3. Intelligence in Academic Achievement

Intelligence

The ability to acquire, apply, and adapt one’s knowledge and skills to meet the demands of one’s environment

A single trait

General intelligence (g)

•Single broad mental capacity

•Ability to think and learn in every context

Related to:

•Performance on many distinct cognitive tests

•Higher grades in school, on standardized tests

•General knowledge (facts, vocab)

•Physical differences

•Speed of neural transmission, brain volume

Raymond Cattell

Not one, but two!

A few basic abilities

Crystallized Intelligence

•Working with prior knowledge

•Associations with known concepts

•Experience dependent

•Long-term memory + verbal ability

Increases across lifespan

Fluid Intelligence

•Thinking on the spot

•New problems and content

•Doesn’t rely on experience

•Working memory

Peaks in early adulthood, decreases thereafter

Nigel Richards and league of legends world champions

Nigel Richards, Scrabble World Champion

 
(2007, 2011, 2013, 2018, 2019)

•Age in 2019: 52 years

2021 league of legends world champions. Average age: 21.8 years

Louis Thurstone

Not two, but seven!

Thurstone’s Primary Mental Abilities

1)Word fluency (C)

2)Verbal meaning (C)

3)Reasoning (F)

4)Spatial reasoning (F)

5)Numbering (F)

6)Rote memory (F)

7)Perceptual speed (F)

Why stop there?

Where should we draw the line?

Semantic processing speed

Speech sound discrimination

Creativity

Spatial relations

Vocabulary Knowledge

Reaction time

Memory span

Quantitative reasoning

John B carroll

Maybe one, and a few, and a bunch more too!

Carroll’s Three-Stratum Theory

•Hierarchical model of intelligence with:

•General intelligence (g) at the top level

•Eight correlated (but distinct) domains of intelligence in the middle

•Can be further broken down into…

•Many specific cognitive processes at the bottom level

At the end of the day, which level should we use to describe a child’s intelligence?

Depends what you want to know

Childs intelligence

Belong in gifted program? general intelligence (g)

Domain of learning difficulty? Intermediate level abilities

Specific research question? Particular cognitive processes

Gardener’s Theor

Multiple Intelligences Theory

•Three from standard IQ tests

•Linguistic

•Logical-Mathematical

•Spatial

•Five additional forms

•Musical

•Kinesthetic

•Interpersonal

•Intrapersonal

Naturalistic

nice in theory, often used in primary educational contexts. Not much empirical support as a means of describing intelligence

Sternberg’s Theory

Theory of Successful Intelligence

•Intelligence should describe one’s ability to be successful in the things they choose to do

1)Analytical Abilities

•Linguistic, mathematical, spatial skills

2)Creative Abilities

•Innovation, flexibility in new situations

3)Practical-Contextual Abilities

•Reasoning, adaptation in the real world

•“Street smarts”

Some evidence creativity is separate from g, but…

More support for Carroll’s Three-Stratum Theory

As we discussed, g predicts real world success just fine already!

Emotional intelligence

Ability to perceive, express, understand, reason with, and regulate emotions in oneself and others

•Working with emotions is necessary for success!

However, some empirical/theoretical criticisms:

•Internal validity: Is EI really “intelligence”, or
are we using this term too loosely?

•Is it actually just personality? (+ maybe IQ?)

Better to look at individual emotional skills?

•External validity: After accounting for contributions of IQ and personality, measures of EI don’t really help predict job performance

Just like how many teachers love Gardner’s theory,
many businesspeople love EI
(but should they?)

Still debated in scientific community, but with more data and clearer definition,
we might find a place for EI!

Emotional Intelligence (EI)

The ability to acquire, apply, and adapt one’s knowledge and skills to meet the demands of one’s environment

The ability to acquire, apply, and adapt one’s emotional knowledge and skills to meet the demands of one’s environment

Do we have enough evidence to group all emotional knowledge and skills together as one unified form of “intelligence”?

SHOW ME THE DATA

Some people are visual learners, others are auditory learners, and others are tactile learners”

MYTH

Everyone is an everything learner

The more ways you can interact with a piece of information, the better

Origins of the Study of Intelligence

1904: France introduces public education

•Problem: some children are struggling

•Government worried teacher’s subjective reports might be biased (e.g., poor children)

Enter: Alfred Binet (1857-1911)

•Saw intelligence as involving high-level problem solving, reasoning, judgment

•With student Théodore Simon (1873-1961), created the Binet-Simon Intelligence Test

•Huge success; predicted grades both concurrently and years later

Why measure intelligence?

Uses

•Predicting developmental outcomes, identifying needs

•Extra support

•Enrichment

•More objective/less subject to bias than other measures

•Teacher reports

•Psychologist interviews

Things to Keep in Mind

•Can’t capture intelligence across all domains/contexts

•In the end, an approximation of one’s capacities

•Can be culturally biased

•Important to adapt tests

•Ethical considerations

•Can contribute to stigma

•Intelligence ≠ Worth

The Wechsler intelligence scale for children (WISC)

Produces total score (IQ) and 5 subscores:

1)Verbal Comprehension Index

2)Visual-Spatial Index

3)Working Memory Index

4)Fluid Reasoning Index

5)Processing Speed Index

Used with children 6 and up

•Adult/young child versions as well

•Different versions to account for linguistic/cultural variation

Verbal comprehension

Verbal Comprehension

Ability to recall, understand, think about, and express stored verbal information (words, facts, concepts)

Crystallized intelligence

Verbal Comprehension Index

Similarities

•“How are a basketball and an orange similar?”

•“How are a dog and a tree similar?”

Vocabulary

•“What is this thing?”

•“A kangaroo!”

•“What is a ‘peninsula’?”

•“A thin stretch of land with water on most sides.”

Visual-spatial processing

Ability to visualize and reason about spatial relationships, to think about things in terms of parts and wholes, and to coordinate your actions accordingly

Visual-Spatial Index

Block Design

•Given a design and a set of blocks, move and rotate the blocks to recreate the design

•Number of designs completed

•Time to complete

Visual Puzzle

•Given a geometric shape, select pieces needed to reconstruct it

Working Memory

Ability to encode, hold, and manipulate information in your conscious awareness

•Keep info in your head

•Work with it while you need it

Digit Span Forwards

•Basic rehearsal in working memory

Digit Span Backwards

•Rehearsal + mental manipulation

Digit Span Sequencing

•Rehearsal + even harder manipulation

Variety of other tasks with shapes, number AND letters, etc.

Fluid reasoning

Identify underlying relationships and use reasoning to infer/apply rules

Fluid reasoning index

Picture Concepts

•Group the items based on shared characteristics

Matrix Reasoning

•Select the item that completes the pattern

processing speed

Picture Concepts

•Group the items based on shared characteristics

Matrix Reasoning

•Select the item that completes the pattern

Processing speed index

Coding

Children under 8. Put a + under each triangle then a x under each circle

Children over 9: translate letters to numbers with coding key

Measure accuracy and time it takes to complete

A=1 B=2

Symbol Search

•Search a string of symbols in search of one or more targets

Intelligence quotient (IQ)

Quantitative measure of a child’s intelligence relative to other children of the same age

•Binet-Simon

•Stanford-Binet

•WISC total score

Many others

Each produces an IQ score describing the child’s general intellectual ability relative to others (as well as many subscores)

IQ distribution

Population average always 100

standard deviation is always 15

Between 95% of people between -2 and +2 SDs

99.74% of peope between -3 and +3 SD

Top 2% is 98th percentile. IQ=130 +2SD

Botto,m 16% 16th percentile

Stability overtime

Strong, stable relation across time

•From age 5 to 6 (one year gap):

•r = .87

•From age 5 to 9 (four year gap):

•r = .79

•From age 5 to 15 (ten year gap):

•r = .67

“Stable” doesn’t mean “unchanging”

•Change between 12 and 17: +/- 7 points

Change between 4 and 17: +/-

Should we train people to do better on IQ tests

Absolutely not!

Previous exposure to the tasks used in the IQ test means we’re no longer measuring someone’s true intelligence, just how well they were trained!

What predicts IQ

Genetics

•Strong predictor of IQ

•Some estimates: 50-80% of the variability between people in IQ

•“So environment doesn’t matter?” WRONG

No single “intelligence gene

Heritability

How well differences in people's genes account for differences in their traits

When we talk about heritability, we are asking where the individual differences between people come from, not to what extent a trait is ‘determined’ by genes

To what extent do genetics vs. environment explain why most people have two feet?

Having two feet is a fundamental human trait almost all humans share; it’s in our DNA!

To what extent do genetics vs. environment explain the variability we see in how many feet people have?

]When people don’t have two feet, it is usually due to some experience they had! (surgery, an accident, etc.)

Having two feet is almost entirely genetic, but the variability we see in people’s # of feet is almost entirely environmental

When we ask how heritable a trait is, we are asking what explains the variability we see in that trait in a population, not how much genetics explains it in an individual

Heritability and intellligence

For most psychological traits, genetics and environment both contribute to the variability we see

Genetics

•Alleles (variants of genes) associated with intelligence
are inherited from parents

•Different folks, different genes

Environment

•Prenatal nutrition

•Parental education

•Enrichment activities

The list goes on*

Measure as many environmental factors as possible

After accounting for the variability explained by environmental factors*, leftover variability is should* be due to differences in genetics (heritability)!

Heritability estimate

Heritability estimate: proportion telling us the extent to which differences between people in a population appear to be due to genetics

“Intelligence is 50% heritable”

What this means:

•In the population studied (Canadians in 2022), researchers measured as many environmental factors as possible and used them to try and predict intelligence

Result: explained 50% of the variability

•Other 50% must be genetics!

What this does not mean:

50% of an individual person’s IQ
is due to their genetics, the rest due to their environmental factors

Heritability estimates tell us about population-level variability, not variability within a person

scenarios on heritability and intelligence

Heritability estimates apply to a particular population living in a particular environment

Scenario 1: Wonderful, equitable utopia

•All children receive the same high-quality   education, nutrition, healthcare, etc.

•Some kids are still smarter than others, but less variability in IQ overall

There’s not much variability in outside factors that could explain variability in IQ, so what differences we see must be due to genetics

Low variability

Heritability estimate for intelligence in this population:

Very large! (e.g., 80%)

Scenario 2: Massive economic inequality

•While some kids are set up to flourish,
others face constant hardships (e.g., poverty)

•These hurdles = not everybody reaches their potential = greater variability overall

•Unlike Scenario 1, now there are lots of outside factors influencing kids’ intellectual growth; it’s not just genetics that could be explaining these differences anymore!

Greater variability

Heritability estimate for intelligence in this population:

Not as large! (e.g., 50%)

heritability and environment interaction

How do genes relate to environment with regard to intelligence?

]Passive Effects

Biological parents and child have genotype in common

Environment reflects parents’ own genotypes

Evocative Effects

Child’s genotype/ phenotype influences the behaviour a child elicits from those around them

Active Effects

Child’s genotype affects the environment they choose to engage with

(Increases with age)

what predicts IQ

Parenting/home environment

•Complex and multifaceted

•HOME (Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment)

•Physical safety

•Social support

•Intellectual stimulation

•HOME scores correlate with IQ

•When HOME score changes,
IQ moves in the same direction

Things to remember:

•Correlation ≠ Causation

•Hard to parse genetic from environment effects

•Shared vs. Non-shared env.

•Siblings have different experiences

•As SES increases, influence of home environment decreases

•Better supports for IQ growth

What predicts IQ

School

•IQ scores ‘jump’ between children of the same age in different grades

•Effect of schooling, not age

•IQ increases during the school year, but over summer vacation:

•Low SES: Plateau, drop a bit

•High SES: Continue to rise

•Access to intellectually enriching summer activities?

Impact of poverty on academic/intellectual dev compounds over time

Having enough money!

•Longer time spent in poverty, the more a child’s IQ is impacted

•Why/how?

•“Doesn’t IQ predict income?”

•Effect of poverty far greater

•Nutrition, having enough to eat

•Learning resources

•Turmoil/support at home

•Interventions are very important!

Harvard waives tuition for low-income students

This is great, but you still need to get in!

 

Due to the cumulative effects of growing up in poverty, many kids with tons of potential may not be able to attain this high level of achievement

 

Intervention needs to come a lot sooner!