Intelligence theory and measurement

What was Plato’s view on knowledge and intelligence

• he wrote that knowledge wasn’t given by the senses but acquired through them

  • it was intelligence through reason that made out sense of what was perceived

Who was Hobbes and what was his view on mental processes

suggested that all mental processes were the result of the movement of brain atoms activated by interaction with the mental world and the external world

What was Kant view on intelligence

talked about intelligence in terms of the mind consisting of qualities such as causality, unity, and totality that allow it to order and make meaningful raw sensory information

When did the foundations of the intelligence theory and tests begin and by who

began just before the end of the 19th century and with two men, Galton and Binet

What was Galton’s view on intelligence people and sense

he felt that intelligent people respond to a large range of information through the senses

• he felt that people of low intelligence would show less response to sensory information, such as distinguish between heat and cold, being unable to recognise pain

What did Galton believe you could show intelligence through

to determine intelligence through responsiveness to stimuli

• reaction time, keenest of sight and hearing, the ability to distinguish between colours, eye judgement

What did Binet create

created the first intelligence test

In 1905, what did Binet and Simon produce

the Binet-Simon scale

• the first intelligence test

• Simon described it as “practical, convenient, and rapid”

What was Binet and Simon’s approach classed as

it was seen as pragmatic (realistic, practical)

• it was concerned with facts or actual occurrences

Give an example of some of what were the short tasks that were involved in the Binet and Simon intelligence test

• following a lighted match with your eyes

• shaking hands

• naming parts of the body

• counting coins

• naming objects in a picture

• recalling the number of digits a person can recall after being shown a long list

• word definitions

How was the intelligence test arranged

it was arranged so as to be of increasing difficulty to indicate levels of intelligence

• so the easiest task, (i.e. whether a child can or cannot follow a lighted match with their eyes) it was expected to be completed by all children

• slightly harder tasks (i.e. asking a child to name certain body parts, repeat a simple sentence, and repeat back a series of 3 digits)

• a more difficult tasks comprised children asking to reproduce a drawing of something or construct sentence from three words (i.e. ball, room, and Paris)

• the most hardest items included children being asked to repeat back seven random digits and number of rhymes for difficult words

What else could the intelligence test be used to determine

the level of tests matched a specific developmental level of children (3 to 10 years old)

• could be used to determine children’s mental ages and whether a child was advanced or backward for their age

  • e.g. a child of 7 passed the test designed for a 7 year old, but failed the test for an 8 year old, so they would be assigned a mental age of 7

What did Terman do

he used the Binet-Simon test in the USA among Californian school children

What did Terman find

he found that age norms that Binet and Simon had devised for Paris children didn’t work well for Californian school children

• so Terman revised the test, adapting some of the times, and wrote 40 new items

In 1916 what did Terman introduce

the Stanford-Binet test

• it is applicable for use for children aged from 4 to 14, as well as a now upper age limit to ‘superior adults’

What did Stern introduce

the Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

What did Stern observe

that mental age changes proportionally with chronological age

• example:

  • age 6 = mental age 5 (- 1 year)

  • age 10 = mental age 8 (- 2 years)

What is the ratio that Stern created

IQ = mental age / chronological age

• examples:

  • 10 year old mental age and 10 years old.

    • 10 / 10 = 1. IQ = 100

  • 7 year old mental age and 10 years old.

    • 7 /10 = 0.7. IQ = 70.

  • 15 year old mental age and 10 years old.

    • 15/ 10 = 1.5. IQ = 150

Why was there a demand for intelligence tests in 1917

because of World War 1

Why was the American Psychological Association asked to help with war effort

to consider ways that psychology can help the war effort

Why couldn’t APA use the tests developed by Binet and Terman for WW1

because they were time intensive

Since, tests developed by Binet and Terman couldn’t be used what did Yerkes (Head of the committee of APA) do

Yerkes and 40 more psychologists developed a group intelligence test

• known as Army Alpha and Army Beta tests

  • Army alpha was for the literate groups

  • Army beta was for the illiterates, low literates or non-English speaking

• but this was developed late into the war so it had little effect on the war effort, but it did raise the status of psychology and the potential usefulness of intelligence testing

What was used in the Alpha test

• oral directions

• arithmetical problems

• practical judgment

• synonyms-antonyms

• disarranged sentences

• uncompleted series of numbers

• analogies

• information

What was used in the Beta test

• maze task

• cube analysis:

  • digit symbols

  • number symbols

  • picture completion

  • geometrical construction

In 1927 what did Spearman introduce

introduced another way of conceptualising intelligence, based on the factor analysis of data that has already been collected

What did Spearman do, describe his study in 1904

he wanted to estimate the intelligence of 24 children in the village school

• at first he set out with intelligence tests of memory, light, weight, and sound in which participants were asked to identify changes in illumination, weight and pitch

• but over time he started to collect more data from a wider group of individuals, using data from early experiments and later studies

  • he examined how results from different intelligence tests were related to each other by analysing them with a statistical method called factor analysis

What did Spearman find

he found that there was a trend of positive correlations between intelligence tests in his data

• that a person who does well on one intelligence test, perform as well on a variety of intellectual tests, (and vice versa)

What is factor analysis

• statistical analysis technique - data reduction

• instead of looking at 2 variables, FA looks at the relationship between many variables

• attempts to find patterns of association in a set of variables

What were Spearman’s two factors of intelligence

• specific abilities ‘s’:

  • name given for each type of intelligence which was needed for performing well on each different intelligence task that Spearman had observed

    • skills unique to particular tasks

• general ability ‘g’:

  • a general intelligence underlying all tasks, explaining positive correlations between tests. Spearman viewed ‘g’ as a kind of mental energy that supports and influences all specific abilities

What two tests are used to measure ‘g’

• Wechsler tests

• Raven progressive matrices

both tests used overall scores on a number of items to measure general intelligence

• these scores are referred to as IQ scores

What was the Wechsler test based on

modelled on Spearman’s two factor model, and Spearman’s central positive that intelligence covered a huge range of specific abilities (e..g arithmetic, comprehension, object assembly, etc)

What was Ravens progressive matrices based on

Raven testes Spearman’s abstract reasoning that its possible to see relationships between objects, events information and draw inferences from those relationships

• thus Raven tested this by developing a test that was free of cultural influences, particularly language

How did Thurstone see Spearman’s work

he agreed with Spearman’s hypothesis of a general factor of intelligence

• but Thurstone viewed ‘g’ differently to Spearman because Spearman saw ‘g’ as a central factor of intelligence underlying and informing all aspects of intelligence, including specific abilities

• but the reason why Thurstone disagreed with Spearman is because he couldn't see how Spearman from his studies shown that there was a general factor of intelligence influencing all single aspects of intelligence

• Thurstone argued that all Spearman had shown was that intelligence tests correlate positively together and that there was no evidence for Spearman’s theoretical description of ‘g’

What did Thurstone do/argue

used factor analysis to inform his findings

• he argued that ‘g’ results from 7 primary mental abilities, which were:

  • associative memory

  • number

  • perceptual speed

  • reasoning

  • space (spatial visualisation)

  • verbal comprehension

  • word fluency

How did Cattell see Spearman’s work

Cattell acknowledged Spearman’s work in accepting there was general intelligence, but suggested that ‘g’ comprised two related but distinct components:

• crystallised intelligence (‘Gc’)

  • acquired knowledge and skills, such as factual knowledge

    • generally related to a person’s stored information and their cultural influences

  • therefore, knowledge of vocabulary, comprehension, and general knowledge would be tests of an individual’s crystallised intelligence

• fluid intelligence (‘Gf’)

  • it’s a primary reasoning ability, the ability to solve abstract relational problems

  • this component is defined by intelligence abilities such as acquisition of new information, understanding new relationships, patterns and analogies in stimuli

How did Guilford see Spearman’s work

Guilford disagreed with the stance of Spearman and didn’t acknowledge the existence of ‘g’

What did Guilford (1977) propose

that intelligence was the result of 150 independent abilities

• his theory was called the structure of intellect (SI) theory

In Guilford (1977) Structure of Intellect (SI) theory what was it organised into