Intelligence and Its Assessment

Vocabulary flashcards based on lecture notes about intelligence.

Intelligence

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

Intelligence (socially constructed)

Qualities that enable success in one’s own time and culture.

General Intelligence (g)

Believed that humans have one general intelligence that is at the heart of everything a person does.

Factor analysis

A statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items.

Multiple Intelligences

Intelligence consists of multiple abilities that come in different packages; verbal and mathematical aptitudes assessed by standard tests.

Gardner's Eight Multiple Intelligences

Eight relatively independent intelligences exist, including the verbal and mathematical aptitudes assessed by standard tests. Proposed an existential, ninth intelligence.

Existential intelligence

Ability to ponder deep questions about life.

Analytical intelligence

School smarts: traditional academic problem-solving.

Creative intelligence

Trailblazing smarts: ability to generate novel ideas.

Practical intelligence

Street smarts: skill at handling everyday tasks.

Emotional intelligence

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

Intelligence test

Method for assessing an individual’s mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others using numerical scores.

Aptitude tests

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

Achievement tests

Tests designed to assess what a person has learned

Mental age

A measure of intelligence test performance devised by Binet; the chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance.

Intelligence quotient (IQ)

The ratio of mental age (ma) to chronological age (ca) multiplied by 100 (thus, IQ = ma/ca X 100).

Crystallized intelligence

Accumulated knowledge, as reflected in vocabulary and analogy tests.

Fluid intelligence

Ability to reason speedily and abstractly, as when solving unfamiliar logic problems.

Intellectual disability

Low intelligence test score (70 or below on an intelligence test with a midpoint of 100) and difficulty in adapting to normal demands of independent living.

Down syndrome

Condition of 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.

Stereotype threat

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