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Intelligence (general definition)
A person's cognitive ability to learn from experience, to
reason well, to remember important information, and to cope
with the demands of daily life.
TERM 2
Spearman
DEFINITION 2
Intelligence is made up of a G-factor and S-factors.
G-factor: our core, general mental ability
S-factors: specific mental abilities (e.g. numerical ability,
memory.). They largely depend on your g-factor, but
sometimes an S-factor can contradict one's g-factor (e.g.
in idiot savants)
TERM 3
G-factor
DEFINITION 3
Our core, general mental ability (according to Spearman).
TERM 4
S-factors
DEFINITION 4
Specific mental abilities
E.g. numerical ability, memory
Where you stand in these largely depends on your g-
factor. But, an S-factor can sometimes contradict one's g-
factor (e.g. in idiot savants)
TERM 5
Thurstone
DEFINITION 5
Argued that there are 7 distinct mental abilities (our
"primary mental abilities" ) that deal with verbal, spatial,
and numeric reasoning. He challenged the emphasis on the
g-factor.
Guilford
He thought that 7 "primary mental abilities" were too few and came up with 150 factors of intelligence. 2 of the three types of factors are: Operations: the way you process information Contents: what kinds of information you process He also talked about convergent vs. divergent thinking. Convergent thinking: Divergent thinking: the creative use of information to come up with a new solution TERM 7
The 3 factors of intelligence
DEFINITION 7
Verbal
Problem-solving
Practical
TERM 8
Alfred Binet
DEFINITION 8 1st to try to measure intelligence with intelligence tests Assumption: Intelligence increases with age, and a slow child will therefore perform like normal younger children. Test development: gave test to tons of children and grouped the questions according to the highest average age of children able to answer them. Testing an individual: see which age level the individual gets to, and use it to assign the individual a mental age. TERM 9
Alfred Binet's scoring system
DEFINITION 9
Based on mental age.
If MA = Chronological Age, you're normal.
MA < CA -> retarded
MA > CA -> gifted/advanced
TERM 10
Lewis Terman
DEFINITION 10
Created the Stanford-Binet intelligence test
Internal Consistency (Split-Half
Reliability)
If you split the test in half, compute a score on 1 half and a
score on the other, and correlate the 2 scores, you want a
strong correlation between the 2.
TERM 17
Precision
DEFINITION 17
Does the test give 2 people of equal (true) intelligence teh
same score?
TERM 18
Error
DEFINITION 18
There will always be some
TERM 19
Content validity of IQ
tests
DEFINITION 19
Pretty good, given our definition of intelligence.
TERM 20
Accuracy
DEFINITION 20
Does the measure measure what it's supposed to
measure?
Content Validity
Is the content appropriate? Is the behavior/knowledge a
representative sample of all the relevant
behavior/knowledge?
Assessed by an expert in the domain.
From book: A test measures all the knowledge or skills
that are assumed to underlie the construct of interest.
TERM 22
Criterion-Related Validity
DEFINITION 22 Are the test scores related to (i.e. correlated with) behaviors or outcomes they should logically be related to? Sometimes the criterion is in the future, sometimes concurrent From book: The ability of test scores to correlate with meaningful criterion measures (factors that are assumed to be influenced by the construct of interest) and thereby help predict other behaviors (future or concurrent). TERM 23
Construct Validity
DEFINITION 23 Construct: something you can't see but you assume is there and infer from behavior without directly observing it Does the measure measure the construct it's supposed to measure, and the other constructs involved (is your concrete measure mostly capturing the abstract construct you say it is?)? 2 types: convergent and discriminant From book: A test successfully measures teh psychological construct it's designed to measure, as indicated by relations btw test scores and other behaviors it should be related to. TERM 24
Convergent Validity
DEFINITION 24
Do scores agree with scores of other tests measuring the
same thing?
TERM 25
Discriminant Validity
DEFINITION 25
Do scores disagree with measures of constructs they're
supposed to disagree with?
Assessing the role of nature/heredity in
intelligence
You can't just look at families because they share both
genes and environment.
We first looked at twins, with twins studies, mislabeled
twins studies, and adoption studies.
All of these tests suggested that nature/heredity is
definitely involved in intelligence.
TERM 32
Twin studies
DEFINITION 32 If heredity plays a role in intelligence, the scores of identical twins should be more correlated than those of fraternal twins. This indeed the case. Identical twins have have an r of ~0. and fraternal twins have an r of ~.6. This seems to indicate genetic influence. However, identical twins are treated more similarly, so more studies are needed. TERM 33
Adoption studies of the role of heredity vs.
environment in intelligence
DEFINITION 33 Identical twins reared apart had scores that correlated with each other with an r of ~7.2. This suggests that nurture is involved somewhat. The scores of the adopted child were correlated with those of both sets of parents as well as those of adoptive siblings. For both sets of parents, r=~0.24, but for adoptive siblings, r=~0.30. This also suggests environmental influence. TERM 34
Enriched environments
DEFINITION 34 Certain homes/environments promote higher IQs in children. These environments have the following characteristics: Encourage exploration, independence, and experimentation Parents are highly (but not overly involved) with kids and are warm and affectionate. Home has a variety of age-appropriate toys and learning materials. Environment (broad term) has great variety. TERM 35
Reaction Range Hypothesis
DEFINITION 35 A hypothesis about the interaction between nature and nurture. Our genes set the upper and lower limits of how intelligent we'll be. Within that range, it's your environment that determines what it will actually be. The range is usually ~20-25 points, which is a significant number of points. 100 is the center of most of our ranges, so most have a range of 90-110 (similar to normal distribution) It's tough to figure out what your reaction range was when you were born.
Basic research findings about cultural
differences in intelligence
In any group, you'll find a normal distribution within that
group
In any minority group, ave. IQ will be ~3-20 points lower
TERM 37
Jansen's heritability explanation for
ethnic/gender/cultural differences in
intelligence
DEFINITION 37
Since racial and gender groups are by definition genetic,
genetic differences can explain all the differences
between them.
Highly controversial
TERM 38
Problems with Jansen's heritability
explanation
DEFINITION 38 It relies on the highest possible estimates of heritability out there Heritability estimates are sample-specific, i.e. their size depends on the group of people from whom the data were collected. In this case, most estimates came from groups of white Americans. Heritability explains variability within groups but not between them. TERM 39
Culture bias explanation for
ethnic/gender/cultural differences in
intelligence
DEFINITION 39
IQ tests reflect a eurocentric bias and minorities are thus
disadvantaged.
Some evidence to support it, but most of it is weak.
Item analysis (comparing groups on individual items)
doesn't show group differences at all.
TERM 40
Cultural disadvantage explanation for
ethnic/cultural differences in intelligence
DEFINITION 40
Minority groups are generally overrepresented in lower
soceoeconomic status groups, and thus in homes and
environments that are less enriched (culturally and
physically). These differences in environment are what
cause differences in IQ.
Emotional Intelligence
According to John Mayer, it's the abilities to read others' emotions accurately, respond to them appropriately, motivate oneself, be aware of one's own emotions, and regulate and control one's won emotional responses. 4 branches, each measured by the MSCEIT: perceiving emotions, using emotions too facilitate thought, understanding emotions, and managing emotions. Considered by some to be a facet of personal intelligence Has adaptive advantages TERM 47
Mislabeled twins study
DEFINITION 47
Studied twins inappropriately labeled as the other kind.
The fraternal twins mislabeled as identical twins didn't
have a greater r; instead, their r was more similar to the
rightly labeled fraternal twins.
This too seems to suggest genetic influence.
TERM 48
Metacomponents vs. performance
components vs. knowledge acquisition
components
DEFINITION 48 According to Sternberg, the 3 components of the cognitive processes underlying intelligence Metacomponents: the higher-order processes used to plan and regulate task performance; underly fluid intelligence (e.g. problem-solving skills) Performance components: the actual mental processes used to perform the task (e.g. perception, retrieval from memory) Knowledge-acquisition components: allow us to learn from new experiences, store info in memory, and combine new with previously acquired info; underlie crystallized intelligence TERM 49
Analytical vs. practical vs. creative
intelligence
DEFINITION 49 The 3 different kinds of intelligence pronounced by Sternberg Analytical: the kinds of academically oriented problem-solving skills measured by traditional intelligence tests. Practical: the skills needed to cope with everyday demadns and to manage oneself and other people effectively. Creative: the mental skills needed to deal adaptively with novel problems.
