•INTELLIGENCE

Intelligence

• Intelligence involves the application of cognitive skills and knowledge to: – Learn – Solve problems – Obtain ends valued by the individual or culture

Intelligence

• Multifaceted • Functional • Directed at problems of adaptation • Culturally defined

Intelligence Tests

• Intelligence Tests – Measure designed to assess the level of cognitive capabilities of an individual compared to other people in a given population

Psychometric Instruments

• Psycho – Psychology • Metric – Measure • Psychometric Instruments – Tools used to determine how people differ from each other on psychological scales

Intelligence Tests

• Sir Francis Galton – First to systematically measure intelligence – Linked intelligence to evolution – Proposed intelligence building blocks of • Perceptual skills • Sensory skills • Motor skills

Alfred Binet

• Binet suggested intelligence is a measure of performance on complex tasks of – memory – Judgment – comprehension • Chronological Age – An individuals actual age in years • Mental Age – The average age at which children achieve a given score

Terman’s Quotient (IQ)

• Lewis Terman ( Stanford Univ.) took Binet’s work one step further • Stanford-Binet (IQ) Scale – IQ= (MA/CA) X 100

IQ Quotients

• Bob: – MA= 14 – CA= 10 – IQ= 14/10 X 100= 140 • Brad: – MA= 7 – CA= 10 – IA= 7/10X 100= 70

Wechsler Intelligence Scales

• Uses frequency distributions to describe an individual’s IQ relative to their peers rather than the concept of a mental age

Extremes of Intelligence

• Mental Retardation – IQ less than 70 – 2% of our population – 10% of those diagnosed as retarded are classified as severely retarded (IQ below 50) • Gifted – Linked to what a society considers intelligence – Often equated with IQ above 130 – The gifted are often viewed as maladjusted

Creativity and Intelligence

• Creativity – Involves new combinations of existing things • Correlates with high intelligence levels • Divergent Thinking – Ability to generate multiple possibilities in a given situation

Criticisms of Intelligence Tests • IQ tests fail to capture other dimensions such as practical intelligence • Cultural bias – Unavoidable • Reliability – High degree of reliability • Validity – They do not predict on the job performance

Factor Analysis

• Factor – Common elements that underlie performance on a set of tasks • Factor analysis – Statistical procedure for identifying common elements

Spearman’s Two-Factor Theory • Proposes two levels of intelligence including

general

and

specific

• General (g-factor) – Combines scores on basic math, general knowledge, verbal tests • Specific (s-factors) – Specific scores on one of the factors such as math

Gf & Ge Theory of Intelligence • Fluid (Gf) – Intellectual capacities that have no specific content and are used in processing information and approaching novel problem– (Active process) • Crystallized (Ge) – Our store of knowledge (Passive) • Short term memory • Long term memory • Visual processing • Auditory processing • Processing speed on simple tasks • Decision speed • Quantitative knowledge (math reasoning)

Information Processing Model • Focuses on the “how” of intelligence rather than attempting to measure “how much” • Speed of Processing – Mental quickness-response time – Decreases with age • Knowledge Base – Total amount of information stored in the brain – Increases with time

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences • Musical • Bodily/Kinesthetic (dancers/athletics) • Spatial • Linguistic or verbal • Logical/mathematical • Naturalist • Intrapersonal (self understanding) • Interpersonal (social skills)

Heredity and Intelligence

• Addresses the relative influence of nature and nurture on intelligence • Research to date, especially between genetic and adopted children within families, suggests that genetics is a greater determinant of IQ than environmental factors

Race and Intelligence

• Politically charged issue • Nurture seems to be the key difference between white and black IQ scores – More black children raised in poverty