Intelligence and its Measurement Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards from lecture notes on intelligence and its measurement.

Intelligence

A multifaceted capacity that manifests itself in different ways across the lifespan including the abilities to acquire and apply knowledge, reason logically, plan effectively, infer perceptively, make sound judgments, solve problems, grasp and visualize concepts, pay attention, be intuitive, find the right words and thoughts with facility, cope with, adjust to, and make the most of new situations.

Schema

Organized action or mental structure that, when applied to the world, leads to knowing or understanding.

Interactionism

Complex concept by which heredity and environment are presumed to interact and influence the development of one’s intelligence.

Assimilation

Actively organizing new information so that it fits in with what is already perceived and thought.

Accommodation

Changing what is already perceived or thought so that it fits with new information.

Factor-analytic theories

Focus is squarely on identifying the ability or groups of abilities deemed to constitute intelligence.

Information-processing theories

Focus is on identifying the specific mental processes that constitute intelligence.

Exploratory factor analysis

The researcher essentially explores what relationships exist.

Confirmatory factor analysis

The researcher is typically testing the viability of a proposed model or theory.

Crystallized intelligence (Gc)

Abilities that make up crystallized intelligence, including acquired skills and knowledge that are dependent on exposure to a particular culture as well as on formal and informal education.

Fluid intelligence (Gf)

Abilities that make up fluid intelligence, which are nonverbal, relatively culture-free, and independent of specific instruction.

Simultaneous or parallel processing

Information is integrated all at one time.

Successive or sequential processing

Each bit of information is individually processed in sequence.

Met components

Involved in planning what one is going to do, monitoring what one is doing, and evaluating what one has done upon completion.

Performance components

Administer the instructions of met components.

Knowledge-acquisition components

Involved in learning how to do something in the first place.

Test of the alerting response

Assessment technique common to infant development tests that measures an infant’s capacity for responsiveness.

Mental age

An index that refers to the chronological age equivalent of one’s performance on a test or a subtest, derived by reference to norms that indicate the age at which most test takers are able to pass or otherwise meet some criterion performance.

Preformationist

All living organisms are preformed at birth, and therefore cannot be improved upon.

Predeterminism

One’s abilities are predetermined by genetic inheritance and no amount of learning or other intervention can enhance what has been genetically encoded to unfold in time.

Interactionist position

Intelligence is the result of the interaction between heredity and environment.

Flynn effect

Measured intelligence seems to rise on average, year by year.

Culture-fair intelligence test

Minimize the influence of culture with regard to various aspects of the evaluation procedures.

Culture loading

Extent to which a test incorporates the vocabulary, concepts, traditions, knowledge, and feelings associated with a particular culture.

Ratio IQ

Ratio of the test taker’s mental age divided by his or her chronological age, multiplied by 100 to eliminate decimals.

Deviation IQ

Reflects a comparison of the performance of the individual with the performance of others of the same age in the standardization sample.

Point scale

A test organized into subtests by category of item, not by age at which most test takers are presumed capable of responding in the way that is keyed as correct.

Adaptive testing

Testing individually tailored to the test taker.

Routing tests/other subtests

Contain teaching items which are designed to illustrate the task required and assure the examiner that the examinee understands.

Floor

The lowest level of the items on a subtest.

Ceiling

The highest-level item of the subtest.

Performance-basal level

A subtest with reference to a specific test taker’s performance.

Testing the limits

Administering test items beyond the level at which the test manual dictates discontinuance

Floor of an intelligence test

The lowest level of intelligence the test purports to measure.

Ceiling of an intelligence test

The highest level of intelligence the test purports to measure.

Convergent thinking

A deductive reasoning process that entails recall and consideration of facts to narrow down solutions and eventually arrive at one solution.

Divergent thinking

Thought is free to move in many different directions, making several solutions possible.

Checklist

Questionnaire on which marks are made to indicate the presence or absence of a specified behavior, thought, event, or circumstance.

Rating scale

A form completed by an evaluator (a rater, judge, or examiner).

Syndrome

A set of co-occurring emotional and behavioral problems.

Achievement Tests

Designed to measure accomplishment and the degree of learning that has taken place.

Aptitude Tests

Focus more on informal learning or life experiences.

Diagnostic

Used to pinpoint a student’s difficulty, usually for remedial purposes.

Psychoeducational Test Batteries

Test kits that generally contain two types of tests: those that measure abilities related to academic success and those that measure educational achievement in areas such as reading and arithmetic.

Performance

Requires the examinee to do more than choose the correct response from a small group of alternatives.

Work sample

Work sample designed to elicit representative knowledge, skills, and values from a particular domain of study.

Performance assessment

Evaluation of performance tasks according to criteria developed by experts from the domain of study tapped by those tasks

Portfolio

Synonymous with work sample.

Authentic Assessment

Trend toward more performance-based assessment.

Peer appraisal methods

Obtaining information about an individual is by asking that individual’s peer group to make the evaluation.

Sociogram

Graphic method of organizing data.

State

Transitory exhibition of some personality trait and a relatively temporary predisposition.

Psychological traits

Attributions made in an effort to identify threads of consistency in behavioral patterns.

Types

More clearly descriptions of people.

Test taker response styles

Tendency to respond to a test item or interview question in some characteristic manner regardless of the content of the item or question.

Validity Scale

Designed to assist in judgments regarding how honestly the test taker responded.

Nomothetic approach

Efforts to learn how a limited number of personality traits can be applied to all people.

Idiographic approach

Efforts to learn about each individual’s unique constellation of personality traits

Ipsative approach

Interpreted relative to the strength of measured traits for that same individual

Data Reduction Methods

Statistical techniques that include factor analysis or cluster analysis.

Criterion Groups

Reference group of test takers who share specific characteristics and whose responses to test items serve as a standard.

Empirical criterion keying

Process of using criterion groups to develop test items.

Validity

Indicator of the operation of test taker response styles that could affect the test results.

L scale (the Lie scale)

Items are somewhat negative but that apply to most people.

F scale (the Frequency scale or “Infrequency” scale)

Items, infrequently endorsed by members of nonpsychiatric populations and do not fit into any known pattern of deviance.

K scale (Correction scale)

Frankness of the test taker’s self-report. Scores are statistically corrected for an individual’s over-willingness or unwillingness to admit deviance.

Cannot Say scale

Measure of the number of items to which the examinee responded cannot say or failed to mark any response.

Wiggins Content Scales

Composed of groups of test items of similar content

Acculturation

An ongoing psychological process by which an individual’s thoughts, behaviors, values, worldview, and identity develop in relation to the general thinking, behavior, customs, and values of a particular cultural group.

Identification

Process by which an individual assumes a pattern of behavior characteristic of other people.

Identity

Set of cognitive and behavioral characteristics by which individuals define themselves as members of a particular group. Refers to one’s sense of self.

Worldview

Unique way people interpret and make sense of their perceptions as a consequence of their learning experiences, cultural background, and related variables.

Instrumental values

Guiding principles to help one attain some objective

Terminal values

Guiding principles and a mode of behavior that is an endpoint objective