Week 10-Theory of Intelligence Part 1

Question 1

What are some popular views on intelligence?

Answer 1

■ Intelligence is something an individual either is or isn’t to a greater or lesser degree: fixed at birth (entity theory)
■ Intelligence is something that can grow and develop in an individual (incremental theory)
■ Need to evaluate critically the idea that intelligence is a quality possessed by an individual (see e.g., Schlinger, 2003)
■ Conscientiousness – dimension of ‘the Big Five’ theory of personality – is a predictor of educational success (Zhang & Ziegler, 2016) (e.g., success
attributable to conscientiousness trait not intelligence?)

Question 2

What can be environmental views on what causes intelligence?

Answer 2

■ Parents overpraise
■ Lucky exam results
■ Easy exams
■ Good school
■ Privileged environment
■ Lucky to have social capital?
■ Sociologists’ views tend to differ from psychologists’ views
■ Bottom line – we have implicit theories of intelligence

Question 3

History of intelligence testing: Who is Sir Francis Galton? (1822-1911)

Answer 3

■ Born in 1822, child prodigy
■ Maths degree at Cambridge
■ Also interested in heredity (a cousin of Darwin)
■ Interested in psychology and intelligence (he thought individual differences & heritable)
■ Coined the term ‘nature versus nurture’
■ An explorer
■ Created the first weather maps
■ Created a hearing test
■ Developed statistical concepts: regression to the mean; correlation
■ First used survey as data collection method
■ Introduced fingerprinting to Scotland Yard
■ Pioneer in eugenics

Question 4

History of intelligence testing: Who is Alfred Binet?(1857-1911)

Answer 4

■ Law degree but interested in psychology (especially intelligence);
■ Studied natural sciences at The Sorbonne
■ Researcher (w. Charcot) in neurology at Salpêtrière hospital, Paris until 1890;
■ From 1891, worked at the Sorbonne until his death (lab director from 1894) studying mental processes, esp. on two daughters
■ 1904, set up commission for the French government on alternative education needs of so-called ‘retarded’ children: how to identify special needs?

Question 5

What were Galton’s ideas?

Answer 5

■ Francis Galton (1822-1911) first proposed idea of differences in intelligence
■ Seen as forefather of intelligence tests (alongside Binet)
■ Highly intelligent individuals can respond to large amounts of information
■ Low intelligence (“idiotic”) individuals less responsive to a lot of sensory information
■ Examples:
– Heat vs. cold
– Good/poor sight or hearing
– Ability to distinguish colours
– Reaction times
■ Bottom line – Galton’s was first attempt at thinking how to measure/test intelligence

Question 6

What were Binet’s ideas?

Answer 6

■ Used associationism (John Stuart Mill) to explain intelligence
■ Sensory experience → information combined → consciousness (J. S. Mill)
■ Commissioned by French Ministry of Public Instruction to identify SEN children
■ Created first intelligence test with Theodore Simon: The Binet-Simon scale (1911)
■ Each level matched developmental (ages 3-10).
■ N = 50 children; 30 Qs of increasing difficulty. Examples included:
– Follow lighted match with your eyes
– Word definitions/fill in missing words in sentences
– Shaking hands
■ Tested intelligence and compared to same-age group performance
■ So-called mental age was Binet’s lasting contribution and a significant milestone in ψ

Question 7

U.S. developments: How did Binet-Simon develop to Stanford-Binet?

Answer 7

■ Lewis Terman (1877-1956) used Binet-Simon in California
■ Needed to revise the norms, revised some items and created some new items
■ The new Stanford-Binet test in was published in 1916 for 4-14yr-olds
■ Tested child’s intelligence AND compared it to other children
■ Stanford-Binet examples (4yr-olds)
– Copy a square
– What day of the week is it?
■ N = 1000 (cf. Binet N = 50)

Question 8

What were William Stern’s ideas? (IQ)

Answer 8

Used ratio of real age to mental age to develop his concept of intelligence quotient (IQ)

Question 9

What’s the Army Alpha Test? (Robert Yerkes)

Answer 9

■ Robert Yerkes, Head of APA committee to help war effort
■ 1917 U.S. in WWII, need fast assessment for soldiers (Binet time-intensive)
■ Army Alpha test designed with Terman for literate groups: oral and written test of cognitive abilities, knowledge base
■ Eight subtests - examples
– Follow oral directions – comprehension of simple and complex language directions
– Practical judgement – choose correct judgement in different scenarios
– Synonyms–antonyms
– Analogies

Question 10

What’s the Army Beta test?

Answer 10

■ Comparable to the Alpha but not so language/literacy focused
■ Sent for Beta test if
– 1. <6yrs speaking English or
– 2. Alpha showed individual as a poor reader
■ Examples:
– Maze task – find the best routes using a picture of the maze
– Cube analysis
– Match numbers to symbols
– Complete an unfinished picture (jigsaw)
■ Over 1.75 million people tested by Yerkes
■ 1919 National Intelligence Test sold half million copies in first year
■ Post-war, businesses picked up testing

Question 11

What’s General Intelligence ‘g’: The theory and the measurement

Answer 11

■ Charles Spearman – known for factor analysis and concept of general intelligence
■ ‘g’
– General ability
– Specific abilities
■ Two main tests devised for adults in general population that measure ‘g’
– The Weschler tests
– The Raven’s progressive matrices.

Question 12

How do the Weschler tests measure g?

Answer 12

■ Average score for all ages as comparator
■ Weschler-Bellevue (1939)
■ Weschler adult intelligence scale (WAIS)
■ Weschler scale for children (WISC) (1955)
■ Examples:
– Verbal arithmetic
– Block design
– Vocabulary

Question 13

How does Raven’s progressive matrices measure g?

Answer 13

■ John Carlyle Raven
■ Raven’s progressive matrices (1938)
■ Based on Spearman theory of g
■ Abstract
■ Infer relationships between objects
■ Aim – free from cultural influence (incl. language and general knowledge)

Question 14

What was the eugenics movement during the 20th-century movement?

Answer 14

■ Galton – wanted genetically superior humans through selective marriage (Terman also eugenicist)
■ Galton erroneous belief of white superiority
■ Repugnant to us today but…
■ Genetic breeding out of illness is a reality (e.g., genetic counselling); selecting sperm donors of high intelligence

Question 15

What’s the bleak side of eugenics in relation to intelligence?

Answer 15

■ Early history of intelligence testing intertwined with eugenics movement
■ Galton supported eugenics (survival of fittest so don’t support weak population)
■ Terman supported eugenicist ideas and thought low intelligence was inherited
■ Framed as a social problem that U.S. needed to be protected from low intelligence
■ 1922 – Model Eugenical Sterilization Law published
■ Mandatory sterilisation of: feeble-minded, insane, criminal, epileptic, blind, deformed, dependent (e.g., homeless, orphans)

Question 16

What is the case of Buck vs. Bell 1927?

Answer 16

■ 17-year-old Carrie Buck
■ Lived at the Virginia Colony for the Epileptic and Feebleminded with her mother
■ Carrie, IQ of 9-year-old, had a daughter;
■ Age 1, Carrie’s baby given infant IQ test: lower than normal
■ State of Virginia decided on compulsory sterilisation of Carrie’s daughter
■ U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favour of sterilisation
■ Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote up the Supreme Court’s decision, “Three generations of imbeciles is enough.”

Question 17

What were the sterilisation laws and eugenics
programmes?

Answer 17

■ 29 U.S. states had compulsory sterilisation laws
■ Sterilisation on grounds of low intelligence (“mentally retarded”), criminal, alcoholic
■ 1941-1943: 42,000 people sterilised (Journal of the American Medical Association)
■ Eugenics programmes in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland
■ Hitler borrowed directly from U.S. model eugenic sterilization law
■ Germany 1933-1939, 20,000 people sterilised for low intelligence (feeble-minded)

Question 18

What were Post-WW2 Theories of Intelligence?

Answer 18

■ Nuremberg trials showed where things could ultimately lead
■ Eugenics fell into disrepute
■ Debate on IQ differences over?
■ Herrnstein & Murray (1994) The bell curve: argued cognitive ability no less than 40%, no more than 80% heritable
■ Richard Lynn (1996) argued for genetic heritability of intelligence
■ Lynn (2001) claimed genetic deterioration in modern populations (i.e.,intelligence lower); IVF should be genetically assessed and selected for
desirable qualities

Question 19

What’s the Bell Curve? (Herrnstein & Murray,
1994)

Answer 19

■ The Bell Curve claims were:
■ g exists and individuals differ
■ IQ is (mostly) stable over lifespan
■ A cognitive elite exists: social group, high intelligence, good chance life success
■ IQ tests are not biased against social, economic, ethnic or racial groups: if properly administered
■ Cognitive ability is no less than 40%, no more than 80% heritable
■ Wrote about: 1. Cognitive elite; 2. socioeconomic variables; 3. relationship between race and intelligence; 4. social policy implications

Question 20

What are both ends of the bell curve?
(according to Herrnstein and Murray and Weschler Intelligence test)

Answer 20

■ Cognitive elite/top end:
– education (university/college)
– Workplace (professions, e.g., teaching, research, law, & medicine)
■ H & M predict higher intelligence will be top of U.S. class system
■ Bottom end (lower IQ):
■ Poverty/unemployment
■ Schooling (limited)
■ Welfare dependency
■ Crime (8 IQ points lower than average)
■ Low IQ mother – children poor motor skills, behavioural/social problems at 4yrs+
■ Asian-Americans 5 IQ points higher than White Americans scored 15 points higher than African-Americans