Extra Notes

• Data Based Approaches

  • start by measuring as many things as possible that may be related to your ability of interest (personality)

    • ask questions related to the ability of interest

  • Leads to a large data set where scores are non-independent, relate to each other in some way

  • If scores are not independent of one another, they are related to some other underlying component

    • something in common

  • Can use statistical methods to identify patterns where certain patterns overlap

    • can describe underlying measures and where they all come from

• Why is Factor Analysis Useful?

  • That factor allows us to infer the underlying characteristic that accounts for links among other variables in the cluster

  • Each cluster can be thought of as a single aspect of the ability we’re interested in

• Theory Based Approach

  • Consider all the aspects of your ability of interest

    • ex.) What contributes to our spatial awareness? What makes someone spatially aware?

  • Determine how you test each of those aspects

    • Are there tests that measure these aspects?

    • Can we design a test that measures these aspects?

    • It is not always possible to measure these aspects!

Early Philosophies of Intelligence

• Intelligence allows us to adapt to changes and learn from experience

Binet’s Tests

• Lewis Terman revised Binet’s tests

  • tests were used in WW1

  • used symbols

• Binet developed the very first intelligence test

• Measured aptitude (natural abilities, what you can already do) from achievment (what you can achieve, learn)

David Wechsler

• Believed that intelligence is a set of verbal and non verbal skills

• Created difference intelligence scales for different age groups

Intelligence test scores correlate with:

• Academic performance - IQ score is higher = higher academic performance, etc

• occupational statues and job performance

• Income

• Health and longevity

Conceptualizing Intelligence - Chapter 10 Pt 3

Charles Spearmann

• notices patterns on people’s scores with cognitive tests

• Positive Manifold - positive correlations found between many cognitive related tasks

  • Different abilities within intelligence?

• 2 factor theory of intelligence - every cognitive task requires a combination of a general ability (g), and skills specific to the task (s)

Louis Thurstone

• Noticed that there are positive correlations between cognitive tasks, but that there are also stronger correlations within clusters of similar tasks

  • Clustering of mental abilities is evidence against (g)

  • Argued for a few stable and independent primary abilities

Spearman or Thurstone?

Confirmatory Factor Analysis - Statistical technique that takes a large set of non independent measures, and collapses them into a smaller set of relatively independent clusters

• Showed that three level hierarchy fits best weaker correlations between scores on different tests, and stronger correlations within clusters of similar tests

^ It is called this because we are trying to confirm which model will work best - both of them work!

Spearman and Thurstone

• Results from many intelligence tests best explained with a three level hierarchy:

  • General intelligence at the top (g)

  • Middle level abilities (m) in the middle

    • aka - group factors

  • Specific abilities at the bottom (s)

• Nature of these Middle Level Abilities? What are they?

  • Can be determined through data based approach - collecting data and looking at the patterns you find within those measurements

  • Can also be determined using theory based approach - looking at the ability of interest and seeing which components logically relate to that

Thurstone’s Primary Mental Abilities

Seven Independent Mental Abilities

• Verbal Comprehension

• Word Fluency

• Number Facility

• Spatial Visualization

• Associative Memory

• Perceptual Speed

• Reasoning

John Carroll (1916-2003)

Eight Independent mid level abilities

• Memory and Learning

• Visual Perception

• Auditory Perception

• Retrieval Ability

• Cognitive Speediness

• Processing Speed

• Crystallized Intelligence

• Fluid Intelligence

Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence

Fluid Intelligence: Ability to make logical inferences and recognize abstract relationships

• deal with novel situations without any previous knowledge

Crystallized Intelligence: Ability to retain and use the knowledge acquired from experience

• Apply previously learned knowledge to current problems

Raven’s Progressive Matrices’s Test

Raven, Raven, Court (2004)

• Test of Fluid Intelligence

• Special because it is not language specific

• Using shapes, it asks individuals to recognize and complete a series of patterns

  • Useful so there is no language barrier between cultures, not so biased

  • depends on group that made the test

Robert Sternberg

• Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

  • Analytic Intelligence - ability to problem solve; traditional intelligence test tasks

• Creative or synthetic intelligence - ability to generate novel solutions using skills and information

• Practical Intelligence - Ability to adapt to everyday settings

Howard Gardener

• Gardener’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences

  • Eight Relatively Independent Intelligences

    • Linguistic

    • Logical - Mathematical

    • Visuospatial

    • Musical

    • Bodily-kinesthetic

    • Interpersonal

    • Instrapersonal

    • Naturalistic

  • Has speculated a 9th intelligence

    • Existensial Intelligence

  • Has been criticized for lack of empirical support

John Mayer and Peter Salovay

Emotional Intelligence: Ability to understand and reason using emotions

• Involves the abilities to:

  • to be aware and accurately read emotions of self and others

  • to respond to emotions appropriately

  • to regulate and control one’s own emotional responses

Intelligence Across Cultures

• Different cultures will conceptualize intelligence very differently

  • different views on what intelligence means to them

• Language plays a role, as do cultural values

  • social norms

  • interactions

  • etc

• Data based approach underrepresents middle-level abilities valued in cultures where intelligence test are not common