s9i24, 10:56 PM. Unit 3 Inteligence Unit 3: Intelligence To psychologists, intelligence is the capacity to understand the world, think rationally and use resources effectively when faced with challenges. © Spearman, 1927 © Stern, 1914 © Wechsler, 1975 © Sternberg, 1997 “Intelligence comprises the mental abilities necessary for adaptation to, as well as shaping and selection of, any environmental context. Early psychologists interested in intelligence assumed that there was a single, general factor for mental ability- g factor. This assumption was based on the fact that different measures of intelligence, whether they focused on math, verbal competency, or spatial visualization skills, all ranked test-takers in roughly the same order. People who were good on one test, generally were good at others, those who did poorly on one test tended to do poorly on others. G factor — considered to underlie performance in every aspect of intelligence, and it was the g factor that was presumably being measured on those intelligence tests. (Spearman, 1927) — However, in recent times, rather than considering it a unitary ability, some psychologists consider it to be a multi-dimensional concept that includes different types of intelligence. © (Wechsler, 1944) “intelligence is the aggregate or global capacity of the individual to: © to act purposefully, © to think rationally, and © to deal effectively with his environment.” © (Neiser et al, 1966) “Intelligence refers to individuals’ abilities: Itpshhimsical conunt--nteligenee-VOpqTGqaCmieBOoeqmyseG 1ss9i24, 10:56 PM. Unit 3 Inteligence to understand complex ideas to adapt effectively to the environment to learn from experience to engage in various forms of reasoning to overcome obstacles by careful thought.” Francis Galton © hereditary genius (1869); intelligence runs in the families and is passed on from generation through genetic inheritance coined the phrase “nature vs nurture” bell can be applied on psychological characteristics invented correlation and percentile test scores tried to assess innate mental ability in terms of sensory skills with assumption that it predicts success in school or personal life (failed 9¢ ) Binet-Simon Test * In 1904, Ministry of France wanted to identify mentally “subnormal"” children who could benefit from special education programs. © Alfred Binet and student Theodore Simon created a test in 1905. © focused on measuring abstract reasoning skills (success fie ) © measures mental age which indicates that he or she displayed the mental performance typical of a child of that chronological (actual) age. * aims to measure native ability, not knowledge or scholastic attainment * revised scale in 1908, 1911 * death Stanford-Binet Scale © Louis Terman at SU revised Binet's tesst in 1916, © New scoring scheme meaning IQ IQ is a child's mental age divided by chronological age, multiplied by 100. 1Q= (MA/CA) x 100 Binet’s system — comparison across ages was difficult; IQ made this possible © widespread adoption for educational testing has been updated periodically till 2003 1. The test consists of a series of items that vary according to the age of the person being tested bitps:whimsical.comfunt-3nteigence-VapqTGq3CmKtBQoeqmydds 215s9i24, 10:56 PM. Unit 3 Inteligence copy figures or answer questions about everyday activities solve analogies, explain proverbs, and describe similarities that underlie sets of words 2. Starts with the level of MA (mental age) questions and then moves on to successively more difficult problems. 3. When a mental age level is reached at which no items can be answered, the test is over. Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale © Stanford-Binet ineffective for adults © Non-verbal reasoning © less dependent on verbal activity © more items measuring non-verbal reasoning © separate scores for verbal IQ, performance IQ (non verbal), full scale 1Q (total la). * changed scoring scheme to be based on normal distribution (bell curve). DETERMINANTS OF INTELLIGENCE © brain size © race © culture * non intellectual factors- attitude, experience, emotional functioning 1Q and Heritability the relative influence of genetics and environment * Studies found that whites score 15 points higher than blacks traditional IQ tests even when socioeconomic status is taken into account. © So, intelligence difference between blacks and whites cannot be attributed to environmental differences alone. © Heritability- the degree to which a characteristic is related to genetic factors. © The closer the genetic link between 2 related people, the greater the correspondence of IQ scores. Flynn Effect * IQ tests are normed- which means that individual scores indicate performance on the test relative to the average score, which is set to 100. © The test designers, had to repeatedly re-norm the test as the average score kept creeping high at the rate of 3 point every decade. © This phenomenon is known as the “Flynn effect”. Why doe occur? bitps:whimsical.comfunt-3nteigence-VapqTGq3CmKtBQoeqmydds 315s9i24, 10:56 PM. Unit 3 Inteligence © access to technology © improvements in education © economic prosperity - better nutrition © longer childhood(??) Charles Spearman's Two-Factor Theory © invented factor analysis method where correlation among many variables is analyzed to identify closely related clusters of variables * if number of variables correlate is higher with one another, the assumption is a single factor is influencing all of them * all cognitive performances can be explained by two variables: g and s © g~ general ability, assumed to be innate; s~ many specific abilities likely to be learnt ® gand s are highly correlated * g, gives rise to, or underlies s. Opposition © LL Thurstone (1931, 1938) 7 independent primary mental abilities © Edward Thorndike (1946) — Multifactor theory © Raymond Cattell (1941) ~+ Fluid and Crystallized intelligence © JP Guilford (1961) — Structure of intellect theory © Robert Sternberg (1981) + Triarchic theory © Howard Gardner (1983) ~ Multiple intelligences Thorndike’s Multifactor or Atomistic Theory Three independent factors of intelligence Concrete intelligence: motor or mechanical; ability to understand and deal with things (e.g. engineers, mechanics, architects) Abstract intelligence: ability to understand and deal with symbols; verbal or mathematical (e.g. good teachers, lawyers, doctors, philosophers) bitps:whimsical.comfunt-3nteigence-VapqTGq3CmKtBQoeqmydds 465s9i24, 10:56 PM. Unit 3 Inteligence Social intelligence: ability to understand and deal with people (e.g. strong leaders, politicians) Four attributes of intelligence — Level - difficulty of a task — Range - number of tasks at any given degree of difficulty ~ Area - total number of tasks or situations at each level to which individual is able to respond “+ Speed - rapidity with which individual can respond to items bitps:whimsical.comfunt-3nteigence-VapqTGq3CmKtBQoeqmydds 55