Intelligence & Health

Question 1

What is intelligence?

Answer 1

A latent construct defined as: the general ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, learn quickly, and learn from experiences (Gottfredson, 2000)

Question 2

What does IQ stand for?

Answer 2

Intelligence Quotient

Question 3

What was IQ originally a measure of?

Answer 3

Deviation of mental age from chronological age

Question 4

What did Wechsler (1975) redefine IQ as?

Answer 4

A standardised score showing deviation from avg score (100)
- Scores normally distributed w an SD of 15

Question 5

Name some Intelligence Tests

Answer 5

• Digit span: repeat each string of numbers in the order that I sat it
• Letter number sequencing: rearrange these items so that you say the numbers first in ascending order, then the letters in alphabetical order
• What does this proverb mean?
• Trail making: join the circles in numerical order, as quickly as you can

Question 6

What is G (general) Intelligence (Charles Spearman)

Answer 6

Common mental capacity underlying performance on all tests

Question 7

What is the layout of the hierarchy of intelligence?

Answer 7

G - Verbal ability (vocab reading + synonyms) + Working memory (digit span + letter-number sequencing) + Visual-spatial reasoning (box folding + hidden figures) + Processing speed (reaction time + trail making)

Question 8

What is Cognitive Epidemiology?

Answer 8

Examination of IQ as a correlate of health and mortality

Question 9

What is Reverse Causation?

Answer 9

Poor health can influence IQ

Question 10

What are confounding effects in cognitive epidemiology?

Answer 10

SES: childhood SES influences health and IQ

Question 11

What were the Scottish Birth Cohort Studies?

Answer 11

• IQ tests of all Scottish children born in 1921 + 1936
• They took the Moray House test (scores of this correlate w modern tests of IQ)
• Used this to see the influence of early life IQ on health and mortality
• Compared IQ scores of survivors vs. non-survivors

Question 12

What does the Moray House test include?

Answer 12

71 items:
- Arithmetic
- Following directions
- Proverbs
- Analogies
- Reasoning etc.

Question 13

What were the findings of the Scottish Birth Cohort Studies?

Answer 13

• IQ score of those dead was sig lower than those alive (97.7 vs 102)
• Size of effect smaller in men than women

Question 14

What was the Swedish Conscripts study?

Answer 14

Men took IQ test within military service conscription exam

Question 15

What was the Nun cohort study?

Answer 15

Linguistic measures from autobiographies of nuns written ages 22

Question 16

What was the Danish Metropolit study?

Answer 16

12 year old boys in Copenhagen given IQ test in social mobility study

Question 17

What did the Swedish Conscripts study, Nun study & Danish Metropolit study show?

Answer 17

Higher IQ in first 20 years of life is linked w lower mortality, even after adjusting for childhood SES

Question 18

What are the causal mechanisms for IQ influencing health?

Answer 18

IQ - Education - Employment - Adult SES status
IQ - Health literacy & behaviours - Medication adherence & healthy eating, physical activity, wearing seatbelts etc

Question 19

What are the causal mechanisms for health influencing IQ?

Answer 19

Suboptimal neural development - IQ & psychiatric burden
Body system integrity - IQ & health problems

Question 20

What was Ali et al’s (2013) study on Intelligence and Happiness?

Answer 20

• Mixed results from previous studies
• Sample of 7403 English adults
• Measured happiness
• Verbal IQ measured with NART
• Measured potential mediating variables that may account for IQ-happiness relationship

Question 21

What did Ali et al’s (2013) study on Intelligence and Happiness find?

Answer 21

• High IQ predicted likelihood of being happy
• This was mediated by: dependency in activities of daily living, income, neurotic symptoms, self-reported health, marital status, social participation