Chapter 7: cognitive Development II Individual differences in Cognitive abilities

1. Chapter 7: cognitive Development II Individual differences in Cognitive abilities

2. Measuring Intellectual Power • Psychologists argued whether test score is an accurate measurement for intelligence • Intelligence is a set of ability defined in various ways by different psychologists but generally agreed to include the ability to reason abstractly, the ability to profit from experience, and the ability to adapt to varying environmental contexts

3. The First IQ Test • Intelligence Test • First found in 1905 by Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon • Purpose → Identify children who might have difficulty in school • E.g. Could a child describe the difference between a wood and a glass? • Stanford-Binetis the best known U.S intelligence test. It was written by Lewis Terman and his associates at Stanford University and based on the first test by Binet and Simon • Intelligence quotient (IQ) is originally defined in terms of a child’s mental age and chronological age, IQ is now computed by comparing a child’s performance with that of other children of the same chronological age

4. The First IQ Test • Mental age is the term used by Binet and Simon and Terman in the early calculation of IQ scores to refer to the age level of IQ test items a child could successfully answer • E.g. A child who is 5 but can solve a question that is for age 6 • IQ score = mental age / chronological age x 100 (old method) • Now, IQ score calculation is based on a direct comparison of a child performance with the average performance of a larger group of children with the same age • Secular trend in IQ score is the historical shift upward in scores on cognitive ability • Studies showed that children today can solve more difficult problems compared to the same age children 60 years ago

5. Modern IQ Tests • Three test most frequently used today by psychologist are the Standford-Binet V, WPPSI-III, and WISC-IV • WPPSI-III is the third revision of the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (age 2.5 to 7) • WISC-IV is the most recent revision of the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for the Children, a well known IQ test developed in the U.S that includes both Verbal and performance subtest (age 6-16) • WISC-IV is most often used to diagnose children’s learning problems • Verbal comprehension index is tests on the WISC-IV that tap verbal skills such as knowledge of vocabulary and general information • The nonverbal tests consist in the WISC-IV includes perceptual reasoning index, processing speed index and working memory index • WISC-IV provides a comprehensive full IQ score

6. Modern IQ Tests • Infant Tests • Bayley Scales of Infant Development is the best known and most widely used test of infant intelligence • Measures primary sensory and motor skills (e.g. touching and reaching objects) • E.g. putting cubes into a container (9 month old) • Achievement Tests • Test designed to assess a child’s learning of specific material taught in school, such as math, vocabulary, and grammar • IQ test evaluate a person’s intelligence and achievement test evaluates a person ability to learn

7. Video #1 http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=modern+IQ+Tests&nfpr=0

8. Bayley Scale of Infant Development

9. Stability of Test Scores • Psychologists use the term reliability to refer to the stability of a test score • Research showed that infant’s test scores are often inconsistent • At about age 3, children began to get more consistent IQ test score • The general rule of thumb is that the older the child, the more stable the IQ score becomes

10. What iq score predicts • Validity measures whether a test is measuring what it is designed to measure • Does IQ test predict school performance? • Studies showed that IQ test has a strong reflection on a child’s school performance but no direct connections • Children with higher IQ scores trend to get better grade • Such finding has led a number of theorist to argue that intelligence adds to the child’s resilience • Poor children with higher IQ scores are more likely to develop and move away from poverty • Emotional intelligence, a theoretical approach that represents a new way of thinking about children’s understanding of their own and other’s emotions. (chapter 12)

11. Explaining Individual Difference in IQ Scores • Intelligence or IQ of a child is inborn • But intelligence is not fixed at birth, the environment and people around the baby can affect a child’s mental development • Evidence for the importance of Heredity • Identical twins are more like one another in IQ scores than are fraternal twins • The IQ of adopted children are better predicted from the IQs of their natural parents than from adopted parents

12. Evidence for the Importance Of Environment • Evidence showed that the IQ scores of adopted children is clearly influenced by the environment they grow up in • If a lower class child is adopted by a middle class parent, the child’s IQ scores is generally 10 to 15 points higher than those who stayed with birth mothers • The children reared in upper-class homes had IQ scores that were about 11 points higher than those of children reared in lower class families, regardless of social class or education of birth parents

13. Evidence for the Importance Of Environment • Social Class Difference • Every society is divided into social strata of some kinds • An individual’s social status or social class is typically defined or measured in terms of three dimensions: education, income and occupation • Dozens of researches showed that children from lower class families have relatively lower IQ scores • The average IQ score of children rises as the family’s social class rises and as the mother’s education rises (Figure 7.2) • Cumulative deficit is any difference between groups in IQ or achievement test that becomes larger over time • The longer a child lives in proverty, the more negative effect on IQ test scores and other measures of cognitive functioning

14. Evidence for the Importance Of Environment • Specific Family Characteristics and IQ Scores • Parents of children who have higher IQ scores tend to do several things: • They provide an interesting and complex physical environment for their children (includes play materials that are appropriate for child’s age and development level) • They are emotional responsive to and involved with their children • They talk with their children using language that is diverse, descriptive, and accurate • They use zone of proximal development when interact with their children • They avoid over restrictiveness, or control, instead fiving their children room to explore and make mistakes

15. Evidence for the Importance Of Environment • Differences in Environments within Families • It is different being the oldest child in a family to the youngest child of a family • On average, the more children in a family, the lower the IQ scores of the children (Figure 7.3) • On average, first born children have the highest IQ scores, with average score declining steadily down the birth order (Figure 7.3) • Children who are born very close together also have slightly lower IQ scores on average than do those born further apart (Figure 7.3) • The oldest child interact with adult (parents) when he was born, and second or third child interacts with both parents and other children in the household which will affect their thinking process (Robert Zajonc)

16. Video #2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5QtWHySKK4

17. School Experience and Special Interventions • Does special education, day-care, and school affect a child’s IQ? • Attunement → a permanent gain over the level of performance the child would have shown without the added enrichment • On average, children enrolled in Head Start or other enrich preschool programs show a gain of 10 IQ points during the year of the Head Start experience compared to similar children without such experience • Studies also showed that children in enrich preschool programs are less likely to fail school or place under special education programs • In summary, children in special program had the highest scores, followed by those who had had some kind of day-care experience, with those reared entirely at home having the lowest

18. Interactions of Heredity And Environment • Reaction range is the term used by some psychologist for the range of possible outcomes for some variable, given basic genetic patterning • In the case of IQ scores, the reaction range is estimated at 20 to 25 points • That is, given a specific genetic heritage, a child’s actual IQ test performance may vary by as much as 20 to 25 points depending on the environment the child grows up in • The argument is that the lower end of any given child’s reaction range is likely to be manifested only if the child is reared in an environment that falls below the critical threshold

19. Racial Differences • Asian and Asian American students typically test 3 to 6 points higher on IQ tests and do consistently better on achievement tests than do Caucasian children • African American children consistently score lower than Caucasian children on standard measure of intelligence • Some scientist argue that IQ test differences must reflect some genetic differences between races • Studies also showed that Asian family emphasis more on academic achievement, which can explain why Asian student tend to do good on IQ tests • In dynamic assessment, children are informed about the purpose of an intelligence test and are given a chance to practice with each kind of problem-solving task on the test prior to actually being tested

20. Cross-Cultural Differences • Awareness of different emphases is the key to study variation in IQ scores cross cultures • Psychologists pointed out that the study of cross culture IQ differences is pointless because different culture emphases different strength • Cross national comparisons of intellectual skills focus more on math and science rather than IQ scores • Teachers in Asian nations take a different approach in teaching than do teachers in North America • Computational fluency is the degree to which an individual can automatically produce solutions to simple calculation problems

21. Video #3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lfr2rTW3UMk&feature=related

22. Sex difference • Girls are better at verbal tasks and boys are better at numerical problems • Researchers showed that boys and girls are good at different tasks, but those aspects should not greatly affect their IQ score • For examples, boys tend to be better in math and engineering, but that does not mean no girls is qualified for the jobs • Specifically, boys show greater coherence in brain function in areas of the brain devoted to spatial tasks, while girls display more organized functioning in part of the brain where language and social information are processed

23. Alternative Views of Intelligence • Using IQ tests to define and explain individual and group differences in intelligence is called the psychometric approach • Developmentalists believe that psychologist have placed too much emphasis on defining intelligence in correlation between IQ scores and achievement tests • Several alternative approaches to defining and measuring intelligence have been proposed in recent years

24. Information Processing Theory • Speeding of Information Processing • Difference in processing speed may also underline individual difference in IQ scores • Participants with faster reaction times or speed of performance on a variety of simple tasks also have higher average IQ scores on standard tests • Some studies have even directly linked central nervous system functioning and to IQ

25. Information Processing Theory • Other Links between IQ and Information Processing • Comparing the information processing strategies used by children with normal intelligence with those used by retarded children • E.g. Looking for a hidden object (the two group did not in search strategies and skills) • Evaluating the Information-Processing Approach • Looking at things such as inborn intelligence • Practice makes perfect • Memory of the child

26. Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory Theory of Intelligence • Triarchic theory of intelligence is a theory advanced by Robert Sternberg, proposing the existence of three types of intelligence: analytical, creative and practical • Analytical intelligence one of three types of intelligence in Sternberg’s triarchic theory of intelligence; the types of intelligence typically measured on IQ tests, including the ability to plan, remember facts, and organizing information • Creative intelligence is the second types of intelligence described by Stermberg in his triarchic theory of intelligence; including insightfulness and the ability to see new relationships among events or experiences • Practical intelligence is the third intelligence in Sternberg’s triarchic theory of intelligence; often called “street smart”, this types of intelligence include skill in applying information to the real world or solving practical problems

27. Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence • Multiple intelligence is eight types of intelligence proposed by Howard Gardner • The Eight Types include: • Linguistic → good readers, speakers and who can learn language easily • Logical/mathematical → learn math and generate logical solutions to various kinds of problems • Spatial → painting and sculpture • Bodily kinesthetic → profession athletes • Musical → singer and song writer • Intrapersonal → good at identifying one’s own strength • Naturalistic → recognize patterns in nature

28. Thank you

29. Discussion #1 • Do you think IQ test is a good method of measuring one’s intelligence? If so, in what way?

30. Discussion #2 • To what extend do you think family and the environment around an individual affects his/her intelligence?

31. Discussion #3 • We don’t necessarily need high IQ scores to be successful in the future. (e.g. the president of the United States) Agree or Disagree? Why?

32. Discussion #4 • Do you think it is a good idea to force elementary school children into learning and achieve a high IQ score in the future? (China and U.S school system)