Developmental Psychology Block 2 Intelligence

Starting at lecture 3

wechsler intelligence tests

a family of widely used, individually administered IQ tests (for adults and children) that use many diff subtests to profile intelligence.

WAIS (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale)

The main Wechsler test for adults and older adolescents. Gives an overall IQ plus index scores (e.g. Verbal Comprehension, Working Memory, Perceptual Organisation, Processing Speed)

WISC (Wechsler Intelligence scale for children)

Designed specifically for school age children (5-16)

Subtest

One of the individual tasks within a larger IQ test battery. Each subtest targets a particular aspect of cognitive ability

Verbal Comprehension

WAIS index capturing understanding and use of language (e.g. defining words, explaining proverbs, answering general-knowledge questions).

perceptual reasoning

WAIS index measuring non-verbal reasoning and visual-spatial problem solving (e.g. Block Design, Matrix Reasoning, Visual Puzzles)

Working Memory

WAIS index measuring the ability to temporarily hold and manipulate information in mind (e.g. Digit span, arithmetic, letter-number sequencing)

Processing speed

WAIS index measuring how quickly and accurately simple information can be processed (e.g. Coding, symbol search, cancellation)

Deviation IQ

IQ defined din terms of how far a person’s score deviates from the average score for their age group (mean =100, SD=15) rather than using mental-age/chronological-age ratios

Standardisation / Norming

The process of giving a test to a large, representative sample (varying in age, sex, social class, region etc.) to create norms that individual scores can be compared against.

Raven’s Progressive Matrices (RPM)

a non verbal IQ test where people identify the missing piece in a pattern of shapes. Designed to measure abstract reasoning and to be relatively independent of language and culture

Abstract reasoning

The ability to detect patterns, relationships and rules between shapes, ideas, or pieces of information, beyond concrete, everyday content.

Eductive ability

Raven’s term for the ability to ‘draw out’ meaning from complex or confusing information and see underlying patterns

Reproductive ability

the ability to store, recall and reproduce learned information

Correlation

A statistical measure (ranging from -1 to +1) describing how strongly two variables move together. Positive correlations between subtests mean people who score high on one tend to score high on others.

Hierarchy of mental abilities

The idea that test scores can be organised in levels: individual subtests, clusters or “index scores” (e.g. verbal comprehension)

Reliability

how consistently a test measures something

internal reliability

the extent to which items within a test or subtest correlate with eachother, suggesting they measure the same underlying construct

test retest reliability

the extent to which a test gives similar results when the same person takes it on different occasions (assuming no real change in their ability)

Validity

Whether a test actually measures what it claims to measure (here: intelligence) and whether it predicts relevant outcomes

face validity

The extent to which a test appears, on the surface, to measure what it claims to (e.g. an IQ test that “looks like” it measures reasoning and problem-solving)

Concurrent validity

When a test correlates well with other established measures of the same construct (e.g. WAIS scores correlating with other IQ tests)

Predictive validity

The degree to which test scores forecast future outcomes such as school achievement, job performance, or training success

Educational use

Using IQ tests to help identify children who may need extra support or who are exceptionally able, to play appropriate educational provision

Clinical / diagnostic use

using IQ tests as part of an assessment for intellectual disability, learning difficulties, or the cognitive impact of brain injury, dementia etc

occupational use

Using cognitive ability tests as one component in selection, placement, or training decisions in workplaces

Cultural bias

The criticism that some IQ tests are more familiar or appropriate for people from certain cultural or educational backgrounds, which can disadvantage others.

Eugenics

A movement that misused IQ tests to justify policies like forced sterilisation, immigration restriction, and racial discrimination

what were the subtests for measuring diff aspects of intelligence in the WAIS-R

6 VERBAL AND 5 PERFORMANCE tests. verbal are: information, comprehension, arithmetic, digit span, similarities, vocabulary. Performance are: picture arrangement, picture completion, block design, object assembly, digit symbol (perceptual speed)

what have to do in similarities, vocab and info subsets

say what two words have in common, tell tester what certain words mean, general knowledge questions

what have to do in comprehension, block design and matrix reasoning

answer questions about everyday-life problems, aspects of society and proverbs. reproduce a pattern using cubes. Find the missing element in a pattern that is built up in a logical manner

what have to do in visual puzzles, figure weights, picture completion

find the shapes that match up to make one bigger shape, choose the correct objects to balance a scale in weight, spot the missing element in a series of colour drawings

what have to do in digit span, arithmetic, letter-number sequencing

repeat a sequence of numbers to the examiner, solve mental arithmetic problems, repeat a sequence of alternating letters and numbers by rearranging them for the numbers growing first and then the letters in alphabetical order.

what have to do in symbol search, coding and cancellation

identify from a list of abstract symbols which symbol in a given pair of target symbols is contained in the list.

write down the symbol that corresponds to a given number.

In a large sheet of paper with pink triangles and squares and blue triangles and squares, put a pencil line through each blue square and each pink triangle.

whats the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) IQ Formula?

(actual test score / expected test score for that age) x 100

How was Raven’s Progressive Matrices diff to Wechsler tests? yet…

focused on one class of test believed to measure abstract reasoning and nothing else. yet the correlations were between 0.40 and 0.75