Controversies in Intelligence Flashcards
Statement 1: Yerkes, the man behind the First World War US Army Intelligence Tests, argued that intelligence test scores were solely a result of “inborn” intelligence and were not influenced by education at all.
Statement 2: Some of the tasks used in the First World War US Army Intelligence Tests demonstrated that many recruits had an IQ of zero
(a) Both statements are true.
(b) Statement 1 true; Statement 2 false.
(c) Statement 1 false; Statement 2 true.
(d) Both statements are false.
The answer was d. See Lecture 6. Statement 1 is false – Yerkes states, ““(The tests) are to some extent influenced by educational acquirement, but in the main the soldier’s inborn intelligence and not the accidents of environment determine his mental rating…”. That is, he’s not actually saying the tests weren’t influenced by education at all. Statement 2 is false. It’s true that some of the tasks used in the First World War US Army Intelligence Tests yielded a raw score of zero for many recruits (meaning that they didn’t get any questions correct). However this was not an IQ score – where an IQ score of zero wouldn’t equate to getting no questions correct (it would just equate to a very very very very low IQ that would probably be impossible to measure in the usual tests).
Statement 1: The correlation between job status and IQ doesn’t necessarily mean that IQ is a key determinant of job status.
Statement 2: Sternberg and Kaufman (1998) warn of the possibility that IQ and job status are actually uncorrelated.
(a) Both statements are true.
(b) Statement 1 true; Statement 2 false.
(c) Statement 1 false; Statement 2 true.
(d) Both statements are false.
The answer was b. See Lecture 6. Statement 1 is true – the correlation found between job status and IQ doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a causal link between the two. The association could be a result of some third variable. Statement 2 is false. It’s not the case that Sternberg and Kaufman are arguing that the correlation between job status and IQ is zero (because it isn’t). Instead they warn against assuming that the correlation implies a causal link between IQ and job status.
Statement 1: The extent to which genetics affects individual differences in intelligence is influenced by social class.
Statement 2: Environmental multipliers could mean that small genetic effects can account for large individual differences in intelligence.
(a) Both statements are true.
(b) Statement 1 true; Statement 2 false.
(c) Statement 1 false; Statement 2 true.
(d) Both statements are false.
The answer was a. See Lecture 6. Statement 1 is true. Turkenheimer and colleagues found that heritability estimates were much higher for upper-middle classes than lower social classes. This was proposed to be because there is less environmental variation in upper-middle class households (hence genetics has more “opportunity” to account for individual differences in intelligence). Statement 2 is true. A small genetic effect could be amplified by environmental factors (e.g. a small advantage in intelligence may lead to greater engagement in intellectual pursuits which may foster greater cognitive ability) – making the variance in intelligence accounted for by the genetic effect large.
Statement 1: Herrnstein and Murray, in their book “The Bell Curve”, used multiple regression techniques to investigate IQ.
Statement 2: Herrnstein and Murray, in their book “The Bell Curve”, failed to include Socio-Economic Status as a control variable in their analyses of IQ.
(a) Both statements are true.
(b) Statement 1 true; Statement 2 false.
(c) Statement 1 false; Statement 2 true.
(d) Both statements are false.
The answer was b. See Lecture 6. Statement 1 is true - they did use multiple regression in their analysis of IQ data. Statement 2 is false - they DID attempt to adjust for the effects of Socio-Economic Status (using multiple regression) - it’s just that some have argued that they used too crude a measure of Socio-Economic Status.
The US Army Tests of the First World War established the average mental age of white American males as 13.08 years. The MOST significant problem with the interpretation of this statistic is that:
(a) The set testing procedures were problematic.
(b) An inappropriate standardisation sample was used.
(c) Many of the test items were biased towards American culture.
(d) The theoretical premise of intelligence behind the tests was questionable.
The answer was b. See Lecture 6 - slide entitled “The data from WW1 sample”. The average mental age of white American males was calculated as 13.08 years. The reference group used for standardization were a group of 62 students and businessmen, who were defined as having a mental age of 16 (“adult intelligence”). This means that the “mental age 13” statistic is essentially just saying that the average white American male performed a bit worse than this reference group at the Army Tests. A previous student queried whether option d could be the answer if the question provided new information regarding other race scores. The answer could only be option d if the question was modified to include some theoretical statement about intelligence. That is, we still might get scoring issues no matter what the theoretical premise of the test. All the statements are true – but only option b answers the question.
Statement 1: The First World War US army intelligence tests were based on GROUP-ADMINISTERED intelligence tests developed by Binet.
Statement 2: The First World War US army intelligence tests involved a Beta test for recruits who were illiterate in English and a separate Alpha test for recruits who were literate in English.
(a) Both statements are true.
(b) Statement 1 true; Statement 2 false.
(c) Statement 1 false; Statement 2 true.
(d) Both statements are false.
The answer was c. See Lecture 6. Statement 1 is false – the intelligence tests developed by Binet were INDIVIDUALLY-ADMINISTERED tests not GROUP tests. Statement 2 is true – there was an Alpha test for literates and a Beta test for illiterates and non-English speakers.
Statement 1: IQ scores have been found to be associated with family integrity, health status, academic achievement, and law-breaking.
Statement 2: The correlation between job performance and IQ is typically in the range .60 to .80, according to Sternberg & Hedlund (2002).
(a) Both statements are true.
(b) Statement 1 true; Statement 2 false.
(c) Statement 1 false; Statement 2 true.
(d) Both statements are false.
The answer was b. See Lecture 6. Statement 1 is true – see slide entitled “What real world variables does IQ correlate with?”. Statement 2 is false. The correlation between job performance and IQ is typically found to be between .3 and .6, where the range given in the question is implausibly high (note that you don’t need to memorize the exact numbers to get this correct - just have an understanding of the approximate range).
Statement 1: Based on twin studies cited by Plomin and Spinath (2004), intelligence has been estimated to be about 50% inherited.
Statement 2: The difference between monozygotic and dizygotic twin correlations for intelligence increases during development. This suggests increasing genetic influence (according to Plomin and Spinath, 2004).
(a) Both statements are true.
(b) Statement 1 true; Statement 2 false.
(c) Statement 1 false; Statement 2 true.
(d) Both statements are false.
The answer was a. See Lecture 6. Statement 1 is true. The 50% is worked out from the difference between the intelligence correlations of identical and non-identical twins (.86 and .60 respectively according to Plomin and Spinath, 2004). Statement 2 is true – see the figure caption to the graph of twin intelligence correlations (taken from Plomin and Spinath, 2004) in the Lecture 6 slides.
