Intelligence

Question 1

What may be considered as intelligence?

Answer 1

A persons general cognitive ability.

Question 2

What is meant by fluid intelligence?

Answer 2

A biological or innate ability.

Question 3

What is meant by crystallised intelligence?

Answer 3

What we have learned and assimilated.

Question 4

When is fluid/crystallised intelligence higher and what does this mean?

Answer 4

• Fluid intelligence tends to be higher in younger adults and crystallised tends to be higher in older adults
• This means that innate skills are lost as we age (such as problem identifying etc) and learned skills increase as we age

Question 5

What did Sternberg come up with in 1985 to do with intelligence?

Answer 5

The triarchic theory of intelligence.

Question 6

What three skills does the triarchic theory of intelligence contain?

Answer 6

• Analytical intelligence
• Practical intelligence
• Creative intelligence

Question 7

What did Gardener come up with later on?

Answer 7

He expanded upon the three skills in the triarchic theory of intelligence and split them all into sub-sections.

Question 8

What physical differences do male and female brains have?

Answer 8

• Males have fewer but thicker white matter fibres and more neuron efficiency during special tasks
• Females have more neuron efficiency in tasks requiring verbal skills

Question 9

What percentage of genetic transference of intelligence has previous research found?

Answer 9

25-50% contribution of genes to intelligence

Question 10

What 3 main factors can affect intelligence due to genes?

Answer 10

• Prenatal stress
• Exposure to toxic chemicals
• Post-natal nutrition

Question 11

What has previous research found to with the link between intelligence and pre-natal nutrition?

Answer 11

That babies who were breastfed had higher cognitive skills than bottle-fed babies.

Question 12

What has previous research found to do with the link between intelligence and nutrition?

Answer 12

Research found that children who lacked a nutritious diet had the biggest improvement in IQ after a daily vitamin and mineral supplement.

Question 13

What has previous research found to do with the link between intelligence and toxic substances?

Answer 13

-Mothers who heavily used cannabis during the first three months of pregnancy linked to lower verbal reasoning scores in their children

Question 14

What has previous research found to do with the link between intelligence and prenatal stress?

Answer 14

That when a mother stresses, a hormone is produced which may affect the babies intelligence.

Question 15

What did Susanne King investigate to do with prenatal stress?

Answer 15

• Studied children born after ice storm of Quebec

- Found mothers who were highly stressed by storm had children who scored lower on an IQ test

Question 16

What was the aim of Van Leeuwen’s research? (Key Research)

Answer 16

To not only use twins but parents and siblings to identify the relationship between family members and IQ.

Question 17

What did Van Leeuwen’s study assume about shared genetic material in twins? (MZ and DZ)

Answer 17

100% genetic material shared in monozygotic twins
50% genetic material shared in dizygotic twins
50% genetic material shared between parent and child

Question 18

Outline the sample used in Van Leeuwen’s study.

Answer 18

• 112 families
• Either MZ on DZ twins
• Volunteered to take part and passed screening for disabilities

Question 19

What data was collected for Van Leeuwen’s study?

Answer 19

Biological data to check twin status, plus hormonal and MRI scans.

Question 20

What was the cognitive testing in Van Leeuwen’s study based on?

Answer 20

• Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices (children)

- Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices (parents)

Question 21

How long was the whole testing period in Van Leeuwen’s study?

Answer 21

About 5 hours

Question 22

What model was applied to take into account the difficulty of each question in Van Leeuwen’s study?

Answer 22

The Rasch Model

Question 23

What results were found to do with males and females in Van Leeuwen’s study?

Answer 23

No sex differences in any of the three groups (twins, siblings or parents)

Question 24

What results were found to do with MZ twins?

Answer 24

Correlations were higher for MZ twins than first-degree relatives

Question 25

What results were found to do with the IQ of parents?

Answer 25

Quite a high correlation between IQ of parents and offspring.

Question 26

What do the results suggest about the heritability of intelligence (percentage)?

Answer 26

67% heritability

Question 27

What is the most usual way of testing intelligence?

Answer 27

An IQ test.

Question 28

What is one of the most common IQ tests used today?

Answer 28

The Wechsler Intelligence Scale.

Question 29

What IQ test did Sternberg create and what did it include?

Answer 29

The Sternberg Triarchic Abilities Test, which consists of multiple-choice questions that assess three aspects of intelligence.

Question 30

What is the ceiling and floor effect?

Answer 30

Ceiling effect is when people can answer all questions correctly therefore there is not a visible ‘ceiling’ to their intelligence. The floor effect is the opposite.

Question 31

What is the Human figure drawing test and who is it used on?

Answer 31

Children asked to draw a number of people, and analysis of features of the drawings can give an estimation of intelligence (for children).