Unit 11-Intelligence Flashcards
Intelligence test
A method for assessing an individual’s mental altitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores
Reification
Viewing an abstract concept as something concrete
Intelligence
Mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations (socially constructed concept)
General intelligence (g)
A general intelligence factor that, according to Charles spearman and others, underlies specific mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test
Factor analysis
A statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items (called factors) on a test; used to identify different dimensions of performance that underlie a persons total score
Savant syndrome
A condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exception skill, such as computation or drawing
Gardner’s eight intelligences (listed)
Linguistic (poet) Logical-mathematical (scientist) Musical (composer) Spatial (artist) Bodily-kinesthetic (dancer) Intrapersonal (self, psychiatrist) Interpersonal (others, leader) Naturalist (Darwin) --> existential (ability to ponder large life questions)
Gardner’s eight intelligences (analyzed)
8 independent intelligences that include broad skills beyond school smarts
Strengths: explores more than math and verbal ability intelligences
Criticisms: should all abilities be considered intelligences?
Sternburg’s three intelligences (listed)
Analytical (academic problem-solving) –intelligence tests
Creative (handling novel situations and having novel ideas)
Practical (everyday tasks)
Sternburg’s three intelligences (analyzed)
There are three areas of intelligence that predict real-world success
Strengths: these three facets can be reliably measured
Criticisms: May be less independent than initially thought and additional testing is needed to measure success
Spearman ‘s general intelligence
Basic intelligence predicts abilities in various academic activities
Strengths: different abilities such as spatial and verbal do tend to correlate
Criticisms: human abilities are too diverse for one general intelligence
Thurstone’s primary mental abilities
Our intelligence is broken into seven parts (word fluency, verbal comprehension, spatial ability, perceptual speed, numerical ability, inductive reasoning, memory)
Strengths: a single g score is not as informative as seven scores
Criticisms: abilities show a tendency to cluster (indicating g factor)
Emotional intelligence
The ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions (also called social intelligence)
Mental age
A measure of intelligence test performance decided by Binet; the chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance. Thus a child who does as well as the average 8-year old is said to have a mental age of 8
Stanford-Binet
The widely used American revision (by Terman at standford university) of Binet’s original intelligence test
Intelligence quotient (IQ)
Defined by William stern originally as the ratio of mental age to chronological age multiplied by 100. On contemporary intelligence tests, the average performance for a given age is assigned a score of 100
IQ=mental age/chronological age x 100
Eugenics
Proposed measuring human traits and using the results to encourage only smart and for people to reproduce)
Achievement tests
Tests designed to assess what a person has learned (tests current performance)
Aptitude tests
Tests designed to predict a persons future performance; aptitude is the capacity to learn
Wechsler adult intelligence scale (WAIS)
The WAIS is the most widely used intelligence test; contains verbal and performance (nonverbal) subtests
Standardization
Defining meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested group
Normal curve
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
Reliability
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
(To test reliability, researchers retest people and if two scores correlate, then test is reliable)
Validity
The extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to
Content validity
The extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest
Predictive validity
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
intellectual disability
Formally 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 demands of life (varies from mild to profound)
Down syndrome
A condition of intellectual disability and associated physical disorders caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21
Self-fulfilling prophecy
Those labeled “ungifted” will live up to that standard
Appropriate developmental placement
Providing education suited to each child’s talents, promotes equity
Bias
- Biased if detects performance differences caused by cultural experiences (in this sense many intelligence tests are biased)
- Scientific bias hinges on tests validity and ability to predict future behaviors for certain groups/people (in this sense, aptitude tests are not biased)
Stereotype threat
A self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype (blacks scored higher when tested by other blacks because it was less threatening)
