people with serious mental handicaps also show isolated areas of ability or brilliance/giftedness
Have low overall intelligence, IQ below 70
Incredible ability for calculating numbers, recalling events, playing music, or drawing
Cannot speak at all or speak poorly
100 in the world today, 50% suffer from autism, 50% suffer from some other kind of psychological disorder
Occurs most often in five major areas of talent: music (usually piano), art, math, calendar calculations, and spatial/mechanical skills
Ex:
People who can immediately calculate the day of the week on which a particular date in history fell. If asked what day of the week June 15, 1899 was, they would correctly answer “Thursday”
Others can take apart clocks, toys, bicycles and other machines and rebuild them with expert precision
People with Savant Syndrome
The region most involved with IQ tasks
prefrontal cortex.
Different parts of the brain activate while working on IQ problems:
Verbal Tasks
the left prefrontal region of the brain is activated
Spatial Tasks
the prefrontal lobes of both the left and right hemispheres, and the occipital cortex are activated
The frontal lobe is more involved when an individual is performing fluid intelligence tasks, like pattern recognition, than when the person is performing tasks that involve crystallized intelligence and learned experiences
Brains of Highly Intelligent People
Positive relationship (correlation between 0.30-0.40) between brain size and intelligence Highly intelligent people have more brain volume than less intelligent people Strongest in areas of the brain associated with working memory, executive functioning, and attention
Nature and Nurture in Intelligence
Used twin adoption and family studies
Nature (Genetics)
The more genetically related people are, the more similar they are in IQ even if separated
Identical twins separated are more similar in intelligence than fraternal twins together
Studies show that adopted children’s overall intelligence is more similar to that of their biological parents than to that of their adoptive parents
Accounts for 50% of the variability in intelligence
Nurture (Environment)
Adoption/environment can also enhance a child’s IQ
Adopted children have higher IQs than orphans not adopted
Accounts for 40% of the variability in intelligence
Prenatal environment- drugs, alcohol or infections in pregnant women can influence a child’s intelligence
The other 10% is unexplained
Reaction range
For a given trait, such as IQ, the genetically determined range of response by an individual to his or her environment
Genes do not determine behaviour, but rather establish the range of possible behaviours
Reaction range for IQ is 25 points- meaning that a given person may end up scoring anywhere in a 25 point range on an IQ test, depending on the kind of environment they were raised in
Raised in an enriched environment = likely to obtain an IQ near the upper limit of that persons reaction range
Raised in an impoverished environment = likely to obtain a score near the lower limit
Raised in a normal environment = likely to obtain a score in the middle of the reaction range
Another environmental effect on intelligence: Birth Order
First-born children have a slight advantage over second born children
Second born children have a smaller advantage over third born children
These advantages are caused by differences in family interactions due to birth order, not prenatal environment
The effect held only in situations when no older sibling died in infancy
If a biological second born has an older sibling who died at infancy, the second born child becomes the first born and displays a slight increase in IQ
The Flynn Effect
The trend of increasing IQ scores over the past century
IQ scores have increased by almost three IQ points per decade
These gains are far too rapid to result from genetics
More likely the result of environmental influence
Potentially Caused by:
Increased test-taking exposure and motivation
today’s generations score higher because they have learned how to write tests and care enough about the outcome to try hard. We haven’t actually gotten smarter
Improvements in health and nutrition
Exposure to the technology
More years of schooling
School attendance can raise IQ scores
Standardization ensures average IQ is 100
Arthur Jensen
Reported differences in IQ among racial-ethnic groups
Argued that because IQ is under genetic influence, racial-ethnic differences must at least be partly genetic in origin
Phillipe Rushton
Reported racial ethnic differences on a number of measures, including intelligence, social behaviour, and physical attributes such as brain size.
Rushton’s Research
Asians scored highest on measures of intelligence and Black people scored lowest
White people of European descent scored in the middle
Argued that racial-ethnic differences in IQ are largely due to heredity
Race-ethnicity in the book, “The Bell Curve”
Controversial hinting subtitle, “Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life”
Summarized the results of a study on racial-ethnic group differences, social class and intelligence among 12,000 individuals
1) Racial-ethnic groups vary on IQ scores
2) Differences in IQ largely due to differences in education and income
Due to genetics
Stereotype Threat
The process where anxiety about culturally held group stereotypes impacts negatively on individual test performance
Occurs when people become worried that they will confirm the stereotype about their group in their test performance
their self-doubt and anxiety may worsen test-performance
Psychologists point out that heritability findings apply only within the group of people studied, not between groups. So its a misinterpretation of heritability to argue that group differences are due to genetics even if IQ is heritable
Even if variation within a group on a trait is largely due to heredity, the differences between groups may be due to environmental factors
Ex: Suppose you plant corn seeds from the same seed bag in two different soils, fertile and infertile.
While differences in plant height within each soil environment may be largely due to genetic factors (seed differences), it says nothing about differences in average plant height between the groups, which is largely environmental (due to soil differences)
Conclusion
The conclusion that genetics influence intelligence implies that IQ levels are determined at birth
Faulty because:
1) Genes interact with environmental forces and therefore environment can shape gene expression… epigenetics
2) Reaction range illustrates the connection between genes and environment
3) Interventions have succeeded in changing IQ levels, children who were neglected and then adopted into good families increased in IQ
Both genetic and environmental forces play important roles in determining IQ scores
Non-Western Views of Intelligence
People’s concepts of intelligence vary according to their culture
Western cultures emphasize verbal and cognitive skills first
African cultures see social skills, like being socially responsible, cooperative and active in family life, to be crucial parts of intelligence
Asian cultures emphasize humility, awareness, doing the right thing, and mindfulness as important qualities of intelligence
Children in Kenya don’t do well at solving book analytic problems, but do very well at solving everyday practical problems
