Understanding Intelligence

1. Understanding Intelligence Psychologists define intelligence as the ability to understand and adapt to the environment using a combination of inherited abilities and learned experiences. Problem with “reification”-viewing an abstract, immaterial concept s if it were a concrete thing. I believe the answer to the problem is . . .

2. Francis Galton Started the “Eugenics” movement Galton (1883) wanted to breed superior people and create a master race.

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

4. Charles Spearman – was the “spearhead” in the development of intelligence theories with factor analysis and his “g” general intelligence theory.

5. Theories of Intelligence • Charles Spearman—“g” factor • Louis Thurstone—intelligence as a person’s “pattern” of mental abilities ( 7 clusters:word fluency, verbal comprehension, spatial ability, perceptual speed, numerical ability, inductive reasoning, memory) • Howard Gardner—multiple intelligences • Sternberg–triarchic theory

6. Theories of Intelligence • Charles Spearman—“g” factor • Louis Thurstone—intelligence as a person’s “pattern” of mental abilities • Howard Gardner—multiple intelligences • Sternberg–triarchic theory • Cantor, Kihlstrom-social intelligence • Slovey, Mayer, Goleman-emotional intelligence

7. Are Gifted People Easily Identified? You have been asked to select a student, based on the three biographies below, to enroll in a new program for gifted students. Look over the three biographies and decide which student you would choose. Candidate 1Candidate 2Candidate 3 Name Bill Brown Alvin Lane Allen Erickson Appearance Average Plain Homely I.Q. 180+ 112 82 School Behavior Aloof, Organizer Well-liked Unsociable, disturbed Physical Health Excellent Large for age Sickly Emotional Health Excellent Easygoing, poor self-concept Had emotional breakdown Interests Chess, Math Sports, reading, telling jokes Withdraws to fantasy world Career Goals None mentioned Work in a retail store None mentioned Personal Goals None mentioned Businessman Independence from family Talents Photographic Good debater Plays violin, likes to read memory, published alone. original math formula at age 10 Which student did you select and why?

8. Gardner’s 8 Intelligences • Linguistic • Logical-mathematical • Musical • Spatial • Bodily-kinesthetic • Intrapersonal (self) • Interpersonal (other people) • Naturalist (p. 434 chart in text)

9. Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences

10. Robert Sternberg • Creative intelligence— ability to deal with novel situations by drawing on existing skills and knowledge • Analytic intelligence— mental processes used in learning how to solve problems • Practical intelligence— ability to adapt to the environment (street smarts) • THINKING “CAP”

11. 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

12. Daniel Goleman’s Theory of Emotional Intelligence The ability to feel, deal with, and recognize emotions makes up its own kind of intelligence. Aspects of this theory include: • Emotional self-awareness: knowing what we are feeling and why • Managing and harnessing emotions: knowing how to control and respond to feelings appropriately • Empathy: knowing what another person is feeling

13. Creativity Intelligence and creativity are somewhat, but not closely, related. People who are creative tend to excel in one area. One measure of creativity is the ability to break set, or think about something in an entirely new way to problem solve.

14. Intelligence and Creativity • Creativity • the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas • expertise • imaginative thinking skills • venturesome personality • intrinsic motivation • creative environment

15. Origins of Intelligence Testing • Stanford-Binet • the widely used American revision of Binet’s original intelligence test • revised by Lewis Terman at Stanford University

16. Origins of Intelligence Testing • Intelligence Test • a method of assessing an individual’s mental aptitudes and comparing them to those of others, using numerical scores

17. Origins of Intelligence Testing Alfred Binet (1857–1911) • Intelligence—collection of higher-order mental abilities loosely related to one another • Intelligence is nurtured • Binet-Simon Test developed in France, 1905

18. Origins of Intelligence Testing • 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

19. The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test Constructed in the early 1900s by Alfred Binet Described four elements of intelligence  Direction = the ability to work toward a goal Adaptability = making necessary adjustments to solve a problem   Comprehension = understanding the basic problem Self-evaluation = knowing if the problem has been solved correctly 

20. Items Used in the Stanford-Binet Test

21. Calculating I.Q. Mental Age I.Q. X 100 = I.Q. Chronological Age 7 100 X 100 = Examples: 7 8 114 X 100 = 7 What is the I.Q. of a 16-year-old girl with a mental age of 20?

22. 20 = 12.5 X 100 = 125 16 Calculating I.Q. Mental Age I.Q. X 100 = I.Q. Chronological Age 7 100 X 100 = Examples: 7 8 114 X 100 = 7 What is the I.Q. of a 16-year-old girl with a mental age of 20?

23. Are There Multiple Intelligences? • Savant Syndrome • condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill • computation • drawing

24. Is Intelligence Neurologically Measurable? • There is a positive correlation between intelligence and the brain’s neural processing speed. College students with unusually high levels of verbal intelligence are most likely to retrieve information from memory at an unusually rapid speed.

25. Brain Size and Complexity • Francis Galton-- phrenology. There is a slight correlation between head size (relative to body size) and intelligence score.

26. Brain Function and intelligence • Highly intelligent people also tend to take in information more quickly and to show faster brain wave responses to simple stimuli such as a flashing of light. Continuous debate about the extent to which nature and nurture affect the brain’s structure and functioning.

27. Processing Speed • Earl Hunt found that verbal intelligence scores are predictable from the speed with which people retrieve information from memory.

28. Perceptual Speed • The correlation between intelligence score and the speed of taking in perceptual information tends to be about +.4 to +.5. Those who perceive quickly tend to score somewhat higher on intelligence tests, particularly tests based on perceptual rather than verbal problem solving.

29. Neurological Speed • Repeated studies have found that highly intelligent people’s brain waves register a simple stimulus more quickly and with greater complexity. • (New testing being done)

30. Mask Stimulus Question: Long side on left or right? Brain Function and Intelligence • People who can perceive the stimulus very quickly tend to score somewhat higher on intelligence tests

31. Assessing Intelligence • Aptitude Test • a test designed to predict a person’s future performance • aptitude is the capacity to learn • Achievement Test • a test designed to assess what a person has learned

32. Assessing Intelligence • Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) • most widely used intelligence test • subtests • verbal • performance (nonverbal)

33. Modern Intelligence Tests • The Wechsler tests • used more widely now than Stanford-Binet • modeled after Binet’s, also made adult test • WISC-III for children • WAIS-III for adults

34. The Wechsler Intelligence Test David Wechsler (WEX-ler) devised a different intelligence test to measure “real world” intelligence. The first part of the test included verbal items like the Binet test. The second part was a nonverbal I.Q. test called a performance scale.

35. VERBAL PERFORMANCE Picture Completion Picture Arrangement Block Design Object Assembly Digit-Symbol Substitution General Information Similarities Arithmetic Reasoning Vocabulary Comprehension Digit Span From Thorndike and Hagen, 1977 Assessing Intelligence: Sample Items from the WAIS

36. 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

37. The Normal Curve

38. Getting Smarter? Flynn Effect

39. 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 • Validity • the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to

40. 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

41. 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

42. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Greater correlation over broad range of body weights Football linemen’s success Little corre- lation within restricted range 180 250 290 Body weight in pounds Assessing Intelligence • As the range of data under consideration narrows, its predictive power diminishes

43. The Dynamics of Intelligence • Stability or Change? If a 6 month old seems to developing more slowly and is not as playful as other infants her age; this does not predict her late intelligence score. Intelligence scores are most likely to be stable over a 1-yr period for a 10th grade student whose intelligence test score is 95.After age 7, intelligence scores become more stable. Consistency of scores increase with the age of the child.

44. The Dynamics of Intelligence • Mental Retardation • a condition of limited mental ability • indicated by an intelligence score below 70 • produces difficulty in adapting to the demands of life • varies from mild to profound • Down Syndrome • retardation and associated physical disorders caused by an extra chromosome in one’s genetic makeup

45. The Dynamics of Intelligence

46. Nature vs. Nurture in IQGenetic Influences • Are differences between people due to environmental or genetic differences? • Misunderstanding the question • “Is a person’s intelligence due more to genes or to environment?” • both genes & intelligence crucial for any trait

47. Genetic Influences • The most genetically similar people have the most similar scores

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

49. Variation within group Variation within group Seeds Poor soil Fertile soil Difference within group Group Differences • Group differences and environmental impact

50. Within and Between Group Differences • Each corn field planted from same package of genetically diverse seeds • One field is quite fertile, the other is not • Within each field, differences due to genetics • Between each field, differences due to environment (fertility)