Intelligence involves reason, logic, clear communication, and social behavior.
It's more than just school performance; it includes knowing when you're wrong.
Defining Intelligence
Intelligence is an inferred process that explains adaptive success in behavior.
It includes mental abilities to adapt to, shape, or select one's environment.
Abilities include judging, comprehending, and reasoning.
Involves understanding and dealing with people, objects, and symbols.
The capacity to act purposefully, think rationally, and deal effectively with the environment.
Intelligence Defined
Intelligence: the ability to learn from experience, acquire knowledge, and use resources effectively to adapt and solve problems.
Spearman’s Psychometric Approach: Intelligence as a Single Trait
Psychometric Approach: Measurement of individual differences in behaviors and abilities.
Charles Spearman's “g” factor: a single general ability underlies performance on mental ability tests.
“s” factor: Specific ability factor needed for performance on mental ability tests.
Spearman’s Theory
g factor: General intelligence - the ability to reason and solve problems.
s factor: Specific intelligence - ability to excel in certain areas.
Cattell’s View of Intelligence
Intelligence comprises a few basic abilities.
Fluid Intelligence:
The ability to think on the spot and solve novel problems.
The ability to perceive relationships.
The ability to gain new types of knowledge.
Crystallized Intelligence:
Factual knowledge about the world.
Skills already learned and practiced
Examples: Arithmetic facts, word meanings, state capitals.
Intelligence Tests and Basic Abilities
Fluid intelligence tests measure:
Ability to assemble novel puzzles.
Ability to determine the next entry in a series of numbers.
Ability to identify the object related to others.
Fluid intelligence is domain-general, reflecting a core ability to process information and reason logically.
Performance on fluid intelligence tests does not necessarily predict performance on crystallized intelligence tests.
Fluid and Crystallized Intellectual Development Across the Life Span
Fluid intelligence peaks in early adulthood and declines with age.
Crystallized intelligence continues to develop throughout life.
Broader Theory of Intelligence
Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences: Reason, logic, and knowledge are different aspects of intelligences, along with several other abilities.
Original list had seven different kinds of intelligence, but later added two more.
Howard Gardner proposed a theory of multiple intelligences, in which he identified 9 distinct types of intelligence.
Gardener’s Multiple Intelligences
The first three intelligences are included in psychometric theories of intelligence:
Linguistic intelligence
Logical-Mathematical Intelligence
Spatial Intelligence
What Do These Intelligences Examine?
Linguistics: Sensitivity to the meanings and sounds of words, mastery of syntax, appreciation of language use.
Logical-Mathematical: Understanding of objects, symbols, actions, relations, problem identification, and seeking explanations.
Spatial: Capacity to perceive the visual world accurately, perform transformations upon perceptions, and recreate visual experiences.
Gardener’s Theory of Multiple Intelligence
Gardener’s remaining 6 distinct intelligences are unique to Gardener’s theory:
Musical
Bodily-kinesthetic
Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
Naturalistic
Existential intelligence
What are these Intelligences?
Musical: Sensitivity to tones and phrases of music, understanding of musical rhythms and structures, awareness of emotional aspects of music.
Bodily-Kinesthetic: Use of one’s body in highly skilled ways for expressive or goal-directed purposes, capacity to handle objects skillfully.
Interpersonal: Ability to notice and make distinctions among moods, temperaments, motivations, and intentions of others, with potential to act on this knowledge.
Intrapersonal: Access to one’s own feelings, ability to draw on emotions to guide and understand behavior, recognition of personal strengths and weaknesses.
Naturalistic: Sensitivity and understanding of plants, animals, and nature.
Existential: Sensitivity to issues related to the meaning of life, death, and the human condition.
Gardner’s Nine Intelligences
Verbal/linguistic: Ability to use language (Writers, speakers).
Musical: Ability to compose and/or perform music (Musicians).
Logical/mathematical: Ability to think logically and solve mathematical problems (Scientists, engineers).
Visual/spatial: Ability to understand how objects are oriented in space (Pilots, astronauts, artists, navigators).
Movement/Bodily-Kinesthetic: Ability to control one’s body motions (Dancers, athletes).
Interpersonal: Sensitivity to others and understanding the motivation of others (Psychologists, managers).
Intrapersonal: Understanding of one’s emotions and how they guide actions (Various people-oriented careers).
Naturalist: Ability to recognize the patterns found in nature (Farmers, landscapers, biologists, botanists).
Existentialist: Ability to see the “big picture” of the human world by asking questions about life, death, and the ultimate reality of human existence (Philosophical thinkers).
Measuring Intelligence
Intelligence Testing
What is IQ?
Lewis Terman revised Simon and Binet’s test, publishing the Stanford-Binet Test in 1916.
Performance was described as an intelligence quotient (IQ), the ratio of mental age to chronological age multiplied by 100:
IQ = (MA / CA) * 100
Where MA is mental age and CA is chronological age.
Example: A child who is 10 years old scores a mental age of 15; IQ = (15 / 10) * 100 = 150
Stanford-Binet IQ Test
Measures skills necessary for school success.
Understanding and using language, memory, following instructions, and computational skills.
Binet’s test is a set of age-graded items.
Assumes children’s abilities increase with age.
Items measure “mental level” or “mental age.”
Adaptive Testing: Determine the age level of the most advanced items a child can consistently answer correctly.
Children whose mental age equals chronological age are of “regular” intelligence.
Wechsler Intelligence Scale
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition (WISC-III): Used with children 6 to 16.
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition (WAIS-III): Used with people 17 and older.
WISC-III
Provides a profile of strengths and weaknesses.
Each test is made of 12 parts with increasing difficulty.
Attending school makes children smarter and is important for intellectual growth.
Poverty
More years in poverty correlate with lower IQs.
Children from lower- and working-class homes average 10-15 points below middle-class peers on IQ tests.
Wealthier countries have children that score better on IQ tests than children from poorer homes.
Chronic inadequate diet can disrupt brain development and impair intellectual functioning.
Reduced access to health services, poor parenting, and insufficient stimulation can impair intellectual growth.
Extremes of Intelligence
Intelligence tests can identify individuals at both extremes: those with mental retardation (IQ \{leq 70) and those with high intelligence (IQ \geq 135).
High Intelligence
People with high intelligence test scores tend to be healthy, well-adjusted, and academically successful.
Mental Retardation
Individuals with mental retardation can now care for themselves with supportive environments and special education.