Individual Differences in Mental Development

Around age 6, Intelligence Quotient (IQ) tends to become more stable.
High IQ scores often correlate with higher levels of education.
Individuals with high IQs may enter more cognitively complex and higher-paid occupations.
IQ is frequently considered in educational decisions.
A question arises: Do intelligence tests accurately assess educational and life potential?

IQ scores represent general intelligence.
A central question is whether human intelligence is a single characteristic or a collection of abilities.
Factor analysis is used to identify the various abilities that intelligence tests measure.
Distinct clusters or skill groups are referred to as factors.
Test makers utilize these clusters to measure intelligence more accurately.
There are group-administered versus individually administered tests.
Examples of intelligence scales include:
- Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales
- Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-V)
- Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Revised (WPPSI-III)

Information Processing Perspective: This perspective considers processing speed as a factor in cognitive tests.
Efficient nervous systems may lead to faster processing.
Executive function is predictive of intellectual skills.

Sternberg suggests that intelligent behavior involves balancing three intelligences to achieve success based on personal goals.
- Analytical Intelligence: Involves elements of information processing.
- Creative Intelligence: Involves creating useful solutions to problems.
- Practical Intelligence: Involves adapting to, shaping, or selecting environments, and balancing desires with everyday demands.

Nature and Nurture:
- The question is whether the heritability of IQ is overestimated, based on the interplay of genes and experiences.
Cultural Influences:
- Are IQ tests biased due to language, life experiences, or learning experiences?
- Language and Communication Styles
  - As countries become more culturally and ethnically diverse, communication styles, vocabulary development, and family experiences vary.
  - Collaborative style of communication vs. Hierarchical style of communication.
Knowledge:
- IQ scores are greatly impacted by life experiences, thus varying much like Gardner’s multiple intelligences.
- A question arises: How can one test, that yields one score, accurately characterize multifaceted intelligence?
Stereotypes:
- Stereotype threat: The fear of being judged on the basis of a negative stereotype. This can trigger emotions undermining performance among children and adult test takers.

IQ scores can underestimate children’s capabilities, leading to inaccurate identification for special educational services.
Dynamic assessment: A progressive approach incorporating purposeful teaching into the testing situation.
- Consistent with Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development.
- A teacher guides the student during testing for a more accurate measure of capabilities.
- This may evoke reasoning skills transferable to different learning situations.
Cultural bias can be reduced by countering stereotype threat.
- Mindfulness training, self-affirmation, and aligning teaching-learning experiences to test situations can reduce implicit biases that diminish test performance.
Standardized tests are not leaving Pennsylvania public education in the foreseeable future.
Teachers in elementary and middle schools must align learning experiences and content with tests.