PSYC 105 - Chapter 9: Intelligence and IQ Testing

Child Prodigy

An individual who displays astounding intellectual achievement at an early age.

Intelligence Test

A diagnostic tool designed to measure overall thinking ability.

Higher Mental Processes

Complex types of cognition

• reasoning

• judgement

• understanding

• imagination

  etc.

Abstract Thinking

The capacity to understand hypothetical concepts, rather than concepts in the here and now.

Intelligence

The ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills.

• reason abstractly

• learn to adapt to novel environment circumstances

• benefit from experience

General Intelligence (g)

A hypothetical factor that accounts for overall differences in intellect among people.

• Charles Spearman (1927)

• he thought that some people have “more g” than others

Specific Abilities (s)

Specific abilities that fall within “g”

• a particular ability level in a narrow domain

• Charles Spearman

• according to spearman, our ability to perform well on a given task not only depends on our general intelligence (g) but also on our particular skills in narrow domains (s).

• however, the idea eventually became controversial (elitist? math? statistics?)

Fluid Intelligence

The capacity to learn new ways of solving problems.

• Raymond Cattell and John Horn

• seems to decline to age

• Ex, solving a puzzle you’ve never seen before

Crystallized Intelligence

Accumulated knowledge of the world acquired over time.

• Raymond Cattell and John Horn

• seems to go up with age

• “crystallized” kind of implies that it’s knowledge set in place once it’s been acquired.

Multiple Intelligences

The idea that people vary in their ability levels across different domains of intellectual skill.

According to Howard Gardner, we each have our own intellectual strengths and weaknesses.

Sternberg’s Triarchic Model

A model of intelligence positing three distinct types of intelligence

• Robert Sternberg

• Analytical, Practical, and Creative

Analytical Intelligence (Sternberg’s Triarchic Model)

The ability to reason logically.

• “g”

• “book smarts”

• useful for school and exams

Practical Intelligence (Sternberg’s Triarchic Model)

The ability to solve real-world problems, especially those involving other people.

• “street smarts” or “social intelligence”

Creative Intelligence

The ability to come up with novel and effective answers and solutions to questions and problems.

• “creativity”

• requires convergent and divergent thinking

• weak to moderate association with standard IQ tests

Reaction

The speed of responding to a stimulus.

• intelligence is related to efficiency or speed of information processing.

Double Curse of Incompetence

An effect when people with poor cognitive skills are especially likely to overestimate their intellectual abilities.

Stanford-Binet IQ Test

An intelligence based test on the measure developed by Binet and Simon, adapted by Lewis Terman of Stanford University.

• based on age groups

• includes tests such as those of vocabulary, picture memory, naming familiar objects, repeating sentences, and following commands

Norms (Lewis Terman)

Baseline scores in the general population from which we can compare each individuals score.

• it can determine if someone is above or below for their age group

Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

A systematic means of quantifying differences among people in their intelligence.

• Wilhelm Stern (1912)

Mental Age

The age corresponding to the average person’s performance on an intelligence test.

Deviation IQ

The expression of a persons IQ relative to their age-group.

• used by modern day intelligence researchers

• IQ of 80 is standard to be BELOW for any age group

• IQ of 120 is standard to be ABOVE for any age group

Eugenics

A movement in the early 20th century to improve a populations genetic stock by encouraging those with good genes to reproduce, discouraging those with bad genes from reproducing, or both.

• “good genes”

• was very unethical

• sterilization of thousands of people

“Positive” Eugenics - encourage “smarter” people to have children

“Negative” Eugenics - discourage “dumb” people to have children

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)

The most widely used intelligence test for adults today, consisting of 15 subtests to assess different types of mental abilities

• WISC for children

• WPPSI for primary and preschool ages

Culture-fair IQ Tests

An abstract reasoning measure that doesn’t depend on language and is often believed to be less influences by cultural factors than other IQ tests.

Restriction of Range

The tendency for correlations to decline when the range of scores of one or both variables are limited.

Concurrent Validity in IQ

The ability of an IQ test to relate to outcomes measured at about the same time the test is administered.

• correlations are to moderate to high with other IQ tests taken in the same session

Predictive Validity in IQ

An IQ tests capacity to forecast future outcomes.

Health Literacy

The ability to understand health-related information

Bell Curve

The distribution of scores in which the bulk of the scores fall toward the middle, with progressively fewer scores towards the “tails” or extremes.

• in IQ, most people will be around the 100 IQ mark

Assortive Mating

The tendency of individuals with similar genes to have children

• people with lower IQ will tend to have children with others who also have lower IQ (same idea for people with high IQ)

Intellectual Disability

A condition characterized by

• onset prior to adulthood

• an IQ below 70

• inadequate adaptive functioning

  • difficulty in maintaining survivability in oneself, communication with others, etc.

• severe forms of intellectual disability can be due to rare genetic mutations and birth accidents

Mild - Moderate - Severe - Profound

Family Studies

A study that allows researchers to examine the extent to which a trait runs within an intact family.

• studies have shown that IQ can run in the family (but unsure whether it’s genetic or environmental)

Twin Studies

A study that compares correlations of a trait in identical and fraternal twins.

• studies have shown that identical twins are more positively correlated in IQ similarity than fraternal twins (but environmental influences also plays a role)

• identical twins reared apart are as similar in IQ as if reared together

Identical twins r = 0.7 - 0.8

Fraternal twins r = 0.3 - 0.5

Cousins r = 0.15

Adoption Studies

A study that examines the extent to which children adopted into new homes resemble their adopted vs. biological parents.

• studies show a clear contribution of environment to IQ but genetics still indicate similarity to IQs of biological parents

Selective Placement

A practice of adoption agencies by which children are often placed in homes that are similar to those of the biological parents.

Siblings and IQ

According to Robert Zajonc, first-borns have higher IQs than those born after.

BUT, a more ACCURATE way of saying this is that children from smaller families have higher IQs than children in larger families.

Education and IQ

Research has shown that those with higher education have more synapses (neural connections) and the number of years of schooling positively correlates with IQ.

• those with higher IQ also tend to enjoy taking more classes and getting higher education than those with lower IQs

Flynn Effect

A finding that, on average, IQ scores have been rising at a rate of approximately 3 points per decade.

• James Flynn (1980s)

• may be due to increased test sophistication, increased complexity of the modern world, better nutrition, changes at home and school, experience of tests, etc.

However, the reverse of the Flynn Effect is starting to be seen where IQ scores are declining.

Emotional Reasoning (Affect Heuristic)

The tendency to judge the validity of an idea by our emotional reactions to it.

Sex Differences and IQ

Research has shown that are few to no average sex differences.

BUT, men show to be more variable

• more men at the low and high ends of the IQ bell curve

Women vs Men in Mental Abilities

Women

• spelling, writing, pronunciation

• detecting and recognizing emotions in others

• arithmetic calculation (in childhood)

Men

• spatial ability

• mathematics involving complicated reasoning

• safe driving

• geography

Potential Causes of Sex Differences

• no clear explanation

• genetic studies show correlation

• environment studies also show correlation

• but can also be due to discrimination, gender roles, and stereotypes

Estrogen is related to verbal abilities

Testosterone is related to spatial abilities

Ethnic/Racial Differences in IQ

Evidence supports that ethnic and racial IQ differences are mostly environmental.

• genetics, race, ethnicity, etc., do not really predict IQ by itself as it will often overlap with other factors like environment

• social deprivation, prejudice, lack of opportunity, etc., are more due to IQ differences

Within-group Heritability

The extent to which the variability of a trait WITHIN a group is genetically influenced.

• Within-group heritability does not necessarily imply between-group heritability

Between-group Heritability

The extent to which the variability of a trait BETWEEN groups is genetically influenced.

• Within-group heritability does not necessarily imply between-group heritability

Test Bias

The tendency of a test to predict outcomes better in one group than another.

• it DOES NOT mean that it is against one group

• society is biased against groups, not tests

Stereotype Threat

The fear that we may confirm a negative group stereotype when we know about that stereotype.

• can influence behavior

• influences behavior in research but is unclear in the real world

Divergent Thinking

The capacity to generate many different solutions to a problem.

• often used to measure creativity

• “outside the box” thinking

Convergent Thinking

The capacity to generate the single best solution to a problem.

Emotional Intelligence

The ability to understand our own emotions and those of others and to apply this information to our daily lives.

• a mixture of personality traits or skills that psychologists have studied for years

• however, this kind of intelligence may be used to manipulate and lie

EQ - Emotional Quotient

Curiosity

The desire to know.

• is suggested by evidence to be a patent predictor of academic achievement

Grit

A personality trait consisting of passion and perseverance.

Wisdom

The application of intelligence towards a common good

• concern of self, others, and society

• only moderately correlated with intelligence

Ideological Immune System

A mental tool of psychological defenses against evidence that contradict our views/beliefs.

Sir Francis Galton

Claimed that intelligence is a reflection of our senses

• the stronger your senses, the higher your intelligence

• he believed this because we take in information, and therefore learn, through our senses

Frames of Mind (Howard Gardner)

Howard Gardner’s claim that different people have different “types” of intelligences.

• different frames of mind have different ways of viewing the world

Each type should be relatively independent and verifiable from studies of brain damage and autistic savants.

• shows that people do differ a lot but does not have a lot of research to back it up

“Fixed” Intelligence

The belief that one’s own intelligence is not high enough to achieve things which causes a lower likelihood to challenge oneself academically and mentally.

• “I’m not smart enough”

Head Start Program

A program to give disadvantaged preschool children access to enriched educational environments.

• provides a short-term IQ boost

Brain Volume and IQ

A slight correlation (r = 0.3 - 0.4) in IQ and brain volume, where a larger brain may have higher IQ.

• stronger for verbal abilities

• but most likely not causal

• greater reaction time, therefore better overall activity

• “smarter brains” may be more efficient

Pre-Frontal Cortex, Parietal Lobe, and IQ

Pre-Frontal Cortex

• highly active in “g-loaded” tasks

Parietal Lobe

• spatial reasoning

Mental Giftedness

People who are in the top 2% of the IQ bell curve (IQ of 130 or more)

• tend to be in “higher” occupations

• 10,000 hour rule

• dedication and practice are essential

Termans “Termites”

A study on 1500 junior high students with IQs of 130+.

• many were succesful

• lower rates of mental illness and suicide

Fragile X Syndrome

A mutation on the X chromosome

• nearly half meet the criteria for autism

Down Syndrome (Trisomy 21)

The extra copy of chromosome 21

• mild-moderate intellectual disability

• likelihood of down syndrome in children increases with the mothers age

Raven’s Progressive Matrices

An IQ test that uses shapes or symbols rather than language.

• pattern recognition skills

• a stronger and better predictor than language

• more “culture fair”