Chapter 8: Intelligence and Creativity

idea that intelligence is a trait that is measurable and varies from person to person

psychometric approach

numerical measure of a person's performance on a problem-solving test

intelligence quotient (IQ)

standard of performance based on average scores obtained by a representative sample of test takers

test norm

set of widely used, individually administered intelligence tests that yield verbal, performance, and overall IQ scores

Wechsler Scales

emphasizes three aspects of intelligent behavior: practical component, creative component, and analytic component

theory of successful intelligence

notion that impoverished environments inhibit intellectual growth and that these inhibiting effects accumulate over time

cumulative-deficit hypothesis

widely used assessment to determine how intellectually stimulating or impoverished one's living situation is

Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) inventory

use of knowledge acquired through schooling and life experience

crystallized intelligence

measure of intellectual development that reflects the level of age-graded problems a child can solve

mental age

situation where one societal group is more familiar with test items than another, gaining an advantage

culture bias

rapid drop in intellectual abilities that people within a few years of dying often experience

terminal decline

rise in average IQ scores over the 20th century

Flynn effect

ability to actively think and reason to solve novel problems

fluid intelligence

inability to think and behave rationally despite having adequate intelligence

dysrationalia

statistical technique used to identify meaningful groupings of items

factor analysis

individual, especially a child, endowed with one or more extraordinary abilities

prodigy

significantly below-average cognitive functioning with limitations in adaptive behaviors such as self-care and social skills

intellectual disability

widely used, individually administered intelligence test that yields an IQ score

Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale

Process by which information processing becomes effortless and highly efficient due to continued practice

automatization

fear of being judged to have the qualities associated with negative ideas of one's social group

stereotype threat

combination of rich factual knowledge about life and procedural knowledge

wisdom

Sternberg's view that creativity emerges from a confluence of several ingredients

investment theory

sheer number of different proposals that a person can generate

ideational fluency

phenomenon in which extraordinary talent in one area is displayed by an intellectually challenged person

savant syndrome

symmetrical curve that describes the variability of a characteristic within a population

normal distribution

producing a variety of solutions to a problem when there is no one right answer

divergent thinking

possession of unusually high general intellectual potential or special abilities in areas valued in society

giftedness

producing the one correct answer to problem

convergent thinking

standardized test to measure the mental, motor, and behavioral progress of children

Bayley Scales of Infant Development (BSID)

measure of the dispersion or spread around the mean of a distribution of scores

standard deviation