Intelligence Flashcards
What is the Intelligence as Sensory Capacity theory?
• Theory that people with superior sensory capacities should acquire more knowledge than other people
• Developed by Sir Francis Galton
• Studies proved
o Having one exceptional sense has almost no correlation with having any other exceptional senses
o Sensory ability not highly correlated with assessments of overall intelligence
• Recent research shows some forms of sensory ability may moderately relate to intelligence
What is an intelligence test?
o Diagnostic tool designed to measure overall thinking ability
o Created in 1904 by Binet and Simon
o Designed to find which children were falling behind in learning
o Contained diverse content that identified higher mental process
Includes reasoning, understanding, and judgement
o Current tests still follow original lead
What is abstract thinking?
o Capacity to understand hypothetical concepts
What abilities does intelligence consist of?
o Reason abstractly
o Learn to adapt to novel environmental circumstances
o Acquire knowledge
o Benefit from experience
What is the g factor?
o General intelligence
o Thought to do with mental energy, some of us just have more powerful engines that are more effective and efficient
o Controversial as some think it’s elitist and others believe it’s a statistical artifact
o Hypothetical factor that accounts for overall differences in intellect among people
o Used to describe the mildly positive correlation between people getting one item correct on an intelligence test and getting others correct
What is the s factor?
o Specific abilities
o Particular ability level in a narrow domain
What is fluid intelligence?
o Capacity to learn new ways of solving problems
o More likely to decline with age
o More highly related to g, suggesting it may capture the power of the mental image
What is crystallized intelligence?
o Accumulated knowledge of the world acquired over time
o More likely to increase with age
o Mildly positive correlation with personality trait called openness to experience
What is the multiple intelligence theory and what is its weakness?
- Idea that people vary in their ability levels across different domains of intellectual skill
- Developed by Howard Gardner
- Believed concept of g is wrong or incomplete
- Weakness is model is too vague, difficult to test, and nearly impossible to falsify
What frames of mind are proposed by the multiple intelligence theory?
- Different ways of thinking about the world
- Each is a different and fully independent intelligence in its own right
- Different intelligences should be especially pronounced in people with exceptional talents
- Explains autistic savants who show remarkable abilities with one domain but not others
What are the 8 (or nine) different intelligence types proposed in the multiple intelligences theory?
• Linguistic
o Speak and write well
• Logico-mathematical
o Use logic and mathematical skills to solve problems, such as scientific questions
• Spatial
o Think and reason about objects in three-dimensional space
• Musical
o Perform, understand, and enjoy music
• Bodily-kinesthetic
o Manipulate the body in sports, dance, or other physical endeavours
• Interpersonal
o Understand and interact effectively with others
• Intrapersonal
o Understand and possess insight into self
• Naturalistic
o Recognize, identify, and understand animals, plants, and other living things
• Tentative new one: existential intelligence
o Ability to grasp deep philosophical ideas, like the meaning of life
What is the triarchic model?
- Model of intelligence proposed by Robert Sternberg positing 3 distinct types of intelligence: analytical, practical, and creative intelligence
- Remains controversial as they are not really independent of each other and research is only correlational not causational
What is analytically intelligence?
- Ability to reason logically
- Traditional book smarts
- Closely related to g but considered only one part of intelligence
What is practical intelligence?
- Also called tacit intelligence
- Ability to solve real world problems, especially those involving other people
- Similar to street smarts
- Some call it social intelligence or capacity to understand others
- Sternberg argues it predicts outcomes such as job performance
What is creative intelligence?
- Also called creativity
- Ability to come up with novel and effective answers to questions
- Sternberg argues it predicts outcomes such as job performance
How are intelligence and reaction time correlated?
- Increased intelligence results in decreased reaction time
* Galton and his speed of sensory processing may not have been totally wrong
How are intelligence and memory correlated?
• Scores on working memory tests moderately positively correlated with intelligence scores
What part of the brain holds the location for intelligence?
• Not located on a single part
• Prefrontal cortex activated during reasoning tasks
o Plays key roles in planning, impulse control, and short-term memory
• Parietal lobe involved with spatial abilities
What is the double course of incompetence?
o People with poor cognitive skills are especially likely to overestimate their intellectual abilities
o Explains why some people perform poorly in school and on the job even though they are convinced they are performing well
What are metacognitive skills and how do they relate to the double course of incompetence?
o Knowledge of our own knowledge
o Play a role in the double course
What is the Stanford-Binet IQ test?
- Developed in 1916 and still used in 5th edition today
- Originally developed for children but expanded to include adults
- Wide variety of tasks
- Set of norms allows comparison with peers
What is IQ?
Intelligence Quotient (IQ) • Systematic means of quantifying differences among people in their intelligence
What is the deviation IQ? What is considered average and above/below average?
- New formula to calculate a persons IQ
- Expression of a person’s IQ relative to his or her same-aged peers
- IQ of 100 is exactly average
- An IQ of 80 is a standard amount below average for an age group
- An IQ of 120 is a standard amount above average for an age group
What is the sordid past of Canada during the eugenics movement and the misuse of an IQ test?
• Henry Godard translated it to English
• Used to test new immigrants who could not speak English and therefore scores were low and was used to say the were inferior
• Godard adapted it for adults without knowing how it applied, made pretty much everyone out to be disabled, included the mayor…oops
• Eugenics
o Movement in early 20th century to improve a population’s genetic stock
o Coined by Sir Francis Galton
o Positive eugenics encouraging those with good genes to reproduce
o Negative eugenics discouraging those with bad genes from preproducing
• Resulted in hierarchy of immigration status constructed to encourage those of higher status to move into Canada and US
• Many provinces required sterilization of low IQ individuals
What is the IQ test done today for adults?
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) • Created by David Wechsler • Consists of 15 subtests designed to assess mental abilities • Yields several scores o Overall IQ score o Verbal comprehension o Perceptual reasoning o Working memory o Processing speed • Scores are compared with norms
What is the IQ test performed on children?
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)
• Version of the WAIS adapted for older children and adolescents
Wechsler Primary and Preschool Scall of Intelligence (WPPSI)
• Version of the WAIS adapted for younger children aged 2.5 – 7 years old
What is a culture-fair IQ test?
• Abstract reasoning measure that does not depend on language and is often believed to be less influenced by cultural factors than other IQ tests
What are SATs and how do they correlate to IQ?
- Designed to test overall competence in a specific domain or predict academic success
- SATs highly correlated to IQ
What is the validity of IQ scores?
• Correlation between IQ and job performance higher in more mentally demanding occupations
Can be concurrent or predictive
What is concurrent validity?
- Ability to relate to outcomes measured at the same time
* Correlate moderate to highly with other IQ tests given during the same session
What is predictive validity?
- Ability to forecast future outcomes
* Decent job predicting academic success
How does IQ fit on a bell curve?
- IQ fits fairly well to a bell curve
* Small bump at the low end indicating more very low IQ than expected
What is assortative mating?
- Tendency of individuals with similar genes to have likely to have children
- May account for more very low IQ than expected
What are the 3 criteria for intellectual disability?
o Onset prior to adulthood o IQ below about 70 o Inadequate adaptive functioning Assessed by difficulties • Dressing and feeding oneself • Communicating with others • Basic life skills • Gullible and easily taken advantage of
How may intellectual disability be categorized as? What are the most common genetic causes of intellectual disability?
• Categorized as mild, moderate, severe, and profound
• Mild may be streamlined into regular classes but still have deficits in adaptive functioning
• The more severe, the less likely it is to run in families and more likely genetic or accidents during birth
• Most common causes
o Down syndrome
Mosaics have only some cells with the extra chromosomes and more normal IQ
o Fragile X syndrome
Who are considered the highly gifted?
• Top 2% of IQ eligible to become members of Mensa
• Evidence shows
o Highly gifted often do not suffer burnout as adults
o Slightly lower rates of mental illness than the general population
What have family studies taught us about genetic influences of intelligence?
- Show IQ runs in family
- Relatives achieving intellectual greatness declines with biological distance from the intelligent individual being studied
What have twin studies taught us about genetic influences of intelligence?
• Identical twins significantly more likely to both be intelligent than fraternal twins but not a perfect correlation so there has to be more to the story
o Identical twins raised apart still very similar in IQ
• Definitely genetic link but verbal intelligence better explained by environmental factors
• Findings in low-income homes suggests environmental deprivation can swamp genetics
