CH 10 Intelligence

Question 1

Define Intelligence

Answer 1

Ability to use one’s mind to solve novel problems and learn from experience

Question 2

For more than a century, psychologists have asked what four questions about intelligence.

Answer 2

1. How can it be measured?
2. What exactly is intelligence?
3. Where does it come from?
4. Why are some people more intelligent than others?

Question 3

Measuring Intelligence:

1. What is the intelligence quotient?
2. What is the intelligence test?

Answer 3

1. • Alfred Binet (1857–1911) and Theodore Simon (1872–1961) developed the first intelligence test to identify children who needed remedial education.

• Measured aptitude apart from achievement

• William Stern (1871–1938) coined “mental age.”
• Ratio IQ: Statistic obtained by dividing a person’s mental age by his physical age then multiplying by 100
• Deviation IQ: Statistic obtained by dividing a person’s test score by the average test score of people in the same age group × 100

Question 4

Roots of Most Modern Intelligence Tests:

What are the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)

Answer 4

• Most widely used intelligence tests
• Measures intelligence by asking people to answer questions and solve problems

Question 5

Intelligence test scores correlate with a wide variety of successful life events and accomplishments:

Answer 5

• Predict academic performance, occupational status, job performance, and income
• Predict health and longevity

Question 6

What Is Intelligence according to Charles Spearman (1863–1945)?

Answer 6

• Sought to discover if there was a hierarchy of abilities
• Found correlations (though not perfect) among many cognitive tasks; positive manifold
• Two-factor theory of intelligence
• Confirmatory factor analysis

Question 7

What Is Intelligence according to Louis Thurstone (1887–1955)?

Answer 7

felt that the clustering of correlations disproved g.

• instead argued for a few primary mental abilities that were stable and independent.
• Later confirmatory factor analyses showed that both Spearman and Thurstone were correct.
• A three-level hierarchy best describes correlations between scores on different mental ability tests.
• Like Spearman’s general factor (g) and specific factors (s) and Thurstone’s group factors.

Question 8

What are the Middle-Level abilities?

Answer 8

Middle-level abilities lie between specific and general mental abilities regarding intelligence.

2 different approaches: Data & theory based

Question 9

What is the data-based approach?

Answer 9

→ Connects intelligence test performance to clusters

Question 10

What is the theory-based approach?

Answer 10

→ Broadly surveys human abilities and then determines which intelligence tests measure (or fail to measure)

Question 11

What did John Carroll find with the data-based approach?

Answer 11

John Carroll (1916–2003) found patterns of correlation among eight independent middle-level abilities.

• Memory and learning
• Visual perception
• Auditory perception
• Retrieval ability
• Cognitive speediness
• Processing speed
• Crystallized intelligence
• Fluid intelligence

Question 12

What is Fluid intelligence in terms of the data based approach

Answer 12

Ability to see abstract relationships and draw logical inferences
Raven’s Progressive Matrices Test

Question 13

What is crystallized intelligence in terms of the data based approach?

Answer 13

Ability to retain and use the knowledge that was acquired through experience

Question 14

Robert Sternberg (b. 1949) proposed three kinds of intelligence:(in relation to theory based approach)

Answer 14

• Analytic intelligence (problem-solving)
• Creative intelligence (novel solutions)
• Practical intelligence (everyday)

Not all of the problems that intelligence enables us to solve are analytical, creative, or practical.

Question 15

What is emotional intelligence(in terms of theory-based approach)?

Answer 15

Ability to reason about emotions and to use emotions to enhance reasoning

Question 16

Characteristics of emotionally intelligent people:

Answer 16

• Can identify, describe, and manage their emotions to improve decisions
• Can identify other people’s emotions from facial expressions and tones of voice
• Have better social skills and more friends
• Show less neural activity when solving emotional problems than emotionally unintelligent people do

Question 17

Where Does Intelligence Come From?:

Answer 17

• Intelligence is the joint product of innate characteristics and unique experiences.
• Influence of intelligence:
  Nature
  Nurture

Question 18

What is the genetic influence on intelligence according to Plato?

Answer 18

Plato (380 BCE)

Suggested that people are born with innate aptitudes that make them good rulers, good soldiers, or good tradesmen

Question 19

What is the genetic influence on intelligence according to Galton?

Answer 19

Sir Francis Galton (late 19th century)

• Conducted some of the first genealogical studies of intelligence in eminent families and argued intelligence is inherited

-Was the father of eugenics

Question 20

Heritability coefficient (h²)

Answer 20

• Statistic that describes the proportion of the difference between people’s IQ scores that differences in their genes can explain
• Studies show this is roughly from 50% to 70%.
• This value can change depending on the particular group of people we measure.

Question 21

What the Heritability Coefficient Doesn’t Tell Us:

Answer 21

• Heritability coefficient h2 is not the same as the correlation coefficient r.
• Intelligence of an individual is a joint product of their genes and experience—it cannot be “due to” one of these things or the other.

The distinction between shared and nonshared environments explains why the correlation between the IQ scores of siblings is more significant when the siblings are similar in age.

• Shared environment: Those environmental factors that all relevant members of a household experience
• Nonshared environment: Those environmental factors that all relevant members of a household do not experience
• Wealth and age argue for nonshared environmental factors.

Question 22

Nurture: Environmental Influences on Intelligence:

Answer 22

• Genes are not destiny.

Relative intelligence is generally stable, but absolute intelligence can change considerably over time.

Question 23

What is the Flynn effect

Answer 23

Accidental discovery that the average intelligence test score rises about 0.3% every year, as discovered by James Flynn (b. 1934).

Question 24

Genes and Environment: do they link?

Answer 24

• Genes may establish the range in which a person’s intelligence may fall, but environment determines the point in that range at which the person’s intelligence will fall.
• Although Jason’s genes give him a better chance to be smart than Josh’s genes, differences in their diets could easily cause Josh to have a higher IQ than Jason.

Question 25

Does poverty lower intelligence?

Answer 25

Yes - One of the best predictors of intelligence is the family's material well-being. - Being raised in a high-SES family can raise IQ by 12 to 18 points. - Low SES may impair brain development (most influential in early childhood). -High-SES families are more likely to provide intellectual stimulation.

Question 26

Does schoool raise intelligence?

Answer 26

Yes - The correlation between formal education and intelligence is large (r = 0.55 to 0.90). - Smart people tend to stay in school, and school makes people smarter. - Education may improve test-taking ability rather than general cognitive ability. - Educational effects on intelligence may be small and short-lived, but school produces long-lasting increases in other critical skills.

Question 27

Can Education Hurt?

Answer 27

In Asian countries, most students spend time getting extra tutoring in math, and as this graph shows, the more time they spend, the better their math performance. Is that because the tutoring helps?

Question 28

Gene–Environment Interactions:

Answer 28

- Genes and environments, though separate, have a direct and independent influence on the brain and intelligence. - Genes can cause people to be drawn towards or away from particular environments.

Question 29

Hot Science: Brains Wide Open:

Answer 29

- Infant brains are environmentally sensitive; openness to experience closes by age 18—or does it? - Brant and colleagues’ twin study data results - Brains of low-IQ people closed by early adolescence. - Brains of high-IQ people remain open to influence well into adolescence.

Question 30

Who Is Most Intelligent?:

Answer 30

- Individual differences in intelligence - The average IQ is 100, and about 68% of people have IQs between 85 and 115.

Question 31

Intellectually gifted:

Answer 31

People who score well above large middle range

Question 32

Intellectually disabled:

Answer 32

People who score well below the middle range

Question 33

Is distribution of IQ scores greater for male of female?

Answer 33

Male

Question 34

Individual Differences in Intelligence

Answer 34

Intelligence seems to buffer people against mental illness. People with very high IQs are less prone to mental illness than are people with low intelligence. Very high IQ children are as well adjusted as their peers—mainly if they are provided appropriate educational opportunities. Gifted children often spend more time engaged in their domain of excellence. Unlike intellectual gifts, intellectual disabilities tend to be general rather than specific. People who have them typically show impaired performance on a wide range of cognitive tasks. Two of the most common causes of intellectual disability Down syndrome (or trisomy 21, caused by the presence of a third copy of chromosome 21) Fetal alcohol syndrome (caused by a mother’s excessive alcohol use during pregnancy).

Question 35

Group Differences in Intelligence

Answer 35

Terman’s claims of intelligence were racist, but between-group differences do exist. It is difficult to point to the cause of group differences. Average between-group differences tend to be less than within-group differences. Tests and test takers Original intelligence tests were culturally biased towards (and against) particular groups. → Cultural bias in questions, testing situations Stereotype threat may create fear of confirming the negative beliefs that others may hold. Environments and genes: - Environmental differences influence intelligence. - Differences in SES influence intelligence. - Very little genetic effects influence intelligence. - Scientists have not yet identified major “intelligence genes.”

Question 36

Other Voices the Pros and Cons of Cognition:

Answer 36

Cognition enhancement is coming. - Editing embryo’s genes - Selecting for implantation those embryos that have the highest likelihood of developing into intelligent people Pros: - Increasing IQ of few is first step towards world of relatively uniform and high intelligence; fairer chance for all. - Providing people to fill increasing sophisticated jobs Cons: - Providing access only available to wealthy; SES and intellectual differences - Failing to predict the impact of cognition enhancement with absolute precision

Question 37

Improving Intelligence

Answer 37

Research findings suggest four things that raise a child’s intelligence reliably. - Supplementing diets of pregnant pregnant women and neonates with long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids = +4 points. - Enrolling low-SES infants in early educational interventions = +6 points. - Reading to children in an interactive manner = +6 points. - Sending children to preschool = +6 points. Cognitive enhancers: - Drugs that improve psychological processes that underlie performance - Ritalin, Adderall, Modafinil - Technological enhancements - Brain structure alteration; gene manipulation or editing (CRISPR)