Module 6

Question 1

Based on the idea that intelligence is a single trait, Charles Spearman (1863–1945) argued that we all have a certain amount of “g” or General Intelligence. What does “G” represent?

Answer 1

“G” reflects the cognitive processes that influence our ability to think and learn on all intellectual tasks.

Question 2

Although Spearman’s “g” conceptualization of intelligence might seem old-fashioned, there is some value in considering intelligence as a single general construct. What are some things that Spearman’s “g” is positively correlated with?

Answer 2

Performance in school or on achievement tests

Information-processing speed

Speed of neural transmission

Brain volume

General knowledge

Question 3

In contrast to Spearman, Raymond Cattell (1905-1998) argued that intelligence consisted of what two related, but distinct, subcomponents?

Answer 3

1) Fluid Intelligence - The ability to think on the spot and solve new problems. It is related to:

• adaptation to new tasks
• speed of information processing
• working memory
• attentional control
  Fluid intelligence peaks at 20-25 years old

2) Crystallized Intelligence - Factual knowledge about the world. It reflects long-term memory for prior experience and is related to verbal skills.

Crystallized intelligence increases over the lifespan.

Question 4

While fluid and crystallized intelligence are theoretically distinct, it is important to remember that they are related (think back to “g”). Why?

Answer 4

Tests of each type of intelligence are positively correlated with one another. And from a common sense perspective, this makes sense. If we have problems with paying attention or processing information quickly, then that will also affect how we retain and access that knowledge later.

Nonetheless, the magnitude of the correlation between fluid and crystallized intelligence varies. Consider a child who grows up in an unstable household, with frequent absences from school or frequent school transitions.

Question 5

Louis Thurstone (1887–1955) argued that we need to further break down intelligence to accurately understand and measure it. He posited that intelligence consists of what 7 primary mental abilities?

Answer 5

1) Word Fluency – ability to produce words rapidly

2) Verbal Comprehension – ability to define and understand words

3) Reasoning – ability to consider and work with rules

4 ) Spatial Visualization - ability to visualize relationships between objects

5) Numbering - ability to deal with numbers

6) Rote Memory - ability to memorize and recall information

7) Perceptual Speed - ability to see similarities and differences between objects

Question 6

In 1993, John Carroll (1916-2003) combined and expanded on the previous theories of intelligence to create the 3-stratum theory of intelligence.

Flip to see a brief explanation of the 3 “levels”.

Answer 6

1) “G” - At the highest level, we have general intelligence “g”.

2) General Abilities - In the middle, we see how “g” can be broken down into different general abilities - including Thurstone’s fluid and crystallized intelligences. Remember, while the general abilities measure different forms of intelligence, we would expect them to be positively correlated.

3) Specific Processes - At the bottom, the general abilities are broken down even further into specific processes. This is an even more specific way to look at all of the different abilities that make up intelligence. For example, our ability to process information quickly and efficiently (processing speed) can be broken down even further to consider differences in how quickly we can process different types of information (e.g., simple vs. choice reaction time).

Question 7

Go back here and look at flow chart of Carroll’s 3-stratum theory of intelligence (Module 6.1).

Question 8

According to modern theory, is intelligence one thing or many?

Answer 8

Modern theory suggests it’s both.

We now know that intelligence is both 1) someone’s general capacity to think, learn, and solve problems, 2) that it consists of several related, but distinct, types of intelligence.

Question 9

The positive correlation between all intellectual tasks supports the existence of:

a) General intelligence

b) Specific intelligence

c) Fluid intelligence

d) Crystallized intelligence

Answer 9

a) General intelligence

Question 10

French psychologist __________ (1857-1911) was the first to posit the idea that intelligence can be measured using observable behaviour.

Answer 10

Alfred Binet

As part of his work, Binet was tasked with identifying children in need of specialized education. With his partner, Theodore Simon, they created various tasks that they believed were representative of children’s abilities at different ages. By determining the ability level of an average 8-year-old, they could use this as a standard to which to compare other 8-year-olds.

Binet’s work in this area created the Binet-Simon IQ scale (of which an updated version is still used today!) and laid the foundation for modern intelligence testing.

Question 11

Intelligence, like many other constructs, is ___________ distributed. Because it follows this distribution, we know the proportion of a population likely to have a given IQ score.

Answer 11

normally

Question 12

What is the mean IQ score?

Answer 12

100

Question 13

What is the standard deviation on an intelligence test and what does this mean?

Answer 13

15

This means that scores from 85-115 are within the average range of intelligence. It’s called average for a reason – in a given population, this is where 68% of people score.

Question 14

An Intelligence Quotient (IQ) is derived from an individual’s performance on a standardized IQ test. Originally, it was simply calculated using a simple formula - what was the formula?

Answer 14

IQ= Mental Age ÷ Chronological Age X 100

(Mental age = the age-level of the person’s performance)

(Chronological age = their actual age)

Question 15

How do modern intelligence tests compute IQ scores?

Answer 15

By combining the results of many different standardized activities. This score reflects how similar (or dissimilar) an individual’s performance is to the average performance of others who are the same age. While an IQ score of 100 is still average, this is now an arbitrary set point.

Modern intelligence tests are normed using large samples of children from specific ages (e.g., children ages 7 years 3 months), as well as from specific groups (e.g., children who are hard of hearing or have a diagnosis like Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), and specific populations (e.g., Canadian vs. U.S. Children).

Question 16

What test is one of the most common measures of intelligence for children used today?

Answer 16

The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC).

(It lines up well with Carroll’s 3-stratum theory as it provides both 1) an overall intelligence quotient, and 2) separate scores for different types of intelligence.

Question 17

How does the The WISC-5 (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children) measure IQ?

Answer 17

1) Verbal Comprehension - assess abstract verbal reasoning and word knowledge. Scores on the verbal comprehension index are especially sensitive to learning opportunities and cultural experiences. Ie: How are morning and evening alike?

2) Visual-Spatial - measure spatial visualization and visual problem solving. Ie: arranging blocks to look like the picture.

3) Fluid Reasoning - assess abstract problem solving and reasoning. Ie: Complete the sequence pictures.

4) Working Memory - assess auditory and visual short-term memory. Ie: Remember the pictures in order.

5) Processing Speed - assess attention and motor/mental speed. Ie: Under each square, put an x, under each circle put a + etc.

Question 18

What are the PROS of measuring IQs?

Answer 18

Like Binet’s original work, having an estimate of a child’s intelligence level might inform the type of supports they might need to learn at school. It might provide us with a better understanding of our own strengths and weaknesses.

In our current society, intelligence testing provides psychologists and medical doctors with the information necessary to make certain diagnoses, like an intellectual disability or a learning disability. Moreover, intelligence is one of the most stable psychological traits. While intelligence does vary over time and can change, IQ scores are relatively stable.

Question 19

What are the CONS of measuring IQs?

Answer 19

On the other hand, it might surprise you to know that intelligence testing has a very dark history. Intelligence testing provided a way for the eugenics movement to test individuals they deemed “unfit” to procreate. In the early 1900s, intelligence tests were used to give diagnoses like “moron”, “imbecile”, and “idiot”. Sadly, these labels were used to justify forced sterilizations.

Early versions of modern intelligence tests were not culturally sensitive and norms were created primarily using middle or upper-class white participants. These inaccurate norms lead to ethnic minority students being falsely identified as being intellectually disabled. Even today, intelligence testing continues to be heavily influenced by test taking behaviour. Consider a quiet child who is able to sit still for several hours to complete the testing – how might their scores differ from a child who is hyperactive and has difficulty concentrating on a task longer than 20 minutes?

Question 20

Of course, intelligence is not the only (or even the best) predictor of an individual’s success. Other factors like motivation, conscientiousness, curiosity, creativity, physical and mental health, social skills, and self-discipline (grit) all contribute to success.

How does Angela Lee Duckworth define grit?

Answer 20

As “one’s passion and perseverance for long-term goals”.

Question 21

True or False?

IQ scores are heavily influenced by someone’s test taking behaviour.

Answer 21

True.

While IQ scores can guide diagnostic or educational planning, they provide only a snapshot of an individual’s competencies.

Question 22

An IQ score of 94.5 indicates:

a) Below average intelligence

b) Average intelligence

c) Above average intelligence

d) Very below average intelligence

Answer 22

b) Average intelligence

Question 23

________ is more predictive of changes in elementary school grades than ________.

a) Motivation, self-discipline

b) IQ, self-discipline

c) Self-discipline, IQ

d) Motivation, genetics

Answer 23

c) Self-discipline, IQ

Question 24

True or False?

Intelligence has a strong heritability component.

Answer 24

True.

(not to be confused with heredity). Within a given population, it is estimated that approximately 50% of the variance in intelligence can be accounted for by genetics.

Question 25

Through family, twin, and adoption studies, researchers can examine the genetic and environmental contributions to IQ scores. IQ scores are more similar as the degree of relatedness between people increases – indicating a genetic contribution.

But, we can see that the correlation between IQ scores also depends on ___________.

Answer 25

environment.

For example, identical twins who are reared together have a stronger similarity in their IQ scores than identical twins raised apart.

Question 26

What is the Wilson Effect?

Answer 26

Heritability for IQ increases over development.

The relative contribution of genes on intelligence increases with age. By adulthood, genetics account for a much greater proportion of the variance in intelligence scores than the shared environment. For example, this means that adopted children start to have a greater resemblance to their biological parents over time.

Question 27

Why does the Wilson Effect occur?

Remember, the Wilson Effect = Heritability for IQ increases over development.

Answer 27

1) Environments are somewhat fixed for children – they have limited choices in their activities. But, children are active contributors to their own development and develop more autonomy in their choices. Over development, children choose their environments, activities, peers, and educational and career paths. This means that by adulthood, people select the environment that best suits their genetic predispositions.

2) Gene expression changes over time. Certain genetic processes may not exert their effects until later in development. For example, a certain gene may “turn on” or express itself from only age 15+.

Question 28

However, the Wilson Effect has what major caveat?

Answer 28

Research has mainly focused on middle class populations who are not facing extreme adversity in their development. In other words, in a moderate environment, genetics play a stronger role than environment over time.

For children who are malnourished, face significant disease or trauma, or other extreme environmental conditions, the environment certainly continues to impact their intelligence.

Question 29

Gene x environment studies also tell us that the family environment has the greatest influence on IQ early in life. In general, enriched environments have a positive association with intelligence.

According to Sandra Scarr, the environment can contribute to a child’s intelligence in what 3 ways?

Answer 29

1) Passive Effects: effects on the child from environments selected by others. For example, a child might live in a home where there are lots of books available.

2) Evocative Effects: what the child evokes from others. For example, a child who demonstrates an excited, positive reaction to being read to may lead their caregivers to take a stronger interest in reading with them.

3) Active Effects: what the child actively seeks out in their environment. For example, a child might actively seek out books to read on their own

Question 30

Beyond the family home, the larger society in which we develop further contributes to intelligence. Consider what knowledge was available to someone in the 1920’s versus the 2020’s – there have been countless advancements in technology and our knowledge of the world around us.

Research indicates that IQ scores have been increasing steadily over time. This phenomenon is known as the _______ effect.

Answer 30

Flynn

(Go back and watch video in Module 6.3)

Question 31

Over time, the influence of genes on intelligence:

a) Remains stable

b) Increases

c) Decreases

d) Only increases for adopted children

Answer 31

b) Increases

Question 32

The Flynn Effect tells us that:

a) Increases in IQ scores must be interpreted with caution

b) Increases in IQ scores are related to changes in the gene pool

c) Increases in IQ scores are related to genes and environment

d) Increases in IQ scores must be due to changes in society

Answer 32

d) Increases in IQ scores must be due to changes in society

Question 33

What are the three basic academic abilities?

Answer 33

Reading, Writing & Arithmetic.

Question 34

Research indicates that ______________ in preschool is most predictive of later reading skill.

Answer 34

phonemic awareness (letter-sound awareness).

In other words, preschoolers who are better able to split words into component parts tend to be better at reading later in development.

Interventions that teach phonemic awareness lead to better reading and writing skills. Think Cat in the Hat – “cat” and “hat” are the same except for the beginning sound.

Question 35

Typically, children start to read by using ________ recoding, where they sound out words.

Reading then typically progresses to ___________ retrieval (whole word reading) in which children look at a whole word and retrieve it from memory.

Answer 35

phonological

visual-based

Question 36

What are the 2 main streams of thought on teaching reading?

Answer 36

1) Phonics - Children are taught to dissect unfamiliar words into parts and then join the parts together to form words. By learning these letter-sound relationships, the student is provided with a decoding formula that can be applied whenever they encounter an unfamiliar word. Experts argue that this strategy leads to better pronunciation strategies BUT it makes reading much more effortful and stories can lose their meaning.

2) Whole language - Children are taught to focus on the meanings of written words embedded in stories. Students are taught critical thinking and are encouraged to use context clues to help them guess new words. Whole language teachers emphasize the meaning of texts over the sounds of letters. Experts argue that this strategy makes reading more interesting BUT students may be less accurate overall in their ability to read novel words.

Question 37

Writing is more difficult for new learners to master because it involves many different components. List 2 of those components.

Answer 37

1) Low-level goals: forming letters, spelling words, correct punctuation.

2) High-level goals: making text understandable, coherent, and providing enough information.

Question 38

True or False?

Reading and writing skills are highly correlated.

Answer 38

True.

Writing takes up a lot of processing capacity in the early years.

Question 39

Most young learners generally know their numbers and have some basic counting skills by the time they start school. Understanding numerical magnitudes, however, is a tricky concept for many young learners. Think - symbolic development.

There are notable individual and cultural differences when it comes to achievement in math. What are some of these differences?

Answer 39

1) Language - Chinese, Japanese, and Korean languages tend to express numbers in more straightforward ways than in English. This is one reason why students who speak these languages may be more successful in math than others.

2) Stereotype Threat - Math anxiety tends to be more common among girls than boys. This has nothing to do with gender differences in innate ability, but rather is thought to be related to adults’ beliefs about math. For example, a girl may internalize a teacher’s negative stereotype about girls and their ability to be successful with math.

Question 40

What is giftedness?

Answer 40

It reflects unusually high ability in any domain - this can be a specific area of intelligence, like verbal comprehension, or global IQ.

While giftedness does not have strict “diagnostic” rules per se, it is typically assessed using a standardized IQ test like the WISC-5.

Children who score in ≥ 98th percentile may be considered gifted, which corresponds to an IQ score of ≥ 130. In other words, children who score in this range perform better on the task than 98% of their same-aged peers.

Question 41

According to Dr. Ellen Winner, gifted children have what 3 characteristics?

Answer 41

1) Precocity - the child has skills that emerge and develop at an earlier age than typical children and learns much more quickly in a particular area

2) Rage to Master - the child is incredibly intrinsically driven and motivated to master knowledge in the domain in which they have a gift.

3) Marching to their own Drummer - The child is not just faster, they’re also different. They don’t just think faster, they think in different ways. They solve problems in different ways and learn in different ways. They learn on their own, they don’t need a lot of scaffolding.

Question 42

Learning disabilities are typically diagnosed during childhood and are lifelong neurodevelopmental conditions that impact 5-10% of Canadians.

In order to diagnose a learning disability, there needs to be a significant discrepancy between someone’s ______________ and _________________.

Answer 42

cognitive ability level and their academic achievement.

For example, an 8-year-old child might have an IQ similar to other 8-year-olds, but is reading at the level of a 5-year-old.

Question 43

Learning disabilities are thought to be related to an underlying processing deficit in areas such as __________ and _____________.

Answer 43

memory or phonological processes.

Question 44

While individuals with learning disabilities often struggle in school without proper accommodations, it is critical to remember that this is partly due to the design of our educational system.

Educational systems rely heavily on being able to process information and produce work in certain ways – this makes learning unfair for people who have trouble fitting into the system simply because their brain works a bit differently. This is like the difference between _______ and _________.

Answer 44

equality and equity.

Question 45

Explain the difference between equality and equity using the bike diagram in Module 6.4.

Answer 45

Equality - in which 4 very different sized people have to ride the same sized bicycle. The bottom shows

Equity - in which each different person has a bike that suits their body type.

(By providing students who have learning disabilities with appropriate accommodations, it helps to make the school system equitable. People with learning disabilities can be high academic achievers, especially when they have the appropriate academic accommodations.)

Question 46

Flip to see a quote from the Learning Disability Association of Ontario.

(It’s probably not important, but it was in the module. Haha.)

Answer 46

“LDs – which is short for learning disabilities – affect one or more of the ways that a person takes in, stores, or uses information.”

Question 47

Flip to see a summary of Module 6.4.

Answer 47

Overall, academic achievement across reading, writing, and math is related to both individual factors (like IQ and grit), as well as contextual factors (like the language you learn in and teacher relationships).

Students at either end of the achievement distribution - those who are gifted and those with learning disabilities - may need different kinds of supports to be most successful at school.

Question 48

Nursery rhymes are beneficial for reading development because:

a) they emphasize reading accuracy

b) children enjoy reading them

c) they emphasize small sound differences between words (e.g., sam, ham)

d) they emphasize reading fluency

Answer 48

c) they emphasize small sound differences between words (e.g., sam, ham)

Question 49

A diagnosis of a learning disability means:

a) There is a discrepancy between someone’s ability (IQ) and their academic achievement

b) The individual is unable to learn in a typical classroom environment

c) The individual has below average intelligence

d) The individual’s academic achievement is in the 98th percentile

Answer 49

a) There is a discrepancy between someone’s ability (IQ) and their academic achievement

Question 50

Flip to see the take home messages from Module 6.

Answer 50

Intelligence is BOTH one thing and many.

IQ tests measure capacity to think and learn from observable behaviour. Average IQ is 100 ± 15.

Genes and environment both influence intelligence. The relative contribution of genes on intelligence increases over development.

Academic achievement is related to many factors beyond IQ.

Question 51

Protzko et al. (2013) conducted a meta-analysis of the environmental factors that may boost the intelligence of young children. They reviewed 74 randomized control trials that aimed to boost intelligence in young children (less than 5 years old).

Across these studies, what the authors concluded that:

Answer 51

1) Early education programs raise the IQ of disadvantaged children by 4 points. These programs provide children with cognitively complex environments - books, puzzles, and stimulating verbal interactions.

2) Engaging in interactive reading with young children raises IQ by 6 points. This effect was larger when interactive reading occurred earlier in development.

3) Attending preschool raises IQ by 4 points. This effect is larger when preschool includes a specific language component.

While this research is not without limitations (e.g., it does not consider the long-term stability of these IQ boosts, and an IQ of 100 vs. 104 may not translate into many real-world differences), it shows us that to a certain extent, environmental interventions can boost IQ.

Question 52

Flip to see each theorist matched to their key idea about intelligence.

Answer 52

Spearman = Intelligence is a single trait known as “g”

Cattell = Intelligence consists of two subcomponents: fluid and crystallized

Thurstone = Intelligence consists of 7 primary mental abilities

Carroll = Intelligence is best represented by a 3-stratum model