Midterm Prep Flashcards
What is a construct?
hypothetical; can’t be touched (e.g., introvertedness, anxious, depressed, intellectual disability, etc)
What is testing?
the process of measuring psychologically related variables by means of devices or procedures designed to obtain a sample of behavior; Used to assess constructs
What is assessment?
gathering and integration of psychology-related data for the purpose of making a psychological evaluation; focuses on understanding; Tests can be used to assess
What is Fundamental Attribution Bias?
We attribute mistakes we make to the situation, but we attribute mistakes that others make to their character
What is Intelligence?
a construct that is a general label for a group of processes that are inferred from observable behaviors
What was Alfred Binet’s model about intelligence?
Alfred Binet suggested that intelligence = mental age (MA) – chronological age (CA)
What is heuristics?
models that helps us think in a structural way
Why do assessment?
- To identify or clarify a problem
- To determine the best environment for a person
- To advance justice
- To aid in matching people to opportunities
- To help a person better understand themselves
- As an effective short term therapeutic intervention
- To protect against bias/human thinking errors
What are some ways to manage thinking errors?
- Mindfulness
- Self observation
- Willingness to have 6th sense experience
- Nomothetic measures can be helpful/essential
Why is it important to use multiple methods of measuring?
In order to blend the various strengths and weaknesses every instrument inevitably has
Why is it important to use valid and reliable measures?
To guard against bias/blind spots
How do we defend against inaccurate conclusions? (2)
- By using valid and reliable measures
- By using multiple methods of measuring
What are the attributes of a good test? (3)
- Clear instructions for administering, scoring, and interpreting
- Efficient use (incremental validity)
- Accurate (Reliability/consistency, Validity/measures what it purports to measure)
What are the General Domains of Psychological Assessment? (4)
- Personality assessment (traits and states)
- Intellectual assessment (cognitive, often for academic setting)
- Neuropsychological assessment (brain-behavior relationship, dyslexia, TBI, etc)
- Vocational assessment (not much in clinical psych)
What are the major goals of psychological assessment? (7)
- Reduce/eliminate errors, misattributions, mistakes in characterizations, inaccurate conclusions
- Using valid and reliable measures
- Using multiple methods of measuring
- Be aware of human thinking errors
- Consider the nature of various types of data (strengths, weaknesses, peculiarities)
- Integrate seemingly conflicting data
- Consider the motivational and environmental circumstances of testing
What are the common definitional aspects of intelligence? (5)
- Abstract thinking
- Learning from experience
- Solving problems through insight
- Adjusting to new situations
- Sustaining one’s abilities to achieve a desired goal
What are some factors that can influence scores? (7)
- Test anxiety
- Level of distress (depression, hunger, sleep deprivation, etc)
- Tendency to agree or disagree
- Prior experience
- Luck
- Examiner skills
- Personal characteristics of examiner in interaction with the test-taker
*research shows most of these influence only account for small part of score variance
What are the Four Major Traditions in Approaching Intelligence?
- Psychometric
- Information processing
- Neuro-biological
- Developmental
What is the Developmental approach to intelligence?
It is concerned with quality of response or reasoning behind answers
What is the Neuro-biological approach to intelligence?
It focuses on search for anatomical and physiological underpinnings of intelligence
What is the Information processing approach to intelligence?
It focus on process rather than content (how information is received, stored, retrieved, manipulated, transformed)
What is the Psychometric approach to intelligence?
It assumes intelligence is a trait in which there are individual differences (normally distributed); Psychometric approach was started with Binet;
Indices of the WAIS IV:
Verbal Comprehension Index
Working Memory Index
Perceptual Reasoning Index
Processing Speed Index
Components of Verbal Comprehension (VCI):
Vocabulary (VC)
Similarities (SI)
Information (IN)
Comprehension (CO)
Components of Working Memory (WMI):
Digit Span (DS)
Arithmetic (AR)
Letter-Number Sequence (LN)
Components of Perceptual Reasoning (PRI):
Block Design (BD)
Visual Puzzles (VP)
Matrix Reasoning (MR)
Figure Weights (FW)
Picture Completion (PCm)
Components of Processing Speed (PSI):
Coding (CD)
Symbol Search (SS)
Cancellation (CA)
Different Psychometric Approach Models (3)
- Three Stratum Model (Horn & Cattel)
- CHC Model
- Five Factor Model
Components of the Three Stratum Model (Horn & Cattel)
g
Fluid intelligence (Gf)
Crystalized intelligence (Gc)
What are three facts about Fluid intelligence (Gf)?
- Process: Processing ability, problem solving, perceiving relationships
- primarily non-verbal and culture free
- Increases until age 14 then levels off around 20, then gradually declines
What are four facts about Crystalized intelligence (Gc)?
- Content: Stored information and ability recall information, environmentally determined, content oriented (vocab and info)
- not as susceptible to brain damage
- develops from interaction of Gf and environment
- Grows until age 40, then gradually declines
What is the CHC Model?
-Merging of two systems (Wechsler and C&H)
-Further divides the Three Stratum Model by incorporating more specialized functions (Gf-nv, Gf-v, Gc-VL, Gc-KO, Gc-LTM, etc)
What are the components of the Five Factor Model?
- Verbal Comprehension Index
- Working Memory Index
- Visual Spatial Index
- Fluid Reasoning Index
- Processing Speed Index
What does the Information Processing Approach say about intelligence?
-Processing speed (scanning, retrieving, and responding) correlates with IQ
-Correlations increase as tasks become more complex
Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory states that intelligence involves:
1) metacomponents (planning, monitoring, evaluating)
2) performance components (administering instructions)
3) knowledge-acquisition components (learning how to do something in the first place)
What did Thorndike say about intelligence?
- “g” equals the total number of modifiable neural connections
- a part of neurobiological approach
What is the Parent-child correlations of IQ?
- Between .40 and .50
- This correlation increases as the child gets older
What is the heritability estimate of IQ according to twin studies?
Between .30 to .50
What did Alexander Luria say about intelligence?
Brain is differentiated systems of functional units coordinated to form an integrated whole
What are the three main units of brain according to Luria?
1) arousal (brain stem and midbrain)
2) sensory input (temporal, parietal, occipital)
3) executive (frontal)
What does Luria’s cognitive function model entail?
PASS:
Planning
Attention
Successive processing
Simultaneous processing
What is Epigenetics?
Portions of DNA are activated or deactivated by experience without altering the genetic information itself
What does Piaget’s developmental approach suggest?
- Patterns of responses related to different age groups
- Mental growth follows definite patterns and is nonrandom
- There are qualitative differences in thinking among ages
- Mental growth completes in late adolescence
What is Assimilation according to Piaget?
fitting things into our schema
What is Accommodation according to Piaget?
adjusting our schema to accommodate facts
What does Vygotsky’s developmental approach suggest?
intellectual abilities are social in origin
What is the “zone of proximal development”?
- Level of performance attainable with help from adult
-Suggested by Vygotsky
What is Dynamic Testing?
examines how much someone can learn with a little bit of help, indicates child’s latent potential
What are the three significance of dynamic testing?
Children are given feedback to help them improve their performance (scaffolding)
Measures one’s ability to learn, not the product of past learning
Especially important when there’s been unequal opportunity in the past
Cognitive Assessment System (CAS)- Naglieri, Das, Goldstein (1997)
-based on Luria’s PASS system, which is rooted in the neurological-biological approach
-ages 5 through 18
-13 subtests divided among Planning (3), Attention (3), Simultaneous (3), and Successive (4)
What are the three types of intelligence in the Triarchic Model (Robert Sternberg)?
Creative
Analytical
Practical
What is Multiple Intelligence (Howard Gardner)?
recognizes many different discrete facets of intelligence
What are three reasons why people believe in ideas lacking support?
1) Credo consolans
2) Immediate gratification
3) Easy explanation
What is credo consolans?
idea may be comforting if it supports our existing beliefs, predicts a good outcome, makes us feel powerful, or makes us feel in control; one of the reasons of why people believe in ideas lacking support
What is immediate gratification?
idea may be attractive if it offers instant solutions for difficult problems; one of the reasons of why people believe in ideas lacking support
What is easy explanation?
idea may be accepted if it offers a simple story about something that is difficult to understand; one of the reasons of why people believe in ideas lacking support
What is the age range for WAIS IV?
16 to 91
What is the age range for WISC V?
6 to 16yr 11mo
What is the age range for WPPSI IV?
2yr 6mo to 7 yr 3mo
Terman’s claims (1916)
Terman, a professor at Stanford, argued that certain races had genetically lower IQs than whites and that “No amount of school instruction will ever make them intelligent voters or capable citizens.”
What is the biggest confound in measuring intelligence across context/culture?
Language
The Flynn Effect
IQ increased at a rate of 0.3 points per year, 3 points every 10 years
What is happening to the Flynn effect?
evidence is suggesting that the Flynn effect is reaching a plateau in some societies, perhaps as they reach optimal social environments
What are some possible reasons for the Flynn effect? (7)
-nutrition
-television
-test sophistication
-enhanced SES
-urbanization
-better education
-video games
Is heritability estimates of IQ higher or lower for children and adults?
lower for children, higher for adults
What are some facets that IQ test scores predict? (5)
-school performance
-years of education
-occupation level
-social class
-income
In low SES, almost all IQ variance is accounted for by environment or genes?
Environmental factors
As SES increases, how does the influence of environment and genes on IQ change?
the variance explained by environment decreases and by genetic increases
In high SES, most variance in IQ is explained by environment or genes?
most variance in IQ is explained by genes and little by environment
What are some cultural biases in IQ testing? (5)
-content bias
-standardization bias
-language bias
-construct mismatch
-differential predictive validity
What is content bias?
test question is more familiar to one culture group than another
What are some non-cognitive characteristics that can influence IQ scores? (3)
-stereotype threat
-chronic stress
-self-regulation skills
What cautions should be considered with intelligence testing? (8)
-no test can capture the complexity of human intelligence
-measurements are imperfect
-non-cognitive factors can confound IQ test results
-minorities are at a disadvantage because of stereotype threat, language differences, lack of familiarity with cultural items
-results often look at abstract facts
-long term predictions of IQ are less accurate than short term
-can reflect richness of past experience (rich learning environment from childhood)
-current measurement techniques reflect inherent bias toward convergent analytical modes of thought rather than divergent, creative, artistic modes
What is Unitary Construct?
a construct measured by adding two or more related subtests AND those component subtests scores are not substantially dissimilar
What are some Tenants of Intelligent Testing? (4)
-subtests are samples of behavior (they are only limited samples)
-testing assesses mental functioning under fixed experimental conditions
-test batteries are most useful when interpreted from a theoretical model (e.g., information processing model)
-hypotheses should be supported by multiple scores
What are considered in WAIS IV Interpretation?
normative comparison and idiographic profile
What is Intellectual Disability?
deficits in intellectual functioning, deficits in adaptive functioning, and onset during developmental period
What does Verbal Comprehension Index measure?
-long term memory and learning ability
-“retrieval of verbal information from long term storage and reasoning with it.”
What does Working Memory Index measure?
-information processing capacity
-“encoding stimuli, keeping information accessible, manipulating it and using it in thinking; often called the engine of learning.”
What does Perceptual Reasoning Index measure?
-spatial reasoning ability
-“reasoning with nonverbal, visual stimuli including the ability to analyze and synthesize abstract visual stimuli.”
What does Processing Speed Index measure?
-processing visually presented information accurately and quickly
-“visual, motor, and visual-motor processing speed”
Good assessors use: (3)
-research knowledge
-theoretical sophistication
-solid clinical skills
Information Processing Model involves: (4)
-Input (how information from the senses enter the brain)
-Integration (interpreting and processing)
-Storage (storing for later retrieval)
-Output (expressing information)
Ipsative Method
-uses theory to organize the process:
-Wechsler’s 4 indices and/or
-Keith’s 5 factor
-More reliability in composite scores (clusters) than in subtests (the clusters must be unitary)
Two ways to analyze WAIS result:
-using the second page of the WAIS IV record form
-using Lichentenberger & Kaufman procedure (more thorough)
How is Key Asset determined?
When both a Personal and Normative Strength are indicated
How is High-Priority Concern determined?
When both a Personal and Normative Weakness are indicated
What is the current gold standard for measuring intelligence?
Psychometric model
