Intelligence Flashcards
1
Q
What are the 3 different approaches to intelligence testing?
A
- The psychometric approach
- Information processing approach
- Cognitive approach
2
Q
What is the psychometric approach to intelligence testing?
A
- It is the oldest approach
- It is concerned with the structure of a test, its correlates, and underlying dimensions
3
Q
What is the information processing approach to intelligence testing?
A
It is concerned with the processes that underlie how we learn and solve problems.
4
Q
What is the cognitive approach towards intelligence testing?
A
- It is concerned with how we adapt to real-world demands.
5
Q
What are some common definitions of intelligence?
A
- The ability to adapt to new situations
- The ability to learn new things
- The ability to solve problems
- The ability for abstraction(the quality of dealing with ideas rather than things) (use of symbols and concepts)
6
Q
What do we know about defining intelligence?
A
- There are numerous definitions
7
Q
What are the historical beginnings of defining intelligence?
A
- Intelligence testing began in 1904 with Binet.
- The French government wanted ways to identify “subnormal” or “intellectually-limited children”
- In order to do this, Binet first had to define intelligence then measure it.
- So he came up with the tripartite definition.
8
Q
What is the tripartite definition of intelligence?
A
Intelligence is the capacity to:
1. Find or maintain a definite direction or purpose.
2. Make necessary adaptation to reach that direction or purpose
3. Engage in self-criticism so that necessary strategic adjustments can be made.
- Binet defined intelligence as “the tendency to take and maintain a definite direction; the capacity to adapt to attain a desired end, and the power of auto-criticism”.
9
Q
What are the key concepts of Binet’s understanding of intelligence?
A
- Age differentiation
- Older children have greater ability than younger children
- Mental and actual age can be differentiated. - General mental ability
- This is equal to the total product of different and distinct elements of intelligence
- Spearman’s g is the theory that general intelligence is the foundation for other mental abilities.
- Intelligence can be represented by a single score.
10
Q
What are the basic concepts of Weschler’s ideas on intelligence?
A
- Intelligence has certain specific functions that are interrelated. And each element contributes to general intelligence.
- Intelligence is related to separate abilities.
- Wechsler tried to measure these abilities through sub-tests on overall test.
11
Q
What is a major difference between Weschler and Binet’s understanding of measuring intelligence?
A
- Unlike with Binet, Weschler’s subtests tell us something about a person’s intelligence. You can look at subtest scores separately and derive meaning, and you can look at them together and derive meaning.
12
Q
What is the background to Weschler’s scales?
A
- He felt that Binet’s scale was not appropriate for adults. The items selected for use with the children were not appropriate for adults.
- He emphasized the role of non-intellective factors. E.g. social skills, and motivation.
- He was the first to directly compare verbal and non-verbal intelligence.
- Weschler thought that Binet did not take into account the decline of performance with aging (usually around the age of 60)
- He thought that mental age norms do not apply to adults. Therefore he introduced the point scale concept.
13
Q
What is Weschler’s point-scale concept?
A
- A specific number of points are assigned to each item.
- Credit for each item passed
- Items measuring particular content can be grouped together.
- He had a finer level of discrimination in scoring than Binet.
14
Q
How do we define intelligence today?
A
- The concept of intellectual ability is not conceptualised as multiple intelligences.
- Fluid intelligence (gf): abilities that allow us to think, reason, problem-solve and acquire new knowledge
- Crystallized intelligence (gc): the knowledge and understanding already acquired.
- Verbal vs performance IQ. Where verbal intelligence is the ability to analyse and solve problems using language-based reasoning. And Performance is mental capacity in dealing with non-verbal skills.
- Emotional, social, etc.
15
Q
What is the purpose of intelligence assessments for children?
A
- For school placement in cases of:
- Intellectual handicap/disability)
- Below average functioning
- Learning difficulties
- Management
16
Q
What is the purpose of intelligence assessment for adults?
A
- Neuropsychological assessment
- Forensic assessment
- Disability grants
- Work placement
- These tests tend to be administered by educational and neuropsychologists.
17
Q
What are the Weschler intelligence tests?
A
- They are a measure of intelligence as a construct in the form of a Full Scale Intelligence Quotient (FSIQ)
- FSIQ is assessed through multiple subtest: Verbal IQ (VIQ) and Performance IQ (PIQ)
- VIQ and PIQ subtests are further grouped to create indices.
- Verbal: Verbal Comprehension and Working Memory
- Performance: Perceptual Organization and Processing Speed.
- Weschler’s Intelligence Tests are the gold standard; FSIQ is compared to a number of 100.
18
Q
What is the best indicator for someone’s full scale IQ
A
- Vocabulary test. Look at slide 13 for diagram of tests.
19
Q
What do we know about the vocabulary subtest?
A
- It is one of the most stable measures of intelligence
- It is often the last to be affected when deterioration occurs so it is useful for estimating premorbid ability.
- It involves presenting the test-taker with a list of words on stimuli cards. They must then give a description or definition of the the word.
20
Q
What is the similarities subtest?
A
- It is a list 15 items of supposedly increasing difficulty. They become more abstract as difficulty increases
- This is a test of abstract thinking.
- Example question: In what ways are a coat and a suit similar? both items of clothing vs a coat you wear over your clothes and suit you wear under a coat vs. they are not similar.
- Performance on the similarities subtest declines steadily at age 30 and then rapidly at age 65.
21
Q
What is the arithmetic subtest?
A
- It assesses: concentration, motivation, and memory
- It is most sensitive to Intellectual Disability and educationally deprived individuals
- It has a spatial aspect.
22
Q
What is the digit span subtest?
A
- Digit forward measures attention
- Digits backwards measures working memory which is the ability to hold information in mind and manipulate it.
- Norms: 7 forwards and 5 backwards
23
Q
What is the information subtest?
A
- Example: Name two people who have been generals in the US army
- It assesses one’s abilities to comprehend instructions, follow directions and provide a response
- It is influenced by curiosity and interest in the acquisition of knowledge
24
Q
What is the comprehension subtest?
A
- It has three types of questions (situational action, logical explanation, and proverb definition)
- Measures judgement in everyday situations
- Emotional disturbances influence performance the most.
25
What is the letter-number sequencing?
- It is an additional test. It is not required for calculating VIQ.
- Reordering numbers and letters. E.g. 1-A-5-C-9-B re ordered to 1-5-9-A-B-C
- Measures WM and attention
26
How is the VIQ scored?
- Raw score=total number of points
- Raw scores then converted to scaled scores. With M=10 and SD=3
- Done by comparing raw score to a table of norms
- Raw scores are not meaningful because a) different subtests have different max scores and b) same raw scores for people of different ages is not comparable.
- There are two types of norms:
1. Age-adjusted (control for age-related differences in performance
2. Reference groups (compare performance to performance of people in the standardization sample between ages 20-34)
- Sum of the age-corrected scaled scores are then compared to the standardization table.
27
How are age-adjusted norms created?
- This is done by preparing a cumulative frequency distribution of raw scores for each group. The distribution is then normalised.
- Appropriate scaled scores are then calculated against M=10 and SD=3
28
What is the picture completion subtest?
- A picture in which an important detail is missing.
- Missing details become smaller and harder to spot as the test continues.
29
What is the digit symbol coding subtest?
- Numbers 1 to 9 are paired with a symbol
- The test-taker is given 120 seconds to copy as many symbols to their appropriate numbers (digits) as possible.
- This test measures new learning, visuo-motor dexterity, degree of persistence, and speed of processing.
30
What is the block design subtest?
- Arrangement of red and white coloured blocks to form a design.
- The design is displayed in a booklet in order of increasing difficulty
- This test measures spatial reasoning, ability to analyse spatial relationships, and ability to integrate visual and motor functions.
31
What is the matrix reasoning subtest?
- A person is presented with non-verbal stimuli, i.e. figures/shapes. They must identify some sort of relationship between the figures.
- This test measures fluid intelligence, information processing, and abstract reasoning.
32
What is the picture arrangement subtest?
- A person is presented with related pictures similar to comic strip pictures. They must then arrange these in the correct sequence to tell a story.
- This test measures noticing relevant details, planning, ability to notice cause-and-effect relationships
- Non-verbal reasoning.
33
What are some optional PIQ tests?
1. Object assembly
- Puzzles that must be put together quickly
- Measures ability to see relationships between parts and wholes.
2. Symbol search
- Shows a symbol and must determine if it appears in a target array.
- Measures speed of information processing.
34
How is the PIQ scored?
- PIQ is formed by summing scaled scores. M=10; SD=3
- The FSIQ is simply the VIQ and PIQ scores added together.
35
What are index scores?
Index scores on the Wechsler Intelligence Scales are specific composite scores that contribute to the Full Scale IQ (FSIQ), which represents a person’s overall intellectual ability. These index scores group related subtests and reflect different cognitive abilities, each corresponding to a particular aspect of intelligence.
36
What are the different index scores for Weschler IQ test?
1. Verbal comprehension (measures crystallized intelligence- the knowledge and understanding that you have already acquired)
2. Perceptual organization (measures fluid intelligence- ability to think, reason, problem-solve and acquire new knowledge)
3. Working memory (The ability to hold info in mind and manipulate it/ perform cognitive transformations of it)
4. Processing speed (how quickly your mind works)
- Note which tests make up these indices.
37
VIQ and PIQ comparisons
- VIQ=PIQ. If both are low, this is evidence for intellectual dysfunction
- VIQPIQ. This is common for white and african americans.
- VIQ is susceptible to level of education.
