Individual Differences in Cognitive Development Flashcards
Measuring Intellectual Power: Intelligence Quotient
- IQ
- defined in terms of a child’s mental age and chronological age
- compares a child’s performance with other children of the same chronological age
- FORMULA = mental age/chronological age all X 100
Measuring Intellectual Power: Mental Age
- term used by Binet and Simon and Terman in the early calculation of IQ scores to refer to the age level of IQ test items a child could successfully answer
- used in combo w/ chronological age to calculate an IQ score
Measuring Intellectual Power: Stanford-Binet
- created by Terman
- six sets of tests to test cognitive intelligence/ability
- IQ score above 100 for children whose mental age is higher than their chronological age
- IQ score below 100 for children whose mental age is below chronological age
- majority of children score right around 100
- more children with low IQ’s than there are children with very high IQ’s bc of brain damage and genetic anomalies
Measuring Intellectual Power: WISC-IV Test
- wechsler intelligence scales for children (test III for children b/w 2.5-7 and test IV for 6-16)
- most often used in schools to diagnose learning problems
- consists of 15 tests
Measuring Intellectual Power: WISC-IV Test INDEXES
- verbal comprehension: verbal skills such as knowledge of vocabulary and general info
- perceptual reasoning: block design, picture completion, to test nonverbal visual-processing abilities
- processing: times tests such as symbol search, measure how rapidly an examinee processes info
- working memory: digit span, measures working memory efficiency
- Full scale IQ: the WISC-IV score that takes into account verbal and nonverbal scale scores
Measuring Intellectual Power: Bayley Scales of Infant Development
- the best-known and most widely used test of infant “intelligence”
- measure sensory and moor skills (reaching for a dangling ring, putting blocks in a cup, building a tower of cubes)
Measuring Intellectual Power: Achievement test
-designed to test specific info learned in school, performance is compared to that of other children in the same grade across the country
Measuring Intellectual Power: Competence Vs Performance
- competence: a person’s basic, underlying level of skill
- performance: behavior shown by a person under real-life rather than ideal circumstances (what a child has ACTUALLY learned)
Measuring Intellectual Power: Reliability
-the stability of a test score over multiple testing sessions
Measuring Intellectual Power: Validity
-the degree to which a test measures what it is intended to measure
Explaining Individual Differences in IQ scores: Twins + Adoption
- identical twins are more like each other w/ IQ scores than fraternal twins
- IQ’s of adopted children are better predicted from IQ’s of natural parents
- both heredity and environment affect IQ
- children in upper-class homes have 11 point higher IQ’s than those in low-income homes
Explaining Individual Differences in IQ scores: Shared Environment
- characteristics of a family that affect all children in the household
- biggest risk in shared environment is (SES) socio-economic status
Explaining Individual Differences in IQ scores: cumulative deficit
- any difference b/w groups in IQ or achievement test scores that becomes larger over time
- the longer a child lives in poverty, the more negative the effect on IQ scores
Explaining Individual Differences in IQ scores: factors that lead to higher IQ scores that increase with age
-an interesting and complex physical environment, parents are emotionally responsive, talking to children often, playing with or interacting with children, encourage/expect children to do well and encourage school achievement
Explaining Individual Differences in IQ scores: non shared environment
- characteristics of a family that affect one child but not the others in the household
- ex. being the oldest is diff than the being the youngest
- older child typically has highest IQ bc they only interact w/ adults
Explaining Individual Differences in IQ scores: Reaction range
- a range within upper and lower boundaries of possible functioning established by one’s genes
- in case of IQ scores, reaction range is estimated at 20-25 points
- possible outcomes = phenotypes
- basic genetic patterning = genotype
Explaining Group Differences in IQ or Achievement Test Scores: Ethnic Groups
- caucasian children have 12 higher IQ points than African-Americans (noticeable at the age of 2-3)
- Also may be because of low birth weight of African Americans, and more likely to be poor, differences in prenatal care
- Asians cultural beliefs tend to encourage education more than caucasians or african americans
- minority children do better on the KABC than they do on the Wechsler tests, therefore its used more often in preschools, elementary schools, and clinicians to assess minority children
- asians believe working harder can make you smarter, they actually are smarter
- boys test more as mathematical gifted, have more spatial visualization concepts
- girls more organized and developed in social and language section of brain
Alternative Views of Intelligence: Psychometric Approach
- using IQ tests to define and explain individual and group differences in intelligence
- approach is too narrow, too much emphasis on defining intelligence in terms of correlation b/w IQ tests and school achievement
Alternative Views of Intelligence: Sterberg’s triarchic theory of intelligence
- Sternberg developed test Triarchic abilities test to measure the 3 aspects of intelligence
- analytical (componential intelligence) = what is normally measured on the IQ test including planning, organizing, memorizing facts and applying them to new situations
- creative (experiential intelligence) = insightfulness and the ability to see new relationships among new events or experiences
- practical (contextual intelligence) = “street smarts”, skill in applying info to the real world or solving practical problems
Alternative Views of Intelligence: Multiple Intelligences
- Howard Gardner proposed 8 types of intelligence
- Linguistic = good writers/speakers, learn languages easily, a lot of knowledge on language
- Logical/mathematical = math skills and able to generate logical solutions to various kinds of problems
- Spatial = used in production/appreciation of works of arts such as painting and sculptures
- Bodily Kinesthetic = professional athletes
- Musical = musicians, singers, composers, conductors
- Interpersonal = those in “helping professions” aka counselors, social workers, ministers
- Intrapersonal = people good at identifying their own strengths and choosing goals accordingly
- Naturalistic = scientists, ability to recognize patterns in nature
Alternative Views of Intelligence: Gardner’s Theory
- based on observations of people with brain damage, mental retardation, and other conditions like savant syndrome (a person with a developmental disability demonstrates profound and prodigious capacities or abilities far in excess of what would be considered normal)
- argues that brain damage causes disruption of functioning in specific parts of the brain/mental abilities rather than just a general decline in intelligence
- many mental people are talented
- 9th intelligence = existential intelligence = deals w/ spiritual realm and enables us to contemplate the meaning of life
Measuring Intellectual Power: The Flynn Effect
- the tendency of IQ scores to rise over time
- flynn said scores rise as general health, nutrition, and educational opportunities increase
- recent studies show education is more responsible fore this effect than advances in the physical domain
Measuring Intellectual Power: What can IQ scores predict?
-school performance, years of education
Explaining individual difference in IQ scores: how do heredity and environment interact to influence IQ scores?
- concept of reaction range aka heredity determines some range of potential; environment determines the level of performance within that range
- parents intelligence shapes environment they create for their children, influence them both genetically and environmentally
Explaining Group Differences in IQ or Achievement Test Scores: In what ways are home computers and internet access linked to achievement test scores among poor children?
- poor childrens achievement test scores decline as computer/internet access increase in neighborhoods
- hypothesized causes focus on parental monitoring of children’s computer activities
Explaining Group Differences in IQ or Achievement Test Scores: how does stereotype threat theory explain ethnic group differences in cognitive test scores?
- proposes that minority test takers are aware of the cultural stereotypes regarding their performance on cognitive tests
- they experience levels of performance anxiety that negatively impact scores
- does not fully explain ethnic group diff in scores
