Myers & DeWall Psychology Chapter 10: Intelligence (11th Edition)

Intelligence

The mental potential to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations.

General intelligence (g)

A general intelligence factor that according to Spearman and others underlies specific mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test.

Savant syndrome

A condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill, such as in computation or drawing.

Practical intelligence

Intelligence that is required for everyday tasks that are not well-defined, and that may have many possible solutions.

Analytical intelligence (academic problem-solving intelligence)

Assessed by intelligence tests, which present well-defined problems having a singe right answer.

Creative intelligence

Demonstrated in innovative smarts; the ability to generate novel ideas.

Emotional intelligence

The ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions.

Spearman's general intelligence theory

A basic intelligence predicts our abilities in varied academic areas.

Thurstone's primary mental abilities theory

Our intelligence may be broken down into 7 factors; word fluency, verbal comprehension, spatial ability, perceptual speed, numerical ability, inductive reasoning, and memory.

Gardner's multiple intelligences

Our abilities are best classified into eight or nine independent intelligences, which include a broad range of skills beyond traditional school smarts.

Sternberg's triarchic theory

Our intelligence is best classified into three areas that predict real-world success: analytical, creative, and practical.

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 devised by Binet; the chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance. Thus, a child who does as well as the 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 × 100). On contemporary intelligence tests, the average performance for a given age is assigned a score of 100.

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Score (WAIS)

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

Standardization

Defining uniform testing procedures and meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested group.

Normal curve

The symmetrical bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many physical and psychological attributes. Most scores fall near the average, and fewer and fewer scores lie near the extremes.

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 measures or predicts what it is supposed to.

Content validity

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

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.

Crystallized intelligence

One's accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age.

Fluid intelligence

Our ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease during late adulthood.

Intellectual disability

A condition of limited mental ability, indicated by an intelligence score of 70 or below and difficulty in adapting to the demands of life. (Formerly referred to as mental retardation).

Down syndrome

A condition mild to severe intellectual disability and associated physical disorders caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21.

Heritability

The proportion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genes. The heritability of a trait may vary, depending on the range of populations and environments studied.

Stereotype threat

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