INTELLIGENCE

Intelligence
“the capacity to acquire and apply
knowledge.”
Intelligence includes the ability to benefit from
past experience, act purposefully, solve
problems, and adapt to new situations.
It is the capacity to understand the world,
think rationally, and use resources effectively.
 HOW INTELLIGENCE CAN BE
MEASURED?
Typically understood within the area of
psychological testing
Measured by Intelligence Quotient (IQ)-
ratio between mental age and
chronological age that was coined by
William Stern
William Stern (born
Wilhelm Louis Stern)
 Is a German psychologist and
philosopher noted as a pioneer
in the field of psychology of
personality and intelligence. He
was the inventor of the concept
of the intelligence quotient, or
IQ.
 To compute IQ, Stern divided
by mental age by the actual
chronological age of the
person taking the test and then
multiplied by 100 to get rid of
the decimal point.
 Example
If a 6-year-old girl scored a mental age of 9, she
would be assigned an IQ of 150
If a 12 year old boy scored a mental age of 6, he
would be given an IQ of 50
BUT, this formula does not work well for adults
because intelligence levels off during adulthood.
For example, a 40-year-old person who scored
the same as the average 20-year-old would have
an IQ of only 50.
 Lewis M. Terman
 American psychologist, know for his
specialized research in intelligence testing
and educational experiments with
intellectually gifted children.
 Terman devised the term intelligence quotient
(IQ), which became an index of
measurement of the intelligence level of both
children and adults, with a normal distribution
of 100.
 He also the developed the so-called
Standford Binet Intelligence Test to measure
the IQ.
 LEVELS OF INTELLIGENCE
IQ Score Qualitative Interpretation

141 and above Gifted

121-140 Very Superior
111-120 Superior
90-110 Average
80-89 Below Average
70-79 Borderline Mentally Retarded
55-69 Mildly Mentally Retarded
40-54 Severely Mentally Retarded
Below 40 Profoundly Mentally Retarded
THEORIES OF
INTELLIGENCE
 Two Factor Theory of
Intelligence
 In the early 1900’s British psychologist Charles Spearman made an
important observation that has influenced many later theories of
intelligence: He noted that all tests of mental ability were positively
correlated.
 Correlation is the degree to which two variables are associated and vary
together.
 Spearman found that individuals who scored high on any one of the
mental tests he gave tended to score on all others. Conversely, people
who scored low on any one mental test tended to score low an all others.
 In 1904 Spearman published a major article about intelligence in which he
used a statistical method to show that the positive correlations among
mental tests resulted from a common underlying factor.
His method eventually developed into a more
sophisticated statistical technique known as factor
analysis.
Using factor analysis, it is possible to identify clusters of
tests that measure a common ability.
 General Factor or g
 g underlies all intellectual task and mental abilities
 The g factor represented what all of the mental tests had in
common.
 For example, a person who does well on a verbal test would
probably also do well on other tests.
General intelligence can be compared to
athleticism. A person might be a very skilled
runner, but this does not necessarily mean that
they will also be an excellent figure skater.
However, because this person is athletic and
fit, they will probably perform much better on
other physical tasks than an individual who is
less coordinated and more sedentary.
 Specific Factor or s
 Related to whatever unique abilities a particular test
required, differed from test to test.
 The individual scores on each of the specific ability
tests represent the s-factors. An s-factor score
represents a person’s ability within one particular
area. Commonly measured s-factors of intelligence
include memory, attention and concentration,
verbal comprehension, vocabulary, spatial skills, and
abstract reasoning.
 Spearman and his followers placed much more
importance on general intelligence than on the
specific factor.
 Primary Mental Abilities
In 1938, American psychologist, Louis L. Thurstone proposed
that intelligence was not one general factor, but a small set of
independent factors of equal importance. He called these
factors primary mental abilities.
Thurstone identified seven (7) primary mental abilities
1. Verbal Comprehension, the ability to understand word meanings
2. Verbal Fluency, or speed with verbal material, as in making rhyme
3. Number or Arithmetic, ability to solve numerical problems
4. Memory, the ability to remember words, letters, numbers, and
images
5. Perceptual Speed, the ability to quickly
distinguish visual details and perceive similarities
and differences between pictured objects.
6. Inductive Reasoning, or deriving general
ideas and rules from specific information
7. Spatial Visualization, the ability to mentally
visualize and manipulate objects in three
dimensions
 Fluid Intelligence and Crystallized
Intelligence
In the 1960s American psychologists Raymond Cattell and
John Horn applied new methods of factor analysis and
concluded there are two kinds of general intelligence.
Fluid Intelligence represents the biological basis of
intelligence. Measures of fluid intelligence such as speed of
reasoning and memory, increase into adulthood and then
decline due to the aging process.
Crystallized Intelligence, on the other hand, is the knowledge
and skills obtained through learning and experience.
 Multiple Intelligence
In 1938 American psychologist Howard Gardner
proposed a theory tha sought to broaden the traditional
definition of intelligence. He felt that the concept of
intelligence, as it had been defined by mental tests, did
not capture all of the ways human can excel.
Gardner argued that we do not have one underlying
general intelligence, but instead have multiple
intelligences, each part of an independent system in the
brain.
Gardner also proposed that evidence for multiple
intelligences cam from prodigies and savants
Prodigies are individuals who show an exceptional
talent in a specific area at a young age, but who
are normal in other aspects.
Savants are people who score low on IQ tests-
and who may have only limited language and
social skills- but demonstrate some remarkable
ability, such as extraordinary memory, or drawing
ability.
 Multiple Intelligence
 1. Linguistic Intelligence involves
aptitude with speech and language
 2. Logical-mathematical Intelligence
involves the ability to reason abstractly
and solve mathematical and logical
problems. (Albert Einstein)
 3. Spatial Intelligence is used to
perceive visual and spatial visualization
and to conceptualize the world in tasks
like navigation and in art.
 Multiple Intelligence
 4. Musical Intelligence, the ability to
perform and appreciate music.
 5. Bodily-kinesthetic Intelligence, is
the ability to use one’s body or
portions of it in various activities such
as dancing, athletics, acting, surgery,
and magic.
 6. Interpersonal Intelligence involves
understanding others and acting on
that understanding (Sigmund Freud)
 Multiple Intelligence
 7. Intrapersonal Intelligence is
the ability to understand one’s
self. (Mohandas Gandhi)
In the late 1990s Gardner added
an eighth intelligence to his theory.
 8. Naturalist Intelligence, the
ability to recognize and classify
plants, animals, and minerals.
(Charles Darwin)
Thiarchic Theory of Intelligence
In 1980s American psychologist Robert Sternberg
proposed a theory of intelligence that like Gardner’s
theory of multiple intelligences, attempted to expand
the traditional conception of intelligence.
Sternberg noted that mental tests are often imperfect
predictors of real-world performance or success.
People who do well on tests sometimes do not do as
well in real-world situations.
 Thiarchic (three-part) Theory of
Intelligence
 Consists of three (3) main aspects
 ANALYTIC INTELLIGENCE- closely resembles
to the traditional aspect of general
intelligence.
Skills in reasoning, processing information,
and solving problems.
It involves the ability to analyze,
evaluate, judge and compare.
Analytical giftedness is influential in being
able to take apart problems and being
able to see solutions not often seen.
 Thiarchic (three-part) Theory of
Intelligence
 CREATIVE INTELLIGENCE- is skill in
using past experiences to achieve
insight and deal with new
situations.
 This stage deals mainly with how
well a task is performed with regard
to how familiar it is.
 People high in creative intelligence
are good at combining seemingly
unrelated facts to form new ideas.
 Thiarchic (three-part) Theory of
Intelligence
PRACTICAL INTELLIGENCE- relates to
people’s ability to shape their real-
world environment.
Involves skills in everyday living
(‘Street Smarts) and in adapting
to life demands, and reflects a
person's ability to succeed in real
-world settings.
 Thiarchic (three-part) Theory of
Intelligence
 Practically gifted people are superb in their ability to
succeed in any setting (Sternberg, 1997). An example of
this type of giftedness is "Celia". Celia did not have
outstanding analytical or synthetic abilities, but she "was
highly successful in figuring out what she needed to do in
order to succeed in an academic environment. She
knew what kind of research was valued, how to get
articles into journals, how to impress people at job
interviews, and the like" (Sternberg, 1997, p. 44). Celia's
contextual intelligence allowed her to use these skills to
her best advantage.