Intelligence Flashcards
What intelligence predicts
- general learning ability key for everyday success
- odds of dropping out of school
- going to prison
- living in poverty
- unemployment/divorce
- death
- job occupation
Why intelligence is relevant
- being victimised
- self control (regulate impulse,emotions and beh)
- ideology and voting intentions
Intelligence in the country
- GDP; faster rates of economic growth
- overall health
- higher levels of democratisation
- less corruption
- welfare growth
History of IQ: Galton
- observed differences in & wanted to develop a method for measuring intelligence
- intertwined with the development of psychometrics
History of IQ: Binet
- originally asked to find way of identifying differences in children’s academic success at primary school
- for tailored intervention
Binet-Simon scale (1905)
- 30 tasks testing skills used everyday by increasing complexity:
- shaking hands
- following lighted match with the eyes
- naming parts of the body
- word definitions
- digit recall
- tests reflected age bands – corresponding attainment
- comparison of performance
General intelligence (“g”)- Spearman (1904)
- used FA – tests produced results highly correlated
Two factors:
- Specific abilities (“s”)
eg: vocab, mathematical or spatial abilities
- General intelligence (“g”)
underlines performance across all tasks
Development in the early 1900’s
Stanford-Binet test (1916) –
- need for standardized testing
- similar tests of cognition at increasing complexity
- 1000 children tested
Stern (1912):
- mental age & chronological age – consistent ratio – Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
- 100 as the average IQ
Thurstone’s “g” (1938)
- “g” results from seven primary mental abilities:
- Associative memory
- Number (maths)
- Perceptual speed – observations from visual stimuli
- Reasoning (inductive and deductive reasoning)
- Spatial visualisation
- Verbal comprehension
- Word fluency
The Wechsler intelligence tests (1939 onwards )
- Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) across 2000 adults, 16-75 years old
- Wechsler Scale for Children (WISC) – 5-16 years old
- measured different aspects such as verbal & performance tasks
- IQ – actual test score / expected score for that age x 100
Standardisation of the Wechsler tests
- determines expected score for particular age so people can be compared:
- average score calculated obtained through stratified sampling
- transform range of scores and variations among population to a standardized form
- used 100 as starting point
- use normal distribution curve
Issues with the Raven’s PMs
- might load on a different induction intelligence factor or separate spatial ability factor (Carroll, 1993)
- flynn effect strongest on raven’s progressive matrices
- factor analytic results can be highly variable
Cattell-Horn (1966)
Crystallised intelligence (Gc):
- acquired knowledge & skills like factual knowledge
- test of vocab, comprehension and general knowledge
- acquired through life
- tested using the Wechsler test
Fluid intelligence (Gf):
- ability to solve abstract relational problems
- acquisition of new info, understanding new relationships, patterns & analogies in stimuli
-present from birth and stabilises in adulthood
- raven’s progressive matrices
Carroll (1993)
- Three-Stratum Model of Human Cognitive Abilities
- Factor analysis of data sets gathered between 1927 & 1987
Stratum 1: 69 specific cognitive abilities/intelligences
Stratum 2: 8 broad factors arising from Stratum 1 eg:
- fluid intelligence
- general memory & learning
Stratum 3: General level of intelligence
Gardner: Multiple intelligences
- biopsychological potential can be influenced by experience, culture, and motivational factors
- ability to solve problems and produce products that are culturally valued
Frames of Mind (1983)- assessed potential areas of intelligence on:
- potential isolation by brain damage
- evolutionary history and evolutionary plausibility
Multiple intelligences: Linguistic
- sensitivity to spoken & written language
- use language to achieve goals
- verbal comprehensions and word fluency different
Multiple intelligences: Logical- mathematical
- ability to carry out mathematical operations logically and analytically
- conduct scientific investigations
- corresponding feature of other intelligence theories demonstrate high “g” loading
Multiple intelligences: Spatial
- ability to recognize large & small visual patterns
- spatial visualization and spatial scanning are distinct domains
Multiple intelligences: Interpersonal
- ability to understand intentions, motivations, needs, and desires of others
- depends on how it is measured
- potentially related to cognitive ability or personality
- understanding of verbal & non-verbal cues
Multiple intelligences: Intrapersonal
- ability to understand & have effective working model of oneself
- potentially self-concept clarity/self esteem (Campbell, 1990)
Multiple intelligences: Naturalist
- ability to recognize & classify objects
- ability to categorise objects according to similarities & differences
- logical reasoning needed
Context for the development of multiple intelligences
- challenged the accepted explanatory power of “g”
- intelligence domains can overlap
- correlations between facets of tests are down to tests relying on logical/mathematical, & linguistic abilities
- concern about the “verbal lens”
- logical ability present in all types of cognitive ability
- multiple intelligences positively received by educators & parents
Assessment of multiple intelligences
- notion of “intelligence fair”
- Gardner: assessments should reflect individual’s success in completing culturally valued tasks than intelligence tests
- 2006 – still no standardized testing for MI, and nothing offered by Gardner
Evolution theories (Woodley 2010)
- domain general trait
- evolved to cope with diverse range of inputs & processes
- independent, highly generalized & overarching, context free meta-representational capacity
- taps into range of subordinate domain general learning mechanisms
- then taps wider array of domain specific modules
- hierarchy allows for adaptive solving of underspecified but evolutionarily irregularly occurring problems in Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness
Evolution theories: (Kanazawa, 2004)
- adaptation in own right evolved in response to specific need to cope with evolutionary novelty in the environment of evolutionary adaptedness
- accidently come to assume greater contemporary social significance owing to the novel nature of modern complex environments
Debates about intelligence tests (Haier, 2016)
- some say aren’t fair and depend on education, social class or other factors
Low test scores happen because person doesn’t know the answers in the test:
- never taught it
- never learned it on own
- learned but forgot
Debates about intelligence tests: high test scores
High scores happen because:
- good memory
- good test-taking skills
- good learning
Debates about intelligence tests
- test bias
- test failure over or under predicts
- IQ test scores predict academic success
Problems with IQ tests
- not on a ratio scale – no true zero such as height
- IQ 140 not twice as intelligent as IQ of 70
- IQ test scores are an estimate of intelligence
-don’t know yet how to quantify intelligence - if your score goes up on test doesn’t mean your intelligence has gone up
The myth of 10,000 hours
- can lead to success to anything if you put your mind to it
- nor research support
- talent or intelligence required first
The Flynn effect (Williams, 2003)
- increases in worldwide IQ observed from WW2 onwards:
South Korea & Japanese same rate between 1970 & 1990
Chinese – 4.53 points over 22 years
South Africa – stronger increase in Afrikaans
British children – 6-18 months (1949-1985)
The Flynn Effect: where are gains made?
- lower end of the spectrum – better nutrition, health care, & education
- but consistent opposite findings
- difficult to pinpoint reason why there are gains
How does the Flynn Effect arise: Education
- effect seen in preschool children so education doesn’t apply
- academic performance declines at same time as Flynn Effect gains
- Swedish study showed education strongest predictor for gains in both crystallised and fluid intelligence (Ronnlund & Nilsson, 2008; 2009)
How does the Flynn Effect arise: Height
- both height and IQ – increased by one SD over 50 years
How does the Flynn Effect arise: Head size
- correlates with “g” (proxy with brain size) ( Rushton & Ankey, 1996)
- more neurons; higher levels of myelination
How does the Flynn Effect arise: Not Nutrition
- neither vitamins or supplements have impact (Neisser, 1998)
- nutrition won’t decline in countries that seen a decline in FE (height unaffected)
- height gains associated with upper half of intelligence range
How does the Flynn Effect arise: Decreasing family size
- maternal IQ correlates negatively with fertility
- low IQ people statistically more children than high IQ people
- decrease family size -> less children with low IQ
How does the Flynn Effect arise: Child rearing practices
- unlikely because of variety of practices (cultural variation)
- shared environment no impact on intelligence in adulthood
