Intelligence Flashcards
What is the definition of intelligence?
The capacity to think rationally, act purposefully, and deal effectively with the environment
What is the g-factor?
An experimental factor that involves reasoning, problem solving skills, etc.
How did Binet measure intelligence?
Through a series of specialized “intellectual” questions
What were the five factors that Binet incorporated to measure intelligence?
- Fluid reasoning
- Quantitative reasoning
- Knowledge
- Visual-spatial processing
- Working memory
What is the SB5?
The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale
What is the difference between the Binet and Wechsler tests?
1) The Binet test was originally designed for children while the Weschler test was originally designed for adults
2) The Binet test gives one overall score for intelligence while the Weschler test breaks down intelligence into many different parts
What are the different parts that the Weschler test breaks intelligence down into?
Performance intelligence and verbal intelligence
What is performance intelligence?
It is non-verbal intelligence (solving puzzles, etc.)
What is verbal intelligence?
Intelligence measured by answering questions like vocabulary, arithmetic, etc.
What is mental age?
The average mental ability people exhibit at a particular age
What is chronological age?
It is a person’s age in years
What is IQ?
It is the person’s mental age divided by his chronological age then multiplied by 100
What is deviation IQ?
It is the IQ obtained from a person’s relative standing in his or her age group
What is artificial intelligence?
It is an artificial system that is capable of displaying human problem solving and intelligence
What is standardization?
It refers to the uniform practices in giving and scoring tests
What is the norm?
It is the explicit standard for behavior that members of a group share
What is reliability?
It is the consistency of test scores
What makes a test reliable?
It yields similar results upon repeated testing
What is test-retest?
It is a procedure for administering a test to the same person twice to determine reliability
What are split-halves?
It is a procedure for splitting a test into two parts and comparing the scores on both parts to determine reliability
What is internal consistency?
It is the characteristic of a test that yields the same responses from people to items that measure the same thing
What makes a test valid?
If it measures what it’s supposed to measure
What is concurrent validity?
It is the validity that a test has if it can be correlated with another kind of criterion that is available
What is predictive validity?
It is the validity that a test has if its results can be correlated with the test taker’s future performance
What is factor analysis?
It is a statistical technique used by researchers to determine which types of scores on tests tend to cluster together
What is a factor?
It is a basic ability that test takers already have
What is information processing view of intelligence?
It is an approach to studying intelligence that looks at how people think and reason intelligently
What is the Stanford-Binet test?
It is Stanford’s revised revision of the Binet test that judges intelligence by performance and verbal sections
What does the SAT measure?
The aptitude for college studies
What is mental retardation?
It is a state where someone’s general intelligence has been significantly lower than the average since childhood
What is the heritability factor?
It is the estimate of genetic contribution to intelligence in people who belong to the same population
What is SOMPA? What does it consist of?
Is the System of Multicultural Pluralistic Assessment. It includes an IQ test, a medical examination, and an interview with the child’s parents
What is validity?
It is a test’s ability to measure what it is designed to measure
Which professor at Stanford revised Binet’s test?
Lewis Terman
How is culture a problem in testing?
Some questions may favour a particular culture
What three aspects of intelligence did Sternberg’s triarchic theory distinguish?
Contextual, componential, and experiential
What factors can affect mental ability after birth?
Nutrition, family conditions, exposure to toxins, etc.
What is practical intelligence?
Allows one to learn strategies for success that are not formally taught
What is emotional intelligence?
Allows one to understand his/her and other peoples’ emotional states
What is a normal (bell) curve?
Bell-shaped curve with the majority of scores in the middle
What is the correlation between IQ scores and school grades?
.50
Does high IQ predict success?
Not necessarily - high IQ reveals potential
What is giftedness?
The possession of a high IQ or special talents
What is intellectual disability?
Presence of a developmental disability or IQ below 70
What causes intellectual disabilities?
Physical disorders: Genetic abnormalities Fetal damage Birth injuries Metabolic disorders
What can cause familial intellectual disability?
Poor households where nutrition, intellectual stimulation, medical care, and emotional support may be inadequate
What is a culture-fair test?
Test designed to minimize importance of skills/knowledge prevalent in some cultures than in others
What are the eight different kinds of intelligence according to Gardner? (use chunking to memorize!)
- Language
- Logic and math
- Visual and spatial
- Music
- Bodily-kinesthetic
- Intrapersonal
- Interpersonal
- Naturalist
What is Gardner’s theory called?
Theory of Multiple Intelligences
What is a twin study?
Comparison of twins who were raised together or separated at birth; purpose is to identify relative impact of heredity and environment.
Why do the children of some races tend to have lower IQs than other races?
Poverty, worse living environments, etc
What happened when poor African-American children were adopted into European-American families?
IQs of African-American children increased
IQ predicts school performance, but does it predict later career success?
No
Are group differences in average IQ based on genetics?
No (no significant correlations between ethnic ancestry and iQ)
What is cognition?
Process of mentally processing information
What are some causes of intellectual disability?
1) Missing, extra, defective genes
2) Fetal damage from disease, drugs, etc.
3) Birth injuries (lack of oxygen in delivery)
What is familial intellectual disability?
It is non-biological disability that occurs when one lives in a household with poor nutrition, emotional support and healthcare
What is multiple intelligence?
Gardner’s theory that traditional IQ tests only really measure a portion of real world intelligence, and one can be smart in many different ways
How much of intelligence is hereditary?
Generally around 50%
What are Sternberg’s two types of intelligence?
Analytic and practical
What are images?
Picture-like mental representations
What are concepts?
Ideas that represent categories of events
What is language?
Words or symbols and the rules for combining them
What is synaesthesia?
It is a form of imagery where a person may associate feelings with colors, voices with tastes, etc.
What are kinesthetic images?
Images that are created with muscle sensations (picturing how your kettle turns on)
What is concept formation?
It is the process of classifying information into meaningful categories
What is conceptual rule?
A rule for deciding whether or not something is an example of a concept
What are conjunctive concepts?
Concepts that have two or more features in common (motorbike has engine AND handlebars AND wheels)
What are relational concepts?
How something relates to something else (up, down, left right, north, larger, etc.)
What are disjunctive concepts?
Concepts defined by at least having one of several features
What is a prototype?
A model that is the ideal example of something (robin to bird instead of ostrich to bird)
What is denotative meaning?
The dictionary definition of something
What is connotative meaning?
The emotional or personal meaning of something
What is an example of a faulty concept?
Social stereotypes, black and white thinking
What are phonemes?
The basic speech sounds of a language
What is semantics?
The study of meaning in words and language
What are morphemes?
The words and syllables of a language
What is thinking?
A mental expression of a problem
What can mental images be used to do?
- Make decisions or solve problems
- Change feelings
- Improve skills or prepare for action
- Aid memory
What is a general solution?
A solution that states requirements for success
What is mental rotation based on?
Imagined movements
What are transformation rules?
They dictate how to change a sentence to other forms (past to present, etc.)
What is a mechanical solution?
A solution achieved by trial and error
What is an algorithm?
A set of rules that always leads to the solution of a problem
What are the three parts of insight according to Robert Sternberg and Janet Davidson?
1) Selective encoding (selecting information relevant to a problem)
2) Selective combination (bringing together information)
3) Selective comparison (comparing the problem with previous problems that have been solved)
What is a functional solution?
The detailed, workable solution
What is random search strategy?
Trying out possible solutions in a random order
What is a heuristic approach?
Any strategy that aids problem solving (mainly limiting the number of solutions to be tried)
What is insight?
A sudden mental reorganization that makes solving a problem obvious
What is fixation?
The tendency to become blind to alternative solutions/get hung up on wrong solutions
What is functional fixedness?
The inability to see new uses for familiar objects
What are some mental blocks that prevent problem solving?
1) Emotional barriers (fear of making mistake)
2) Cultural barriers
3) Learned barriers (functional fixedness)
4) Perceptual barriers
What is inductive thought?
Thinking where the general rule is gathered from examples (inferring gravity from falling objects)
What is deductive thought?
Applying general rules to specific situations
What is logical thought?
Drawing conclusions on the basis of formal reasoning
What is fluency?
The total number of solutions produced in a test of creativity
What is flexibility?
The number of types of solutions produced in a test of creativity
What is originality?
A new solution in a test of creativity
What is convergent thinking?
Thinking directed toward discovery of a correct answer
What is divergent thinking?
Thinking that produced many ideas or answers
What are the five steps of problem solving?
1) Orientation (defining problem)
2) Preparation (gaining information about a problem)
3) Incubation (period where all attempted solutions don’t work, but problem is still subconsciously being solved)
4) Illumination (aha! moment that ends incubation)
5) Verification (testing the solution in illumination)
What are some characteristics of creative people?
1) Great range of interests
2) Open to variety of experiences
3) Prefer complexity
What is intuition?
Quick thought that does not make use of logic
What is the representativeness heuristic?
The tendency to select wrong answers that match pre-existing mental categories
What are some common errors in judgement? (all in the book)
1) Personal feelings (tendency to vote for candidate you like rather than most qualified candidate)
2) Representativeness heuristic
3) Ignoring base rate
What is the base rate?
The basic probability of an event
What is framing?
The way a problem is stated (parent denied custody vs parent given custody). As such, broadest way of framing usually produces best results
