Intelligence

Question 1

What characterises fluid and crystallised intelligence?

Answer 1

Fluid intelligence - innate ability, biological, not really influenced by the environment

Crystallised intelligence - learnt and used, knowledge, use of language, acquired skills

Question 2

What has research revealed about how fluid and crystallised intelligence varies with age? What does this suggest?

Answer 2

Fluid intelligence tends to be higher in younger adults and crystallised intelligence tends to be higher in older adults.

This suggests that will lose fluid intelligence with age but gain crystallised intelligence.

Question 3

Name and describe Sternberg’s 3 types of intelligence.

Answer 3

Analytical intelligence - the skill of analysing, judging and evaluating.

Practical intelligence - the skill used when implementing ideas.

Creative intelligence - the skills used when thinking of creative and novel ideas.

Question 4

Name Gardener’s traditional intelligences.

Answer 4

Linguistic intelligence, mathematical intelligences

Question 5

Name and describe Gardener’s artistic intelligences.

Answer 5

Musical intelligence - performance, composition and appreciations of music

Kinaesthetic intelligence - using the body to solve problems and being able to coordinate the body

Spatial intelligence - the ability to see patterns in spacial activities, either in wide open or confined spaces

Question 6

Name Gardener’s personal intelligences.

Answer 6

Interpersonal intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence

Question 7

What have psychologists identified are to two aspects in EI and what does Goleman think about the biology of the brain in its involvement in EI?

Answer 7

Two aspects: understanding of yourself, understanding of others and their feelings.

Our brain can help us develop through adopting and consciously practicing behaviours that cause us to be more emotionally intelligent, such as listening.

Question 8

What is Spearman’s definition of intelligence and what this he identify about the results in the tests that test this?

Answer 8

Cognitive skills

It is consistent between cognitive skills tests testing different things.

Question 9

State the difference between male and female brain structures and how it affects performance in certain tasks.

Answer 9

Males have fewer but thicker white matter fibres than females.
Males have increased grey matter volume in the frontal parietal.
Females have more white and grey matter volume in Broca’s area (associated with language).

More neuron efficiency during spacial tasks.
Females have more neuron efficiency in tasks requiring verbal skills.
Men do tend to do better on spatial tasks and women on language-based tasks.

Question 10

What does research say about how much genes contribute to intelligence?

Answer 10

Research has found the contribution of genes to intelligence to be between 25 and 50 percent

Question 11

What has research found to result in individual variation in intelligence?

Answer 11

Individual variation in intelligence is due to many genes each having a small effect that adds up to a larger difference in overall intelligence.

Question 12

What certain cognitive skills are said to transfer genetically?

Answer 12

Verbal and organisational skills where there is less genetic transfer of cognitive skills such as memory.

Question 13

Summarise the research that talks about the stability of intelligence over time. What does this indicate about other influences of intelligence?

Answer 13

Intelligence does appear fairly stable over time.
Ian Deary’s research found a correlation of 0.63 in IQ tests for individuals tested at 11 and 79 years old.

This indicates an environmental influence of about 40 percent

Question 14

Summarise research on the later effects of environmental factors on premature babies.

Answer 14

Research by Alan Lucas et al. found that premature babies who were breastfed had higher cognitive skills at age 7 1/2 to 8 years, than bottle-fed premature babies.

Question 15

What does research show about the affect of breastfeeding on full term babies and comparing this to the affect on preterm babies, what does this show about when this environmental factors are more effective?

Answer 15

Research by a psychologist found that breast feeding had little or no impact on a child’s intelligence in full-term babies

It would appear that nutrition impacts more on the susceptible individual.
For example, if a child had lower than satisfactory levels of nutrition then supplements will help to improve IQ but, for children with healthy diets, a supplement will have little to no affect on IQ.

Question 16

What does research show are the effects of vitamins on malnurished children on IQ?

Answer 16

Research by a psychologist found that when testing the IQ scores of schoolchildren between the ages of 6 and 12, it was children who lacked a nutritious diet whose IQ scores were most improved by a daily vitamin and mineral supplement

Question 17

What does research does say about the effect of the length of breastfeeding on intelligence in adult?

Answer 17

Research had seen a significant positive correlation between the length of time a baby was breastfed and their later scores on adult intelligence tests.

So, there may be be longer term effects of breastfeeding, or it may be the length of time is breastfed for actually impacts in adult IQ.

Question 18

What does research show about the affect exposure to toxic substances have on the IQ of the pregnant mothers child?

Answer 18

Research has found that mothers who have reported to having smoked 1 or more cigarettes of canabis is a day in the first 3 months of their pregnancy was linked to lower verbal reasoning scores for children at the age of 6 years.

During the second 3 months heavy use of this toxic substance had effects on the scores for memory skills and overall scores.

Heavy use in the last 3 months was negatively associated with the overall IQ score

Question 19

State environmental factors were linked to intelligence

Answer 19

Maternal IQ
Home environment
Social support of the mother

There is unlikely to be a direct link between the social support of the mother and a childs intelligence but an unsupported mother may have less inclination and money to provide a stimulating environment for the child that could enhance intelligence.

Question 20

State the other factors that should be considered when looking at toxic substance exposure and intelligence.

Answer 20

It is important to consider:

Mothers who smoked weed in first trimester most likely smoked all through out the pregnancy so there may have been a cumulative effect.

Mothers who smoked cannabis may have also been mothers with lower IQ

Mothers who smoked cannabis may have also been mothers with a lack of social support.

Question 21

State what research shows about the affect of maternal stress on IQ

Answer 21

Research studying 140 children born after the Quebec ice storm of 1998 found that children aged 5 who had mothers who reported being stressed by the storm scored on average 15 IQ points lower than children whose mothers experienced less stress.

This was consistent when tested at 8 years old.

Question 22

State the research that shows effect of stress biochemically and how this links to intelligence.

Answer 22

250 women at 17 weeks of their pregnancy were given questionnaires on their anxiety levels and the levels of cortisol in their blood were also measured.

All pregnant mothers have slightly high levels of cortisol but this is usually broken down by an enzyme from the placenta.

When the mother is stressed the enzyme works less efficiently allowing more cortisol into the amniotic fluid.

Children exposed to high levels of cortisol tended to have a lower IQ