Theories of Intelligence

• We may not be able to perfectly describe of intelligence, but we can describe and point out examples of it

• However, we cannot measure intelligence without defining it first

  • There are disputed definitions and the AP curriculum requires that you know a couple of them

• An abstract way of defining intelligence is that it is the ability to think creatively and apply knowledge to new situations

  • This is not measured very easily

• A concrete, or operationalized definition might be intelligence as verbal skill

  • Verbal meaning school smarts like history, math, science, etc.

  • The first tests of intelligence only measured these kinds of skills, because they were easy to measure, grade, and compare

  • This, however, reducing the large concept of intelligence to the number of a grade

What is Countable

• Psychometrics is measuring the mind

• Speed of processing is easily measured and does seem to be positively correlated with intelligence

• Fluid intelligence is related to speed of processing

  • A quick, abstract way of thinking

  • Like a supercomputer that is incredibly fast, but doesn’t have a lot of software installed

• Crystallized intelligence is related to heuristics

  • As we age, we process new information slower, but have more expectations and can fit new information into categories with things we’ve seen before

Flynn Effect

• Over generations, the average IQ of a society rises

• Meaning the mean score needs to be recalibrated over time

Highs and Lows

• Savant Syndrome is a genius-like ability in a very narrow area

  • Related to autism spectrum disorder but actually only with a small overlap

• A stereotype threat is when members of a group who are thought be lesser in certain areas will often perform worse in that area than members of a different group

  • Rhetoric concerning low intelligence has historically been weaponized against certain races

  • We can see that those races performed poorly in intelligence tests during that time period

    • This would also have to do with systemic oppression and marginalized communities not having access to quality education

  • This is a confounding variable

Theorists

Francis Galton

• Thought to be the first person to think intelligence could be quantified

• His method, similar to Wundt’s introspection, wasn’t able to support his ideas

  • He was trying to correlate reaction times to intelligence

• Keep in mind, he was a proponent of eugenics

  • He believed that success was due to inherited mental traits

  • He had a very simplistic idea of heredity

  • Encouraged “better” people to have more children and for “lesser” people to be restricted from doing so

Alfred Binet

• Came up with the first test to classify mental abilities

• Originally, it was used to help the French school system identify children who were struggling compared to their peers, so they could be assisted

• He gathering information about the abilities of children at each age, and figured out what was “normal”

• He came up with a couple different concepts like mental age, which is the age at which a person operates cognitively

• Mental age divided by chronological age, multiplied by 100, equals IQ

  • MA/CA X 100 = IQ

Lewis Terman

• Lewis Terman worked at Stanford University

• He took Binet’s test and reconfigured it for the American population

  • Becoming known as the Stanford-Binet Test

• Rather than use a limited test like Binet came up with, his new version allowed use within a larger population

• Terman was also a proponent of eugenics and used the results of the test to justify bigoted and racist ideas

  • These tests were even used for restrictive immigration policies

David Wechsler

• Weschler’s intelligence scales were very different than many traditional ones

• He developed the Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)

• He didn’t base his scales on age

• He realized that intelligence was more than verbal skills

  • He incorporated non-verbal performance, like spatial awareness and pattern recognition

• This helped reduce bias against those were not verbally skilled

Howard Gardener

• Believed that intelligence was made up of 8 different individual factors

  • Also proposed that you could be intelligent in one, but not the others

• Gardener received criticism for his eight intelligences being more like skills or too vague to measure

  • He essentially intended only to identify the intelligences, and had no care how if they could be measured

• Linguistic intelligence was aptitude for written or verbal communication

• Logical-mathematical is an aptitude for abstract concepts such as if-then relationships and mathematics beyond basic counting

• Musical is obvious, but is more than just understanding and being able to play music

  • Remember that Gardener is proposing these not as skills, but as methods of thinking

  • Can a person think in music?

• Spatial is a propensity for where things are in relation to one another

• Bodily-kinesthetic is an aptitude for knowing how your body is moving and where it is in space

• Intrapersonal is knowing you own thoughts and feelings and being able to response in the most healthy way

• Interpersonal is reading others, interacting with them in the most socially appropriate way

• Naturalist is understanding the connectedness of nature

  • More than just plants and animals but also things like philosophy and speculation on the meaning of life

Charles Spearman

• Believed everyone has a single general intelligence level

• Used something called factor analysis that is still used today

  • Factors that are similar occur together and are grouped into one category

  • For example, a test with four sections

  • The totals of the sections are then added up to get a full score

• Spearmen also allowed that we might have specific mental abilities that fall outside of general mental ability

Robert Sternberg

• The Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

• This theory differs from traditional psychometric tests because it realizes that intelligence doesn’t exist in a test

  • It is applied in the environment the person lives in

  • These intelligences try to reflect how a person interacts with their environment

• Practical intelligence is how well someone can function in their environment

• Experimental is how well someone can handle new situations

• Analytical is how well someone can problem-solve