Intelligence

Question 1

Brilliance

Answer 1

Disciplines where people think “innate brilliance” is needed to succeed have a higher proportion of men than women
- Not about STEM vs. non-STEM fields
ex: Philosophy and Music Composition (not STEM), have very few women!
- Disciplines where people think “innate brilliance” is needed to succeed also have a lower proportion of Black individuals

Question 2

Stereotypes about Brilliance: Parents

Answer 2

Parents google more relating to gender stereotypes relating to their child, ex: is my daughter overweight, is my son gifted?

Question 3

Stereotypes about Brilliance: Children

Answer 3

• 5 to 7 year olds
• By 6 years of age:
  Boys are more likely to associate their own gender with brilliance
  Girls more likely to associate their own gender with niceness
• No difference before age 6

Question 4

Why study individual differences?

Answer 4

Interventions & policies:
- Identify individuals with potential
- Identify individuals who are at risk
- Provide support and opportunities to people who could use them best

Understand Development:
- What factors lead to better/worse outcomes
- How does genetic vs. environmental variation shape abilities?

Question 5

Studying individual differences: behavioral genetics

Answer 5

Behavioral genetics is a field that seeks to understand how variation in behavior across individuals results from the differences in those individuals’ genes and environments

Sources of individual differences (variation):
1) Genes
- Measured by ‘heritability’
2) Shared Environment
3) Non-shared Environment

Question 6

Behavioral Genetics: Sources of Variation

Answer 6

1) Genes
- For a given trait, different individuals may have different copies of genes
- Heritability: the proportion of the variation in a trait that can be explained by the genetic differences in a particular population
2) Shared Environment
- Experiences that are shared by individuals raised in the same family
- Lead to similarities between individuals on a specific trait when compared to the population
2) Non-Shared Environment
- Experiences that are NOT shared by individuals raised in the same family
- Lead to differences between those individuals

Question 7

Family studies: twin studies, sibling studies, adoption studies

Answer 7

Identical (MZ) twins:
- 100% shared genes
- High shared environment

Fraternal (DZ) twins:
- 50% shared genes
- High shared environment

Non-twin siblings:
- 50% shared genes
- Moderate shared environment

Question 8

Caroll’s Theory of General Intelligence “g”

Answer 8

• Core sets of abilities that seem to hang together and contribute to a specific type of intelligence
• General intelligence factor

Question 9

Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences

Answer 9

Multiple types of intelligence:
Ex: linguistic intelligence, logical-mathematical intelligence, spatial intelligence, musical intelligence

Question 10

How do intelligence tests work?

Answer 10

• Rely on very large samples
• Test a variety of tasks
• Compare individual performance to norms (by age)
• Performance scored along a normal distribution

Question 11

Sample IQ Test Items (from WISC- III)

Answer 11

Picture arrangement: pictures are shown and the child is asked to place them in order to tell a story

Picture Completion: the child is asked to identify the part that is missing from the picture

Question 12

What causes differences in IQ

Answer 12

Genetic contribution: more shared genes = higher correlation

Environmental contributions: more shared environment = higher correlation (e.g., fraternal twins > siblings)

Question 13

Heritability of IQ

Answer 13

Heritability for IQ is, on average, around .50
- Around 50% of the variation in IQ across individuals can be explained by genetic differences

Still leaves 50% of the variation to be explained
- Effects of shared environment (i.e., children growing up in the same family)
- Effects of non-shared environment (i.e., individual experiences)

Varies by socioeconomic status
- For children in very low income families the estimated genetic influence on IQ is close to zero
- “Minimal expected environment”: if conditions are very impoverished, children do not attain their genetic potential

Question 14

IQ as a Measure of Intelligence

Answer 14

Performance on IQ tests tend to be correlated with academic achievement
But…
Content of IQ tests are designed to predict academic performance

Features other than IQ correlate just as much with academic success (e.g., self-discipline, executive function)

Question 15

Self-discipline: delay of gratification

Answer 15

• Delay of gratification (4-5 years old) predicts academic achievement (high school)
• Self discipline may matter more than IQ

Question 16

Is Self Discipline Always the Best Strategy - Crayon Study

Answer 16

Children randomly assigned to interact with either:
Reliable experimenter who says she will bring crayons and does
Unreliable experimenter who says she will bring crayons and doesn’t

If the environment is unreliable, children don’t wait!

Question 17

The Carolina Abecedarian Project

Answer 17

Study:
Infants from low-income families were randomly assigned to either:
1. High-quality infant intervention (0-3 years)
2. No infant intervention

Half of each of those groups was later assigned to either:
1. School ages intervention (5-8 years)
2. No school-aged intervention

Follow-up at age 30

Results:
- High-quality interventions have positive long lasting impacts
- The best outcomes when the interventions occur in the preschool years

Question 18

Intelligence Summary

Answer 18

Children develop stereotypes about brilliance around 6 years of age:
- Correlated with interest in science and “smart” genes
- Can be counteracted (e.g., by focusing language on effort)

Intelligence as a case study of individual differences:
- Genetic and environmental contributions to differences in IQ

Success is broader than intelligence (e.g., self-discipline)

High-quality interventions for those at risk can improve outcomes

A growth mindset that values effort over intrinsic “smarts” is beneficial