Understanding Human Lifespan Development: Intelligence and Creativity

Psychometric Approach

The research tradition responsible for standardized testing that views intelligence/personality as a set of traits that can be measured, and varying from person to person.

Fluid Intelligence

Aspects of intelligence involving thinking/reasoning to solve novel problems.

Crystalized Intelligence

Aspects of intelligence involving the use of knowledge through experience; Juxtaposes fluid thought.

Cattell-Horn-Carroll Theory

Model of intelligence where it is viewed as a hierarchy ,ranging from general ability to specific, nuanced abilities like numerical reasoning that are measurable.

Mental Age (MA)

The age at which the child functions intellectually, reflecting he level of problems they are able to solve.

Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale

Commonly/widely used intelligence test that yields an IQ score.

Test Norms

Standards of normal performance on psychometric instruments based on a large, representative sample of test takers from diverse backgrounds.

Wechsler Scales

Set of widely used and administered intelligence tests yielding verbal, performance, and overall IQ scores.

Intellectual Disability

Below average intellectual functioning with limitations in adaptive behaviors like self-care and social skills.

Gifted

Possession of unusually high intellectual potential or special abilities in creativity, mathematics, and the arts.

Savant Syndrome

Phenomenon in which a person with an intellectual disability shows extraordinary skill in a particular area.

Prodigies

Individuals, especially children, endowed with one or more extraordinary abilities.

Sternberg’s Theory of Successful Intelligence

An idea that emphasizes 3 aspects of intelligent behavior: Practical, creative, and analytical.

Practical Intelligence

Aspect of intelligence that varies from one sociocultural context to another (such as common sense).

Creative Intelligence

Aspect of intelligence that varies with experience on a task requiring active and conscious information processing.

Automatization

Process where information processing becomes effortless and highly efficient as a result of experience.

Cultural Bias

Situation in testing when one cultural/sub-cultural group is more familiar with test items another group, thus having an unfair advantage.

Analytical Intelligence

Information processing skills such as critical/analytical thinking.

Creativity

The ability to produce novel responses or works that are original and meaningful to others.

Convergent Thinking

Thinking that requires converging on the one best answer to a particular problem; What IQ measures

Divergent Thinking

Thinking that requires coming up with a variety of ideas or solutions to a problem where there is no one right answer

Ideational Fluency

The sheer # of different (or novel) ideas that a person can generate; helps to measure divergent thinking and creativity.

Investment Theory

Sternberg’s view that creativity emerges from a confluence of multiple factors at the right time such as intellectual abilities, knowledge, cognitive style, personality, motivation, and a supporting environment.

Limited

Measuring intelligence in infants (especially when it comes to creativity) is highly () due to limited attention and verbal skills.

Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (BSID)

Standardized test to measure mental, motor, and behavioral progress of young infants. Has limited use in determining a child’s later on intelligence.

Cue

Fast information processing in children can be a () for greater intelligence/cognitive development in later life.

Jumps

In a group, children’s IQ tends to be stable, but in individual results it can be open to significant () up or down, showing that testing environment, motivation, and many other factors play a role in performance than just intellectual ability.

True

(T/F) (Jumps in a child’s IQ is dependent on the stability of their home environment, alongside parental involvement

Child Poverty

Household climate that

Flynn Effect

The rise of average IQ scores over the 20th Century.

Longer

An individual with a higher IQ is more likely to live ()

Dysrationalia

Keith Stanovich’s term for the quite common inability to think/behave rationally even with adequate intelligence.

Shortcuts

Dysrationalia occurs because of our willingness to find mental (), in order to arrive to an answer or conclusion as quickly and effortlessly as possible.

False

(T/F) While fluid intelligence stays consistent with age, crystalized intelligence decreases over time.

Terminal Decline

A rapid drop in intellectual abilities that people within a few years of dying experience.

Wisdom

A combination of rich factual knowledge about life and procedural knowledge such as strategies for giving advice/handling conflicts.

A.

Do older adults less frequent creative behavior? A. No, creative thinking still exists in older adults, just at a slower rate/lower capacity B. Yes, creative thinking declines completely into older adulthood.

Cumulative-Deficit Hypothesis

Notion that impoverished environments inhibit intellectual growth, with these effects accumulating over time.

Home observation for measurement of the Environment (HOME)

Widely used instrument allowing an observer to determine how intellectually stimulating (or impoverished) the home environment is.

Stereotype Threat

Individuals’ fear of being judged of possessing qualities of negative stereotypes from their social group.