Psychology Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Intelligence

psychological test

standardized measure of a sample of a person’s behavior

Intelligence tests

measure general mental ability

aptitude tests

assess specific types of mental abilities.

achievement tests

gauge a person’s mastery and knowledge of various subjects

Personality tests

measure various aspects of personality, including motives, interests, values, and attitudes.

Standardization

uniform procedures used in the administration and scoring of a test

Test norms

provide information about where a score on a psychological test ranks in relation to other scores on that test (relative to other ppl)

percentile score

indicates the percentage of people who score at or below the score one has obtained

Reliability

the measurement consistency of a test (or of other kinds of measurement techniques)

correlation coefficient

numerical index of the degree of relationship between two variables (closer correlation comes to +1, the more reliable the test)

Validity

ability of a test to measure what it was designed to measure

Content validity

degree to which the content of a test is representative of the domain it’s supposed to cover.

Criterion-related validity

correlating subjects’ scores on a test with their scores on an independent criterion (another measure) of the trait assessed by the test

construct validity

extent to which evidence shows that a test measures a particular hypothetical construct

Francis Galton

nature versus nurture to refer to the heredity-environment, the idea that the bell curve could be applied to psychological characteristics, demonstrated intelligencei is governed by heredity

Binet-Simon scale

expressed a child’s score in terms of “mental level” or “mental age.”

mental age

indicated that he or she displayed the mental performance typical of a child of that chronological (actual) age.

Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale

incorporated a new scoring scheme based on William Stern’s “intelligence quotient”

intelligence quotient (IQ)

child’s mental age divided by chronological age, multiplied by 100

Wechsler Adult Intelligence

scheme based on the normal distribution, and more nonverbal reasoning

normal distribution

a symmetric, bell-shaped curve that represents the pattern in which many characteristics are dispersed in the population

standard deviation

a measure of the amount of variation or dispersion of a set of values

gifted

2.1% of ppl IQ 130+

intellectual disability

2.1% of ppl below 70, adaptive skills (concepts, social, practical) impaired

Reaction Range

genetically determined limits (low and high) on traits. This s about 25 points in IQ. genetics: range environemnt: score

Heritability of Intelligence

Heredity: twin studies, adoption studies, heredity accounts for 50-80%

Environment: environmental deprivation & enrichment, generational effect (flynn effect)