Week 2 Flashcards
General Domains of psychological assessment (and examples)
4 types
Personality assessment (traits and states – emotions, intra-relational)
Intellectual (school related issues
Neuropsychological assessment (brain injury)
Vocational Assessment (more common in counseling)
Factors that influences scores in cognitive assessment
Test anxiety
Willingness to cooperate
Level of distress (Depression or psychosis, Hunger, Bathroom needs, Sleep deprivation)
Tendency to agree or disagree
Prior experience with the test or coaching
Luck
Examiner skill
Personal characteristics of examiner in interaction with the test-taker
How much do factors that influence scores actually influence score variation?
research shows that most of these influences usually account for only a small part of the score variance
Some have more variance than others. Ex. agreeableness doesn’t have a ton of influence.
The four major traditions in approaching intelligence
- Psychometric approaches
- Information processing approaches
- Neuro-biological approaches
- Developmental approaches
**Each of these 4 traditions represent different aspects of exploring intelligence
Which tradition of approaching intelligence is the WAIS
Psychometric
Value of theories
Allow us to discuss constructs, or parts of something we can’t yet describe the whole thing of (blind men and the elephant)
Increase depth and understanding
useful in certain prediction
Motivate effort to operationalize theory
Psychometric approaches, general
Assumes intelligence is a trait in which there are individual differences
Started with Binet
Positive Manifold
Positive manifold is the idea that all the variables are positively correlated.
Intelligence tests are positively correlated. Some portion of the variance of scores is attributed to “g”
–> g being the most basic measure of intelligence
associated with psychometric tests
“g”
The most basic measure of intelligence
Structure of the WAIS-5
WAIS
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale
FSIQ
Full-Scale Intelligence Quotient
VCI
Verbal Comprehension Index
Made up of:
Similarities (SI)
Vocabulary (VC)
Information (IN)
*Comprehension (CO)
WMI
Working Memory Index
Made up of:
Digit Span (DS)
Arithmetic (AR)
*Letter number sequencing (LN)
PRI
Perceptual Reasoning Index
Made up of:
Block Design (BD)
Matrix Reasoning (MR)
Visual Puzzels (VP)
*Figure Weights (FW)
*Picture Completion (PCm)
PSI
Processing Speed Index
Made up of:
Symbol Search (SS)
Coding (CD)
*Cancelation (CA)
Different psychometric models
Horn & Cattel (1963) - Three stratum model
Cattell, Horn, and Carrol (1993-2013) – CHC Model
Five factor model (Keith Factors)
Three Stratum Model
1963, Horn and Cattell
Measure three things:
- Intelligence (g)
- Fluid Intelligence (Gf)
- Crystallized Intelligence (Gc)
Fluid intelligence
Gf –> looks at processing
Dependent on brains efficiency and intactness (effected by brain damage)
Looks at problems solving, perceiving relationships
Primarily non-verbal and culture free (not based on facts)
Fluid intelligence ages
Increases until 14, then levels off until 20 and then gradually declines
Crystallized Intelligence
Gc –> looks at stored information
Largely enviornmentally determined
content oriented (vocab, information)
Relatively permanent and not as susceptible to brain damage
Develops from interaction of Gf and enviornment
Crystallized intelligence ages
grows until age of 40, then gradually declines
Johnson and Bouchard’s influence on intelliegence testing
Example of evidence that moved us toward a 5-factor model
Five factor model – what are the 5 factors
Verbal Comprehension Index
Working Memory Index
Visual Spatial Index
Fluid Reasoning Index
Processing Speed Index
Information processing approaches
Focuses on processes rather than content
How information is received, stored, retrieved, manipulated, transformed BOTH structurally and functionally
Structure: sensory reception, short and long term memory
Functional: manipulations and transformations
Processing Speed and IQ
IQ correlates with speed of certain information professing functions
speed of apprehension, scanning, retrieving and responding to stimuli, Correlations with IQ increase as tasks become more complex
Ex. Choice reaction time and inspection time studies
Choice Reaction Time
Ex of Processing Speed and IQ
STUDY: Moving finger from home to the button that lights up among 8 target buttons (Jensen, 1987)
correlations as high as -0.40 with IQ
More complex tasks (3 of the 8 buttons light each time»_space; choose the most isolated) (Frearson & Eysenck, 1986)
> Even higher correlations with IQ
Correlation of reaction time and IQ
Jensen (1987): Correlation as high as -0.4 with IQ
Frearson and Esyneck (1986): even higher correlations with iQ
Information Processing Model - Sternberg
Triarchic Theory
Intelligence involves:
- Metacomponents–planning, monitoring, evaluating
- Performance components – administering instructions of metacomponents
- Knowledge-acquisition components – learning how to do something in the first place
these are on his slides, you get different shit if you look it up??
Neuro-Biological Approaches
Search for anatomical and physiological underpinnings of intelligence
Thorndike
neuro-biological approach
“g” equals the total number of modifiable neural connections
Does g depend on neural efficiency of the brain
Is it the qualify of protoplasm that effects IQ
OR
Does neural efficiency promote IQ OR help people find faster ways OR both
Genetic Basis of Intelligence – Parent child correlations
Plomin, DeFries, Knopik, & Neiderhiser (2013)
Parent-Child correlations of IQ seem to be between .40 and .50
Of course families share an environment too
BUT as children get older, the correlations between parent and offspring increase
Correlations of IQ between parent-child
.4 and .5
Alexander Luria
1980, Russian
Brain is diffefenties systems of functional units coordinated to form integrated whole
3 main units:
- Arousal
- Sensory input
- Executive
Developed PASS system
Luria’s 3 main units
3 main units
Arousal (brain stem and midbrain)
Sensory input
(temporal, parietal, occipital)
Executive (frontal)
Luria’s PASS System
Cognitive functions involve PASS
- planning
- attention
- Successive processing
- simultaneous processing
Naglieri and others have worked to develop a measure of intelligence based on these fundamental brain functions
Future of Neuro-Biological approaches
Lots of new research
Epigenetics
CRISPR: genetic sequencing
Epigenetics
Evidence of nature vs nurture: DNA as well as environmental factors may both be important considerations
Research has demonstrated that portions of DNA are deactivated or activated by experience
These chemical processes modify gene activity without altering the genetic information itself.
A type of “long term memory”, preserving environmental effects/cues on genes long after those cues have disappeared
This is effectively how stem cells are guided to develop into different types of tissue—by having only a portion of the DNA active.
Each type of tissue has characteristic methylation patterns
Developmental Approaches
Concerned with the quality of response or reasoning behind answers
Piaget definition of intelligence
Developmental Approaches to Intelligence
Studied children, why they got things right/wrong. Noticed patterns of responses related to different age groups
Intelligence is a developmental phenomenon of adaptation in which we construct reality in increasingly symbolic terms (Four stages of cognitive development)
Piagets conclusions on kids: developmental approaches to intelligence
CONCLUSIONS:
- mental growth follows definite patterns and is nonrandom
- there are qualitative differences in thinking among ages
- development leads to new cognitive structures and abilities
- Mental growth complete in late adolescence. But as they continue to grow they reorganize structures to adapt to environment (assimilation, accommodation)
Dynamic Testing
Vygotsky (1978)
Ability to profit from guided instruction could serve as a measure of ones “zone of proximal development” (difference between their developed abilities and their latent capacities)
Dynamic Testing Process
Children are given feedback to help improve their performance (scaffolding) so testing and teaching are treated as continuous
So you directly measure ones ability to learn, not the product of past learning
Pro: **This is especially helpful when unequal opportunity to learn in the past
Con: its labor intensive, hasn’t made much progress in the last 40 years
