Lecture 3 - Intelligence (Chapter 5) Flashcards
What is the area of differential psychology concerned with predicting school success or job performance?
Intelligence/cognitive or intellectual ability.
What are the 5 definitions of intelligence according to the Encarta Dictionary?
- Ability to think and learn
- Secret information
- Gathering secret information
- People (/organisations) gathering secret information
- Intelligent spirit
What is intelligent spirit according to the Encarta dictionary?
An entity capable of rational thought, especially one that does not have a physical form.
What did Boring define intelligence as?
A general ability or form of mental power that develops in the first 5 years of life and then remains relatively stable.
What was Galton’s theory on intelligence called?
Galton’s Hereditary Genius
What is hereditary genius?
The idea that different levels of intelligence are determined by hereditary or genetic factors.
What did Galton argue about intelligence?
Genius (intelligence) is hereditary and intelligence is normally distributed in the population.
What does anthropometric mean?
Measurement of man
What were Galton and his student Karl Pearson responsible for?
The creation of statistical/analysis techniques such as correlations and regressions.
JM Cattell studied what?
Scientific measures of elemental abilty, rather than mental ability. Basic cognitive processes/abilities such as number of words remembered, average reaction time, etc.
Who was responsible for the creation of statistical/analysis techniques such as correlations and regressions?
Galton and his student Karl Pearson
According to J.M Cattell, what can intelligence be conceptualised as?
10 basic psychological functions, such as tactile discrimination, hearing and weight discrimination.
What are mental tests (JM Cattell)?
A series of psychometric tests originally devised by J.M Cattell, to measure individual differences in basic psychological functions.
What was the name given to a series of psychometric tests, originally devised by J.M Cattell, to measure individual differences in basic psychological functions?
Mental tests
What did elemental abilities/variables refer to?
Very basic cognitive processes that are now known to only be related to intelligence (and do not predict it).
What variables are very basic cognitive processes that are now known to only be related to intelligence (and do not predict it)?
Elemental.
What was Binet’s goal?
To design an effective, robust tool to predict differences in school performance.
What did Terman’s large scale studies in the US enable him to achieve, and what changes were made to Binet’s original test?
Enabled him to test and improve the reliability of the scale, and thus extend it to subtests and to large age group from 3 to 14 years old.
The major modification was the way that scores were calculated. Terman calculated IQ scores by dividing the mental age achieved on the test by the participants’ chronological (real) age.
Who introduced the term IQ, Intelligence Quotient?
Stern, 1912.
What’s one fundamental advantage of IQ tests?
They measure stable individual differences in intellectual ability - scores will not vary in the same individual from day to day or month to month.
From what age does IQ stay roughly the same?
6
What is the age that adult IQ has pretty much developed?
15
What did Spearman show about different intellectual ability tests?
That the different tests were significantly inter-correlated, and that the common variance could be statistically represented in terms of a single, general factor, g.
How did Spearman (1904) test/examine individuals on their general intelligence factor (g)?
Individual differences in basic information processing, looking at elementary cognitive processes such as olfactory and visual-sensory discriminations.
What did Davidson and Downing (2000) show about the potential cause for variance in IQ? And how much variance in IQ was explained by this?
Suggested that up to 20% of variance in IQ scores could be accounted for by basic cognitive processes, such as inspection time.
What is inspection time?
The time taken for a participant to identify differences in particular stimuli.
Which study defined intelligence in terms of reaction time?
Jensen, 1982
How did Jensen (1982) define intelligence?
In terms of reaction time.
Which study defined intelligence in terms of inspection time?
Deary, 1986.
How did Deary (1986) define intelligence?
In terms of inspection time.
What did Spearman do to counter-act the inter-relations between external factors affecting many intelligence/ability tests?
Created a formula
Did Thurstone support or contradict Spearman’s general factor theory?
Contradict. Thurstone questioned it, and created a rivalling statistical technique, multiple factor analysis.
How did Thurstone regard intelligence?
As an adaptational process by which individuals strived to attain everyday goals by planning ahead and inhibiting instinctive responses to prioritise rational, processes.
What did Thurstone conclude about how intelligence should be measured and conceptualised?
Should be measured and conceptualised at the primary level.
How many ‘primary abilities’ did Thurstone theorise?
7
Name the primary abilities that Thurstone theorised.
Verbal comprehension Word fluency Number facility Spatial visualisation Associative memory Perceptual speed Reasoning
What is number facility in relation to Thurstone’s primary abilities?
The ability to carry out mental calculations with speed and accuracy.
What was Spearman’s counter to Thurstone’s primary abilities?
Spearman argued that your so called primary abilities would be representative of one’s general intelligence, g, factor. Spearman suggested that scores on primary ability tests would predict scores on other ability tests.
Who developed the theory that two forms of intelligence exist - fluid and crystallised?
Raymond Cattell.
Which intelligence theory did Raymond Cattell develop?
The theory suggesting differences between fluid and crystallised intelligence.
What is the definition of fluid intelligence?
The ability to perform well on non-verbal tasks, which do not require previous knowledge, but instead measure a pure, culture-free element of cognitive performance.
What is the definition of crystallised intelligence?
The ability to do well on verbal tasks, which are substantially influenced by previous knowledge and acculturative learning.
What is fluid intelligence dependent on?
Efficient functioning of the nervous system.
What is crystallised intelligence dependent on?
Experience and education within a culture.
How does fluid intelligence change over the lifespan and why?
Fluid intelligence decreases because it is reliant on the functioning of the nervous system, which declines in efficiency across the lifespan.
How does crystallised intelligence change over the lifespan and why?
Crystallised intelligence may increase over the lifespan due to the continued increase in cultural exposure and experience as time goes on.
What did Stankov, Boyle and Cattell (1995) find about the importance of measuring fluid and crystallised intelligence?
Measuring both types of intelligence is beneficial for estimating both an individual’s learning potential and their acquired knowledge.
How did Cattell (1987) modify the fluid vs crystallised intelligence theory?
He added a third dimension - Gsar, which represents the ability to manipulate information and retrieve information from short term memory.
Explain the link between performance on verbal vs non verbal tests and the intelligence of individuals, as shown by Matarazzo (1972).
More intelligent individuals tend to perform better on verbal measures, whereas less intelligent individuals perform better on non-verbal measures.
Gottfredson (1997; 1998; 2004a; 2004b) showed what about the cause of social inequalities?
General intelligence may be the fundamental cause of social inequalities and also socio-economic status.
Gottfredson (2004a) suggests that the effect of general intelligence factor is what?
Pervasive and consistent.
According to Brand (1987), Deary (2000)and Deary et al., (2004), what correlates with general intelligence factor?
Physical fitness, alcoholism (negatively), and the idea that IQ measures at 11 can predict lifelong physical and mental health outcomes.
What did Newman, Freeman and Holzinger (1937) find about the heritability of intelligence?
Identical twins had a greater similarity in intelligence than non-identical twins, even when identical twins were raised apart.
What are Piaget’s 4 universal stages of cognitive development?
Sensorimotor
Pre-operational
Concrete operational
Formal operational
What was Piaget’s aim in terms of intelligence?
To create a theoretical framework for understanding the development of processes underlying adult intelligence.
Why do ‘critics’ propose that individual differences in intellectual ability should be defined in terms of multiple intelligences?
Because the traditional intelligence tests often only measure academic abilities (Gardner, 1983; Goleman, 1995; Sternberg, 1985c, 1997).
What was Guilford’s (1959, 1967, 1977) preliminary distinction between their comprehensive catalogue of human abilities?
3 distinct dimensions:
- Operations
- Products
- Contents
How many different types of dimensions were there, according to Guilford (1977)?
5 types of operations
6 types of products
5 types of contents
Name 2 examples of types of operations, according to Guilford (1977)?
Cognition
Memory
Name 2 examples of types of products, according to Guilford (1977)?
Transformations
Implications
Name 2 examples of types of content, according to Guilford (1977)?
Auditory
Visual
Does empirical evidence (Gottfredson, 2003) support or oppose theories of multiple intelligence?
Opposes. The scientific study of intelligence has provided conclusive evidence for the existence of general intelligence factor and its predictive validity in relation to academic outcomes.
