Intelligence

University American College, Skopje

 What is Intelligence?
• How would you know that someone is
intelligent?
• List the characteristics or behaviors that
you associate with intelligence.
 Definitions of Intelligence
• The ability to profit from experience
• The ability to acquire knowledge or learn
• The ability to think abstractly
• The ability to act purposefully
• The ability to adapt to changes in the
environment.
 Definitions of Intelligence
1‐Psychometric Approach
IQ tests – focuses on how people perform on
standardized tests which are designed to
measure skills and knowledge you have
already learned.
2‐Cognitive Approach
Intelligence comes in different ways and one
test can’t measure it all.

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 Definitions of Intelligence

Psychometric Approach Cognitive Approach

Alfred Binet Howard Gardner

Lewis Terman Robert Sternberg
William Stern Emotional Intelligence
David Wechsler
Charles Spearman
Goddard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9n3hLnwwc0
5
 Some Classic Definitions
• Spearman (1904)
– A general ability which involves mainly the education of relations and
correlates
• Binet & Simon (1905)
– The ability to judge well, to understand well, to reason well
• Terman (1916)
– The capacity to form concepts and grasp their significance
• Thurstone (1921)
– The capacity to inhibit instinctive adjustments, flexibly imagine different
responses, and realize modified instinctive adjustments into overt
behaviour
 Definitions (continued)
• Wechsler (1939)
– the aggregate or global capacity of the individual to act purposefully,
to think rationally, and to deal effectively with the environment
• Sternberg (1985)
– the mental capacity to automatize information processing and to emit
contextually appropriate behaviour in response to novelty; intelligence
also includes metacomponents, performance components, and
knowledge‐acquisition components
• Gardner (1986)
– the ability or skill to solve problems or to fashion products which are
valued within one or more cultural settings
 Factors Influencing Intelligence
• The Child’s Influence
– Genetics
– Genotype–Environment Interaction
– Gender

• The Immediate Environment’s Influence

– Family Environment
– School Environment

• The Society’s Influence

– Poverty
– Race/Ethnicity
 Gender
• Boys and girls tend to be equivalent in most aspects of
intelligence
– The average IQ scores of boys and girls is virtually
identical
– The extremes (both low and high ends) are over‐
represented by boys

• Girls as a group:
– Tend to be stronger in verbal fluency, in writing, in
perceptual speed (starting as early as the toddler years)

• Boys as a group:
– Tend to be stronger in visual‐spatial processing, in
science, and in mathematical problem solving (starting as
early as age 3)
 Poverty
• The more years children spend in poverty, the
lower their IQs tend to be
– Children from lower‐ and working‐class homes average
10‐15 points below their middle‐class age mates on IQ
tests

• In many countries, children from wealthier homes

score better on IQ test than children from poorer
homes
– The greater the gap in wealth in a country the greater
the difference in IQ scores
 Poverty Continued…
• Chronic inadequate diet can disrupt brain
development

– Chronic or short‐term inadequate diet at any point in

life can impair immediate intellectual functioning

• Reduced access to health service, poor parenting,

and insufficient stimulation and emotional
support can impair intellectual growth
 Race and Ethnicity
• The average IQ score of Euro‐American children is
10‐15 points higher than that of African‐
American children

• The average IQ score of Latino and American‐

Indian children fall somewhere in between those
of Euro‐American and African‐American children

• The average IQ score of Asian‐American children

tend to be higher than any other group in the US
 Culture‐Fair Intelligence Tests
• Raven’s Progressive Matrices
– A “culture‐fair” or culture‐reduced test that would make
minimal use of language and not ask for any specific facts

– These matrices progress from easy to difficult items ‐‐

measures abstract reasoning

• Even on culture‐fair tests, Euro‐American and

African‐American children still differ

– One reason ‐ culture can influence a child’s familiarity with

the entire testing situation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xTz3Qjcl
oI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-
hMhpB8ikR8
 Alfred Binet
(1857‐
• 1911)
Designed the 1st test that was developed later to
be what we call now the “IQ test.”
• He wanted to measure the mental age as opposed to
the chronological age.
“The scale, properly speaking does not permit
the measure of intelligence, because
intellectual qualities … cannot be measured as
linear surfaces are measured.”
Binet and Simon, (1905)

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 Lewis Terman (1877‐
1956)
• Revised the test.
• Called the new test the Stanford‐Binet.
• Later German Psychologist William Stern
derived the famous intelligence quotient or
IQ.

9
 William Stern
IQ Score=
Mental Age (MA)

divided by Chronological Age (CA)

multiplied by 100
1916 Stanford‐Binet Intelligence Scale
• developed by L.M. Terman of
Stanford University
• first time the concept of
“intelligence quotient” was
used:

MA
IQ  CA X100
 David Wechsler
IQ Tests
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC‐III)
A test for children that provides separate measures
of verbal and performance (nonverbal) skills as
well as a total score.
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)
A test for adults that provides separate measures
of verbal and performance skills as well as a
total score.
 Charles Spearman (1863‐
1945)
General Intelligence
The g Factor
There is a general factor that underlies the
specific factors.
Those who score high on one factor, score
higher than average on other factors.
Bell Curve
 Variation in IQ Scores
Range of Scores % of Population Description
130 + 2% Very superior
120 - 129 7% Superior
110 -119 16% High average
90 - 109 50% Average
80 - 89 16% Low average
70 - 79 7% Borderline
70 & below 2% Deficient
 Thurstone & Primary Mental Abilities
• Invented factor analysis
• when he applied factor analysis to items making up
intelligence tests, discovered several broad group factors,
about a dozen of them
• the seven which have been frequently corroborated are
referred to as the primary mental abilities:
– verbal comprehension (understanding)
– word fluency
– number
– space
– associative memory
– perceptual speed
– inductive reasoning
 Famous IQs
• Leonardo da Vinci 220 OR 190 OR 180
• William Shakespeare 190
• Albert Einstein 190 OR 160+
• Napoleon 180 OR 145
• Pablo Picasso 175
• Bill Gates 173 OR 160
 Famous IQs
• Confucius 170
• Marilyn Monroe 163
• Mahatma Gandhi 160
• Charlie Chaplin 140
• Bill Clinton 140
 Evaluating IQ Tests
• Example 1: Focus on black‐white
differences
https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUHXESKIovA
• Example 2: Goddard’s testing of
the immigrants on Ellis Island
https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQV11U
Q8a0o
 What’s Wrong with Goddard’s
Methodology?
• 1‐ The test was translated from French.
• 2‐ The translation might not have been
accurate.
• 3‐ The immigrants had just endured an
Atlantic crossing.
• 4‐ The test was interpreted according to the
French norms.
standardization reliability
validity normal curve
content validity aptitude (skill) test
predictive validity achievement test
 Development of IQ tests

• Reliability: the tendency of a test to produce

the same scores again and again each time it
is given to the same people
• Validity: the degree to which a test actually
measures what it’s supposed to measure
 The Theory of Multiple Intelligences
Howard Gardner (1995)
• Language 7 intelligences
• Logical‐mathematical +2
• Spatial relations Naturalisti
• Bodily‐kinesthetic c
• Musical Existential
• Interpersonal
• Intrapersonal
 Cattell: Fluid & Crystallized Intelligence

• Also used factor analysis, discovered 2 major

factors:

Fluid Intelligence: Crystallized Intelligence:

Non-verbal & culture-free
form of intelligence
Related to a person’s
inherent capacity to learn
& solve problems
Used in adapting to new
situations
What one has already learned through
the investment of fluid intelligence in
cultural settings
Highly culturally dependent
Used for tasks which require learned or
habitual response

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wxjMYkbyl0
 Emotional Intelligence
• 1‐Interpersonal Intelligence
The ability to understand other people
• 2‐Intrapersonal Intelligence
The ability to understand one’s emotions
• 3‐Delaying Gratification
 Emotional Intelligence
• EQ – or Emotional Quotient – helps a person to
acknowledge emotion in himself and others.
• The emotionally intelligent person masters emotions for
personal benefit or for the greater good.
• The emotionally intelligent person has the ability to
reason and distract oneself from emotional folly or
obsession.
• The emotionally intelligent person knows how to comply
gratification.
• The emotionally intelligent person does not curse and
crash doors while believing that he is not angry.
• The emotionally intelligent person does not suppress or
run away from his painful emotions.
Emotional Intelligence
 IQ
A weak predictor for
achievement
job performance success
overall success, wealth, & happiness
Accounts for a major component of employment
success according to numbers of studies covering
career success; maybe as much as 20-25%.
 How do we view emotions?

•chaotic
•unnecessary
•incompatible with reason
•disorganized
•largely visceral
•resulting from the lack of effective adjustment
How do we view emotions today

•Provoke, sustain, direct activity

•Part of the total economy of

living organisms

•Not in opposition to intelligence

•Themselves a higher order of intelligence

 Emotions

• Emotions create subjective feelings that are

often evaluated as “feeling good” or “feeling
bad”.

• Emotions also tend to increase or decrease

our arousal level, which we often describe as
increasing or lowering our energy level.
 Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence doesn't mean being soft – it

means being intelligent about emotions – a different
way of being smart.

Emotional intelligence is your ability to acquire and

apply knowledge from your emotions and the
emotions of others in order to be more successful and
lead a more fulfilling life and career.
1. Emotional Self-Awareness
2. Managing one’s own emotions
3. Using emotions to maximize
intellectual processing
and motivation
4. Developing empathy
5. The art of social relationships
(managing emotions in others)