Intelligence

1. Intelligence

2. Origins of Intelligence Testing • Origins are with French Psychologist Alfred Binet • Began assessing intellectual abilities • Developed test that assessed mental age • Predicted a child’s future progress

3. IQ Test • Lewis Terman believed intelligence was inherited • William Stern derived the Intelligence Quotient test: IQ test • Person’s mental age divided by chronological age x’s 100 • Many of these test in early 20th used to show “inferiority” of certain groups and races

4. Nature of Intelligence • People have specific abilities • Verbal and math aptitudes • Debate • Whether General Intelligence (g) factor runs through • Factor Analysis • Identified several clusters of mental abilities • There are instances of people who excel in multiple clusters

5. Different Intelligences • There is academic intelligence (math, science, etc.) and there is emotional intelligence • Ability to perceive, express, understand, and regulate emotions • Often succeed in careers, marriages, and parenting

6. Creativity and Intelligence • People with high intelligence scores do well on creativity tests • Beyond a score of 120 the correlation disappears • Five Components of Creativity • Expertise • Imaginative thinking skills • Venturesome personality • Intrinsic motivation • Creative environment

7. Aptitude vs. Achievement Test • Aptitude refers to ability to learn • Aptitude test measures person’s future performance • Achievement test measures what a person has learned • Wechler Adult Intelligence test Revised (WAIS) • Most widely used intelligence test • Scored on verbal and non verbal • Provides clues to cognitive strengths

8. Standardization • Test scores form a normal distribution • Bell shaped that forms normal curve • Creation of that curve • Pretest subjects create the standards • Must represent those who will be test in the future • Thus the controversy because do they really represent the whole based on the few?

9. Reliability vs. Validity • Reliability refers to extent in which a test yields consistent scores • Validity refers to the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to • Content validity whether a test truly samples behavior that is of interest • Predictive validity is the correlation between test scores and criterion • What the test aims to assess

10. Stability of testing • Stability of intelligence test scores increase with age • Predicatability at 4yrs • Stability at 7 yrs • Normal distribution is 70 • Mental retardation means a child must have both low test scores and difficulty adapting to normal demands of living INDEPENDENTLY

11. Gifted • Gifted children are NOT maladjusted • Nor should they be segregated into “Gifted” classes • They do need to be challenged and educators are responsible to meet the demands of both standard, below standard, and above standard children

12. Genetics and Intelligence • Studies show a remarkable inheritability of intelligence • Adopted children scores more resemble those of biological than adoptive parents • Life experiences also determine intelligence scores • Neglect and enrichment are reflected

13. Group Differences • African Americans on average score 10 pts below whites on intelligence tests and Asian out score North Americans on math tests • What facts can cause this?

14. Intelligence testing and cultural bias • They are biased because of sensitivity to cultural experiences • The stereotype threat does exist, but the aim and results are not factors that go into intelligence tests