Unit 11

Question 1

Intelligence Test

Answer 1

a method for assessing an individual’s mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores.

Question 2

Intelligence

Answer 2

mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations.

Question 3

General Intelligence (g)

Answer 3

a _______ factor that, according to Spearman and others, underlies specific mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test.

Question 4

Factor Analysis

Answer 4

a statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items on a test; used to identify different dimensions of performance that underlie a person’s total score.

Question 5

Savant Syndrome

Answer 5

a condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill, such as in computation or drawing.

Question 6

Emotional Intelligence

Answer 6

the ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions.

Question 7

Mental Age

Answer 7

a measure of intelligence test performance devised by Binet; the chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance. thus, a child who does well as the average 8-year old is said to have a mental age of 8.

Question 8

Stanford-Binet

Answer 8

the widely used American revision (by Terman at _______) of ______’s original intelligence test.

Question 9

Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

Answer 9

defined originally as the ratio of mental age (ma) to chronological age (ca) multiplied by 100 (thus, IQ=ma/ca x 100). on contemporary intelligence tests, the average performance for a given age is assigned a score of 100.

Question 10

Achievement Tests

Answer 10

tests designed to assess what a person has learned.

Question 11

Aptitude Tests

Answer 11

tests designed to predict a person’s future performance; the capacity to learn.

Question 12

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)

Answer 12

the ______ is the most widely used intelligence test; contains verbal and performance (nonverbal) subtests.

Question 13

Standardization

Answer 13

defining meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested group.

Question 14

Normal Curve

Answer 14

the symmetrical, bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many physical and psychological attributes. most scores fall near the average, and fewer and fewer scores lie near the extremes.

Question 15

Reliability

Answer 15

the extent to which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test, or on retesting.

Question 16

Validity

Answer 16

the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to.

Question 17

Content Validity

Answer 17

the extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest.

Question 18

Predictive Validity

Answer 18

the success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict; it is assessed by computing the correlation between test scores and the criterion behavior.

Question 19

Intellectual Disability

Answer 19

(formerly referred to as mental retardation) a condition of limited mental ability, indicated by an intelligence score of 70 or below and difficulty in adapting to the demands of life; varies from mild to profound.

Question 20

Down Syndrome

Answer 20

a condition of intellectual disability and associated physical disorders caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21.

Question 21

Stereotype Threat

Answer 21

a self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated based on a negative _______.

Question 22

grit

Answer 22

in psychology, passion and perseverance in the pursuit of long-term goals

Question 23

cohort

Answer 23

a group of people sharing a common characteristic , such as from a given time period

Question 24

crystallized intelligence

Answer 24

our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age

Question 25

fluid intelligence

Answer 25

our ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease during late adulthood

Question 26

cross-sectional study

Answer 26

research that compares people of different ages at the same point in time

Question 27

longitudinal study

Answer 27

research that follows and retests the same people over time

Question 28

Heritability

Answer 28

the proportion of variation among individuals in a group that we can attribute to genes. The heritability of a trait may vary, depending on the range of populations and environments studied