Human Intelligence

Definition (#f7aeae)

Important (#edcae9)

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Intelligence:

  • Refers to intellectual functioning.

  • Ability to solve problems or create products that are valued witthin 1 or more cultural settings.

  • Ability to adapt to the environment. Either by making a change in oneself, changing the environment or finding a new one.

  • Intelligence is not a single mental process, but rather a combination of many mental processes directed towards effective adaptation to the environment.


Measures and strutures of intelligence:

  • Francis Galton: Intelligence is a function of psychophysical activities, and hereditary.

  • Alfred Binet: Distinguished normal learners from those who belonged to mental retardation category.

    • Measured intelligence as a function of the ability to learn within academic setting.

    • 3 elements:

      • Direction: Knowing what has to be done and how to do it.

      • Adaptation: Customizing strategy.

      • Criticism: Ability to critique your own thoughts.

  • William Stern: Used Intelligent Quotient (IQ), a ratio of mental age divided by the chronological age, multiplied by 100.

    • Ex: f Alan’s mental age of 20 equals his chronological age of 20, then his intelligence is average and his IQ is 100.

    • 20/20)100 = 100

    • IQ above 100 = mental age > chronological age

    • IQ below 100 = mental age < chronological age


IQ test:

  • Lewis Terman: Developed Stanford-Binet intelligence scale, a widely used IQ test.

  • Competitor: Wechsler scales by David Weschler.

    • Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-IV, 2008)

    • Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV, 2003)

    • Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI-III)

Stanford-Binet test

Developing scales:

  • Scales are developed using factor analysis.

  • Factor analysis: Statistical method for separating a construct into number of hypothetical factors that the researchers believe form the basis of intelligence.

  • FA is based on correlation studies, if more highly 2 tests are correlated, then more likely they are to measure the same thing.


Spearman: The ‘G’ Factor

  • Spearman who invented FA concluded that intelligence can be understood in terms of 2 kinds of factors:

    • General (g) factor: All mental ability.

    • Specific factor: Only a single type of mental ability.

    • g factor provides the key to understand intelligence.


Louis Thurstone:

  • Intelligence resides on multiple factors (primary mental abilities).

  • Such as:

    • Verbal comprehension: Measured by vocabulary tests.

    • Verbal fluency: Measured by time-limited tests requiring the test-taker to think of as many words as possible that begin with a given letter.

    • Inductive reasoning: Measured by tests such as analogies and number-series completion tasks.

    • Spatial visualization: Measured by tests requiring mental rotation of pictures of objects.

    • Number: Measured by computation and simple mathematical problem-solving tests.

    • Memory: Measured by picture and word-recall tests.

    • Perceptual speed: Measured by tests that require the test-taker to recognize small differences in pictures or to cross out the differences in strings of varied letters.


Intelligence and information processing:

  • Speed and accuracy are important factors of intelligence.

  • Inspection time: Time taken to inspect items and make a decision about them.

  • Choice reaction time: Time taken to select one answer among several possibilities.

  • Lexical-access speed: Speed in which we can retrieve information about words from LTM.


Working memory:

  • Critical component of intelligence.

  • Ex:

    • Task: Participants performed a set of arithmetic problems, each of which then followed by a word or digit. “(7 x 5) -3 = 8? CHAIR”.

    • They performed several sets.

    • The task was to recall the words that followed the problem.

    • The number of words was highly correlated with measured intelligence.

  • WM predicts scores on tests of general ability.



Biological basis of intelligence:

There is a significant statistical association between brain size and intelligence.


Alternative approaches to intelligence:

Cultural context:

  • Culture is the set of attitudes, values, behaviors and beliefs shared by a group of people.

  • Different cultures have different ideas of what it measn to be smart.

    • Cole et al., (1972) did a sorting task.

    • Can be arranged hierarchically or functionally.

  • More intelligent → hierarchically

  • Less intelligent → functionally


Howard Gardner:

Multiple intelligence theory:

  • Intelligence include multiple independent constructs, and there are 8 separate intelligences that are distinct from each other.

  • Used 8 signs as criteria to develop the theory.

    • Potential isolation by brain damage.

    • Existence of exceptional individuals.

    • Identifying core operations.

    • A distinct developmental history.

    • A distinct evolutionary history.

    • Evidence from cognitive-experimental research.

    • Evidence from psychometric testing.

    • Susceptibility to encoding in a symbol system.


Sternberg: The triangle theory

  • 3 factors:

    • The internal world of perception (analytical).

    • To experience (creative).

    • To the external world (practical)

Components:

  1. Componential intelligence (analytical): Involves mental processes used to solve problems and decision-making. Typically associated with the traditional measures of IQ tests.

  2. Experiential intelligence (creative): Involves the ability to think creatively, and use insights in novel situations.

  3. Practical intelligence: Involves adapting to the environment and applying knowledge and skills in everyday real world situations.


Can computers be intelligent:

  • Can solve highly complexed instructions.

  • Turing test developed Alan Turing (1963) was the first attempt to determine whether computers can be intelligent.

  • He devised a test by which a human could assess the intelligence of a respondent to see whether an observer can distinguish the performance of a computer from of a human.

  • Alan Turing had introduced the concept (imitation game) in his landmark 1950 paper, " Computing Machinery and Intelligence".

  • By 1963, his paper was influential and widely discussed among AI pioneers.

  • The field of AI was still in its early stages following the foundational 1956 Dartmouth Workshop. Researchers were developing basic programs, such as Joseph Weizenbaum's ELIZA, created a few years later in the mid1960s, which mimicked a psychotherapist using simple pattern matching. No computer program in 1963 was close to passing the full, unrestricted Turing Test.

  • The technology and computational power required for the nuanced, natural language conversation necessary to fool a human interrogator over a reasonable amount of time did not yet exist.

  • Alan Turing himself had died in 1954. His work in computer science and his proposed test continued to inspire research into the possibility of creating machines that could think.

  • The Turing Test remained a thought-provoking philosophical exercise and a long-term goal, rather than a practical, regularly administered experiment, during that era.

Intelligence vs appearance of intelligence:


  • According to Searle, programs that seem to understand various kinds of inputs and to respond in a seemingly intelligent way are like Searle in the Chinese room.

  • They are simply operating according to a set of preprogrammed rules.

  • Searle’s notion is that the computer does not really see and understand the connections between input and output.

  • Rather, it uses preestablished connections that make it seem intelligent on the surface.

  • To Searle, these programs do not demonstrate AI.

  • They only appear to show intelligence.