Module 3: Intelligence

The Elusive Concept of Intelligence

The Elusive Concept of Intelligence

• How should it be defined?

• What are its influences?

• How is it developed?

• How can it be measured?

Francis Galton

the most intelligent persons were those equipped with the best sensory abilities

Alfred Binet

• intelligence is based on multiple components—i.e., reasoning judgment, memory and abstraction

• components cannot be separated

David Wechsler

“Intelligence, operationally defined, is the aggregate or global capacity of the individual to act purposefully, to think rationally and to deal effectively with his environment.”

Howard Gardner

defined intelligence in terms of the ability “to resolve genuine in purposive adaptation to, shaping of, and selection of real-world environments relevant to one’s life.”

Jean Piaget

Defined as an evolving biological adaptation to the outside world. As cognitive skills are gained, adaptation increases, and mental trial and error replaces physical and trial and error.

Charles Spearman

“In truth, intelligence has become… a word with so many meanings that finally it has none.”

In general, intelligence includes the abilities to:

• acquire and apply knowledge

• reason logically

• plan effectively

• infer perceptively

• make sound judgments and solve problems

• grasp and visualize concepts

• pay attention

• be intuitive

• find the right words and thoughts with facility

• cope with, adjust to, and make the most of new situations

Interactionism

refers to the complex concept by which heredity and environment are presumed to interact and influence the development of one’s intelligence

The factor-analytic approach

the focus is on identifying the ability or groups of abilities deemed to constitute intelligence (example: vocabulary, reading comprehension, word fluency, algebra, geometry)

Information Processing Approach

the processes that underlie how we learn and solve problems, adapt to real-world demands

Two-Factor Theory of Intelligence

• Charles Spearman

• g all the variance that intelligence tests have in common

• the remaining portions of the variance are accounted for by specific components (s) and error (e)

• Spearman conceived of the basis of the g factor as some type of general electrochemical mental energy available to the brain for problem solving

• the greater the magnitude of g in a test of intelligence, the better the test was thought to predict overall intelligence

• Acknowledged the existence of an intermediate class of factors common to a group of activities but not to all (group factors). Neither as general as g nor as specific s. (Linguistic, mechanical)

Louis Leon Thurstone

• initially conceived of intelligence as being composed of seven “primary abilities”

• gave 56 different test to individuals and have identified seven clusters or primary mental abilities (verbal comprehension, numerical abilities, spatial relations, perceptual speed, word fluency, memory, reasoning)

• tests were designed to measure these abilities and noted a moderate correlation between the tests

• Thurstone became convinced it was difficult, if not impossible, to develop an intelligence test that did not top g

Verbal Comprehension

founds in tests involving verbal comprehension

Numerical Abilities

ability to do numerical calculations rapidly and accurately

Spatial Relations

involved in any task in which the subject manipulates the imaginary object in space

Perceptual Speed

how fast you process visual information

Word Fluency

involved whenever the subject is asked to think of isolated words at a rapid rate

Memory

involving ability to memorize quickly

Reasoning

found in tasks that require a subject to discover a rule or principle involved in a series or groups of letters

Multiple Intelligences

• Howard Gardner

• 9 Independent Intelligences

• not just book smarts (linguistic, interpersonal, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, logical-mathematical, intrapersonal, naturalistic, spatial, existential)

Criticisms of Multiple Intelligences

• definition is too broad

• “intelligences” simply represent talents, abilities, or personalities

• lacks supporting empirical research

Fluid and Crystalized Intelligence

• Raymond Cattell

• intelligence composed of two major type of cognitive abilities (crystalized intelligence, fluid intelligence)

Fluid Intelligence

• ability to perceive relationships independent of previous specific practice or instruction concerning those relationships

• being able to think and reason abstractly and solve problems

• independent of culture education

Crystallized Intelligence

• involves knowledge that comes from prior learning and past experiences

• stored in long-term memory

• knowledge of information

• based upon facts and rooted in experiences

Raymond Cattell and John Horn Theory of Intelligence

Additional Abilities

• visual processing (Gv)

• auditory processing (Ga)

• Quantitative Reasoning (Gq)

• Speed Processing (Gs)

• Facility with reading and writing (Grw)

• Short term memory (Gsm)

• Long term memory storage and retrieval (Glmr)

Three Stratum Theory of Cognitive Abilities

• John Carroll

• based on the study of correlation of individual differences variables from psychological tests, school rating, and competence scores etc.

• it specifies what kinds of individual differences in cognitive abilities exist and how those kinds of individual differences are related to one another

• It proposes a hierarchical model of intelligence. All the abilities listed in a stratum are subsumed by or incorporated in the strata above

Cattell-Horn and Carroll

• For Carroll, g is the third-stratum factor, subsuming Gf, Gc. By contrast, g has no place in the Cattell-Horn model

• the specific definitions of abilities

• the grouping of narrow and broad abilities (example: quantitative knowledge and reading/writing ability)

Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC Model)

• proposed by Ken S. McGrew (1993)

• on the basis of additional factor-analytic work, McGrew and Flanagan (1998) subsequently modified McGrew’s initial CHC model

• in its current form, the McGrew-Flanagan CHC model features ten “broad-stratum” abilities and over seventy “narrow stratum” abilities

• no provision for the general intellectual ability factor (g)

Information Processing Theory

• psychometric approach studied the structure or forms of intelligence

• information processing approach on the mechanisms by which information is processed—how formation is processed, rather than what is processed—cognitive approach

PASS Model

• divides intelligence into 4 interrelated cognitive processes

• CAS—Cognitive Assessment System: A cognitive ability test that measures PASS

Planning

strategy development for problem

Attention/Arousal

receptivity to information

Simultaneous

ability to integrate separate stimuli or information into an interrelated whole

Successive

ability to integrate stimuli or information into a sequential order

CAS—Cognitive Assessment System

• provide a nuanced assessment of an individual’s intellectual functioning providing information about strengths and weaknesses in each of the four processes

• aids in the diagnosis of learning disabilities

Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

• Robert Sternberg

• the essence of intelligence is that is provides a means to govern ourselves so that our thoughts and actions are organized, coherent, and responsive to both out internally driven needs and the needs of the environment

• argued that Practical Intelligence and Creativity are as important in measuring overall intelligence

Analytical Intelligence

academic problem solving and computation

Creative Intelligence

imaginative and innovative problem solving

Practical Intelligence

street smarts and common sense

Componential (Analytical)

• How individuals are approaching the task. How they process information

• Ability to focus on urgent and critical issues. Selection of appropriate strategies. Evaluation of these information: metacomponents, performance components, knowledge acquisition components

Metacomponents

planning what one is going to do, monitoring what one is doing, and evaluating what one has done upon completion

Performance Components

administer the instructions of the metal components (example: analogies, classification, compare and contrast)

Knowledge Acquisition Components

Learning how to do something for the first time that will help us carry out the tasks and plans. Selective encoding, selective combination, selective comparison

Experiential/Creative

• the ability to be intellectually flexible and innovative

• this aspect of intelligence involves the ability to deal with new situations using past experiences and current skills

• novelty

• automation

• it is a continuum and intelligence is best demonstrated as its extreme ends

Novelty

ability to deal with the problem for the first time

Automation

ability to automatically perform repeated tasks

Contextual/Practical

• this element refers to debility to adapt to a changing environment (contextually bound)

• adaptation

• shaping

• selection

Adaptation

adjusting oneself in order to adapt to one’s surrounding

Shaping

when one changes the environment to suit one’s needs

Selection

a new environment is found to replace the previous unsatisfying environment to meet the individual goals

Successful Intelligence

• gauged by the extent to which one affectively adapts shares, shapes, and selects environment in a way that conforms to both personal and societal standards of success

• functional balance between the analytical, creative, and practical intelligence

The Binet Intelligence Scales

• the latest edition of the Binet Scales is the Stanford Binet 2003, 5th Edition (SB5)

• Is an individually administered test of cognitive abilities. The SB5 is appropriate for individuals ages 2 years through 85 years or older with an estimated administration time of 45-75 min.

• Its uses include: diagnosis of various conditions, including developmental or cognitive delays in young children, mental retardation, learning disabilities, and intellectual giftedness. It is also useful for interventions such as developing individual family plans, individual educational plans, and career assessment for adolescent and adult career change

Fluid Reasoning

presents problem solving tasks that require inductive or deductive reasoning

Knowledge

allows testing of the breadth and depth of the examinee’s acquired information, gleaned from home, school, or work and stored in long term memory

Quantitative

tests the examinees ability to work with numbers and numerical problems with an emphasis on applied problem solving rather than specific knowledge acquired through formal learning

Visual Spatial

measures ability related to identifying patterns and visual relationships, gestalt-type recognition of pieces, in a visual display, and spatial orientation

Working Memory

ability to attain and hold diverse information in immediate awareness, inspect, sort, or transform it, and then use it within a few seconds

The Wechsler Intelligence Scales

• David Wechsler: defined intelligence as “the aggregate or global capacity of the individual to act purposefully, to think rationally and to deal effectively with his environment”. He believed that intelligence is comprised of specific elements; however, these elements were interrelated—that is, not entirely independent

• Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale - IV (WAIS-IV)

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale - IV (WAIS-IV)

An individually administered measure of cognitive ability for individuals aged 16 years, 0 months to 90 years, 11 months. It is utilized in specific instances such as the assessment of intellectual giftedness or disability. It also allows for an examination of individual strengths and weaknesses in a variety of cognitive domains.

Individual Subsets

each of which is related to a basic underlying skill or ability

Information Subset

• measures one’s range of knowledge

• each of the various subsets is also part of a broader “index” and there are 4

Index

created where two or more subsets are related to a basic underlying skill

Verbal Comprehension Index

might best be thought of as a measure of crystallized intelligence

Perceptual Reasoning Index

is believed to be a measure of fluid intelligence

Working Memory Index

refers to the information that we actively hold in our minds, in contrast to our stored knowledge, or long-term memory

Processing Speed Index

attempts to measure how quickly your mind works

General Intelligence

• at the top of the hierarchy

• factor that is derived from the combination of all subtests for all 4 indexes

• many basic ideas of the WAIS-IV also apply to the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, Fourth Edition (WPPSI-IV) and Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Fifth Edition (WISC-V)

Raven Progressive Matrices

• Raven found the full-length “intelligence” tests cumbersome to administer and difficult to interpret because scores on many different abilities were composited into total scores, and the individual subscale scores were too unreliable without the need to perform complex calculations to arrive at scores on latent, or underlying, “factors” or variables

• Spearman’s formulation influenced Raven in which separate abilities tended to correlate relatively highly and to suggest that the resulting pattern of intercorrelations could be largely explained by positing a single underlying factor of general cognitive ability or g. It is less well known that Spearman postulated that g is made up of two very different abilities which normally work closely together.

Eductive Ability

meaning making ability, the ability to make sense of complexities

Reproductive Ability

the ability to store and reproduce information

Raven’s Progressive Matrices (RPM) measures what:

• Are a visual task of abstract reasoning which measure eductive ability or meaning making ability. It is a multiple choice paper-and-pencil task that uses simple, nonrepresentational two-dimensional designs and can be administered individually or by group.

• In each test item, the subject is asked to identify the missing item that completes a pattern. Items become progressively more difficult, building upon knowledge accumulated from the test. It measures analogical reasoning, capacity for abstraction, and perception that minimizes the impacts of language and skills and cultural differences.

• The Raven’s 2 edition measures observational skills and ability in a variety of settings in ages 4 to 90 years and takes around 30 to 45 minutes to administer.

Mill Hill Vocabulary measures:

measures their reproductive ability

Group Intelligence Tests

• Are extensively used in schools and related educational settings. Group intelligence test results provide school personnel with valuable information for instruction related activities and increased understanding of the individual pupil.

One primary function of data from a group intelligence test is:

to alert educators to students who might profit from more extensive assessment with individually administered ability tests

Culture

• is a way of life

• Refers to the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people which can vary between different cultures and subcultural groups. Thus, different cultures have different conceptualizations and views about intelligence. As a result, test takers from different cultural groups can be expected to bring to a test situation differential levels of ability, achievement, and motivation.

Items on a test intelligence tend to:

Reflect the culture of the society where the test is employed. To the extent that a score on such a test reflects the degree to which testtakers have been integrated into the society and the culture, it would be expected that members of subcultures (as well as others who, for whatever reason, choose not to identify themselves with the mainstream society) would score lower.

Culture Loading

the extent to which a test incorporates the vocabulary, concepts, traditions, knowledge, and feelings associated with a particular culture

Culture-fair intelligence Test

• Test for assessment process designed to minimize the influence of culture with regard to various aspects of the evaluation procedures, such as administration instructions, item content, responses required of testtakers, and interpretations made from the resulting data. The rationale for culture-fair test items was to include only those tasks that seemed to reflect experiences, knowledge, and skills common to all different cultures.

Panukat ng Katalinuhang Filipino

• an indigenous measure of intelligence that is suited and adapted to Filipino cultural background

• developed to validate the mental ability of Filipinos whose ages range from 16 and above

• used in schools, business, industry, therapy, vocational and counseling purposes

• written in Filipino

• items are based on the Filipino way of life

• measures 4 generally accepted factors of intelligence

• it is reliable and valid

• easy to administer and score

• 70 mins total working time

Subtests

• talasalitaan (vocabulary)

• ugnayan (analogy)

• kakayahan sa bilang (numerical ability)

• isinasalarawang problema (nonverbal ability)

Talasalitaan (vocabulary)

ability to comprehend meanings, define words—language proficiency

Ugnayan (analogy)

ability to perceive relationships

Kakayahan sa Bilang (numerical ability

ability to understand mathematical concepts and perform problem solving

Isinasalarawang Problema (nonverbal ability)

ability to deal with abstract concept and ideas

Flynn Effect

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