Unit XI - Testing & Individual Differences Flashcards
What does it mean to be intelligent?
whatever intelligence tests measure, which has tended to be school smarts.
NOT a quality -> may have UNIQUE meaning based on location
How is intelligence cultural?
In Cameroon’s equatorial forest, intelligence may reflect understanding the medicinal qualities of local plants.
How is intelligence defined?
the ability to LEARN from experience, SOLVE problems,
and use KNOWLEDGE to adapt to new situations
People EXCEL in different areas
What is general intelligence (g)?
general intelligence at HEART of all INTELLIGENT behavior
UNDERLIES all mental abilities and is therefore measured by EVERY task on an intelligence test
What is s?
SPECIAL outstanding abilities
Scoring high in one area typically score higher than average on other areas
What is 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 person’s total score
How did the work of L.L. Thurstone contradict and support Spearman’s findings?
Identified 7 clusters of PRIMARY mental abilities (word fluency, verbal comprehension, spatial ability, perceptual speed, numerical ability, inductive reasoning, memory)
general mental capacity-> controversial
What is an argument in support of the existence of “g”?
those who excelled in one of the seven clusters generally scored well on the others.
What is Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences?
Howard Gardner has identified eight relatively independent intelligences, including the verbal and mathematical aptitudes assessed by standardized tests.
What is meant by multiple intelligences?
MANY FORMS
Computer programmer, poet, street-smart adolescent, basketball team -> exhibit different kind of intelligence
What are the types of intelligence?
Musical Visual-spatial Logical Bodily-kinesthetic Interpersonal Verbal- Linguistic
Musical
Ability to produce & understand pitch, tempo, rhythm
Visual-spatial
Ability to think in images and pictures
Logical- mathematical
Ability to think abstractly and see patterns and logic and math
bodily-kinesthetic
ability to control body movements and handle objects
interpersonal
ability to work well with and understand others emotionally and socially
verbal-linguistic
ability to understand word meanings and sounds
What is savant syndrome?
a condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an EXCEPTIONAL specific skill, such as in computation or drawing
ISLAND OF BRILLIANCE
Islands of Genius
Stephen Wiltshire
Able to accurately produce an aerial view of the city from memory
How does Robert Sternberg agree with Howard Gardner?
Agree on theory of multiple intelligence/ more to success than traditional intelligence
Strenberg’s triarchic theory
Proposes only three types of intelligences
Analytical
Creative
Practical
Analytical
Academic problem-solving intelligence is assessed by intelligence tests, which present well-defined problems having a single right answer.
creative
Creative intelligence is demonstrated in innovative smarts: the ability to adapt to new situations and generate novel ideas.
practical
Practical intelligence is required for everyday tasks that may be poorly defined and may have multiple solutions.
How important is “g”?
g MATTERS
Predicts performance on various complex tasks and in various jobs
Exceptional achievements
Does intelligence correlate with income?
intelligence scores correlated +.30, a moderate positive
correlation, with their later income.
What is grit?
passion and perseverance in the pursuit of long-term goals.
talent + grit -> success
How do nature and nurture combine to produce success?
Common ingredient to success is about ten years of intense, daily practice
Native ability + 11000 hours on average -> expert
What is emotional intelligence?
the ability to perceive, understand, manage,
and use emotions
What are four abilities that underlie emotional intelligence?
perceiving emotions
understanding emotions
managing emotions
using emotions
Perceiving emotions
recognizing them in faces, music, and stories, and identifying one’s own emotions
Understanding emotions
predicting them and how they may change and blend
Managing emotions
knowing how to express them in varied situations, and how to manage others’ emotions
Using emotions
facilitate adaptive or creative thinking
What are characteristics of emotionally intelligent people?
more often succeed
in relationship, career, and parenting situations
Tend to be happy/ healthy
Delay gratification in pursuit of long-range rewards
Spearman’s general intelligence theory
Basic intelligence predicts abilities in varied academic areas
Spearman’s general intelligence theory strengths
Different abilities have tendency to correlate
Spearman’s general intelligence theory considerations
Human abilities too diverse to be encapsulated by single factor
Thurstone’s primary mental abilities
Intelligence may be broken down into 7 distinct factors
Thurstone’s primary mental abilities
Single g score is not as informative as scores for 7 primary mental abilities
Thurstone’s primary mental abilities
Showed a tendency to cluster-> underlying g intelligence
Gardner’s multiple intelligence
Abilities are best classified into 8 or 9 independent intelligences
Gardner’s multiple intelligence’s strength
Intelligence is more than just verbal/ math -> others are uniquely important to human adaptability
Gardner’s multiple intelligence’s consideration
Should all abilities be considered intelligences? Should some be more vital to success?
Sternberg’s triarchic theory
Intelligence is best classified into three areas that predict real-world success: ACP
Sternberg’s triarchic theory’s strengths
Three domains can be reliably measured
Sternberg’s triarchic theory’s consideration
Three domains may be less independent than Sternberg thought
Emotional intelligence
Social intelligence is important indicator of life success -> key aspect ->PUME
Emotional intelligence’s strength
4 components predict social success and emotional well-being
Emotional intelligence’s consideration
Does this stretch the concept too far?
What is an intelligence test?
a method for assessing an individual’s
mental APTITUDES and comparing
them with those of others, using
numerical scores
achievement test
Exams covering what you have learned in this course
achievement test examples
AP® exam, chapter or unit tests in your courses, final exams in college, etc.
aptitude test
A college entrance exam, which seeks to predict your ability to do college work
aptitude test examples
SAT or ACT or career tests that help predict what future job might best fit your interests.
What is the correlation between SAT and intelligence?
Research indicates that there is a strong positive correlation between SAT scores and intelligence scores.
How were individual differences in mental abilities historically researched?
Francis Galton was fascinated with measuring human traits.
He devised methods to measure “intellectual strengths” based on such things as reaction time, sensory acuity, muscular power, and body proportions.
What were the results of Galton’s research?
Galton’s quest for a simple intelligence measure failed
How did Alfred Binet contribute to the field?
commissioned by the French government to design fair and unbiased intelligence tests to administer to French schoolchildren
What was Binet’s assumption about intellectual development?
all children follow the same course of intellectual development but that some develop more rapidly.
Measuring MENTAL AGE
What is meant by mental age?
Binet assumed the average 9-year-old,has a mental age of 9.
Those with below-average ages would struggle with age-appropriate work
How did Binet test for mental age?
tested a variety of reasoning and problem-solving questions
Items answered correctly could then predict how well
other French children would handle their schoolwork.
How were Binet’s tests modified by Lewis Terman?
Adapting some of Binet’s original items, adding others, and establishing new age norms, Terman extended the upper end of the test’s range from teenagers to “superior adults.”
Renamed test to STANFORD-BINET
What is the intelligence quotient (IQ) and how was it derived?
person’s mental age divided by
chronological age and multiplied by 100 to get rid of the decimal point.
What were the limits of IQ calculating?
The original IQ formula worked fairly well for children but not for adults.
Current IQ tests compute IQ in a different manner
How did the Army utilize the intelligence tests?
US gov’t developed new tests to evaluate both newly arriving immigrants and WWI army recruits
What were the problems with the early intelligence tests?
Sweeping judgments-> embarrassment to most of those who championed testing.
Abuses of the early intelligence tests->science can be value-laden.
Test scores -> impacted by more than innate mental abilities
What intelligence test did David Wechsler design?
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale and Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children
What are some of the subtests of the WAIS?
Recognizing similarities
Vocabulary
Letter-number sequencing
Block design
What information does a WAIS provide?
yields not only an OVERALL intelligence score but also INDIVIDUAL scores for verbal comprehension, perceptual organization, working memory, and processing speed.
CLUES TO WEAKNESS AND STRENGTHS
What three criteria must an intelligence test meet to be accepted?
standardized
reliable
valid
standardized
To make scores meaningful they are compared to a pretested sample population.
reliable
The test gives consistent scores no matter who takes it or when they take the test.
valid
The test measures or predicts what it is supposed to.
What is the normal curve?
bell-shaped pattern called the bell curve
How is the normal curve defined?
the 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.
What is a characteristic of a normal curve distribution?
normal distribution the mean, median, and mode are all the same and at the center.
68-95-99
~68% of scores fall 1 standard deviation from the mean
~95% of scores fall 2 standard deviations from the mean
~99% of scores fall 3 standard deviations from the mean
What does the test score indicate?
a score indicates whether that person’s performance fell above or below the average.
How is an intelligence score derived using the normal curve?
A performance higher than all but 2.5% of all scores earns an intelligence score of 130.
A performance lower than 97.5% of all scores earns an intelligence score of 70.
How do the tests remain standardized?
Periodically restandardized
What is the Flynn effect?
intelligence test performance has improved.
Named for James Flynn
Avg person’s IQ in 1920 was only a 76
How is reliability determined?
Split-half
Alternative form
Test-retest
HIGHER the CORRELATION between the two scores, HIGHER the RELIABILITY
Split-half
scores on two halves of the test (even items v. odd items) are compared
Alternative form
varying versions of the test are given and results are compared
Test-retest
the same test is readministered and results are compared.
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
content validity example
road test
for a driver’s license has content validity because it samples the tasks a driver routinely faces.
predictive validity example
some academic aptitude tests can predict success in school at certain ages.
When can predictive validity yield little information?
When relationship between two variables become insignificant
The limits of prediction.
As the range of
data under consideration narrows,
its predictive power diminishes.
What has been the long-held belief regarding aging and intelligence?
the decline of mental ability with age is part of the general [aging] process of the organism as a whole
What do researchers know about aging and intelligence today?
until late in life, intelligence
remained stable
crystallized intelligence
our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase
with age
crystallized intelligence example
ability to recount the battles of World War II requires crystallized intelligence.
fluid intelligence
our ability to reason speedily and abstractly;
tends to decrease with age, especially during late adulthood
fluid intelligence example
the ability to solve a logic puzzle requires fluid intelligence.
What is the cross-sectional research method?
compare people of different ages at the same point in time.
Cross-sectional research on aging.
In verbal intelligence -> method showed declining scores with age
What is a longitudinal study?
follow and retest the same
people over time.
Longitudinal research on aging.
showed a slight rise in scores
well into adulthood.
What are some considerations when conducting a cross-sectional study?
Many variables are present in the sample population that could impact the results.
Education levels
Family size
Wealth
What are some considerations when conducting a longitudinal study?
Many variables could impact the presence of some members of the sample population at various points in the research.
Only brightest & healthiest stay until the end
How do aging adults both win and lose?
LOSE fluid intelligence but GAIN crystallized intelligence
INCREASED social reasoning skills
LESS distorted decisions
How stable are intelligence test scores over the lifetime?
By age 4, however, children’s performance on intelligence tests begins to predict their adolescent and adult scores.
By age 11, the stability becomes impressive
Ian Deary and longitudinal studies in Scotland
On June 1, 1932, essentially every child in the country born in 1921—87,498 children around
age 11—took an intelligence test.
The aim was to identify working-class children who would benefit from further education.
What were the results?
When the intelligence test administered to 11-year-old Scots in 1932 was readministered to 542 survivors as turn-of-the-millennium 80-year-olds, the correlation between the two sets of scores—after nearly 70 years of varied life experiences— was positive
Does intelligence correlate with longevity?
women scoring in the highest 25% on the Scottish national intelligence test at age 11 tended to live longer than those who scored in the lowest 25%.
What is an intellectual disability?
condition of limited mental ability, indicated by an intelligence test score of 70 or below and difficulty
adapting to the demands of life
What are two criteria that must be met to diagnose an intellectual disability?
low IQ test score
difficulty adapting to independence
low IQ test score
low intellectual functioning as shown on test score performance that is in the lowest 3% of the general population, or about 70 or below
difficulty adapting to independence
as expressed in three areas, or skills: conceptual, social and practical
What is Down Syndrome?
a condition of mild to severe intellectual
disability and associated physical
disorders caused by an extra copy
of chromosome 21
What is giftedness?
Students, children, or youth who give evidence of HIGH ACHIEVEMENT capability
Need services and activities not ORDINARILY provided by the school in order to FULLY develop those capabilities.
Who is Moshe Kai Cavalin?
completed his third college degree by the time he was 14, when the math major graduated from
UCLA
What does the research show about the success of gifted children?
Aced math SAT at age 13 scoring in top 1% -> By fifties secured 681 patents
Those scoring in top 1%: about 4% earned doctorates compared to 1%
What are the criticisms of gifted programs in public schools?
segregate high-scoring children in special classes, giving them academic enrichment not available to their peers
SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY
Intelligence: nature or nurture?
The most genetically similar people (nature) have the most similar intelligence scores.
What does the research show regarding the genetics of intelligence?
The intelligence test scores of identical twins raised together are nearly as similar as those of the same person taking the same test twice.
Heredity accounts for more than half the variation
in the national math and science exam scores of
British 16-year-olds.
Are there known genes for genius?
all of the gene variations analyzed accounted for only about 2% of the differences in educational achievement.
A follow-up British study recently found genes that predicted 9% of the variation in school achievement
at age 16.
What does the research show regarding the environmental factors of intelligence?
Adoption ENHANCES the intelligence scores of mistreated or neglected children.
Where environments vary widely, as they do among children of less-educated parents, environmental differences are MORE predictive of intelligence scores.
Comparing IQ score of adoptive/ biological parents to children
As the years went by in their adoptive families,
children’s verbal ability scores became more like their biological (nature) parents’ scores.
Do genetic influences become more apparent as we accumulate life experience?
Adopted children’s intelligence scores resemble those of their biological parents much more than their adoptive parents
The heritability of general intelligence increases from “about 30 percent” in early childhood to “well over 50 percent in adulthood.”
What is heritability?
the proportion of
variation among individuals in
a group that we can attribute to
genes
What does “intelligence is about 50% heritable” mean…and NOT mean?
WHAT IT MEANS -> Genetic influence explains
about 50% of the observed variation among people.
WHAT IT DOESN’T MEAN -> Your intelligence is 50% genetic.
What does it mean that intelligence may be polygenetic?
involving many genes.
Example-> 5% of height accounted for by 54 specific gene variations
Many human traits are POLYGENETIC
What is the impact of neglect?
minimal interaction with caregivers and suffered delayed development.
What relationship exists between extreme deprivation and intelligence?
typical child in a destitute Iranian orphanage he studied could not sit up unassisted at
age 2 or walk at age 4.
Researcher J. McVicker Hunt and Iranian orphanage
Hunt began a training program for the Iranian caregivers, teaching them to play LANGUAGE-fostering GAMES with 11 infants.
They IMITATED the babies’ babbling, ENGAGED them in vocal follow-the-leader, and, finally, they taught the infants SOUNDS from the Persian language.
What were the results?
By 22 months of age, infants could name more than 50 objects and body parts, and so charmed visitors that most were adopted—an unprecedented success for the orphanage.
How can early intervention impact intelligence?
In childhood, schooling is one intervention that pays intelligence score dividends.
Schooling and intelligence interact, and both enhance later income.
How does having a growth mindset influence intelligence?
focus on LEARNING and GROWING
believing intelligence is CHANGEABLE, not fixed
growing STRONGER with use as neuron connections GROW.
What does research show about a growth mindset?
Receiving praise for effort/tackling challenges helps teens UNDERSTAND link between HARD WORK/ SUCCESS
MORE RESILIENT
Achievement = combination of ability, opportunity, disciplined effort
How do the genders differ in mental ability scores?
11-year-olds, girls’ average intelligence score was 100.6 and boys’ was 100.5.
g is the same in both genders
Girls outpace boys in…
spelling, verbal fluency, locating objects, detecting emotions,
and sensitivity to touch, taste, and color.
Boys outpace girls in…
spatial ability and
complex math problems
How does a gendered society impact intelligence differences?
More gender-equal cultures -> exhibit little of gender math gap found in gender-unequal
Culturally influence preferences help explain why American women avoid math-intensive locations
“ Math class is tough!”
~“Teen Talk” talking Barbie doll
caused toymaker Mattel to withdraw the math class phrase from future Barbie doll production.
women and math today
2014 - Iranian math professor Maryam Mirzakhani became first woman to win Fields Medal
How is the gap narrowing?
Since the 1970s, as gender equity has increased in the United States, the boy-to-girl ratio among 12- to 14-year-olds with very high SAT math scores (above 700) has declined from 13 to 1
to 3 to 1.
spatial ability
most reliable male edge in mental abilities
speedy mental rotation of three-dimensional
objects.
How do racial and ethnic groups differ in mental ability scores?
Israeli Jews outscore Israeli Arabs
White Americans outscored Black Americans
How does environment contribute to differences in mental abilities?
group differences in a heritable trait may be entirely ENVIRONMENTAL, influenced by factors such as minority oppression, poverty and war.
Which explains the difference? Genes or environment?
Even if the variation between members within a group reflects genetic DIFFERENCES, the average difference between groups may be WHOLLY due to environment.
How alike, genetically, are humans?
We are actually much more alike than different.
Light-skinned Europeans and dark-skinned Africans
are genetically closer than are dark-skinned Africans and dark-skinned Aboriginal Australians.
Is race a neatly defined category?
a SOCIAL construction WITHOUT well-defined physical boundaries, as each race blends SEAMLESSLY
into the race of its geographical neighbors.
How has performance on intelligence tests changed from generation to generation?
The intelligence test performance of today’s BETTER-FED, BETTER-EDUCATED, and more TEST-PREPARED
population EXCEEDS that of the 1930’s population
by a GREATER margin than the intelligence test
score of the average White today exceeds that
of the average Black.
What does the research show about the importance of schools and culture?
Countries whose economies create a large wealth gap between rich and poor -> large rich-versus-poor intelligence test score gap.
Poor students-> low scores
Rich students-> high scores
Asian students-> spent more time than North American studying
Scientifically speaking, are intelligence tests biased?
the near-consensus among psychologists has been that the major U.S. aptitude
tests are NOT biased.
scientific meaning of bias
test’s validity—on whether it predicts future
behavior only for some groups of test-takers
What is another way to consider bias?
if it detects not only innate differences in intelligence but also PERFORMANCE DIFFERENCES caused by CULTURAL experiences.
Eastern European immigrants in the early 1900’s IQ Test bias
lacked the experience and language
to answer questions about their new culture,
and were classified as “feebleminded.”
Measure DEVELOPED ABILITIES
What is the stereotype threat?
a self-confirming concern that one will
be evaluated based on a negative stereotype
Steven Spencer and math test
Steven Spencer and his colleagues gave a difficult math test to equally capable
men and women and the women did not do as well—except when they had been led to expect that
women usually do as well as men on the test.
What has research shown about the stereotype threat?
Spencer again observed this self-fulfilling stereotype threat when Black students performed worse after being reminded of their race just before taking verbal aptitude tests.
Follow-up experiments have confirmed that __________ stereotyped minorities and women may have __________ academic and professional potential.
negatively
unrealized
How does stereotype threat impact test scores?
Stereotype threat helps explain why Blacks have scored HIGHER when tested by BLACKS than when tested by Whites.
POSSIBLE effect of non-Black teachers having LOWER expectations for Black students than do Black teachers.
