Intelligence Flashcards
Intelligence
ability to understand complex ideas, adapt effectively to the environment, learn from experience, engage in various forms of reasoning, and overcome obstacles through mental effort
element of TIME
CONTROVERSIAL
“g”
general intelligence
cognitive processes
influences our ability on all tasks
intelligence as a single trait
Spearman’s test
created factor analysis to measure “g”/general intelligence
evidence supports this
positively correlated with: grades, achievement tests, processing speeds, brain volume, general knowledge etc.
Cattell’s 2 types of intelligence
1) crystallized
2) fluid
Crystallized intelligence
factual knowledge about the world
e.g. arithmetic, state capitals
increases throughout life
related to verbal ability
dependent on fluid intelligence
Fluid intelligence
ability to think on the spot, understanding relations between concepts that haven’t been encountered before
peaks ~20-25
related to prefrontal cortex development
Link between crystallized and fluid intelligence and SES
middle and upper middle class - crystallized and fluid strongly correlated
low SES - fluid intelligence higher than crystallized in some kids
Thurstone’s Primary Mental Capabilities (7)
SKIP not in lecture
Carroll’s 3-stratum theory of intelligence
influences one below
1) Top - “g”/general intelligence
2) Middle - types of intelligence - e.g. fluid, crystallized, processing speed
3) Bottoms - tasks used to assess - e.g. reaction time for
Binet–Simon Intelligence Test
interpret proverbs, solve puzzles, define words, and sequence cartoon panels so that the jokes made sense
highly correlated with school grade at the time
asked by French government to come up with test to separate kids into publicly funded classes
1st applied psychologists**
Terman
U.S.
Standardization of administration (delivery of test) and norms
Published Stanford-Binet IQ test for ages 2-23
IQ=mental age/chronological age X 100
(applies to kid’s IQ only)
What does a measurement of intelligence have to be based on?
Observable behaviour
IQ (Intelligence Quotient)
quantitative measure of a child’s intelligence relative to that of other children of the same age
Average of an IQ test
100
SD of an IQ test
15
How stable is IQ?
One the MOST stable traits!
more stable after age 5 when children are able to sit through tests
correlation of IQ between age 5 and 15: 0.67
How to test IQ in infants
Habituation
time to habituate is better predictor of intelligence in infants
get bored faster = smarter
FLUID intelligence
no racial differences
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children
most popular intelligence test for children now
age 6+
consistent with Caroll’s 3-stratum framework
overall score and score for individual abilities
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - General Abilities (5)
1) verbal comprehension
2) visual-spatial processing
3) working memory
4) fluid reasoning
5) processing speed
What does IQ predict?
strong predictor of: academic, economic, and career success
What is more predictive of success in the US?
a) IQ
b) Education
b) Education
IQ gatekeeper in the US
Determines which students gain access to training, which is a requirement for entry into lucrative jobs
self-discipline
ability to inhibit actions, follow rules, and avoid impulsive reactions
What is more predictive of grade changes in report cards?
a) IQ
b) self-discipline
b) self-discipline
Heritability of Intelligence
Behavioral genetics studies relative effects
Most similar: identical twins raised together
Heritability quotient 0.5 (50% heritable, 50% from environment)
Family environment influences influences on intelligence (3 effects)
1) passive effect
2) evocative effect
3) active effect
Passive effect
arise when children are raised by their biological parents
overlap between child’s genes and parents
e.g. enjoy reading because growing up in household with lots of books because parents like to read
Evocative effect
emerge through children influencing others behaviours
e.g. parents read more books to child interested in reading
Active effect
children choosing environments that they enjoy
e.g. loves reading, will read a lot
Family environment has a great influence early in life but effect ______ over time
diminishes
______-income-shared environment accounts for more variances in IQ scores and academic achievements than genetics
Low
more influenced by environment than genetic differences?
US only
reverse for middle-and-high income families
Over time into adulthood, what has an increasing effect on intelligence?
a) genetics
b) shared environment
a) genetics
moderate influence in childhood
large influence in adulthood
why:
1) some genetic processes do not exert their effects until late childhood or adolescence
2) more choice over environment with age
Does school increase IQ scores in children?
Yes
scores increase during school-year, but not over summer break
Flynn effect
consistent rise in average IQ scores that has occurred over the past 80 years in many countries
NOT due to genetics
due to changes in society - e.g. nutrition, income, values in society, technology
Does poverty decrease IQ?
Yes
Has more of an impact in US - poor families are poorer
What has more of an influence on intelligence?
a) specific risks
b) number of risks
b) number of risks
cumulative effect
Criticisms of intelligence testing
Industry
Focus on outcome not process
Doesn’t consider things like motivation
Disadvantages certain groups (poor, minority, ESL)
Do habituation tests in infants show any racial differences?
No
Culture-fair Tests
Trying to make tests more fair, gaps are closing
Stereotype Threat
thought to have an effect on minority’s test-taking ability
due to anxiety and motivation
Dynamic Assessment
Each child completes test items in a preteaching phase, a postteaching phase, and a transfer phase, in which they have to generalize their learning to new problems
Is dynamic assessment a better measure?
evidence: after dynamic assessment
Ethiopian and Israeli children’s scores were nearly equal
Phonological decoding
breaking words into parts
e.g. word “dish” - if remove “duh”, what would you be left with
MOST predictive of later reading**
Child with dyslexia have trouble with this
Phonological recoding skills
ability to translate letters into sounds and to blend the sounds into words
“sounding out”
Phonological awareness
recognition of individual sounds within words
words made up of smaller units
Visually based retrieval
proceeding directly from the visual form of a word to its meaning
Chall - 5 Stages of Reading Development
Stage 0 (birth - 1st grade): acquire prerequisites for reading,
letter of the alphabets, phonological awareness
Stage 1 (1st - 2nd grade): phonological recoding skills
Stage 2 (2nd - 3rd grade): reading simple material
Stage 3 (4th-8th grade): reasonably complex written text, read to learn
Stage 4 (8th-12th grades): acquire skill not only in understanding information presented from a single perspective but also in coordinating multiple perspectives
What is more difficult to learn?
a) reading
b) writing
b) writing
Are reading and writing correlated?
Yes, highly
Low-level goals of writing
forming letters, spelling words, correct punctuation
High-level goals of writing
making understandable, coherent, and providing enough information
Cultural influences on math
Asian countries - far greater proficiency
cultural emphasis on math
quality of math teachers and textbooks
time spent on math in classrooms and homes
Asian - think studying hard is more important
American European - think a good teacher is more important
