AP Psych Unit 13: Intelligence & Testing

Intelligence

• General Definition- the ability to learn information, use it and solve problems

General Intelligence (g)

• that intelligence was a single thing 

1. Underlying Factor- intelligence applied to all topics 

2. Factor Analysis- looking at test results of many people and try to find common patterns/themes

   • Crossover- scores in one subject will be roughly equal to scores in other subjects, consistency

Multiple Intelligences

• The idea that intelligence can be broken up into different parts (subjects)

Savant Syndrome

• someone with genius level ability in a specific area and average or below average intelligence everywhere else

• “Island of Brilliance”- term used in Europe

Gardner’s Eight

• Linguistic (word smart)- has aptitude for books, writing, language

• Logical-Mathematical (math smart)- does well in mathematics, problem solving

• Musical- has musical talent, can play/sing by ear, in pitch

• Spatial (picture smart)- visual images, maps 

• Bodily-Kinesthetic (body smart)- understand their body and can manipulate it, ex. athletes, dancers, actors

• Intrapersonal (self smart)- knows themself very well

• Interpersonal (people smart)- instinctively understand others, have empathy, know how to manipulate/motivate people

• Naturalist- good with plants, animals

Sternberg’s Triarchic

• Analytical- can you analyze and problem solve?

• Creative- can you make something new?

• Practical- can you actually do stuff with what you know?

Talents or Intelligences?

• What people think should be added to the multiple intelligences theory

• Emotional Intelligence

• Creativity

Emotional Intelligence

• The ability to Perceive, Understand and Manage/control emotions in yourself and other people

• Too similar to intrapersonal/interpersonal intelligence, it already has been covered

Creativity

• The ability to make something that is Novel (new) and Valuable (recognized by others as having some level of worth) -> subjective

• Components- things needed to make it happen

  • Expertise- need to be able to actually produce what you're creating, have the skills and talent

  • Imagination- need to come up with something new/unique

  • Adventure- creating something new is risky

  • Intrinsic Motivation- must feel compelled to do it

  • Creative Environment- any that fosters creativity

Influences

• Genetics 

  • has a (MUCH) greater influence on intelligence

  • Increases with Age, by 7-8 genetics are determining things such as test scores

  • Twin Studies- twins adopted by different families, twins intelligence scores are closest to each other even with different environments

• Environmental

  • Early Intervention- identifying low intelligence students early and helping them will help their intelligence, though small improvement

    • You can improve discipline and study habits- helps them to deal with low intelligence

Group Differences

• Some are higher/lower, but no one wants to study and find out why

• Gender- men at the extremes (low/high), and women more at average

• Racial- some higher/lower, hypothesized= might be because of environment

Alfred Binet

• created first good (reliable and gave useful results) intelligence test

• Mental Age (ma)- for each age group, identify what they should know and be able to do

  • Higher than your age- above average 

  • At your age- average

  • Lower than your age- below average

• Became the first widely used standard test

• Reasoning and Problem Solving questions 

• Intervention- purpose- people with low intelligence would be given intervention to be brought up to average

Lewis Terman

• Stanford-Binet Test- Takes Binet’s test, improves it and that test becomes standard in America and most of the world up until the end of 1900s

  • More aspects, more complete/fuller

• IQ = ma/ca x 100, Intelligence Quotient

  • Mental age/Chronological age x 100

• Relative Scale- you are comparing people of the same age group

• Eugenics- identify subjects with undesirable characteristics and prevent them from being passed on, remove them from gene pool

Intellectual Disability Scale

• (Mental Retardation)- mentally “delayed”, > 2.5% of population, cannot take care of themselves/function normally in society with significant assistance

  • Profound (Below 20)- will never get past mental age of infant

  • Severe (20-35)- have mental ability of 1-2 yo

  • Moderate (35-50)- have mental ability of 3-6 yo, can walk, talk and very basic tasks

  • Mild (50-70)- mental age of older child, 6-12 yo, probably are aware of it, can be productive members of society- job training

Normal Range

• makes up 95% of population, can function normally w/o supervision

  • Low Normal (70-90)- can work skilled labor jobs, can manage other people

  • Average (90-110)- most of the population ~70%

  • High Normal (110-120)- little bit brighter than the rest- in honors/AP classes, take on more complicated jobs- engineers, doctors

High Range

• >2.5% of population

  • Superior (120-140)- clearly brighter than average, professors

  • Genius (140 and above)- very rare, really bright, increasingly difficult to assess people the higher you go

Flynn Effect

• Increase in IQ scores that was seen in the 1900s

• Average changes 

• Plateau and slight decline in past 30 years

Modern Testing- Categories

• Achievement- test that analyzes what you know and can do

  • ex. regular class tests

• Aptitude- test of your potential- what you could do

  • useful bc they are Predictive of future performance

Modern Testing- Concerns

• Standardization- creating one test for many people

  • Have a basis for comparison

  • Important for assessing school performance

  • Normal Distribution- want a bell curve, most people near middle/average 

  • Correcting for the Flynn Effect- as society’s average changes, you have to adjust how results are calculated

• Reliability

  • Its ability to produce consistent results time after time, from person to person

  • Good test- 150-200 questions

  • Test-Retest- if you have the same person take it twice, do they get about the same results?

  • Split-half- the first half of the test should have the same score has the second half

• Validity- does the test test what it's supposed to measure?

  • Content- is your test testing the correct subject

  • Predictive- do aptitude tests really predict what they are supposed to?

• Bias

  • Cultural Variation- some cultures do better on certain kinds of questions and worse on others

  • Stereotype Threat- the assumption that everybody has the same common knowledge

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)

*timed

• Verbal section- like an english test

• Performance section- math, problem solving

• Composite- those two scores put together

SAT- Scholastic Aptitude Test

• The test for predicting college performance

• Math, Verbal, Written English, Equating sections

• Why it's still used- It is the best predictor of future college performance, better than essays, GPA, everything

State/Grade-Level Exams

• All achievement tests

• Ex. EOC, EOG, NCFE 

• CAT- California Achievement Test-> Nationwide achievement test for elementary school students

Woodcock-Johnson (General Intellectual Ability)

• Comprehensive Knowledge- how much you know

• Fluid Reasoning- can you learn something and and then use it to problem solve

• Processing Speed- timed element

Psychological Assessments Goal

to identify:

1. Personality traits 

2. Potential mental health disorders

Inventories

1. Purpose

   • Personality

   • Only provide a General Screening for disorders- not diagnostic tool

2. Types of Questions

   • Respond to statements on a degree- totally disagree to totally agree

3. Size

   • hundreds of questions, takes hours

   • Long so person doesn’t lie

4. Types

   • Self-reporting- you fill it out yourself

MMPI- Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

• 10 categories of questions to look at 10 potential problems

  Scales

• Hypochondriasis- someone who thinks they're sick when they're not

• Depression

• Hysteria- can’t control emotions

• Psychopathic Deviance

• Masculine/Femininity 

• Paranoia 

• Psychasthenia- people with anxiety and obsessions

• Schizophrenia- disorders where you have lost touch w/ reality

• Mania- people who are always up

• Social Introversion- how shy/extroverted are you

California Psychological Inventory (CPI)

1. Similarities to MMPI

   • Same format, similar length

2. 4 Categories- grouped characteristics

   • Poise, Self-Assurance, Ego

   • Socialization, Responsibility Intrapersonal Values, Character

   • Achievement Potential and Intellectual Efficiency

   • Intellectual and Interest Modes

• Created 4 quadrant role identities

  • Implementer, supporter, innovator, visualizer

Problems with Inventories

• Validity- do they actually do a good job screening for disorders?

• Meaning- what do the results actually mean?

• Ability to Cope- it cannot measure your ability to cope

  • You might have high levels of stress, depression, etc but you can handle it fine

• Barnum Effect- “We have something for everyone” the belief that you can find something wrong with anybody if you look hard enough

Vocational Interest Tests

• Purpose- a test designed to identify a career you might be interested in and might be good at

• Validity- does this really give you a good idea of what kind of job you'd be interested in/be good at?

Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory

• Has 6 quadrants with different types of careers (social, artistic, etc)

• Question Types- either/or questions

• Comparison- results are compared to different people and careers 

• Problems- people read too much into the results

Alternatives to Vocational Interest Tests

• Interviews- talk to candidates to see if they would be a good fit

  • Halo Effect- people are on their best behavior and give the interviewer the answers they want, not necessarily the honest answer 

  • Reverse Halo Effect- no matter what the interviewed person says, it's the wrong thing 

  • Standout- the person who stands out gets remember over the best candidate  

• Situational Assessments- bring in a candidate and have them do the job on a trial basis