PSYD13 Delkurs 1 - Intelligence Flashcards
Define intelligence
The ability to acquire knowledge, to think and reason effectively, and to deal adaptively with the environment. Note: intelligence is a social construct, therefore there are different definitions
What is the Mozart effect?
The supposed increase of cognitive function due to listening to music before, or during, a task, such as taking a test.
What contribution did Sir Francis Galton have for measuring intelligence?
In his book “Hereditary Genius” he showed through the study of family trees that eminence and genius seemed to occur within certain families. Even though Galton’s theory does not hold up today, his work had its contribution through generating interest in the subject
What contribution did Alfred Binet have for measuring intelligence?
Inspired by Galton’s work, Binet launched the modern intelligence movement by creating his mental test for French schoolchildren. He stated that there were certain abilities that you should have at certain ages, which determines your mental age
What 2 assumptions did Binet make about intelligence?
1) Mental abilities develop with age 2) the rate at which people gain mental competence is a characteristic of the person and is relatively constant over time
What is Stern’s intelligence quotient? (IQ)
The ratio of mental age to chronological age, multiplied by 100: IQ = (mental age/chronological age) x 100
What intelligence-tests emerged from Binet?
Army Alpha, Army Beta, Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) -> todays: WAIS-IV
Psychometrics?
The statistical study of psychological tests
What is Charles Spearman’s psychometric argument for mental capacity?
The correlation between different types of tests reflect a more basic or general mental capacity. A persons intellectual performance ability is decided partly by ones g-factor, and partly what it takes to solve a specific problem
What is Charles Spearman’s g-factor?
g factor = general factor = general intelligence
What was the conclusion from a meta-analysis of the g-factor? (2004)
The g-factor was related to success in both work and academic studies
Who challenged Spearman’s conclusion about the centrality of the g-factor, and what did his theory say?
While Spearman was impressed by the fact that scores on different tasks are correlated, Thurnstone was impressed by the fact that they were far from perfect - therefore he concluded that human mental performance was no determined by g-factor, but by primary mental abilities
What were Thurnstone’s primary mental abilities?
S Space (reasoning about visual scenes)
V Verbal (understanding verbal statements)
W Word fluency (producing verbal statements)
N Number facility (Dealing w numbers)
P Perceptual speed (Recognising visual patterns)
M Rote memory (Memorisation)
R Reasoning (Dealing w novel problems)
What is Cattell and Horn’s theory of crystallised and fluid intelligence?
They broke down Spearman’s g-factor into two parts - gc and gf.
Crystallised intelligence (gc)?
The ability to apply previously acquired knowledge to current problems - connection with LTM
Fluid intelligence (gf)?
The ability to deal with novel problem-solving situations for which personal experience does not provide solution - connection with WM
What is Carroll’s Three-Stratum Theory of cognitive abilities?
Carroll used factor analysis to re-analyse more than 460 differents sets of data -> 3 hierarchal levels of mental skills: general, broad and narrow
Cognitive process theories?
Explore the specific information-processing and cognitive processes that underlie intellectual ability
What is Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence?
A theory that addresses both the psychological processes involved in intelligent behaviour and the diverse forms that intelligence can take - he means that there are 3 classes of cognitive processes that underlie each type of intelligence
What are the 3 classes of cognitive processes (components) in Sternberg’s theory?
- Metacomponents 2. Performance components 3. Knowledge acquisition components
Metacomponents?
The higher-order processes used to plan and regulate task performance
Performance components?
The actual mental processes used to perform the ask
Knowledge-acquisition components?
Allow us to learn from our experiences, store information in memory and combine new insights with previously acquired information
What 3 types of intelligence does Sternberg’s theory state there is?
- Analytical intelligence 2. Practical intelligence 3. Creative intelligence
What is Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences?
Is one of the theories that believe that intelligence may be more broadly conceived as relatively independent intelligences that relate to different adaptive demands.
What 8 independent intelligences is one Gardner’s list?
- Linguistic 2. Logical-mathematical 3. Visuospatial 4. Musical 5. Bodily-kinaesthetic 6. Interpersonal 7. Intrapersonal 8. Naturalistic
Emotional intelligence
The abilities to rad others’ emotions accurately, to respons to them appropriately, to motivate oneself, to be aware of one’s own emotions, and to regulate and control one’s own emotional responses
What is Wechsler’s Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)?
A test that gives a full-scale IQ score based on 4 subscales.
What are the 4 subscales of WAIS?
- Verbal comprehension 2. Perceptual reasoning 3. Working memory 4. Processings speed
What is an advantage of WAIS?
Different types of leisures are reflected in the results in the 4 different subscales!
Achievement test?
Designed to find out how much someone has learned so far in their lives
Aptitude test?
Novel puzzle-like problems that presumably go beyond prior learning and are thought to measure the applicant’s potential for future learning and performance
What are 2 psychometric conditions for intelligence tests?
- Reliability 2. Validity
Reliability?
Consistency of measurement
Test-retest reliability?
Assessed by administering the measure to the same group of participants on two (or more) separate occasions and correlation the two (or more) sets of scores
Internal consistency ?
Consistency of measurement within the test itself
Inter-rater reliability?
Consistency of measurement when different people observe the same event or score the same test
Validity?
How well a test actually measure what it is designed to test
Construct validity?
Exists when a test successfully measure the psychological construct it is designed to measure as indicated by relations between test scores and other behaviours that it should be related to
Content validity?
Whether the items on a test measure all the knowledge or skills that are assumed yo underlie the construct of interest
Criterion-related validity?
The ability to test scores to correlate with meaningful criterion measures
Standardisation?
1) the development of normas and 2) rigorously controlled testing procedures
Norms?
Rules (often unwritten) that specify what behaviour is acceptable and expected for members of a group
Normal distribution?
Bell-shaped curve with most scores clustering around the centre of the curve (SD)
What is the Flynn effect?
Refers to the notable rise in intelligence test scores over the past century, possibly due to better living conditions, more schooling or more complex environments, although these are still being contested
Static testing?
Traditional approach to testing whereby previously learned materials are assessed rather than taking into account how the test-takers utilise feedback provided to them to affect the subsequent performance
Dynamic testing?
Standard testing is followed up with an interaction in which the examiner gives the respondent guided feedback on how to improve performance and observed how the person utilised the information
What 2 main approaches has been taken to meet the challenges of cross-cultural intelligence assessment?
- Choose reasoning problems that aren’t tied to the knowledge base of any culture, ex. the raven test 2. Create measures that are tailored to the kinds of knowledge and skills that are valued in the particular culture
What are Ravens Advanced Progressive Matrices?
Measures general mental capacity, often used in MENSA-tests
What problem-solving tasks favour women?
- Perceptual speed (pair houses)
- Ideational fluency (list objects of same colour)
- Verbal fluency (list words that begin with the same letter)
What problem-solving tasks favour men?
- Spatial tasks (ex. mentally rotating an object)
- Target-directed motor skills (=not physical but cognitive ability)
What other factors expect cognitive abilities affect how well people perform in intellectual and academic measures?
Beliefs and expectations, example sexism or racism -> anxiety -> bad performance
What 3 areas of cognitive abilities seem to have a correlation with the volume of gray matter?
Memory, attention and language
