(4) PSYC110: Theories of Intelligence and the Binet Legacy

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering theories of intelligence, historical milestones of the Binet scales, psychometric standard score metrics, and modern Stanford-Binet testing procedures.

Intelligence

A multifaceted capacity that manifests itself in different ways across the life span, including the abilities to acquire and apply knowledge, reason logically, plan effectively, infer perceptively, make sound judgments, solve problems, and grasp and visualize concepts.

Francis Galton's Definition of Intelligence

The view that the most intelligent persons are those equipped with the best sensory abilities.

Alfred Binet's Definition of Intelligence

An approach defining intelligence in terms of complex components including reasoning, judgment, memory, and abstraction.

David Wechsler's Definition of Intelligence

The aggregate or global capacity of the individual to act purposefully, to think rationally, and to deal effectively with his or her environment.

Binet's Principles of Test Construction

Three core principles: 1) to find and maintain a definite direction or purpose, 2) to make necessary adaptations to achieve a purpose, and 3) to engage in self-criticism.

Age Differentiation

The principle that older children can be differentiated from younger children based on the former's greater capabilities and developmental milestones.

Mental Age

The equivalent age capabilities of a child independent of his or her chronological age.

General Mental Ability

The conceptualization of intelligence as a unified whole, rather than identifying each element or independent aspect separately.

Two-Factor Theory of Intelligence

Spearman's theory stating that intelligence consists of a general mental ability factor ($g$) plus a large number of specific factors ($s$).

Positive Manifold

The tendency for a person who performs well on one cognitive ability test to also perform well on other cognitive ability tests, resulting in almost all positive correlations when diverse tests are administered to large, unbiased population samples.

Fluid Intelligence ($Gf$)

Non-verbal, culture-free mental abilities that allow individuals to reason, think, and acquire new knowledge, such as solving a novel puzzle or learning to drive.

Crystallized Intelligence ($Gc$)

Acquired skills, knowledge, and understanding accumulated through formal and informal education, such as knowing what a psychological schema is.

Vulnerable Abilities

Cognitive abilities (such as working memory, numerical processing, and visual processing) that decline with age and tend not to return to preinjury levels following brain damage.

Maintained Abilities

Cognitive abilities (such as vocabulary and comprehension) that tend not to decline with age and may return to preinjury levels following brain damage.

Flynn Effect

The progressive rise in intelligence test scores that is expected to occur on a normed intelligence test from the date when the test was first normed.

1905 Binet-Simon Scale

The first major measure of human intelligence, developed by Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon to identify mentally disabled children in the Paris school system using $30$ items arranged in increasing order of difficulty.

1908 Binet-Simon Scale

A revision that introduced the age scale format by grouping test items according to age level, introduced the concept of mental age, and produced a single score for verbal, language, and reading ability.

Ratio IQ

A metric introduced in the 1916 Stanford-Binet scale by L. M. Terman that reflects a subject's rate of development by evaluating mental age in conjunction with chronological age.

Deviation IQ

A standard scoring concept introduced in the 1960 Stanford-Binet revision that reflects a comparison of an individual's performance with that of peers of the same age in the standardization sample, possessing a mean of $100$ and a standard deviation of $16$.

Point Scale

A test organization introduced in the Stanford-Binet Fourth Edition where items are organized into subtests by category of item rather than by age level.

Test Composite

A test score or index derived from the combination and/or mathematical transformation of one or more subtest scores.

Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, Fifth Edition (SB5)

A hierarchical assessment for individuals aged $2$ to $85$ years old, based on the CHC model, which yields composite scores including a Full Scale IQ derived from $10$ subtests across $5$ factor scores.

Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) Theory

A three-level hierarchical model of intelligence consisting of General Intelligence ($g$) at Level III (top), Broad Abilities at Level II, and Specific Abilities at Level I (bottom).

Routing Test

A task used to direct an examinee to the optimal difficulty level of test questions, consisting of Nonverbal Fluid (Object Series/Matrices) and Verbal Knowledge (Vocabulary) subtests on the SB5.

Adaptive Testing

An administration method that begins a subtest with questions in the middle range of difficulty to collect maximal information in minimal time, facilitate rapport, and reduce examinee fatigue.

Teaching Items

Test items designed to illustrate the required task, ensure the examinee understands the instructions, and familiarize the examinee with the test procedure.

Basal Age

The basal-level criterion that must be achieved on an intelligence subtest for administration to proceed.

Ceiling Age

The ceiling-level criterion reached when an examinee fails a specific number of items consecutively, indicating that testing on that subtest should discontinue.

Testing the Limits

The administration of test items beyond the discontinuance threshold dictated by the standardized test manual.

T-Score

A standardized score scale that has an established mean of $50$ and a standard deviation ($\text{SD}$) of $10$.

Stanine

A standard score system divided into nine units, characterized by a mean of $5$ and a standard deviation ($\text{SD}$) of $2$.

Sten

A ten-unit standard score scale characterized by a mean of $5.5$ and a standard deviation ($\text{SD}$) of $2$.

Z-Score

A standard score expressing how many standard deviations an observation is above or below the mean, calculated as $Z = \frac{x - \frac{\text{Mean}}{\text{SD}}}{\text{SD}}$ or $Z = \frac{x - \bar{X}}{s}$.

National Curve Equivalence (NCE)

A standardized scoring metric that possesses an established mean of $50$ and a standard deviation ($\text{SD}$) of $21.06$.