Week 5: Early Cognitive Development: Information Processing & Intelligence

Question 1

What develops with age in Information Processing Systems?

Answer 1

1. Working memory capacity (Age-related improvement in digit span tasks indicates greater short-term and working memory capacities in older children)
2. Speed of processing (With age, more efficient information processing releases working memory resources to support storage of new information)
3. Executive function (The set of cognitive operations and strategies necessary for self-initiated, purposeful behaviour in novel, challenging situations)

Question 2

How does processing speed change with age? (8-22 yo)

Answer 2

Improves with age

Question 3

How does age related trends in working memory look? (entire lifespan)

Answer 3

Increase from children to young adults, decrease to older adults.

Question 4

How does working memory change with age? (7-13 years old)

Answer 4

Improves

Question 5

How does ability for inhibition change with age? (3 to 7 years old)

Answer 5

Improves

Question 6

What does Case’s Neo-Piagetian Theory assume?

Answer 6

Assumes that progress from one stage to the next (in Piaget’s cognitive development stages) requires notable increases in the efficiency of utilising limited working memory capacity.

Question 7

What are factors that enable children to become more efficient information processors?

Answer 7

1. Brain development eg. neurological changes, synaptic growth, pruning
2. Practice with schemes and automation ie. with repeated use, the child’s schemes become automatic, freeing up working memory resources
3. Formation of central conceptual structures ie. a network of concepts and relations that permit children to think about a wide range of situations in more advanced ways

Question 8

What is intelligence?

Answer 8

• Domain-general and domain-specific cognitive abilities
• Verbal ability, practical problem solving, and social competence
• General intelligence
• Crystallised intelligence vs Fluid intelligence

Question 9

What is crystallised intelligence?

Answer 9

Cognitive skills that depend on accumulated knowledge and experience, good judgement, and mastery of social customs
- Acquired in a culture through valuing

Question 10

What is fluid intelligence?

Answer 10

Basic information-processing skills - the ability to detect relationships among stimuli, the speed of analysing and retrieving information
- Heavily influenced by biological factors

Question 11

What are the 3 areas of Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence?

Answer 11

1. Analytic Intelligence
2. Creative Intelligence
3. Practical Intelligence

Question 12

What is analytic intelligence?

Answer 12

• Apply strategies
• Acquire task-relevant meta-cognitive knowledge
• Engage in self-regulation

Question 13

What is creative intelligence?

Answer 13

• Solve novel problems
• Make processing skills automatic to free working memory for complex thinking

Question 14

What is practical intelligence?

Answer 14

• Adapting to, shaping, and selecting environments that can help to meet the demands of everyday life and accomplish personal goals

Question 15

What is Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligence?

Answer 15

Distinct sets of processing operations that permit individuals to solve problems, create products, and discover new knowledge in a wide range of culturally valued activities. Dismisses the notion of general intelligence. Assumed somewhat independent performance in each domain of multiple intelligence

Question 16

What are the 5 factors of the Stanford Binet Intelligence Scale?

Answer 16

1. Fluid reasoning
2. Knowledge
3. Working memory
4. Visual spatial processing
5. Quantitative reasoning

Question 17

What are the 4 factors of the Wechsler’s Intelligence Scale for children?

Answer 17

1. Verbal Reasoning
2. Perceptual and spatial reasoning
3. Working memory
4. Processing speed

Question 18

How does heredity and environmental factors account for IQ scores?

Answer 18

Genetic heritability partially accounts for individual differences in IQ test performance. But shared vs non-shared environmental factors also explain IQ differences - correlations are stronger when reared together.

Question 19

What is the missing heritability problem?

Answer 19

We don’t have a single gene locus robustly associated with normal range cognitive ability test scores.

Question 20

What are 4 factors that can influence group-based variations in intelligence?

Answer 20

1. Communication styles
2. Culturally-valued knowledge
3. Environmental stimulation and resources
4. Stereotype threat

Question 21

Explain the effect of stereotype threat on cognitive performance.

Answer 21

Under the context that one’s cognitive performance could confirm existing negative stereotypes about an individuals’ racial, ethnic, gender, or cultural group the individual experiences high cognitive load and thus exhibits reduced academic performance on tests.

Question 22

What is the Flynn effect?

Answer 22

Massive generational gains in IQ. The largest gains have occurred in fluid-ability tests ie. processing speed, assumed to be more influenced by genetic makeup. Proves that given new experiences and opportunities for learning, members of marginalised groups can move far beyond the current test performance.

Question 23

What is the correlation between IQ and achievement test scores?

Answer 23

Around 0.4 to 0.8

Question 24

Do childhood IQ predict adult occupational attainment?

Answer 24

Yes, possibly mediated through postsecondary educational attainment

Question 25

Is IQ correlated with emotional and social adjustment?

Answer 25

Yes, moderately