Intelligence and Individual Differences Flashcards
achievement test
a test designed to assess what a person has learned.
cohort
a group of people from a given time period.
content validity
the extent to which a test samples the behaviour that is of interest.
crystalized intelligence
our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age.
Down syndrome
a condition of mild to severe intellectual dis- ability and associated physical disorders caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21.
emotional intelligence
the ability to perceive, understand, man- age, and use emotions.
factor analysis
a statistical procedure that identifies clusters of re- lated items (called factors) on a test; used to identify different dimensions of performance that underlie a person’s total score.
fluid intelligence
fluid intelligence our ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease during late adulthood.
general intelligence
a general intelligence factor that, accord- ing to Spearman and others, underlies specific mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test.
grit
in psychology, grit is passion and perseverance in the pursuit of long-term goals.
heritability
the proportion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genes. The heritability of a trait may vary, depending on the range of populations and environments studied.
intellectual disability
a condition of limited mental ability, indicated by an intelligence score of 70 or below and difficulty in adapting to the demands of life. (Formerly referred to as mental retardation.)
intelligence
mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations.
intelligence quotient
defined originally as the ratio of men- tal age (ma) to chronological age (ca) multiplied by 100 (thus, IQ = ma/ca × 100). On contemporary intelligence tests, the average performance for a given age is assigned a score of 100, with scores assigned to relative performance above or below average.
intelligence test
a method for assessing an individual’s mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores.
mental age
a measure of intelligence test performance devised by Binet; the chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance. Thus, a child who does as well as the average 8-year-old is said to have a mental age of 8.
normal curve
(normal distribution) a symmetrical, bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many types of data; most scores fall near the mean (about 68 percent fall within one standard deviation of it) and fewer and fewer near the extremes.
predictive validity
the success with which a test predicts the behaviour it is designed to predict; it is assessed by computing the correlation between test scores and the criterion behaviour. (Also called criterion-related validity.)
reliability
a measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material again.
savant syndrome
a condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill, such as in compu- tation or drawing.
Standardization
defining uniform testing procedures and meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested group.
Stanford-Binet
the widely used American revision (by Terman at Stanford University) of Binet’s original intelligence test.
stereotype threat
a self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype.
validity
the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to. (See also content validity and predictive validity.)
WAIS
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) the WAIS is the most widely used intelligence test; contains verbal and performance (nonverbal) subtests.
