Psych 111 class 14 - Intelligence + IQ Testing

What is intelligence

Edward Boring: It’s whatever intelligence tests measure

Conceptualizing intelligence

• Sensory capacity: the ability of our senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell) to receive and process information

• More than just good eyesight, hearing, and smell - Lilienfeld 2019

Origins of Intelligence Testing

• Early 20th century Francy

• Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon

What is intelligence?

Abilities to:

• reason abstractly

• learn to adapt to novel environmental circumstances

• acquire knowledge

• benefit from experience

General vs. Specific Abilities

g = general intelligence

s = specific abilities

Theorized by Charles Spearman

Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence

• Raymond Cattell and John Horn

Fluid Intelligence

Global capacity to reason

Ability to learn new things

Think abstractly and solve problems

Crystallized Intelligence

Prior learning and past experiences

based on facts

increases with age

Multiple Intelligences: Howard Gardner’s Frames of Mind

• Linguistic

• Logico-mathematical

• Spatial

• Musical

• Bodily-kinesthetic

• Interpersonal

• Intrapersonal

• Naturalistic

Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory

1. Analytical Intelligence - intelligence tests

2. Creative intelligence - adapting and generating novel ideas

3. Practical Intelligence - attaining a fit between oneself and their environment, or “street smarts”

Today’s most common intelligence assessments

The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS - IV)

The Wechsler Intelligence Scare for Children (WISC - V)

Intellectual Disability

Characterized by deficits in intellectual functioning and adaptive functioning that occur in the developmental period

• < 70 = Intellectual Disability

• 90 - 100 = Average

• 130 - 140 = Gifted

Genetic Influences

NATURE

• family studies

• twin studies

• adoption studies

Environmental Factors

NURTURE

• expectancy effects

• poverty

• flynn effect

Behavioral Genetic Designs

• Family Studies: analysis of how characteristics run in intact families

• Twin Studies: analysis of how traits differ in identical versus fraternal twins

• Adoption studies: analysis of how traits vary in individuals raised apart from their biological relatives

Genetic influences on IQ

• Family studies on IQ: relationship declines with increasing biological distance

• Twin studies on IQ: correlation is higher for identical twins (MZ) (.7-.8) than fraternal twins (DZ) (.3-.4)

Environmental Influences on IQ: Teacher Expectancy Effects - Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1966

Administered IQ tests, gave results (bloomers), retested 1-year later

Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson's study showed that children's performance was enhanced if teachers were led to expect enhanced performance from children

Environmental Influences on IQ

• Poverty

  • stress, nutrition, lead exposure, access to books, quality of education, etc can all impact an individuals IQ

• Flynn effect

  • Average IQ scores are rising approximately 3 points per decade

    • Some of the possible explanations include increased schooling, greater educational attainment of parents, better nutrition, and less childhood disease. A particularly interesting explanation is that of more and better parental attention to children.