Midterm: Intellegence

Question 1

What is intelligence?

Answer 1

Wechsler:
Intelligence is:
“the global or aggregate ability 
to act purposefully to think rationally
and to deal effectively with the environment”

Question 2

What is general intelligence? What are the two major conceptions?

Answer 2

• Any complex task requires the coordinated operation of a number of basic abilities
• Two major conceptions
  1. “General intelligence” represents an average level of all the independent components that contribute to such tasks
  2. Contrasts with Spearman’s 1904 view of “g” as a single ability common to all tasks

Question 3

What is “g”?

Answer 3

• Test scores on very different cognitive tasks show a “positive manifold”
• They are positively correlated to varying degrees
• Factor analysis yields a single general factor of intelligence
• This general factor is called “g”

Question 4

Psychometric g

Answer 4

• Lowest order interpretation of g
• The Non-controversial, generally agreed
• g is a psychometric factor that can be extracted from any set of cognitive test data using appropriate analytic techniques

Question 5

Concrete g

Answer 5

• Articulated by Spearman (1904) and championed by Jensen
• g represents a single ability common to all complex task performance
• Grounded in biology
• Individual differences in this ability are the source of differences in measured intelligence

Question 6

Abstract g

Answer 6

• Articulated by Detterman
• General and specific abilities represent different levels of abstraction
• Any complex task requires a number of basic abilities
• General intelligence (g) represents an average level of all the independent components that contribute to performance

Question 7

Underestimation of Environmental Effects

Answer 7

• Lower SES under-represented, reducing range of environmental effects
• Flynn effect: Increase in test performance over time must be due to environmental influences
• Dickens & Flynn argument: Strong correlation between environment and IQ boosts h2 and masks environmental effect

Question 8

Are there more cases at the high or low end of the spectrum?

Answer 8

• Excesses of cases at very low end of distribution (< 50 IQ)
• Suggests two pathways to account for low intelligence
• -Higher functioning (50 < IQ < 70) due to same variables as the rest of distribution
• -Lower functioning due to specific injury, disease, genetic abnormality