AP Psychology - Unit 2 Vocabulary - Vocabulary #4

Vocab Quiz #4 - December 2, 2024

Fluid intelligence (Gf)

our ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease with age, especially during late adulthood

Crystalized Intelligence (Gc)

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

Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) Theory

the theory that our intelligence is based on g as well as specific abilities, bridged by Gf and Gc

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

Emotional Intelligence

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

Intelligence Test

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

Achievement Test

a test designed to assess what a person has learned

Aptitude Test

a test designed to predict a person’s future performance; aptitude is the capacity to learn

Mental Age

a measure of intelligence test performance designed by Binet; the level of performance typically associated with children of a certain chronological age. thus, a child who does as well as an average 8-year-old is said to have a mental age 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, IQ = ma/ca x 100). on contemporary intelligence tests, the average performance for a given age is assigned a score of 100

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)

the WAIS and its companion versions for children are the most widely used intelligence tests; they contain verbal and performance (nonverbal) subtests

Psychometrics

the scientific study of the measurement of human abilities, attitudes, and traits

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 types of data; most scores fall near the mean (about 68 percent fall within one standard deviation of it) and fewer and fewer scores lie near the extremes (also called a normal distribution)

Flynn Effect

the rise in intelligence test performance over time and across cultures

Reliability

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

Validity

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

Content Validity

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

Construct Validity

how much a test measures a concept or trait

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

Cohort

a group of people sharing a common characteristic, such as from a given time period

Growth Mindset

a focus on learning and growing rather than viewing abilities as fixed

Fixed Mindset

the view that intelligence, abilities, and talents are unchangeable, even with effort

Stereotype Threat

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