lecture 5 Flashcards
who defined intelligence?
Stenberg and Detterman (1986)
what do common psychological definitions for intelligence include?
higher level abilities
valued by culture
executive processes
what are the executive processes behind intelligence?
regulating the flow of information towards goal achievement
what does Stenberg define intelligence as?
the mental ability necessary for adaptation to, as well as shaping and selection, of any environmental context
how is intelligence usually assessed?
by IQ
how do we measure IQ?
standardised to a mean score of 100, and a standard deviation of 15
what is norming?
administering IQ test to a representative sample of a population to obtain norms for different subgroups
how can individual differences in cognitive abilities be measured?
by predictive validity and reductionistic validity studies
what do predictive validity studies show?
the real life impact of cognitive differences, eg) educational achievement
what do reductionistic validity studies show?
the cognitive impact of individual differences, eg) differences in reaction time
who proposed a hierachical structure of intelligence?
Spearman
what does Spearman suggest intelligence can be split into?
fluid intelligence
crystalised intelligence
what is fluid intelligence?
inherited ability to reason and think
reasoning/problem solving
doesn’t depend on education
biologically- in the prefrontal cortex
declines later in life
what is crystalised intelligence?
accumulated knowledge across a life time
verbal and general knowledge
depends on education
increases over time
what are the heritability estimates for intelligence?
between 0.42 and 0.62, up to 0.80
what is heritability?
overlap between multiple generations, eg) the overlap between your and your parent’s intelligence
who proposed the heritability gap?
Plomin and Deary, 2015
what is the heritability gap?
lots of genes make small contributions to a certain trait
a lot of reported correlations are false positives
don’t just share genes with parents, but also the environment
what is the interactionist approach?
genes and the environment interact
what is Spearman’s hypothesis?
people’s performance of a cognitive test was correlated with their performance on other comparable cognitive tests
proposed a common factor g= cognitive capability
what has Spearman’s hypothesis found out about race differences in IQ?
stronger a test was correlated with IQ, the wider difference in Black and White American’s performance on the test
Black and White differences correlated with a test’s g loading
what has current research found about genetic differences in IQ?
no significant genetic determination of racial differences in IQ
what is the Flynn Effect?
the generational rise in IQ by an average of 10 percentage points, seen over 14+ countries
what gains are particularly large in the Flynn Effect?
fluid intelligence
our biological potential changes over time
what can the Flynn effect be explained by?
social multipliers
averaging
gene-environment matching
what are social multipliers?
environmental factors potentially contributing to an increase in IQ
what are two main social multipliers?
education
nutrition
how does education affect an increase in IQ?
for every additional year people spend in education, their IQ increases
nowadays people spend longer in education
how does nutrition improve intelligence?
nutrition standards have improved
we have developed ways to produce food more efficiently
this gives people the ability to reach their potential
what is matching?
gene environment correlation
people seek out environments which match their phenotype
this increases their initial ability-optimal environment expresses the genes
what is averaging?
as an individual’s ability increases, this influences the people around them
so the population average increases
how does age impact heritability?
heritability increases with age
40%= childhood
60%= adulthood
80%= old age
why does heritability increase with age?
gene environment correlation
genes need the appropriate environment to be expressed
people with a high IQ seek out high IQ contexts- as they get older their intelligence shows
how does socio economic status impact heritability?
heritability is high for high socio-economic status, and is virtually zero for low socio-economic status
why does socio economic status impact heritability?
gene environment interaction
more resources in high socio economic status allow genes for IQ to be expressed
also impacted by the stability of the family
what is genetic influence?
specific genes which code for a trait
why is IQ malleable?
heritability is not the same as genetic influence
gene-environment interplay also occurs
who investigated the relationship between brain volume and IQ?
McDaniel, 2005
what is the relationship between brain volume and IQ?
higher IQ is associated with larger brain volumes
only a low correlation, but is consistent across studies
what does the P-FIT theory represent?
intelligence through a set of processes in the brain
what is the first step in the P-FIT theory?
dealing with sensory information taken in from the world
what is the second step in the P-FIT theory?
symbolic processing, and meaning making of the received information
what is the third step in the P-FIT theory?
parieto-frontal integration, reasoning and decision making
what is the fourth step in the P-FIT theory?
making a decision or selecting a response
who investigated the relationship between personality and IQ?
Chamorro-Premuzic and Furnham, 2008
what is the relationship between personality and IQ?
can help or hinder your performance
examined FFM traits and IQ to predict university exams a year later
once IQ is controlled for, conscientiousness explains an extra 27% of performance
who investigated the interaction between personality and IQ?
Ackerman, 2018
what is the interaction between IQ and personality?
personality guides you to particular interests
can invest the intelligence you have into this
who proposed Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences?
Gardner, 1999
what is Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences?
intelligence is a biopsychological potential used to process information
can be activated in a cultural setting to solve problems/create useful products
what was Gardner concerned by?
the tendency to only focus on linguistic/logical mathematical symbolism in educational settings
what are the 8 forms of intelligence Gardner proposes?
musical= music smart
visual-spatial= picture smart
bodily kinesthetic= body smart
interpersonal= people smart
verbal linguistic= word smart
logical mathematical= logical smart
naturalistic= nature smart
intrapersonal= self smart
