Module 6 - Intelligence and Achievement Flashcards
Alfred Binet
a French psychologist who studied intelligence
believed that the key components of intelligence were high-level abilities, such as problem solving, reasoning, and judgment, and he maintained that intelligence tests should assess such abilities directly
Binet–Simon Intelligence Test—children were asked (among other things) to interpret proverbs, solve puzzles, define words, and sequence cartoon panels so that the jokes made sense.
g (general intelligence)
cognitive processes that influence the ability to think and learn on all intellectual tasks
Measures of g, correlate positively with school grades and achievement test performance
g correlates with information processing speed, speed of neural transmission, and brain volume (cognitive and brain mechanisms level)
Measures of g also correlate strongly with people’s general information about the world
fluid intelligence
ability to think on the spot to solve novel problems
fluid intelligence peaks around age 20 and slowly declines thereafter
the prefrontal cortex usually is highly active on measures of fluid intelligence
crystallized intelligence
factual knowledge about the world
Crystallized intelligence increases steadily from early in life to old age
prefrontal cortex tends to be less active on measures of crystallized intelligence
Two types of intelligence based on Cattell
fluid intelligence
crystallized intelligence
While fluid and crystallized intelligence are theoretically distinct, it is important to remember that they are related (think back to “g”). Tests of each type of intelligence are positively correlated with one another.
primary mental abilities
seven abilities proposed by Thurstone as crucial to intelligence
word fluency
verbal meaning
reasoning
rote memory
spatial visualization
numbering
perceptual speed
intelligence can reasonably be described at three levels of analysis:
as one thing (g- general intelligence)
as a few things (fluid intelligence/crystallized intelligence or 7 primary mental abilities)
or as many things (numerous, distinct processes such as remembering, perceiving, attending, comprehending, encoding, associating, generalizing, planning, reasoning, forming concepts, solving problems, generating and applying strategies, and so on.)
What is the proposed theory on how can the 3 competing perspectives on intelligence be reconciled?
three-stratum theory of intelligence
three-stratum theory of intelligence
Carroll’s model that places g at the top of the intelligence hierarchy, eight moderately general abilities in the middle, and many specific processes at the bottom
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)
widely used test designed to measure the intelligence of children 6 years and older
consistent with Carroll’s three-stratum framework, proposing that intelligence includes general ability (g), several moderately general abilities, and a large number of specific processes.
The test yields not only an overall score but also separate scores on five moderately general abilities—verbal comprehension, visual-spatial processing, working memory, fluid reasoning, and processing speed.
IQ (intelligence quotient)
a quantitative measure of a child’s intelligence relative to that of other children of the same age
normal distribution
pattern of data in which scores fall symmetrically around a mean value, with most scores falling close to the mean and fewer and fewer scores farther from it
standard deviation (SD)
measure of the variability of scores in a distribution; in a normal distribution, 68% of scores fall within 1 SD of the mean, and 95% of scores fall within 2 SDs of the mean
On most IQ tests, the standard deviation is about 15 points
Other predictors of success (beyond IQ)
Child characteristics that are also important:
motivation to succeed
conscientiousness
intellectual curiosity
persistence in the face of obstacles
creativity, physical and mental health, and social skills
Self discipline – the ability to inhibit actions, follow rules, and avoid impulsive reactions—is more predictive of changes in report card grades between 5th and 9th grades than is IQ score, though IQ score is more predictive of changes in achievement test scores over the same period
“practical intelligence”—skills useful in everyday life but not measured by traditional intelligence tests, such as accurately reading other people’s intentions and motivating others to work effectively as a team—predict occupational success beyond the influence of IQ score
self-discipline
ability to inhibit actions, follow rules, and avoid impulsive reactions
Bronfenbrenner’s (1993) bioecological model of development
envisions children’s lives as embedded within a series of increasingly encompassing environments.
A useful starting point for thinking about genetic and environmental influences on intelligence
Qualities of the child that influence intelligence development
Genetic contributions
Genotype-environment relations
Influence of the immediate environment on intelligence development
Family influences- share and non shared family environments
Influences of Schooling -
Influence of Society on intelligence development
Effects of poverty
Risk factors and intellectual development
Programs for helping poor children. Ex: Project head start
multiple intelligences theory
Gardner’s theory of intellect, based on the view that people possess at least eight types of intelligence
1) linguistic
2) logical- mathematical
3) spatial
4) musical
5) naturalistic
6) bodily-kinesthetic
7) intrapersonal
8) interpersonal
theory of successful intelligence
Sternberg’s theory of intellect, based on the view that intelligence is the ability to achieve success in life
given one’s personal standards, within one’s sociocultural context
In his view, success in life reflects people’s ability to build on their strengths, compensate for their weaknesses, and select environments in which they can succeed. When people choose a job, for instance, their understanding of whether it will motivate them can be crucial to their success.
Sternberg proposed that success in life depends on three types of abilities:
1) Analytic abilities involve the linguistic, mathematical, and spatial skills measured by traditional intelligence tests.
2) Practical abilities involve reasoning about everyday problems, such as how to resolve conflicts with other people.
3) Creative abilities involve intellectual flexibility and innovation that allow adaptation to novel circumstances.
Chall (1979) described five stages of reading development.
- Stage 0 (birth until the beginning of 1st grade): During this time, many children acquire key prerequisites for reading. These include knowing the letters of the alphabet and gaining phonemic awareness, that is, recognition of the individual sounds within words.
- Stage 1 (1st and 2nd grades): Children acquire phonological recoding skills, the ability to translate letters into sounds and to blend the sounds into words (informally referred to as “sounding out”).
- Stage 2 (2nd and 3rd grades): Children gain fluency in reading simple material.
- Stage 3 (4th through 8th grades): Children become able to acquire reasonably complex, new information from written text. To quote Chall, “In the primary grades, children learn to read; in the higher grades, they read to learn”
- Stage 4 (8th through 12th grades): Adolescents acquire skill not only in understanding information presented from a single perspective but also in coordinating multiple perspectives. This ability enables them to appreciate the subtleties in sophisticated novels and plays, which almost always include multiple viewpoints.
phonemic awareness
ability to identify component sounds within words