Intelligence

Question 1

What did Sir Francis Galton contribute to the study of intelligence?

Answer 1

• Started idea of ‘Hereditary Genius’ influenced by Darwin
• Used physical measures of intelligence
  
  • senses, head size, strength, reaction time
• Test showed little relation to anything - no correlations
• Legacy
  
  • scientific/empirical approach to intelligence
  • normal curve
  • nature v nurture

Question 2

What was the Binet-Simon scale?

Answer 2

• Beginnings of Intelligence Testing
• Identified children who needed some form of extra assistance
  
  • did not include skills administered in classroom
• Practical outcomes of testing
  
  • Task; age assigned to each task, youngest age at which a normal child could complete task
  • Individual; mental age assigned to person, age level at which “normal” children in the “standardisation sample” passed the task

Question 3

How was the Stanford Binet developed, and what is the current version?

Answer 3

• Development
  
  • Goddard: Initially a translation of the Binet-Simon into english for the USA
  • Lewis Terman (1916) revised and republished as Stanford-Binet
• Legacy
  
  • Developed idea of “measurement”
  • Focused on identifying low end “feeble-mindedness”
  • Still the current gold standard all new tests are compared to
• Current
  
  • The Stanford-Binet 5: 5 types of intelligence (Gf, Gc, Gq, Gv Gsm), verbal and non-verbal tests of each, 6 levels of each test, individually administered

Question 4

Outline the issues with the history of misuse of intelligence testing in the USA

Answer 4

• Testing became used in adult populations to justify eugenics
  
  • Stop migration based on “intelligence”
  • Prevent breeding (Kallikak family )
• Categories: (non derogatory)
  
  • Idiot (<2) Imbecile (3-7) Feeble-minded (8-12) Moron = highest functioning mentally retarded
• Problems with the “testing”:
  
  • ignored language factors
  • doctoring of photos of “feebleminded people”
  • Subjectivity of interviewer

Question 5

Describe the WW1 armed services group intelligence tests and the issues they presented

Answer 5

• Group administed intelligence tests for recruitment and placement
  
  • Alpha test: (literate, english) people first given alpha test
  • Beta test: illiterate or people who failed alpha then given beta
  • Those who failed beta then given individual
• Results
  
  • Average mental age 13 - “a nation of nearly-half morons”
• Issues
  
  • Over crowded rooms
  • Level of literacy differed amongst camps, and required level was lowered to reduce queues at Beta testing
  • Many were not tested further if they failed Alpha
  • Tests were culturally biased - grammaphone/tennis identification

Question 6

What is ratio IQ?

Answer 6

• Benefits: Compares across age groups (18yr vs 7yr both mental age 9)
• Problems: Only works if mental age is linearly proportional to chronological age, difficult to determine a cut-off point for adult measurements

Question 7

What is Deviation IQ?

Answer 7

• The current understanding - developed by Weshler
• IQ score is how far an individual deviates from a standardised norm, where mean = 100 and each SD = 15
  
  • IQ = 100 + 15z
    
    • z = (X - mean) / (SD)
• Benefits and issues
  
  • IQ means the same thing regardless of group
  • Need to pay attention to the normative group being used (8yr vs uni)

Question 8

What is Spearmans Two factor theory?

Answer 8

• Observed that all intelligence tests positively correlate with each other - positive manifold
  
  • proposed a ‘general entity’ that explains this
• Each intelligence test scoring is made of two factors (plus error)
  
  • ‘g’ : general factor (innate, cannot be trained)
  • ’s’ : specific factors unique to each test
  • eg Vocab = (G +S_vocab) + Error_vocab
• Factor Analysis
  
  • Diminishing returns: higher intelligence = greater differentiation between tests
  • Indifference of the indicator: all tests measure g (to different extents)

Question 9

How is Spearmans 2 factor theory shown in factor analysis?

Answer 9

• g is what is common to all groups of tests –> g is therefore not the same for all groups of tests
  
  • problem of tilting: similar tests = huge g, what does it even measure?
• Muliple factors
  
  • Higher correlations within subsets - vocab, comprehension, gen know
  • Lower correlations between subsets - vocab & matrices

Question 10

What is Thurstones model of multiple factors of intelligence?

Answer 10

• 7 Primary Mental Attributes (PMAs)
  
  • Verbal Meaning, Word Fluency, Reasoning, Number, Spatial Relations, Associate Memory, Perceptual Speed
• Relation to ‘g’
  
  • first thoughts unrelated to ‘g’
  • revised - these underlie ‘g’
• Legacy:
  
  • simple structure of intelligence
  • multiple abilities comprise intelligence

Question 11

hat is Vernon’s theory of multiple factors of intelligence?

Answer 11

• ‘Group’ model
• 2 Main factors
  
  • 1. Verbal/Educational
  • 2. Spatial/Mechanical
• Emphasis on ‘g’
• Middle ground between Spearman and Thurstone

Question 12

What is Cattell’s (and Horn’s) Gf-Gc theory of intelligence?

Answer 12

• Fluid Intelligence (Gf)
  
  • ability to grasp relationship between things, nonverbal abilities, reasoning
  • Theoretically culture-free (not in practice)
• Crystallised Intelligence (Gc)
  
  • acquired knowledge and skills, acculturated knowledge, usually verbal knowledge
  • Catells investment hypothesis: “building up” Gc requires investment of Gf
• Different developmental trends (Construct validation)
  
  • fluid = increase till young adulthood and decrease in old age
  • crystallised = rise and plateau
• Horn: Extended Cattells theory to add 8 extra skill sets

Question 13

What is Carrolls 3-stratum Model of intelligence?

Answer 13

• Hierarchy of ability factors
• Main point: where do we stop abstraction process? stop at ‘g’

Question 14

What is Cattell-Horn-Carrol (CHC) theory of intelligence?

Answer 14

• Combines three theories into one (although g still in dispute)
  
  • 10 primary broad (stratum II) factors (7 possible additional)
    
    • Eg. Gf, Gc, Gv, Gei (emotional intelligence)
  • Example Narrow (stratum I)
    
    • emotional perception (for EI), deduction (for Gf)
• Basis of the Woodcock-Johnson Psychoeducational Battery

Question 15

What is Guilfords facetted model of the ‘structure of the intellect’ (SOI)?

Answer 15

• There are 3 facets of intelligence/abilities
  
  • Content: classification according to the content of the test stimuli
    
    • 5 contents: visual, audio, semantic etc
  • Products: classification by the form of the information presented
    
    • 6 contents: units, relations etc
  • Operations: classification by the cognitive process required by task
    
    • 5 operations: memory, divergent production (creativity) etc
• There are 150 abilities (5 x 6 x 5)

Question 16

What is the Berlin model of Intelligence Structure (BIS)?

Answer 16

• A second facetted model of intelligence
• Jäger (1982) : Intelligence tasks are defined by two facets
  
  • contents : Verbal, Figural and Numerical
  • operations : Speed, memory, creativity and processing capacity
• Most wide-spread model of intelligence in Germany
  
  • Basis of the Intelligence structure test (IST)
  • The distinction between contents is often seen in work aptitude tests

Question 17

What are the different abilities in Howard Gardner’s theory of Multiple intelligences?

Answer 17

• Linguistic: language skills
• Logico-mathematic: numerical skills
• Spatial: understanding relationships in space
• Musical: skills such as playing a musical instrument
• Bodily kinaesthetic: using the body
• Inter-personal: understanding and relating to others
• Intra-personal: understanding oneself
• Naturalist: ability to interact with nature (e.g., talent in biology,)
• Existentionalist: “spiritual intelligence”, or the ability to understand one’s place within the grand scheme of things

Question 18

What are the criteria for an intelligence ability according to Gardners theory of multiple intelligence?

Answer 18

• Potential isolation by brain damage,
• Savants, prodigies, other exceptional people,
• An identifiable core operation or set of operations,
• A distinctive developmental history,
• Evolutionary history / evolutionary plausibility,
• Support from experimental psychological tasks
• Support from psychometric findings
• Susceptibility to encoding in a symbol system

Question 19

What is Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence?

Answer 19

• Sternberg: Derived from an information processing approach, acknowledges that intelligence has many meanings
• Three broad abilities (process domains)
  
  • Analytic/academic: Critical thinking/problem solving, Internal world
    
    • Componential sub-theory
  • Creative: generation of ideas, experience
    
    • Experiential subtheory
  • Practical: Real world solutions, implementation, external world
    
    • Contextual subtheory

Question 20

What are the 3 sub-theories of Sternbergs Triarchic model?

Answer 20

• Componential: Thinking components classified by function and generality
  
  • Metacomponents: Planning, monitoring, evaluation
  • Knowledge-acquisition : Selective encoding, combination, comparison
  • Performance : Perceiving, generating, comparing
• Contextual: Practical - maximising fit between self and environment
  
  • Adaptation: adapt to environment
  • Shaping: Shape/change environment to fit self
  • Selection: Select most appropriate environment for oneself
• Experiential: response to novelty or things becoming automised
  
  • Novelty response
  • automisation

Question 21

What is Tacit knowledge and how is it measured?

Answer 21

• Tacit knowledge is knowledge that is not explicity taught
  
  • It is used as a measure of Sternbergs Practical intelligence
  • it is highly context specific
  • It is instrumental in attaining personal goals
• Measuring Tacit knowledge
  
  • If -> then statements: If X and Y then do Z
  • Situational Judgement Tests (SJTs)
    
    • Given scenario, rate various responses by level of approapriateness
    • Scored using expert judgement

Question 22

What is Sternbergs theory of Sucessful intelligence?

Answer 22

• Successful intelligence is
  
  • ability to achieve success in life
  • adapt, shape and select environment
  • capitalise on strengths
  • compensate for weaknesses
  • balance analytic, creative and practical abilities

Question 23

How is creativity defined?

Answer 23

• Ability to produce work that is both novel and appropriate
  
  • ​Big C: major contributions to society
  • Little C: socially understood creativity
  • Mini C: everyday circumstances (insight)
• Implicit definitions: factors determined by layman and expert ratings
  
  • 1. lack of conventionality
  • 2. integration and intellectuality
  • 3. aesthetic taste and imagination
  • 4. decisional skill and flexibility
  • 5. ready insight
  • 6. drive for accomplishment and recognition

Question 24

What is Divergent Thinking?

Answer 24

• Guilfords SOI: First model to explain underlying thought process of creativity
  
  • Convergent production: generating one correct answer from available information “intelligence”
  • Divergent production: generating many possible answers from the same source “creativity
• Examples of divergent thinking tasks
  
  • Unusual uses for common objects
  • Instances of common concepts i.e. things that are round
  • Consequences of hypothetical events
  • Ways in which concepts are similar

Question 25

How is Divergent thinking measured?

Answer 25

• Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT):
  
  • most widely used test, intended for children,
  • Includes both verbal and visual components
• Scoring Divergent thinking
  
  • ideation fluency: number of different responses
  • flexibility: number of different categories of responses
  • originality: statistical frequency of answers (reciprocal of count number )
• Also considered for visual: elaboration (degree of detail), titles (complexity)

Question 26

What are some criticisms of divergent thinking?

Answer 26

• Originality confounded with flexibility
• Statistical rarity is ambiguous
• Uniqueness scoring penalises large samples
• Tests are timed
• Originality and fluency change with instructions (write as many/weirdest)
• May not actually result in creative achievement
  
  • mixed results for divergent thinking correlation

Question 27

What is the relationship between creativity and personality?

Answer 27

• Corelations with OCEAN:
  
  • Scientists: small/med association with openness, extroversion
  • Artists: high openness, high neg correlation with C+, high psychoticsm
  • Compounding factors: gender, causation
• Divergent thinking and Psychoticism
  
  • Different for different types of DT scores (fluency .12, flexibility .00, originality .16-.40)

Question 28

What is the corelation between creativity and intelligence?

Answer 28

• The Threshold hypothesis
  
  • A theshold of intelligence is required for creativity (above which unrelated) (120)
  • Meta-analysis: no sig dif at 120, but found diffs between diff DT scoring
  • Segmented Regression: different thresholds for different DT scoring (achievement none vs fluency 86 vs originality 120)

Question 29

What is the “ability” theoretical model of EI ?

Answer 29

• EI is a set of abilities involved in processing and manipulating emotional information
• Example: The 4 branch Hierachical model:
  
  • 4 hierachical abilities (higher level require lower level)
    
    • 1. Emotional Regulation,
    • 2. Emotional Understanding,
    • 3. Emotional Facilitation (dubious - using emotions)
    • 4. Emotional Perception

Question 30

What is the “mixed” theoretical model of EI?

Answer 30

• EI is a mix of constructs: traits, emotion-related abilities, motivation, beliefs etc
• Examples
  
  • Trait EI (tested using the TEIQue)
    
    • 15 facets including the 4 ability model, personality traits (eg low impulsiveness
    • Problem: Extremely broad definition makes testing/conculsions difficult
  • Social and Emotional Competence (Test = EQ-i)
    
    • 5 broad sets of skills, each with subsets of skills
    • Intra-personal Abilities, Inter-personal Abilities, Adaptation, Stress Management, General Mood
    • Not supported by factor analysis (particularly the subscales but still widely used

Question 31

What are the two main methods of measuring EI?

Answer 31

• Ability scales (maximum performance):
  
  • eg rate effectiveness of responses to scenario, rate emotions present in face
  • Benefits: relate to intelligence, cannot be faked
  • Issues: dont tend to corelate to personality, more difficult to measure, time consuming
• (Self) Rating Scales (typical performance):
  
  • eg Schutte self report scale, ‘i know why my emotions change’
  • Benefits: high corelations with personality, easy, fast, high internal consistency,
  • Issues: very easily faked
• The MSCEIT : most common but commercialised

Question 32

What are the 3 streams of EI conceptualisation?

Answer 32

• Stream 1: Ability model + Ability measurement
  
  • Example question: Given situation X what is most likely to have caused this response?
• Stream 2: Ability model + Rating Measurement
  
  • I have problems dealing with my feelings of anger . [R]
• Stream 3: Mixed mode + Rating Measurement
  
  • On the whole, I`m pleased with my life
  • Large overlap with general personality tests, particularly with neuroticism and extroversion scales - poor discriminent validity

Question 33

How is EI corelated with Personality and Intelligence?

Answer 33

• 2010 meta-analysis of EI with personality, intelligence, job performance separately by stream of measurement
• OCEAN corelations
  
  • Stream 3 > Stream2 > Stream 1 measures
  • Emotional stability highest corelate (for streams 2 and 3)
  • Agreeableness highest corelate for stream 1
  • Emotional management highest corelate with agreeableness
• Intelligence (IQ)
  
  • Stream 1 > stream 2, 3
  • 4 branches: highest corelation with understanding

Question 34

How is EI corelated with Job performance?

Answer 34

• Stream 1 EI
  
  • 4 branches: Highest for management branch (7% for high EL jobs)
  • Emotional Labour: Higher for high emotional labour jobs than low emotional labour jobs
• Stream 2,3 EI
  
  • Stream 3 best predictor (higher corelates), 2 still better than 1
  • Higher for high emotion labour than low emotion labour jobs
• Valuable?
  
  • 7% is non trivial: EI differences are more influential when IQ is relatively equal across job environment (all lawyers high IQ)
  • Job performance is not everything: EI has high predictive power in coping with stress (10-15%) and wellbeing (29%)

Question 35

What are the sex differences in ‘g’?

Answer 35

• Lynn and Irwing Meta analysis: ‘g’ as measured by Ravens Progressive Matrices
• Findings: Small effect size in favour of men
  
  • <15 years = no difference
  • 15 - 19 years = Males 2 IQ higher
  • Undergrads = Males 3-5 IQ higher
  • Adults = Males 5 IQ higher
• Compounding issues
  
  • Mostly students measured (female bias, lower ability females incl)
  • Ravens PM may include spatial ability compound: when controlled for spatial abilites no diff found

Question 36

What are the sex differences in specific abilities?

Answer 36

• Moderate female advantage: Spelling, Language
• Slight female advantage: Perception, Speech
• Slight male advantage: Mathematics, Science
• Moderate male advantage: Spatial perception
• Large male advantage: Mental rotation, Mechanical reasoning

Question 37

What are some issues with using mean test score differences to investigate sex differences in IQ?

Answer 37

• No difference in test score averages
• Argument from test scores
  
  • tests are intentionally constructed to reduce bias - differences masked by tests
• Argument against averages
  
  • Mean will not capture variability
  • males tend to be more variable (overrepresented in high achieving and low achieving groups)

Question 38

What are some biological reasons for the sex differences in intelligence?

Answer 38

• Evolutionary
  
  • Male ‘foraging’ hypothesis: navigating land, throwing weapons
  • “range” hypothesis: males cover more area, seek polyamorous
  • Warfare hypothesis: males travel futher to fight other males
• Brain Function
  
  • Tasks solved more efficiently using one side of brain: Men tend to use only one half solving spatial problems
• Testosterone
  
  • Route learning: testosterone associated with male route learning strategies (compass points, not landmarks)
  • Mental rotation: testosterone predicts spatial rotation task performance

Question 39

What are some environmental explanations for sex differences?

Answer 39

• Stereotypes/confidence:
  
  • Self reporting on abilities corelates with observed diffs in specific intelligence. Men higher overall
• Toys
  
  • Boys play with trucks (moving parts) girls play with dolls (roll-play)
• Activities
  
  • Boys given more freedom to roam, more encouraged to play videogames
• Education/subject choices
  
  • Women given less motivation/encouragement to engage in “masculine” subjects like math/science
• SES
  
  • No differences are found in low SES environments - no access to technology, more freedom to roam?

Question 40

What was Jensen and Eysenck’s (‘69) view of the Black-White IQ Gap in the USA?

Answer 40

• Basic Premises
  
  • 1. Genetic component to intelligence
  • 2. There are mean differences in racial intelligence
  • 3. These differences are genetic not environmental in origin
• Race Differences based on bell curve research
  
  • Black white: estimated ~1 SD, d=0.7-1, 10-15 IQ points
  • Asian > White (~d=.33, 5 points)
  • White > Hispanic (~d=.5, 7-8 points)
• Conclusions
  
  • proposed that enrichment doesnt affect IQ gap
  • Classrooms should be segregated by race for optimal learning

Question 41

What are the main known moderators of the Black-White gap in the US?

Answer 41

• TIME: The IQ gap has narrowed (Dickens & Flynn, 2006):
  
  • 1972: 15-point IQ gap, 2006: 10-point IQ gap
• SES: The associated achievement gap is partly due to SES
  
  • About half a standard deviation (7.5 points) is accounted for by SES variables
• AGE: The gap increases with age – both IQ and achievement gaps begin small and get larger

Question 42

What were the 4 sections of the Bell Curve and what did it propose?

Answer 42

• The logic:
  
  • IQ predicts success in life, IQ is genetic, therefore group differences in IQ are genetic and are therefore unchangeable
  • Lack of success among Black people is due to genetic causes, therefore, affirmative action/head start programs will not work
• 4 part book
  
  1. Social Darwinism in the U.S.
  2. IQ relates to social problems (poverty, crime, teenage mothers etc)
  3. IQ and race: IQ differs between races and is lower for immigrants
     
     • Low-IQ races and immigrants have more children, create more social problems and are less successful
  4. IQ and Social Policy
     
     • Best way to “adopt out” children of low-IQ mothers
     • Put more money into “gifted education” less into remedial
     • Scale back “quota” programs in favour of a “colour-blind” system

Question 43

What were some of the issues with the premises and conclusions of the Bell Curve?

Answer 43

• Premise: IQ predicts sucess: about 25% of success at work and school is predicted by IQ but also predicted by other factors
  
  • Conscientiousness: Meta-analysis r=.22 (equal to Intelligence in review)
  • Termans Termites: High IQ predicted higher income, education but no differences in social success (alcoholism, divorce)
• Premise: IQ is genetic:
  
  • ​Not completely: current estimates .4 - .7 genetic factor of intelligence
  • Definition of intelligence: the Bell Curve is based on measures of Crystalline intelligence only
• Premise: Group differences are genetic and therefore unchangeable
  
  • ​Flawed logic: genetic component doesnt equal genetic cause of differences
  • counter example: identical plants one denied sunlight

Question 44

What is the argument that ethnic IQ differences could be due to the Flynn effect?

Answer 44

• Black population IQ is increasing over time (~3pts per decade)
• Currently at the level of white population in the 1950s
• The current black environment is arguably equivalent to white 1950s environment in terms of
  
  • income
  • access to health care

Question 45

Was were the findings of Lynn and Vanhanens research on wealth of nations and IQ?

Answer 45

• Mean IQ is different for Nations
  
  • Corresponds to GDP and other wealth measures
• Arguments
  
  • 1. Differences between countries have genetic basis
  • 2. Differences in IQ cause differences in wealth

Question 46

What are the main criticisms of Lynn and Vanhanens wealth of nations research?

Answer 46

1. Estimation of IQ
   
   • IQ “estimated” for 104 of 185 (56%) of countries reported
   • Measured different time-points, tests (not adjusted for Flynn effect)
2. Unsophisticated statistics
   
   • Simple correlations – not appropriate for financial data (skew), do not account for structural factors
3. Invalid logic:
   
   • Cause of within group differences (genetics) NOT necessarily the cause of between group differences
4. Causal direction is not clear
   
   • IQ -> Wealth versus Wealth -> IQ
5. Neglect of other important variables
   
   • Motivation, structural factors, possibility of educational attainment

Question 47

What is the Flynn effect and its impact on the nature/nurture debate?

Answer 47

• IQ test scores are increasing over time
  
  • Each generation gets higher scores than the previous
  • ~3 points per decade
• Relevance to nature v nurture
  
  • gene changes cannot possible explain an effect size this large
  • there must be some environmental changes causing this

Question 48

What is the evidence of the effect of schooling on IQ? How is the compounding factor of age ruled out?

Answer 48

• Use natural experiments to determine whether increases due to age or schooling
  
  • compared youngest and oldest children in same grade (just age effects)
  • compared children of different grades of same age (just school effects)
• Cahan and Cohen Results:
  
  • 1. Schooling was a major underlying factor for an increase in intelligence
  • 2. Schooling showed a different impact on different types of tests
       * more impact on verbal (Gc), less impact on non-verbal (Gf)
• Other Issues:
  
  • Those attending regular schooling score higher on IQ tests
  • Those who delay schooling lose 5 IQ points per year
  • Summer “drop-off” in IQ scores

Question 49

What is the effect of programs like Headstart on IQ?

Answer 49

• ‘Headstart’ initiative in the 60s to combat poverty
  
  • enriched pre-school program for disadvantaged children
  • Intended to build vocabulary, numeracy, and writing skills
  • Failure? Initial strong increases (7-8pts) decreased within 2 years
• However, meta-analysis of enrichment programs
  
  • less likely to repeat a grade or require special education
  • more likely to graduate
  • less incarceration rates
  • more likely to attend university
  • tend to have higher earnings
  • siblings of “head start” participants gain advantages

Question 50

What is the evidence for an effect of nutrition on IQ?

Answer 50

• Iodine: Very strong evidence
  
  • iodine deficient children v non-deficient or supplements during pregnancy: between 4 and 17 point increase
• Vitamin supplements
  
  • increased IQ by 9 points
  • BUT inconsistent replication
• Breastfeeding
  
  • 1. Meta analysis
       * controlled for 5 or more covariates
       * 3.16 IQ points higher, 2.66 if healthy weight, 5.18 for underweight
  • 2. Meta analysis
       * small effect .5 IQ point
  • 3. Belarus Study
       * randomly allocate mothers to breastfeeding
       * 5.9 point difference overall
       * BUT confounding factors like cuddle time, support groups

Question 51

What is the effect of Birth order on IQ, and the theories proposed to explain it?

Answer 51

• Evidence for:
  
  • Galton: men of science 48% first born sons, Current: First borns overrepresented in nobel prizes
  • Netherlands military testing: RPMs test, controlled SES
    
    • clear relationship between birth order and intelligence, and between family size and intelligence
    • confounding factor of religion (catholics in the 40s)
  • BUT: effect is social order not birth order
• Theories
  
  • Resource: parent resources finite, 1st born gets 100%, 2nd 50% etc
  • Confluence: extra adult attention, more time socialising with adults not siblings, added responsibility of taking care of siblings
• Within family effects
  
  • No relationship found - suggests compounding SES factors

Question 52

What are the Scottish Mental Surveys?

Answer 52

• The major providor of longitudinal age/intelligence research
  
  • 1932 batch:
    
    • ALL 87,498 children born 1921 take Moray house test
    • • 1000 followed up with Standford Binet; followed into adulthood
  • 1947 batch
    
    • ALL 70,805 children born in 1936 tested
  • about 1000 still alive for followups
• Moray House test #12: measure of crystalline intelligence, original purpose for high school admittance

Question 53

What is the difference between stability and change in age/intelligence patterns? Is intelligence stable and/or changing according to the SMS?

Answer 53

• Stability = rank order of people over time
  
  • tested using correlations (cutoff for correlations ~.6)
  • Theoretical meaning: intelligence is stable over tme
• Change = absolute level of trait over time
  
  • tested by changes to mean over time
  • theoretical meaning: intelligence develops, changes, declines over time
• Results from SMS
  
  • Intelligence is stable (less so in children under 6-8)
  • but changing (overall means are rising)

Question 54

What is longitudinal research and its benefits and limitations?

Answer 54

• Longitudinal research involves following a single cohort over time
• Benefits
  
  • Controls for cohort differences (education, maternal age, flynn effect)
  • Doesnt show ridiculous drops that cross-sectional studies show over age
• Problems
  
  • expensive, time consuming
  • can underestimate cognitive decline
    
    • retest inflation: repeating test (get better at it), older people more time
    • selective attrition: low IQ cohort members likely to drop out, die

Question 55

What is cross sectional research and its benefits and problems? How does this explain extreme IQ decline?

Answer 55

• Looks at age differences in the population at a single time point
• Cross-sectional research results
  
  • The Weshler-Belleview (39): Huge declines on performance (25pt by 47)
  • WAIS-R (81): large drops in performance (10pt age 45, 30 age 72) drops in verbal (none at 45, 7 by 72)
  • Gf decreases, Gc increases then plateaus
• Benefits: Easy to do, cheap
• Issues: overestimates cognitive decline
  
  • compounding cohort effects (education, wars, women in workforce etc)
  • IQ testing is restandardised regularly - higher drop due to flynn

Question 56

What types of intelligence grow and decline with age and how would that effect older people in the workforce?

Answer 56

Question 57

What is the definition of test bias (according to the test standards)

Answer 57

• The Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing define test bias as
  
  • “construct underrepresentation or construct-irrelevant components of test scores that differentially affect the performance of different groups of test takers”
• Construct underrepresentation is when a test that covers only certain aspects of a construct being understood as representative of the whole (eg Ravens = IQ)
• Construct irrelevance is when a test requires/examines factors that aren’t relevent to the target construct eg knowledge of currency for arithmetic
• Note: must differentially affect groups of the same ability for the construct being measured (ie not depressed people for depression scale)

Question 58

Give examples of construct irrelevance, content bias and test bias

Answer 58

• Construct irrelevant bias:
  
  • reading comprehension: familiarity with writing style ie bible, womens mag (but must be systematic)
  • very complex verbal instructions for a math test
• Content bias:
  
  • culture biases: the army alpha/beta tests familiarity with tennis, different names for things across culture (truck vs lorry)
• Test bias:
  
  • rating scales: depression scale in hospital (sick people will feel weary)
  • language bias: feeling blue (idiom)

Question 59

Name 3 ways of detecting/defining test bias

Answer 59

1. Differences between groups
   
   • NOTE: Group differences alone are not an indication of test bias, since it could be a genuine difference
2. Differences between groups when ability is the same
   
   • Differential item functioning (DIF) is a way of testing for item bias
   • DIF occurs when individuals with the same level of the attribute obtain different scores on an item or subset of a test
3. Differences in prediction
   
   • systematic over/underprediction of a group’s performance
   • Most important when test is used for selection for some valued opportunity (usually educational or employment)
   • Check if the regression line is different for different groups

Question 60

Name 6 common applications of psychometric tests

Answer 60

1. Selection/placement: educational, job selection, MENSA
   
   • Issue: people cheat on obvious aptitude tests
2. Diagnosis: learning disabilities, mental health screening
   
   • inconsistent scoring (eg dyslexia)
   • Generally needs to be combined with achievement, history
3. Counselling: career transition advice
4. Policy making: national curriculum, workplace policies
5. Forensics: diminished capacity in court, custody issues
6. Management: best methods of handling different employees

Question 61

How do personality and intelligence impact on job performance?

Answer 61

• Early estimates placed intelligence test and work performance correlations at .35-.45
  
  • But predictive biases in tests have adverse effects
• Search for ‘fairer’ alternatives actually had worse bias
  
  • eg peer review(.41), biodata(.35)
• Schmidt Meta analysis
  
  • best predictor of work performance is past work performance (.54)

Question 62

How do personality and intelligence impact school performance?

Answer 62

• Best estimate is that intelligence predicts school achievement at r = .50
  
  • But these are review papers rather than meta-analyses
• Predictors of academic achievement at different levels of education
  
  • Intelligence is more important in the early grades
  • Conscientiousness is always important
  • Other personality variables are only important in the early grades