Intelligence Tests

Francis Galton

inspired by Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory,

embarked on a quest to find the most intelligent, athletic, and competent humans.

Eugenics

a movement bent on improving the human gene pool.

Alfred Binet

developed a method with which to assess the intelligence of this wide-range of intellectual ability.

Mental Age

the average performance of people at a certain age.

Lewis Terman

of Stanford University looked for genetic explanation of Spearman’s general factor of intelligence.

Stanford-Binet Intelligence Quotient

This was a test that analyzed one’s mental age, divided it by their chronological age, and then multiplied by 100.

Flynn Effect

asserts that once states are stable, provide education, and are also affluent enough to afford ample nutrition to children, teens, and adults for proper brain development, one’s genetic potential for intelligence may be realized.

Louis Leon Thurstone

openly criticized Spearman’s factor analysis method, devising a far more effective and accurate psychometric technique.

David Wechsler

Wechsler asserted that Spearman’s g factor was too narrow, and, furthermore, that intelligence was more an effect than a cause.

Intelligence Scale

based on a deviation quotient rather than a mental age. This was, essentially, a more accurate measure of one’s fluid intelligence, as opposed to the more crystallized mental age

developed by Binet.

Aptitude Tests

tests that predict a person’s future performance and

capacity to learn.

What do tests need to accomplish to be valid?

\-Standardized

\-Reliable

\-Valid

Predictive Validity

the diminishing ability of tests to measure future learning.

Abstract Measures

to test participants, such as the rearranging blocks into images in the WAIS, or how psychologists such as Sternberg attempted to measure creativity by having participants caption an image.

Verbal Measures

have also been employed in tests such as the WAIS, as participants are asked to find similarities in words, as well as describe and explain solutions & problems verbally rather than through reading or writing on paper.

Processing Speed

speed–the speed at which one can interpret and act on information.

How should a population be represented on a graph if reliable?

Bell Curve

Savants

often possess extreme intelligence and ability in one factor, but perform below average below in others.

Gifted Cognitively-Disabled

may suffer from low scores in some categories, but high scores in several others.

Intellectual disability

disability—formerly known as mental retardation—may

affect intelligence scores and present those affected with difficulty in adapting to normal demands of independent living.

Cognitively Gifted

may be labeled as exceptional by themselves or others, and, potentially, over-inflate their egos or put undue stress as they are expected to always perform well.