Intelligence Flashcards
What are some different definitions of intelligence?
Ability to carry out abstract thinking
Ability to resolve genuine problems or difficulties as they are encountered
Reflects survival skills of species, beyond those associated with basic psychological processes
What do people think intelligence is?
Non-psychologists:
Practical problem solving ability
Verbal ability to articulate ideas
Social competence.
Psychologists:
Verbal intelligence
Problem solving ability
Practical intelligence
- A lot of consistency even though they use different terms*
- Cultural interpretations may vary*
What is the cross-cultural applicability of intelligence?
If intelligence helps people adapt and manage tasks, it should be cross-culturally applicable; but what a society understands as intelligence is linked to their particular ecology and social structure.
Different culture means there are different circumstances that people need to adapt to.
What is the definition of intelligence based on its nature?
Intelligence is the application of cognitive skills and knowledge to learn, solve problems and obtain ends that are valued by an individual or culture
It is multifaceted, functional and is defined and shape by the culture.
What is the evolutionary perspective of intelligence?
Problems are solved to allow adaptation and thus survival and reproduction.
Ability to experience own feelings and behaviours leads to better position to imagine others’ feelings and behaviour.
What is the significance of France Galton?
He was the father of differential psychology and was one of the earliest psychologists to theorise and apply the concept of intelligence to society of his time. He was the first to look at measurement in Psych.
He invented correlation and found numerical values important
What were the 4 classifications of intelligence developed by Frances Galton?
Eminence (high functioning)
Imbecile
Idiot
Moron
Were Frances Galton’s measurements successful?
They were not successful but the idea that mental capacity could be qualified could live on.
SPEARMAN’S TWO-FACTOR THEORY
What is it?
It arose from correlation and factor analysis of different intellectual task (how different variables group together)
Found correlation between individuals scores on different ability tests.
An individuals performance on an intelligence test is determine by two factors (g) and (s)
SPEARMAN’S TWO-FACTOR THEORY
What are general abilities?
A single latent factor that underlies all other abilities and is predictive of test scores.
SPEARMAN’S TWO-FACTOR THEORY
What are specific abilities?
A range of specific abilities, such as mathematical or verbal ability.
SPEARMAN’S TWO-FACTOR THEORY
What is general intelligence (g)?
General ability for complex mental work.
SPEARMAN’S TWO-FACTOR THEORY
What is specific abilities (s) in terms of the theory?
Unique to a test/sub test e.g. maths or verbal skills.
Spearman was less concerned about studying (s) as it varied for each test of intellectual ability
What are Thurstone’s 7 Primary Mental Abilities?
Word fluency Verbal Comprehension Spatial ability Perceptual speed Numerical ability Inductive reasoning Memory
CATTELL & HORN
What is fluid intelligence (Gf)?
An inherent, non verbal capacity to learn and to solve problems. It is not reliant on the capacity of language.
It is used to adapt to new situations.
It is not as influenced by background as it is relatively free from cultural elements such as schooling, training, life experience.
CATTELL & HORN
What is crystallised intelligence (Gc)?
It is the accumulation of abilities learned through schooling or life experience.It is learned habitual response, heavily dependant on schooling or life experience.
It relates to thing actively taught to us e.g. vocabulary tests, tool identification tests for motor mechanics.
How does age influence intelligence?
Each form of intelligence is influenced by age differently age. Fluid intelligence is eventually override by crystallised intelligence ad it hinders our ability to generate our own ideas.
CATTELL-HORN-CARROLL
What is the Three-Stratum Theory?
It is a hierarchical model with 10 broad fluid and crystallised components on the top with greater than 70 sub-components below.
It is a very complex model that reflects the notion of multiple intelligences.
CATTELL-HORN-CARROLL
What are the 3 separate stratums?
Stratum III = higher order ‘g’ factor
Stratum II = Broader abilities
Stratum I = Narrow abilities
What is the speed of processing?
How rapidly a person can perform a mental task.
What is a knowledge base?
Information stored in long term memory.
What is the ability to acquire and apply mental processes?
Can a person acquire and use new mental strategies?
What is the information processing approach?
Assumes performance is normally distributed across a variety of intelligence relevant capacities.
Assumes performance on one capacity is weakly to moderately related to performance on other capacities.
Therefore person 1 might be better at A and B but person 2 might be better at C and D
STENBERG’S TRIARCHIC THEORY
What is it?
States that there are 3 components associated with intelligence:
Componential/Analytical Intelligence
Experiential/Creative Intelligence
Contextual/Practical Intelligence
STENBERG’S TRIARCHIC THEORY
What is Componential Intelligence?
Ability to think abstractly and process information effectively.
STENBERG’S TRIARCHIC THEORY
What is Experiential Intelligence?
Ability to formulate new ideas, and to combine seemingly unrelated facts or information.
STENBERG’S TRIARCHIC THEORY
What is contextual intelligence?
Ability to adapt to changing environmental conditions. Shape the environment to maximise strengths and compensate for weaknesses.
What is Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence Theory?
Different societies value different intelligences. There are 8 different intelligences suggested: Bodily-Kinaesthetic (Body smart) Interpersonal (People Smart) Visual-Linguistic (word smart) Logical-Mathematical (Logic Smart) Naturalistic (Nature Smart) Intrapersonal (Self smart) Visual-Spatial (Picture smart) Musical (Music smart)
What are the criticisms of Gardner’s MI Theory?
Too broad
No test has been developed to measure this
Confounds talent with intelligence
Ignores correlation between conceptually distinct functions
Doesn’t describe underlying processes
May reflect personality factors
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
What is it?
The ability to perceive, appraise and express emotions accurately and appropriately.
Use emotions to facilitate thinking
Understand and analyse emotions and use emotional knowledge effectively
Regulate emotions to promote both emotional and intellectual growth
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
What does it involve?
Social skill –> Self-awareness –> Self regulation –> Self motivation –> empathy
They influence how we engage with emotional intelligence
BIOLOGICAL FACTORS
Does brain size matter?
There is a slight correlation between brain size and intelligence, but this is more due to activity, better nutrition etc.
BIOLOGICAL FACTORS
Is intelligence influence by other cognitive abilities?
There is a relationship between memory and intelligence, but working memory is different to long term memory, and you can have poor memory and above average intelligence.
BIOLOGICAL FACTORS
Is intelligence influenced by abilities like reaction time?
Faster nerve response to visual stimuli correlates with non-verbal I.Q.
BIOLOGICAL FACTORS
Do biological factors influence intelligence?
Intelligence is complex and multifaceted, it cannot be reduced to a single denominator. It may be due to how efficient our brains are
How did IQ tests emerge?
Alfred Binet was the first person to establish tests. He tested resting and logic. The tests had reasonable predictive validity and spread throughout the US and Europe.
What was Binet’s criteria for selecting an item?
Item has to relate to ‘common sense’
Item has to be a part of daily life
Item must separate ‘dull’ from ‘bright’ children
Item must be practical and easy to administer.
What is a mental age?
average age at which children achieve an actual score.
an intellectually disabled child would not be able to answer questions typical for their chronological age.
What are the modern tests of intelligence?
In 1916 Louis Terman revised Binet and called it the Stanford-Binet which is still in use today but not as much as other tests.
Revised items did not perform as well as expected, he then added adult items and introduced the use of Intelligence Quotient (the amount of intelligence)
What is the Intelligence Quotient (IQ)?
Allows comparison of test scores among persons, Terman and Stern devised the concept of the IQ
IQ = (Mental Age/Chronological age) x100
What were the problems with Stern’s IQ?
Calculating IQ works well for children as their abilities are still developing
Development slows in adolescence
Development stabilises in adulthood
Comparing mental age to chronological age makes little numerical sense for adults.
DAVID WECHSLER (WAIS)
Why is he significant?
He developed a test specifically for adults.
He developed tests for children (WISC) based on the WAIS.
He attempted to remove the biases associated with earlier intelligence tests
His scales allowed psychologists to identify areas of strength and weakness within individuals and are the most commonly used IQ tests in western cultures today.
DAVID WECHSLER (WAIS)
Where are his scales at now?
IQ is measure on a number of subtests which distinguish between Verbal and non verbal intelligence.
WAIS = Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale
DAVID WECHSLER (WAIS)
What are the 4 sets of tests?
- Verbal Comprehension Index Scale (VCI)
- Perceptual Reasoning Index Scale (PRI)
- Working Memory Index Scale (WMI)
- Processing Speed Index Scale
DAVID WECHSLER (WAIS)
What is the VCI?
A measure of verbal abilities requiring reasoning, comprehension and conceptualisation.
DAVID WECHSLER (WAIS)
What is PRI?
A measure of nonverbal reasoning and perceptual organisation.
DAVID WECHSLER (WAIS)
What is WMI?
An explicit measure of working memory; specifically sequential and simultaneous processing, attention and concentration.
DAVID WECHSLER (WAIS)
What is PSI?
A measure of speed of mental and motor processing.
What are the 3 verbal comprehension subtests?
- Similarities (e.g. how are a and b alike)
- Vocabulary (e.g. what is this, what does this mean?)
- Information (e.g. on what continent is France)
What are the perceptual reasoning subtests?
- Block design.
- Matrix reasoning.
- Visual puzzles
* Doesn’t rely on verbal ability but involves manipulating thoughts*
What are the Working Memory Subtests?
- Digit Span (forwards, backwards, sequencing)
2. Arithmetic
What are processing speed subtests?
- Symbol search (search a group and indicate whether one matches)
- Coding (copies symbols that are paired with number within a specified limits)
How do we interpret scores?
The mean
Standard deviation
Standardisation
Norms
How is Full Scale IQ obtained?
Adding all the scaled scores together from the 4 groups
An average IQ is between 85 and 115
What defines intellectual disability?
Encompasses a wide range of cognitive abilities, defined in the DSM-V as:
1) significant deficits in intellectual functioning.
2) Concurrent deficits or impairments in adaptive functioning
3) Onset in the developmental period
May be due to different origins, genetic, biological or environmental.
What are adaptive skills?
Conceptual:
communication
Functional academics
Self direction
Social:
Leisure
Social interaction
Practical: Community use Home living Health & Safety Self care
Other tests to show how Ps are performing
What defines Giftedness?
Can reflect academic, musical, social or athletic ability. It is often associated with an IQ over 130.
Stereotypes associated with it include:
Physically weak
Mentally unstable
Reclusive/eccentric
Compensation - talent in one are is accompanied by a deficit in another.
What are the characteristics of the gifted?
Above average height, strength, emotional maturity and other variable as children.
Health, emotional stability and satisfaction above average in adulthood.
What are the 3 intersecting components of true giftedness?
- Exceptional intelligence in specific domain
- Exceptional creativity
- Exceptional motivational
What is creativity?
The ability to produce valued outcomes in a novel way.
What is Divergent thinking?
The ability to generate multiple possibilities in a given situation.
What is convergent thinking?
Finding the best idea from the range of ideas generated through divergent thinking
How does psychometrics relate to IQ?
Intelligence tests are unusual in science; measures were developed first and then the theories evolved to fit those measure. Where it is usually the other way around.
What are the criticism of the IQ test?
Lack of theoretical basis (no underlying construct)
Cultural bias (scores depend on language and cultural experience)
Ecological validity
What will predict performance
Do IQ scores predict real world outcomes?
People who score high on IQ tests are more likely than those who score low to end up in high status jobs.
They are good predictors of future school performance
And school performance is linked to attaining certain jobs.
Correlations between (g) and hob performance are often weak.
ABUSE OF INTELLIGENCE TESTS
What were the worst abuses?
Was the eugenics movement were the ‘mental defectives; were isolate, sterilised or exterminate as they wanted to breed them out.
ABUSE OF INTELLIGENCE TESTS
How was Binet’s work corrupted?
It was used as a diagnostic tool for feeble children; they wanted to segregate them so they would not contaminate.
They also used it to assess immigrants as they did not want ‘unintelligent immigrants’; they became convinced that ‘feeble mindedness’ was common in immigrants
ABUSE OF INTELLIGENCE TESTS
What tests were used in the corruption of Binet’s tests?
Bead stringing Shape copying Counting coins Naming objects Recalling digits Word definitions Filling in the missing word in a sentence
If you are not from a particular culture, these tests could be incredibly hard.
CULTURE FAIR TESTS
What was the original purpose of tests?
To provide valid, objective, socially unbiased measurement of intellectual ability however tests can never reveal innate intelligence or culture free knowledge.
CULTURE FAIR TESTS
What should culture fair tests include?
They should include items that would measure common skills and knowledge across cultures.
Thus intelligence tests thus need to be considered within a culture.
What are the genetic explanations?
Genetics and environment is important but neither are the be all and end all
How do you calculate heritability?
Formulas used to assess heritability were developed about 60 years ago.
What are the important environmental factors?
Enriched home environment
Encouraging interest and exploration
Mother’s knowledge about child rearing
These are all positive predictors of children’s performance on IQ and language tests
What are the risk factors for a lower IQ in the environment?
Poor maternal education Maternal mental illness Minority status Larger family size Poverty Poor nutrition
Is there a socio-cultural disadvantage?
Children in low SES areas may fail to develop full intellectual potential I.Q difference between highest and lower social class is a difference of about 20-30 points
What is a stereotype threat?
It is a belief about your group which leads to greater anxiety which leads to your self fulfilling prophecy
What are the controversies?
Racial differences in IQ tests are due to deprived environments
What is within group heritability?
The extent to which a trait varies within a specific group, due to the genetics influences
What is between group heritability?
The extent to which differences in a trait between groups is genetically influenced
What is there to conclude about intelligence?
IQ represents complex interaction between nature and nurture.
More recent theories of intelligence move away from the narrow confines of IQ scores
However the tests are still prevalent in western society
Twin and adoption studies indicate genetics are important in explaining individual differences
Group differences are typically more reflective of environment rather than genetics.
