Week 3: Intelligence Flashcards
Galton view on intelligence
Higher intelligence is caused by superior qualities passed down by heredity (1869)
* Central hypothesis: there are individual differences in intelligence, and it is possible to measure intelligence directly
Galton measured intelligence
– reaction time
– keenness of sight and hearing
– the ability to distinguish between colours
Binet’s development 1905
Binet-Simon scale (1905): first intelligence test aiming to identify children who might require special education
Binet-Simon scale (1905)
30 tasks related to everyday life, e.g.,
➢ following light with eyes, naming parts of the body, counting coins, recalling a number of digits, filling in missing words in a sentence
* Test results determined the child’s “mental age”
Stern (1912)
idea of an Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
* Mental age varied among children proportionally to their real age * The ratio mental age : chronological age was fairly constant, e.g., 5:6= 0.83, 8:10= 0.8
Stern - calculating IQ
(mental age / chronological age) x 100
Terman - Revision of the Binet–Simon scale
Stanford–Binet scale (1916)
* Tested > 1,000 children (Binet had only tested 50): far more accurate information on how children typically scored on intelligence tasks
➢Representative samples, standardized testing, age norms
Spearman: development in differential psychology
First to use factor analysis techniques
1904 – 1921: He found positive correlations between intelligence tests
➢ a person who does well on one intelligence test will perform well on a variety of cognitive ability tests…
Spearman: what did he call the positive correlation between tests
positive manifold
Spearman: what did he create as underlying positive mantifold?
general intelligence, or ‘g’
Spearman’s two-factor theory: ‘g’ and ‘s’
General intelligence ‘g’
Specific abilities factor ‘s’
g
mental energy that is required to perform well on intelligence tests of all types; deeper fundamental mechanism
s
specific types of intelligence needed to perform well on each different task – Vocabulary intelligence, mathematical intelligence, and spatial intelligence are all specific abilities
Wechsler tests
– Wechsler-Bellevue Scale (1939)
– standardised among a sample of 1,500 adults
– Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS; 1955) standardised among 2,000 adults aged 16-75
– Wechsler Scale for Children (WISC; 1955) for children aged 5-16
Wechsler: deviation IQ
- tested large groups of people to identify norms across different age groups, focus on comparison across similar ages
deviation IQ = (Actual test score / Expected score for age) x 100
Wechsler: mean and standard deviation of IQ
mean = 100
standard deviation = 15
Raven’s Progressive Matrices
- Measure the abstract ability to see relationships between objects, events and information and draw inferences from those relationships
It is (supposed to be) free of cultural influences and language and is often favoured as a good measure of ‘g’; culture-fair test
As in the Wechsler tests, the overall IQ score is based on an individual’s deviation from standardised norms
Beyond g: Multi-factor theories
➢ Theory of primary mental abilities
➢ Fluid vs. crystallised intelligence
➢ Three-stratum theory
➢ CHC theory
Theory of primary mental abilities
First multi-factor theory (1938)
multiple factors make up IQ:
- spatial visualisations
- number
- word fluency
- associative memory
- verbal comprehension
- perceptual speed
Cattell: Fluid vs crystallised intelligence
General intelligence made up of:
Gc - acquired knowledge and skills
Gf - ability of abstract reasoning
WAIS measures Gc, Gf or both?
both
Ravens matrices: Gc, Gf or both?
Fluid intelligence
Three stratum theory: 1993 (Caroll)
Hierarchal theory
systematic organisation & integration of over 50 yrs of research
Stratum 3 was g
Stratum 2 is broad factors making up g (e.g. Gf)
Stratum 1 is specific abilities (e.g. creativity)
CHC: Cattel-Horn-Carrol theory
- Cattell, Horn, and Carrol met Richard W. Woodcock
- Further integration of existing theories with practicalities of psychometric testing in mind (~1999; first reference to CHC in Flanagan, 2000)
Positive manifold summary
Positive manifold of seemingly unrelated tests is one of the most well-replicated findings in psychological science
➢ This is not captured by the definition “Intelligence is what is measured in an intelligence test”
Multiple intelligences? Aren’t we missing something?
Standard intelligence theories/tests focus on cognitive abilities & performance measures
Critics: tests ignore important parts of mental life, e.g., noncognitive domains such as socio-emotional abilities and interpersonal skills
➢ Theory of Multiple intelligences ➢ Emotional Intelligence ➢ Creativity
Theory of Multiple intelligences
Howard Gardner (1983, 1996)
- Postulated that intelligences
– reside in separate sections of the brain,
– are independent of each other, and
– are not controlled by any central function of the brain
theory of multiple intelligences criticism
- Some of the Gardner’s intelligences (e.g., intrapersonal) are hard to define; whether they are measurable is questionable
- Empirical research is limited (non-existent?)
- Evidence does not support the existence of separate neural mechanisms (e.g., Waterhouse, 2006)
- Intelligences are intercorrelated with each other highly and with personality traits (e.g., Furnham, 2009)
- Ability tests designed to measure intelligences are highly positively correlated with each other and with general intelligence (e.g., Visser et al., 2006)
- Some of the Gardner’s intelligences (e.g., intrapersonal) are hard to define; whether they are measurable is questionable
emotional intelligence (Goleman, 1995)
Five components of emotional intelligence (Goleman, 1995)
1. Identify one’s own emotions (self-awareness)
2. Managing and controlling one’s emotions (self-regulation)
3. Emotional states related to a drive for achievement (motivation)
4. Assess and influence other’s emotions (empathy)
5. Ability to sustain good interpersonal relationships (social skills)
EI is linked to a variety of psychiatric conditions (e.g., anxiety, bipolar disorder), academic and job performance, health
Emotional Intelligence: Personality traits or intelligence? (e.g., Mayer & Salovey, 1993)
– Intelligence involves a series of mental abilities
– Traits: behavioural preferences, as opposed to abilities
– Knowing what a person feels was identified as mental ability, as opposed to a behavioural tendency
Creativity
- The ability to generate ideas or products with novelty and usefulness; inventiveness & innovation
- The core of creativity is divergent thinking (DT) – the ability to
– think outside the box
– reconceptualize old problems in new ways
– come up with multiple potential solutions
- The core of creativity is divergent thinking (DT) – the ability to
- Tests of DT typically involve assessing the quantity and quality (originality) of ideas produced
Does a person have to be smart to be creative? The threshold hypothesis
- The threshold hypothesis
– creativity and IQ are correlated only when IQ is below, but not above, a threshold or breakpoint (Guilford, 1967)
(so need a certain level of intelligence to be creative, but after that it doesn’t matter)
– Mixed findings, the hypothesis is/was highly debated (e.g., Weiss et al., 2020) - Moderate correlation between creativity and intelligence (~0.25; e.g., Gerwig et al., 2021, meta-analysis)
Psychology of intelligence: The current status
- Despite some critiques, the ideas of general intelligence ‘g’, fluid intelligence and crystallised intelligence still dominate the field
- Standardised and norm-referenced IQ measured by the Wechsler tests and Raven’s progressive matrices are still widely used
- Multiple intelligences and non-cognitive abilities are increasingly valued in education and other applied settings
- Cognitive abilities (e.g., rationality) presumably not measured by conventional IQ tests have gained increasing attention
WAIS III test considered 2 main types of IQ
verbal and performance IQ
