MYERS UNIT 11

intelligence

mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations.

intelligence test

a method of assessing an individual's mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores.

general intelligence (g)

a general intelligence factor that, according to Spearman and others, underlies specific mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test.

factor analysis

a statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items (called factors) on a test; used to identify different dimensions of performance that underlie a person's total score.

savant syndrome

a condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill, such as in computation or drawing.

grit

in psychology, this is passion and perseverance in the pursuit of long-term goals

emotional intelligence

the ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions.

mental age

a measure of intelligence test performance devised by Binet; the chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance. Thus, a child who does as well as the average 8-year-old is said to have a ____ of 8.

Stanford-Binet

the widely used American revision (by Terman at Stanford University) of Binet's original intelligence test.

intelligence quotient (IQ)

defined originally as the ratio of mental age (ma) to chronological age (ca) multiplied by 100 [thus, ___ = (ma/ca) x 100]. On contemporary intelligence tests, the average performance for a given age is assigned a score of 100, with scores assigned to relative performance above or below average.

achievement test

a test designed to assess what a person has learned.

aptitude test

a test designed to predict a person's future performance; _____ is the capacity to learn.

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)

this is the most widely used intelligence test; contains verbal and performance (nonverbal) subtests.

standardization

defining uniform testing procedures and meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested group.

normal curve

a symmetrical, bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many physical and psychological attributes. Most scores fall near the average, and fewer and fewer scores lie near the extremes.

reliability

the extent to which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test, on alternate forms of the test, or on retesting.

validity

the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to.

content validity

the extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest.

predictive validity

the success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict; it is assessed by computing the correlation between test scores and the criterion behavior (also called criterion-related validity).

cohort

a group of people from a given time period.

crystallized intelligence

our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age.

fluid intelligence

our ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease during late adulthood.

intellectual disability

(formerly referred to as mental retardation) a condition of limited mental ability, indicated by an intelligence score of 70 or below and difficulty in adapting to the demands of life

Down syndrome

a condition of retardation and associated physical disorders caused by an extra chromosome in one's genetic makeup.

heritability

the proportion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genes. The ____ of a trait may vary, depending on the range of populations and environments studied.

stereotype threat

a self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype.

Charles Spearman

English psychologist who believed that all people share one general intelligence, but that certain people often have special abilities that stand out; helped develop factor analysis

L. L. Thurstone

U.S. psychologist and early opponent of Charles Spearman; proposed that intelligence consists of seven clusters of primary mental abilities

Howard Gardner

American developmental psychologist who has identified at least eight types of intelligences; views intelligence as multiple abilities that come in different packages

Robert Sternberg

American psychologist who agrees with Howard Gardner's idea of multiple intelligence but proposes his own triarchic theory of three (instead of eight) intelligences

Francis Galton

English scientist and cousin of Charles Darwin (noice!); although his quest for a simple intelligence measure was a failure, he gave us some statistical techniques still used today, as well as the famous phrase "nature and nurture"

Alfred Binet

French psychologist who invented the first practical IQ test, the Binet-Simon test; his test was to place students on the right academic tracks in the French school system

Lewis (Louis) Terman

American psychologist best known for his revision of the Stanford-Binet IQ test and for initiating the longitudinal study of children with high IQs called the Genetic Studies of Genius

David Wechsler

American psychologist who created what is now the most widely used individual intelligence test, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), with a version for children as well

Carol Dweck

American psychologist who believes that intelligence is not biologically set (prefers a "growth mindset" over a "fixed mindset"); also believes that people who believe in the dangerous "fixed mindset" often are stunted in their progress