What is intelligence
Ability to profit from experience, acquire knowledge, think abstractly, act purposefully, or adapt to changes in the environment.
Who are the 3 influential psychologists in intelligence?
Charles Spearman, L.L. Thurston, Raymond Cattell
What did the 3 psychologists of intelligence theorize?
Spearman: Factor analysis, General mental ability (g), Specific mental talents (s).
Thurstone:
Seven domains (factors):
- Word fluency
- Verbal comprehension
- Spatial ability
- Perceptual speed
- Numerical ability
- Inductive reasoning
- Memory
Cattell: Fluid Intelligence, Crystallized Intelligence.
Who invented the Simon-Binet IQ test and how was it conducted?
Identify children requiring remedial work.
30 items of increasing complexity.
Repeating sentences
Defining common words
Constructing sentences with a combination of words
Reproduce drawings from memory
Contrasting two items
Define abstract concepts
Logical reasoning
Why was the Simon-Binet IQ test important?
Inexpensive & objective.
Predicted performance in school.
What is chronological and mental age? How is an IQ ration calculated?
Chronological age: an individuals actual age
Mental age: an individuals mental age, based on the age they present themselves.
IQ ration: Indicates an individual’s mental age relative to their chronological age.
(CA/MA)*100.
Binet’s intention in IQ testing
Binet originally wanted to sample intelligence.
Identify children with learning problems.
Intent was to measure performance, not potential.
Who is Henry Goddard and what did he do?
Henry Goddard (1908):
Translated test into English and distributed widely, including adults.
Intent was to measure potential rather than performance.
Immoral application of IQ test:
Sterilization.
Immigration.
What did Lewis Terman do?
Lewis Terman from Stanford revised Binet’s test (1916).
Became the gold standard for intelligence testing.
Focused heavily on verbal ability.
Females scored higher.
Nonverbal ability added later.
Uneducated and recent immigrants scored very low.
What is the longitudinal study of 1500 “gifted” children?
Longitudinal study of 1500 “gifted” children (1920):
“Termites” (IQ > 150).
Weak and sickly? Stereotype is not true
Would they excel later in life? Not true, many other parts are needed for succession
Wechsler Intelligence Scales
Wechsler IQ:
Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS - 1939).
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC).
Replaced quotient with standardized scores (puts meaning to median how people at their chronological age should act. Collects data from mass population to create median).
Interpreting IQ score
M = 100; S = 15
What is reaction range?
Potential: general intelligence range determined by genes (smart parents = smart genes for baby)
Performance: general intelligence determined by environment
Eg. Jeff has smart parents and therefore has a large potential range, but grew up in a poor environment, which results in him having an average IQ.
What are IQ tests used to predict?
- High-school and university GPA.
- Future employment and income.
- Job performance.
- Logenvity.
- Self-control.
- Perceptual discrimination.
- Efficiency of nerve fibers to conduct impulses.
Unidimensional vs multidimensional intelligence
Unidimensional: one factor of intelligence that contributes to everything. (High general intelligence, intelligence referring to all fields)
Multidimensional: Lots of different types of mental abilities (specific intelligence, good at one ability but not the other)
What is savant syndrome?
individuals with highly
developed one-dimensional intellectual ability.
Correlated with autism.
What is Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences
Verbal/linguistic intelligence: The ability to read, write, and speak effectively
Logical/mathematical intelligence: The ability to think with numbers and use abstract thought; the ability to use logic or mathematical operations to solve problems
Visuospatial intelligence: The ability to create mental pictures, manipulate them in the imagination, and use them to solve problems
Bodily/kinaesthetic intelligence: The ability to control body movements, to balance, and to sense how one’s body is situated
Musical/rhythmical intelligence: The ability to produce and comprehend tonal and rhythmic patterns
Interpersonal intelligence: The ability to detect another person’s emotional states, motives, and thoughts
Self/intrapersonal intelligence: Self-awareness; the ability to accurately judge one’s own abilities, and identify one’s own emotions and motives
Naturalist intelligence: The ability to recognize and identify processes in the natural world - plants, animals, and so on
Existential intelligence: The tendency and ability to ask questions about purpose in life and the meaning of human existence
Why is Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences criticized
Theories should be observable and testable: No reliable way to measure some of these domains.
Low impact on intelligence research, but popular in education.
What is Experiential and Contextual Acquisition?
Experiential: Learning by doing, often through activities that are hands-on and practical.
Example: A biology student dissecting a frog in the lab
Contextual: Learning that is placed within a real-world context to make it more meaningful and applicable.
Example: A history lesson about the American Civil War that includes a visit to a local historical site or a field trip to a museum
Define the 3 information processing strategies of componential intelligence.
Knowledge-acquisition: Ability to gain knowledge from different sources (fluid)
Performance acquisition: the ability to perform knowledge (crystallized)
Meta-cognition: awareness of one’s own cognitive processes.
Identify content difficulty.
Aware of shortcomings.
Students who score low grossly overestimate their performance.
What ar the 3 facets of Intelligence of the componential subtheory?
Analytical intelligence:
Abstract reasoning, evaluation & judgment (IQ).
Creative intelligence:
Generate and apply new information.
Practical intelligence:
Deal with everyday problems.
Tacit Knowledge: strategies for success that are not explicitly taught but that must be inferred by observing others (e.g., martial arts).
What is the Flynn Effect?
Mean IQ set to 100.
Necessary to “re-norm” due to performance increases in 20 developed nations over time.
Environmental factors must be responsible.
My defn: mean changes every year relative to initial, because whole world is getting smarter as the environment improves. Therefore a reset must happen to keep median as IQ 100.
If an individual from 1918 were to be transferred to 1995, they would appear to have an IQ of 75, even though if they were in 1918, they would have an IQ of 100. IQ is relative to environment of mass population.
