2.8 - Intelligence & Achievement

Intelligence - The mental ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and

use knowledge to adapt to new situations,

• General Intelligence/ g - Represents the idea that an individual's overall

intelligence is a compilation of different specific abilities. It suggests that if someone is

good at one type of cognitive task, they're likely to be good at others too.

• Intelligence Quotient (IQ) - The ratio of mental age (ma) to chronological age

(ca) multiplied by 100 [thus, IQ = (ma/ca) x 100]. On contemporary intelligence tests, the

average performance for a given age is assigned a score of 100. achievement tests. IQ

scores tend to vary more within a group than between groups. Personal and

sociocultural biases can impact the interpretation of individual IQ scores and the score’s

relationship with other outcomes. Poverty, discrimination, and educational inequities

can negatively influence intelligence scores of individuals and societal groups around

the world.

• Mental age - The intellectual level a person is performing at compared to the

average performance of individuals at the same chronological age, essentially indicating

how well someone performs on cognitive tasks relative to their age group, as measured

by intelligence tests; it is calculated by comparing an individual's test score to the

average score achieved by people of different ages on the same test.

• Chronological age - A person's age based solely on the number of years that

have passed since their birth date, essentially just their calendar age, which is the

primary way to measure someone's age in years

• Intelligence Tests - A method of assessing an individual's mental aptitudes and

comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores.

• Psychometric - The field of study within psychology that focuses on the theory

and techniques of psychological measurement, essentially meaning the process of

quantifying mental attributes like intelligence, personality traits, and attitudes through

standardized tests and assessments; a "psychometrician" is a psychologist specializing

in this area.

• Standardized - The process of making a test uniform, or setting it to a specific

standard. This involves administering and scoring the test in the same manner for

everyone that takes it

• Validity - The extent to which a test or measurement accurately assesses what

it claims to measure, meaning the data collected truly represents the concept being

studied; essentially, it indicates how well a test measures what it is designed to

measure.

• Construct validity - The degree to which a test or measurement accurately

reflects the theoretical concept (or "construct") it is designed to measure, essentially

asking whether the test is truly capturing the intended abstract concept and not

extraneous factors; it's a key aspect of determining whether a research tool is

measuring what it claims to measure.

• Predictive validity - The extent to which a psychological test or assessment

can accurately predict future behavior or performance on a related criterion measure,

essentially showing how well a test score correlates with a future outcome that can only

be assessed after the test is administered; it's a type of criterion validity where the focus

is on predicting future events.

• Reliability - The ability to consistently find similar results when a test is

repeatedly administered in similar conditions. High validity and high reliability will ensure

that a test accurately determines what it claims to determine, and that its findings are

not simply caused by random chance.

• Test-retest reliability - The consistency of a test's results over time, meaning

when the same test is administered to the same group of people on two separate

occasions, their scores should be highly similar, indicating a reliable measure;

essentially, it measures how stable a test is across repeated administrations

• Split-half reliability - A method of assessing a test's internal consistency by

dividing the test into two separate halves (e.g., even-numbered questions vs. odd-

numbered questions) and then correlating the scores from each half, where a high

correlation indicates good reliability, meaning the test consistently measures the same

construct across its different parts.

• Stereotype Threat - The psychological phenomenon where an individual's

performance on a task is negatively impacted by the fear of confirming a negative

stereotype about their social group, such as based on race, gender, or ethnicity, which

can lead to anxiety and reduced performance when they are reminded of that

stereotype in a relevant situation.

• Stereotype Lift - The phenomenon where individuals not targeted by a negative

stereotype perform better on a task related to that stereotype, experiencing a

performance boost simply because they are not being compared to the negatively

stereotyped group; essentially, they benefit from the downward social comparison to the

stereotyped group.

• Flynn Effect - The observed rise over time in standardized intelligence test

scores, documented by Flynn (1984a) in a study on intelligence quotient (IQ) score

gains in the standardization samples of successive versions of Stanford-Binet and

Wechsler intelligence tests.

• Poverty Discrimination - The unfair or prejudicial treatment of individuals

based solely on their perceived economic status, often manifested as negative actions

or attitudes towards those considered to be poor, essentially discriminating against

them due to their socioeconomic background; this can include denying opportunities,

housing, or employment based on assumptions about their financial situation.

• Achievement Tests - A test that is designed to assess a person's current skill

set. An achievement test often contrasts with an aptitude test, which has more to do

with a person's consistent traits that will predict their future success in particular areas.

• Aptitude Tests - A test that is designed to predict a person's future success in a

given area is an aptitude test.

• Fixed Mindset - The belief that a person's basic abilities, like intelligence or

talent, are innate and cannot be significantly changed through effort, meaning someone

with a fixed mindset views their qualities as fixed traits that cannot be developed or

improved upon; essentially believing they are either naturally good or bad at something

without the potential for substantial growth.

• Growth Mindset - The belief that one's abilities and intelligence can be

developed through effort, practice, and learning, meaning individuals with this mindset

see challenges as opportunities for growth and are more likely to persevere when facing

setbacks, unlike those with a "fixed mindset" who believe their abilities are innate and

cannot be significantly changed.