Intelligence Flashcards
Are any machines considered intelligence?
despite achievement, none of these machines would be considered “intelligent” by psychologists.
Do psychologists disagree on what intelligence is?
yes
What is genetic essentialism?
a general tendency for us to (falsely) think about certain psychological traits as “fixed” and caused by our genes.
What is Eugenics?
the social movement aimed at improving the human “genetic pool” through selective breeding.
What is intelligence? What does this definition focus on?
- the ability to direct one’s thinking, adapt to one’s changing environment, and learn from experience.
- Intelligence is under this definition about aptitude/potential, and not about what you already know or have done (achievement).
Why is the emphasis on aptitude over achievement important?
There may be reasons out of ones control that have prevented them from doing these things but psychologists believe that doesn’t necessarily take away from intelligence
What is a psychological factor?
a unique mechanism that predicts performance in a domain. This is a mechanism that predicts a lot but not everything. As a result of how this mechanism works we can predict other things. But we can also dissociate other things that don’t depend on it like hearing.
Why is visual acuity a factor? What does it predict?
Visual acuity (e.g., 20/20 vision) is a factor that predicts how well you can see, how
well you can read, how well you can drive, but not how well you can hear.
Why is physical endurance a factor? What does it predict?
Physical endurance is a factor that predicts how far you can run, how long you can swim, whether you are likely to enter a marathon, etc., but not how fast you type words on a keyboard.
What is the single factor theory?
Our performance on one test correlates well with another in a different subject. One theory proposes on the basis of this that intelligence is made up of g and specific factors.
What is general intelligence factor (g)?
the hypothesized single factor of intelligence that partly explains each person’s aptitude in all domains of knowledge.
What are specific factors (s)?
the remaining, selectively learned factors that account for the lack of perfect correlations. For most, this is about achievement in particular subjects, and therefore not intelligence.
What does the theory of g imply about people who lack g?
Some people have a lot of g, and they tend to do well on any intellectual activity.
What does the theory of g imply about people who lack a lot of g?
People who lack a lot of g would generally do poorly on most intellectual things, except when they acquire very specific and selective skills (s).
What does the theory of g say about savants?
Under this view, “savants” are people who lack overall g but have an overabundance of one very specific s factor.
What is the issue with g?
how do we know that correlations between tests are not third variables?
What does the many factor of intelligence suggest?
That there is no one intelligence
What are independent factor theories?
there is no such thing as intelligence (singular), but instead many different intelligences (plural).
- Theories vary dramatically in how many “factors” of intelligence are thought to exist
- Each theory believes that one factor (e.g., mathematical ability) is not related to another (e.g., verbal ability) at all, except through third variable correlations.
What does independent factor theory imply?
- There are no generally intelligent people – only people who are more/less intelligent on specific types of activities (e.g., math, language, etc.).
- There are generally no people who truly lack intelligence – they might often just be misclassified by our culturally narrow view of intelligence.
- “Savants” are individuals who are outliers on one specific subtype.
What do independent factor theories imply about the ability to improve intelligence?
These theories also suggest that you can’t improve your intelligence as a
whole, because intelligence is many things at once.
What is the hybrid theory of intelligence?
the most popular theory that states that intelligence has several “middle-levels” that g fuels, but that various factors can also improve without contributions from g.
Under the hybrid theory what is true of a person with high g?
Under such theories, a person with high g would be better in all the subfactors, but various other things could change a subfactor without affecting overall g.
Does g allows some factors to worsen over time (e.g., due to brain injury) without affecting all the others.
yes
What are the 2 middle levels in the hybrid theory of intelligence?
Fluid intelligence
Crystalized intelligence
What is fluid intelligence?
type of intelligence used in learning new information or dealing with novel situations (e.g., speed of processing, memory).
What is Crystalized intelligence?
type of intelligence used when drawing on experiences from the past (e.g., creativity).
how does crystalized intelligence change overtime?
you acquire more crystalized intelligence with education
how does fluid intelligence change overtime?
fluid intelligence tends to stay more constant with education and time.
What is true of all modern intelligence tests?
All modern intelligence tests are standardized: they have a common unit that can meaningfully tell you how your score compares to the general population.
What do we need to standardize a test?
- A standard unit (e.g., like “20/20 vision”).
-To give the test to thousands of people so we can have a baseline of performance and an understanding of how many different people do on the same questions.
-This “norms” the difficulty and appropriateness of the questions.
What is the intelligence quotient?
the standard unit of intelligence, where 100 is the average score, and 15 is a single standard deviation.
What is the Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-IV)? What model is it based off of?
the most popular and commonly used intelligence test still used today, based on a hybrid model of
intelligence.
What is the WAIS broken down into?
The Full scale IQ, General ability index, cognitive proficiency index
What is the general ability index broken down into?
verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning
What type of intelligence is the general ability index measuring?
crystalized intelligence
What type of intelligence is the cognitive proficiency index measuring?
Fluid intelligence
What does the general ability index measure?
measures a person’s intellectual abilities in the absence of time pressure (mostly taps crystalized intelligence).
What are examples of what verbal comprehension test (test questions)?
- What does this saying mean: “A stich in time saves nine”?
- What does “sanguine” mean?
- In what way are pencils and pens alike?
What is and example of a question that would measure perceptual reasoning?
Which three pictures make the top one?
What is the cognitive proficiency index?
measures a person’s intellectual speed and
capacity for processing (mostly measuring fluid intelligence).
What is working memory measuring?
Forward Digit Span
Backwards Digit Span.
What is processing speed measuring?
Find all symbols that follow a particular rule on the page.
What is the Ravens Progressive matrices?
a non-verbal intelligence test based on matching pictures that follow particular types of rules.
What is the ravens especially good for?
Especially used for fluid intelligence, and for cross-cultural testing.
What are the major problems with modern intelligence tests?
cultural bias
education
test-taking ability
stereotypes
What is the cultural bias aspect of intelligence test problems?
are intelligence tests only capturing our culturally-biased definition of intelligence (e.g., emotional intelligence is not seen as intelligence)?
What is the education aspect of intelligence test problems?
intelligence tests often depend on skills that are taught in school (e.g., vocabulary). Are we measuring intelligence or education?
What is the Test-taking ability aspect of intelligence test problems?
some people are more practiced at taking tests than others. Are we measuring intelligence or test practice?
What is the stereotypes aspect of intelligence test problems?
people’s performance depends strongly on their expectations; how well somebody does on a test depends on whether they think they should be doing well or not.
What have classic theories on intelligence been?
either single- or multi-factor. Modern theories are hybrids of the two.
What are the ravens and the WAIS both based on?
the Gf/Gc hybrid model.
What are individual differences?
variability in a psychological trait within the broader population (e.g., personality, taste preferences, anxiety levels, etc.).
What do individual differences come from?
Environmental variability
Genetic Variability
Interaction between genes and environment
What is environmental variability?
people have different lives, grow up with different family styles, go to different schools, live in different places, etc.
What is genetic variability?
people differ (to a lesser extent) in their genetic makeup.
What is the interaction between genes and environment?
genetic effects can lead to changes in environments, and environments lead to changes in gene expression.
What is the interaction between genes and environment?
genetic effects can lead to changes in environments, and environments lead to changes in gene expression.
What is an example of gene environment interaction?
If anxiety levels are genetically high, you will probably avoid situations that lead to anxiety which affects other things as well
What are behavioral genetics?
the subfield of psychology that broadly attempts to characterize the contributions of genetics and environment to explaining individual differences in psychological traits.
What is not the goal of behavioural genetics?
The goal is not to explain causation through genetics, but to capture whether specific traits are better predicted by genes or environmental variability.
- We do not care about the absolute contribution of genes (do they or don’t they).
-We care about the relative contribution of genes (do they contribute more or less
compared to a stable environment).
What is the goal of behavioural genetics?
behavioural geneticists are interested in understanding the situations and interactions, they are curious about the most consequential environmental factors. they do not care about what the absolute contribution of genes is, they care about the relative contribution (how much they matter)
What is genetic determinism?
the (entirely false) belief that if a person carries some set of genes, that their expressed phenotype is fixed and immutable. This is never the case (“genes ≠ destiny”)
Why do no single genes predict a single trait?
there is no intelligence gene, no anxiety gene, no language gene, no Alzheimer’s gene.