Intelligence Testing Flashcards
Purposes of Testing (2)
(1) Guidance: Cognitive strengths and weaknesses
(2) Decision-making: Diagnosis, entrance in academic programs, career decisions…
Types of Tests of General Mental Ability (2)
(1) Individual tests
(2) Group tests
Names of famous individual ability tests
- Stanford Binet IQ Test
- Wechsler IQ scales (e.g. WAIS-IV, WISC-V)
Names of famous group ability tests
- Scholastic Tests: GRE, SAT
- Aptitude Batteries
Francis Galton (3)
- First to try to measure differences in intellectual capacities
- Intellectual differences = differences in sensation and perception abilities
- Human abilities have a normal distribution
Alfred Binet: Goal
Identifying children with special needs
Alfred Binet: Def of intelligence
Complex mental acts e.g., imagination, reasoning, memory, motor skills
Who made the first practical intelligence test
Alfred Binet
Alfre Binet’s tests - Identified tasks sensitive to: (3)
- Age (Developed AGE NORMS that provided an age equivalent score)
- School achievement
- Teacher’s perceptions of ability
Alfre Binet’s tests - assess ability to: (3)
- Judge well
- Understand well
- Reason well
Binet’s IntelligenceTests measure: ____ (7)
- Measure higher mental processes
- Memory
- General knowledge
- Abstract Reasoning
- Attention
- Comprehension
- Coordination
- Visual judgment
Binet’s IntelligenceTests Concepts: (4)
- Introduced the concept of Mental Age
- Developed age norms (provided an age-equivalent score)
- Established cut-offs scores - 4 categories: idiot, imbecile, moron, normal
- One score
Did Binet’s test work? (3)
- Discriminated MR from “normal” children
- Discriminated MR from behavior problems
- Predicted grades
Binet’s test had a ____ score
single
Binet’s test was brought to US by ____: What modification did he bring? (3)
Lewis Terman (Stanford-Binet)
-> Intended to measure GENERAL intelligence
-> Introduced Intelligence Quotient Ratio (IQ)
- Individuals with higher IQs had greater career success (i.e. Terman study)
Lewis Terman: Intelligence Quotient Ratio (IQ) formula
IQ = Mental Age (MA)/ Chronological Age (CA) * 100
Criticism of Binet scale (3)
- Invalid for adults
- Tasks favoured speed, disadvantaging older adults
- Mental age norms did NOT apply to adults (While Wechsler highlighted the potential for intellectual decline with age)
David Wechsler’s novelties (4)
- Content Grouping: Grouped tasks by content, creating tests that provided not just an overall score but also separate scores for each content area.
- Historically provided 3 scores: IQ, VIQ, PIQ (in addition to subset scores)
- Introduced the concept of deviation IQ: scores should have similar statistical properties and same meaning at diff ages
- Introduced the Point scale: assigns specific points for each item passed
The Binet scale grouped items by ____, with tasks _____ to their content at each level.
age level, unrelated
=> Tasks covered various abilities with no specific point system for completed tasks (e.g., passing two out of four tasks in a set would yield no credit).
Evolution of Intelligence Quotient (IQ) (3)
(1) Binet: Mental age
(2) Terman’s IQ
(3) Wechsler’s Deviation IQ (-> Transformed standard score for specific age group)
Problem with Terman’s IQ
Score did NOT represent the same relative position at one age as another
1. Maximum mental age = 18
2. Standard deviations at diff ages were different; consequently, meaning of scores was different at diff ages
Wechsler Scales & their age range (3)
(1) Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of IntelligenceFourth Edition (WPPSI-IV): 2-7yo
(2) Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Fifth Edition (WISC-V): 6-16yo
(3) Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale–Third Edition (WAIS-IV): 16-90yo
WISC–V Characteristics (3)
- Individual administration
- Assessment of Cognitive Functioning in Children 6-16 years
- Administration time: 45-65 minutes
WISC–V Content (2)
- 5 index scores (made of subsets)
- 10 primary subtests to obtain FSIQ (=total score, Full-Scale Intelligence Quotient)
WISC’S Five Primary Index Scores
- Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI)
- Visual-Spatial Index (VSI)
- Fluid Reasoning Index (FRI)
- Working Memory Index (WMI)
- Processing Speed Index (PSI)
WISC: Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI)
Measures the ability to access and apply acquired knowledge;
i.e., the use of verbal concept formation, reasoning, and expression.
WISC: Visual-Spatial Index (VSI)
Measure the ability to evaluate visual details and understand visual-spatial relationships to construct geometric designs from a model.
WISC: Fluid Reasoning Index (FRI)
Measures the ability to DETECT important elements among visual objects, to understand the underlying conceptual RELATIONSHIP + ability to apply the knowledge to identify another object that best represents the concept.
WISC: Working Memory Index (WMI) (3 components)
Measures verbal + visual working memory + the ability to resist proactive interference.
-> Working memory involves attention, concentration, mental control, and reasoning.
WISC: Processing Speed Index (PSI)
Measuresthe student’s ability to quickly process nonverbal material,attention and visual-motor coordination.
[WISC] Picture Concepts (FRI): Description & Index
In Fluid reasoning index:
-> Designed to measure abstract, fluid, and categorical reasoning ability
-> The child is presented with 2-3 rows of pictures and chooses one picture from each row to form a group with a common characteristic
[WISC] Letter-Number Sequencing (WMI): Description & Index
In Working memory index
- Child is presented with a series of numbers and letters
- Child repeats numbers then letters in order
- “You say the numbers first in order, then the letters in alphabetical order.”
- Examiner says “7 K 3 D 9”
- Child responds “3 7 9 D K
[WISC] Cancellation (PSI): Description & Index
In Processing speed index.
“Draw a line through each animal. Do not draw a line through anything else”
Interpretation of WISC–V Scores: FSIQ, Index, Subset
Scores transformed into z-scores.
- FSIQ score: Mean = 100, SD = 15
- Index scores: Mean = 100, SD = 15
- Subset scaled scores: Mean = 10, SD = 3
Norms WISC
Very good norms! Representative of the US
- Age
- Sex
- Race/Ethnicity
- Parent Education Level
- Geographic Region
Reliability: WISC
Very high!
Internal consistency for FSQI and 5 indexes: .84 to .97
Test-retest for Indexes: .79 to .92
Inter-scorer reliability for subsets: .98 to .99
Validity: WISC
Factor analysis -> 4 to 5 factor solution best
(Works with the number of indexes -> good!)
Validity: FSIQ
- Internal structure as predicted
- Convergent validity: Good, correlated with WISC-III and Stanford-Binet
- Criterion validity: Good, correlated with Wechsler FSIQs, academic achievement
Spearman’s theory of intelligence (2)
(1) Two-Factor Theory
(2) 2 components:
-> General variance (cognition): g-factor
-> Specific variance (task-specific cognition): s-factor + error variance (e)
Spearman’s two-factor theory: on what did he base his notion of “g”?
Based on the well-documented phenomenon that almost all kinds of intelligence tests are correlated with each other (called a “positive manifold”)
Cattell-Horn theory of intelligence (3)
(1) Fluid intelligence (Gf) = problem-solving and information -> INdependent of experience
(2) Crystallized intelligence (Gc) = breadth and depth of general knowledge
(3) Other mental abilities: visualization processing, processing speed, and short-term memory
John Carroll’s Theory of intelligence
Three-stratum theory.
- Stratum 3: General cognitive ability (g)
- Stratum 2: Broad ability factors (e.g. Quantitative knowledge, Comprehension knowledge, Reading and writing…)
- Stratum 1: Narrowly defined cognitive abilities
-> Supported by factor analytic research but also neurocognitive, genetic, and developmental research
Is there a genetic contribution to IQ?
YES: substantial genetic contribution to the development of intelligence, BUT the pathway by which genetic differences are expressed is not known
Do environmental factors contribute a lot to IQ?
YES: Environmental factors contribute significantly to the development of intelligence, BUT the mechanism by which they express their influence is unknown
Does nutrition play a role in the development of intelligence?
UNCLEAR: Profound early malnutrition is detrimental BUT the effects of more subtle nutritional differences in populations that are “adequately fed” are not well understood.
Is there a theoretical model accounting for the correlation between information-processing speed & intelligence
NO.
-> Yes, correlation between information-processing speed & intelligence
-> BUT: No theoretical model accounts for these correlations yet.
Is the Flynn effect real?
YES: Mean IQs are increasing worldwide although the factors driving these gains are unknown.
Can mean IQ differences between races be attributed to obvious test bias or differences in SES status?
NO, cannot be attributed to that.
-> There is also NO support for genetic explanations.
-> No one knows the basis of these differences.
Do standard intelligence tests measure ALL aspects of intelligence?
NO.
They do NOT measure all aspects of intelligence such as creativity, common sense, and interpersonal finesse.
-> Not much is known about these abilities and how they relate to more traditional aspects of intelligence or how they develop.
