Intelligence

Intelligence

• the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations

• Is controversial because it depends on who is defining it. 

• Therefore is socially constructed and can be culturally specific

Spearman’s General Intelligence

• According to Charles Spearman and others, general intelligence, or “g”, underlies all mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test.

• Determined using factor analysis: a statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items (called factors) on a test; used to identify different dimensions of performance that underlie a person’s total score

  • “g”  factor: general intelligence – If good in one area, good in other areas as well

  • “s” factor:  specific intelligence; Better in some areas than others

Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

• Analytical: Academic problem-solving intelligence is assessed by intelligence tests, which present well-defined problems having a single right answer.

• Creative: Creative intelligence is demonstrated in innovative smarts: the ability to adapt to new situations and generate novel ideas.

• Practical: Practical intelligence is required for everyday tasks that may be poorly defined and may have multiple solutions.

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences

• Howard Gardner (1989) disagreed w/ Spearman & other

• has identified eight relatively independent intelligences, including the verbal and mathematical aptitudes assessed by standardized tests.

Crtiques of Gardner’s Theory

• His work was based on case studies thus cannot be generalized to population

• No valid and reliable test has be made to test multiple intelligence thus criticized as being more an philosophy vs a science

Emotional Intelligence

• the ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions

• Some studies show EQ to be a greater predictor for future success than IQ

Factors of EQ

• Perceiving emotions (recognizing them in faces, music, and stories, and identifying one’s own emotions).

• Understanding emotions (predicting them and how they may change and blend).

• Managing emotions (knowing how to express them in varied situations, and how to manage others’ emotions).

Using emotions to facilitate adaptive or creative thinking.

Crystallized Intelligence

• our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age

  • the ability to recount the battles of World War II

Fluid Intelligence

• our ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease with age, especially during late adulthood

  • the ability to solve a logic puzzle

Intelligence: Nature or Nurture?

• Twin Studies

  • Identical & fraternal

  • Twins reared apart

• Adoption studies

  • More like biological parents or adoptive parents?

Interaction: Heritability

• Heritability: number that indicates the amount or proportion of some ability, characteristic, or trait that can be attributed to genetic factors (nature)

• For adults, intelligence is about 50% heritable

Assessing Intelligence

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

Achievement Test

• intended to reflect what you have learned

Examples include the AP® exam, chapter or unit tests in your courses, final exams in college, etc.

Aptitude Test

•  intended to predict your ability to learn a new skill.

  • Examples include the SAT or ACT or career tests that help predict what future job might best fit your interests.

Alfred Binet

• Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon commissioned by the French government to design fair and unbiased intelligence tests to administer to French schoolchildren.

• began by assuming that all children follow the same course of intellectual development but that some develop more rapidly. 

• Thus, their goal became measuring each child’s mental age, the level of performance typically associated with a certain chronological age.

Terman’s IQ Test

• Adapted Binet’s research to create Stanford-Binet Test

• This version remains in use today 

• For Terman, intelligence tests revealed the intelligence with which a person was born.

IQ

• German psychologist William Stern derived the famous term intelligence quotient, or IQ. 

• The IQ was simply a person’s mental age divided by chronological age and multiplied by 100 to get rid of the decimal point.

Problems with IQ Formula

• It works well for children, but does not really work well on adults, why?

• If an older lady…hypothetically 60 yrs old 

• does as well as an average 30ish yr old

  • then her IQ would be 50!!!

• That makes no sense!!!!!

Wechsler Intelligence Test

• Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-III), ages 16 and older

• Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III) for children  ages 3-16

• both have items that are organized into various subtests.

  • verbal section

  • performance section

  • verbal and performance combined give a single IQ

What info does a WAIS provide?

The WAIS yields not only an overall intelligence score, as does the Stanford-Binet, but also individual scores for verbal comprehension, perceptual organization, working memory, and processing speed. 

Striking differences among these individual scores can provide clues to cognitive strengths or weaknesses.

Criteria for Intelligence Tests

• Normed

• Standardized

• Reliable

  • Valid

Norming

the process of establishing standards or norms for a psychological test by administering it to a large, representative sample of the population. This creates a baseline to interpret individual scores relative to others in the group.

→ a step to making the test standardized!

Standardization

• the process of ensuring a test is administered, scored, and interpreted in a consistent and uniform way for all test-takers.

  • includes creating procedures and norms to make test results comparable across individuals.

• Also applied to scores (statistically adjusted to create…)

Percentile & Intelligence Tests

• A percentile indicates the relative standing of a score within a distribution.

  • Represents the percentage of scores that fall below a specific score.

• Ranges from 0 to 100, where a higher percentile indicates a higher ranking.

  • A person scoring in the 90th percentile performed better than 90% of test-takers.

• Facilitates comparisons & gives a way to interpret scores

Reliability

• the extent to which a test yields consistent results and can be assessed three ways:

Split-Half Reliability

• scores on two halves of the test (even items v. odd items) are compared.

Test-Retest Reliability

•  the same test is re-administered and results are compared.

Validity

the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to

Construct Validity

the degree to which a test or instrument is capable of measuring a concept, trait, or other theoretical entity. 

• Operational definition by which a topic is judged

• For example:

  • Should AP Psych include Biology, Cognition, Perception, etc.

  • What should an effective driver’s test include? 

  • Should an intelligent test or IQ test include verbal, math, and spatial?

Content Validity

• Construct and content validity are a little different

• Content validity is more about whether a test is measuring what it is supposed to 

  • What if your driver’s test was a MC test asking all about AP Psych topics? 

Predictive Validity

• does the test predict future behavior?

• forecasts a future performance

Stereotype Lift

• Members of a group who think of their group membership before a task may unconsciously conform positively to what society thinks of their group.

  • Even though it is “positive,” it is still a confounding variable.

Flynn Effect

• Intelligence Test Performance has been rising

  • Better nutrition?

  • More education?

  • More stimulating environments?

  • Smaller families?