Myers PSYCHOLOGY 5th Ed

1
Myers PSYCHOLOGY (5th Ed)

• Chapter 11
• Intelligence
• James A. McCubbin, PhD
• Clemson University
• Worth Publishers

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Origins of Intelligence

• Intelligence Test
• a method of assessing an individuals mental
  aptitudes and comparing them to those of others,
  using numerical scores

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Origins of Intelligence

• Mental Age
• a measure of intelligence test performance
  devised by Binet
  
• chronological age that most typically corresponds
  to a given level of performance
  
• child who does as well as the average 8-year-old
  is said to have a mental age of 8

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Origins of Intelligence

• Stanford-Binet
• the widely used American revision of Binets
  original intelligence test
  
• revised by Terman at Stanford University

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Origins of Intelligence

• Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
• defined originally the ratio of mental age (ma)
  to chronological age (ca) multiplied by 100
  
• IQ ma/ca x 100)
• on contemporary tests it is the average
  performance for a given age is assigned a score
  of 100

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What is Intelligence?

• Intelligence
• capacity for goal-directed and adaptive behavior
• involves certain abilities
• profit from experience
• solve problems
• reason effectively

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What is Intelligence?

• IQ is a score on a test
• it is not something you have
• Is intelligence singular or multiple abilities?
• Does it relate to speed of brain processing?

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Intelligence

• Is intelligence culturally defined?
• Are intelligence tests culture free?

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Are There Multiple Intelligences?

• Factor Analysis
• statistical procedure that identifies clusters of
  related items (called factors) on a test
  
• used to identify different dimensions of
  performance that underlie ones total score
  
• General Intelligence (g)
• factor that Spearman and others believed
  underlies specific mental abilities
  
• measured by every task on an intelligence test

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Are There Multiple Intelligences?

• Savant Syndrome
• condition in which a person otherwise limited in
  mental ability has an amazing specific skill
  
• computation
• drawing

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Are There Multiple Intelligences?

• Social Intelligence
• the know-how involved in comprehending social
  situations and managing oneself successfully
  
• Emotional Intelligence
• ability to perceive, express, understand, and
  regulate emotions
  
• critical part of social intelligence

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Brain Function and Intelligence

• People who can perceive the stimulus very quickly
  tend to score somewhat higher on intelligence
  tests

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Assessing Intelligence

• Aptitude Test
• a test designed to predict a persons future
  performance
  
• aptitude is the capacity to learn
• Achievement Test
• a test designed to assess what a person has
  learned

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Assessing Intelligence

• Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)
• most widely used intelligence test
• subtests
• verbal
• performance (nonverbal)
• Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)
• similar to WAIS, but for school children

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Assessing Intelligence- Sample Items from the WAIS
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Assessing Intelligence

• Standardization
• defining meaningful scores by comparison with the
  performance of a pretested standardization
  group
  
• Normal Curve
• the symmetrical bell-shaped curve that describes
  the distribution of many physical and
  psychological attributes
  
• most scores fall near the average, and fewer and
  fewer scores lie near the extremes

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The Normal Curve
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Getting Smarter?

• Intelligence test performance has been rising

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Assessing Intelligence

• Reliability
• the extent to which a test yields consistent
  results
  
• assessed by consistency of scores on
• two halves of the test
• alternate forms of the test
• retesting the same individual
• Validity
• the extent to which a test measures or predicts
  what it is suppose to

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Assessing Intelligence

• Content Validity
• the extent to which a test samples the behavior
  that is of interest
  
• driving test that samples driving tasks
• Criterion
• behavior (such as college grades) that a test
  (such as the SAT) is designed to predict
  
• the measure used in defining whether the test has
  predictive validity

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Assessing Intelligence

• Predictive Validity
• success with which a test predicts the behavior
  it is designed to predict
  
• assessed by computing the correlation between
  test scores and the criterion behavior
  
• also called criterion-related validity

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Assessing Intelligence

• As the range of data under consideration narrows,
  its predictive power diminishes.
  
• Therefore, the predictive power of aptitude tests
  scores diminish as students move up the
  educational ladder.

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The Dynamics of Intelligence

• Mental Retardation
• a condition of limited mental ability
• indicated by intelligence scores below 70
• produces difficulty in adapting to the demands of
  life
  
• varies from mild to profound

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The Dynamics of Intelligence

• Down syndrome
• retardation and associated physical disorders
  caused by an extra chromosome in genetic make-up

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The Dynamics of Intelligence
Profound Below 20
1-2 Require
constant aid and supervision.
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The Dynamics of Intelligence

• Creativity
• the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas
• components of creativity
• expertise
• imaginative thinking skills
• venturesome personality
• intrinsic motivation
• creative environment

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Genetic Influences

• The most genetically similar people have the most
  similar scores

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Genetic Influences

• Heritability
• the proportion of variation among individuals
  that we can attribute to genes
  
• variability depends on range of populations and
  environments studied

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Genetic Influences

• Group differences and environmental impact

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Genetic Influences

• The Mental Rotation Test of Spatial Abilities