Module 13

1. Module 13 Intelligence

2. DEFINING INTELLIGENCE • Two-factor theory • Psychometric approach • measures or quantifies cognitive abilities or factors that are thought to be involved in intellectual performance • Two-factor theory • by Charles Spearman • says that intelligence has two factors: • general mental ability factor “g” • represents what different cognitive tasks have in common • specific factors which include specific mental abilities such as mathematical, mechanical, or verbal skills “s”

3. DEFINING INTELLIGENCE (CONT.) • Multiple-intelligence theory • Gardner’s multiple-intelligence theory • Howard Gardner • instead of one kind of general intelligence, there are at least seven different kinds which include: • verbal intelligence • musical intelligence • logical mathematical intelligence • spatial intelligence • body movement intelligence (to understand oneself) • intelligence to understand others

4. DEFINING INTELLIGENCE (CONT.) • Triarchic theory • Robert Sternberg • says that intelligence can be divided into three different kinds of reasoning processes • uses analytical or logical thinking skills that are measured by traditional intelligence tests • uses problem-solving skills that require creative thinking and the ability to learn from experience • uses practical thinking skills that help a person adjust to, and cope with, his or her sociocultural environment

5. MEASURING INTELLIGENCE • Earlier attempts to measure intelligence • head size and intelligence • Francis Galton • noticed that intelligent people often had intelligent relatives and concluded that intelligence was, to a large extent, biological or inherited • low correlation between head size and intelligence • using head size as a measure of intelligence was abandoned in favor of using skull or brain size

6. MEASURING INTELLIGENCE (CONT.)

7. MEASURING INTELLIGENCE (CONT.) • Earlier attempts to measure intelligence • Brain size and intelligence • Paul Broca • claimed there was a relationship between size of brain and intelligence • larger brains indicating more intelligence • later reanalysis of Broca’s data indicted that measures of brain size proved to be unreliable and poorly correlated with intelligence

8. MEASURING INTELLIGENCE (CONT.) • Earlier attempts to measure intelligence • brain size and achievement • enormous variation in brain size and achievement • brain size, sex differences, and intelligence • women’s brains weigh about 10% less than men’s • little or no difference in intelligence between men and women • larger size of men’s brains does not result in higher IQs

9. MEASURING INTELLIGENCE (CONT.) • Binet’s breakthrough • Alfred Binet • believed that intelligence was a collection of mental abilities and that the best way to assess intelligence was to measure a person’s ability to perform cognitive tasks, such as understanding the meanings of words or being able to follow directions • Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale • contained items arranged in order of increasing difficulty • measured vocabulary, memory, common knowledge, and other cognitive abilities

10. MEASURING INTELLIGENCE (CONT.) • Binet’s breakthrough • mental age: measure of intelligence • Binet and Simon revised their intelligence scale to solve several problems in their original scale • mental age • method of estimating a child’s intellectual progress by comparing the child’s score on an intelligence test to the scores of average children of the same age

11. MEASURING INTELLIGENCE (CONT.) • Formula for IQ • intelligence quotient • computed by dividing a child’s mental age (MA), as measured in an intelligence test, by the child’s chronological age (CA) and multiplying the result by 100

12. MEASURING INTELLIGENCE (CONT.)

13. MEASURING INTELLIGENCE (CONT.) • Wechsler Intelligence Scale • most widely used IQ tests • Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-III), ages 16 and older • Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III) for children ages 3-16 • both have items that are organized into various subtests • verbal section • performance section • verbal and performance combined give a single IQ

14. MEASURING INTELLIGENCE (CONT.) • Two characteristics of tests • Validity • means that the test measures what it is supposed to measure • Reliability • refers to consistency: score on a test at one point in time should be similar to the score obtained by the same person on a similar test at a later point in time

15. DISTRIBUTION & USE OF IQ SCORES • Normal distribution of IQ scores • Normal distribution • refers to a statistical arrangement of scores so that they resemble the shape of a bell and, thus, is said to be a bell-shaped curve

16. DISTRIBUTION & USE OF IQ SCORES (CONT.)

17. DISTRIBUTION & USE OF IQ SCORES (CONT.) • Mental retardation: IQ scores • Mental retardation • refers to a substantial limitation in present functioning that is characterized by significantly subaverage intellectual functioning, along with related limitations in two of ten areas, including communication, self-care, home living, social skills, and safety • borderline mentally retarded: IQs from 50 to 75 • mildly/moderately mentally retarded: IQs from 35 to 50 • severely/profound mentally retarded: IQs from 20 to 40

18. DISTRIBUTION & USE OF IQ SCORES (CONT.) • Mental retardation: IQ scores • Causes • Organic retardation • results from genetic problems or brain damage • Cultural-familial retardation • results from a greatly impoverished environment.

19. DISTRIBUTION & USE OF IQ SCORES (CONT.) • Vast majority: IQ scores • about 95%, have scores that fall between 70 and 130 • Gifted: IQ scores • Moderately gifted • usually defined by an IQ score between 130 and 150 • Profoundly gifted • usually defined by an IQ score around 180 or above

20. POTENTIAL PROBLEMS OF IQ TESTING • Binet’s Warnings • intelligence tests do not measure innate abilities or natural intelligence • intelligence tests, by themselves, should not be used to label people

21. POTENTIAL PROBLEMS OF IQ TESTING • Cultural Bias • The wording of the questions and the experiences on which the questions are used • Nonintellectual Factors • refer to noncognitive factors, such as attitude, experience, and emotional functioning, that may help or hinder performance on tests

22. NATURE-NURTURE QUESTION • Definitions • asks how nature-hereditary or genetic factors-interacts with nurture-environmental factors-in the development of a person’s intellectual, emotional, personal, and social abilities • Twin studies • Fraternal twins • like siblings (brothers and sisters), develop from separate eggs and 50% of their genes in common

23. NATURE-NURTURE QUESTION (CONT.) • Twin studies • Identical twins • develop from a single egg and thus have identical genes, which means that they have 100% of their genes in common • Interaction of nature and nurture • when researchers report that genetic factors influence intelligence (IQ scores) • mean that genetic factors influence cognitive abilities to varying degrees, depending on the environment

24. NATURE-NURTURE QUESTION (CONT.) • Adoption studies • children with limited social-educational opportunities and low IQs were adopted by parents who could provide increased social-educational opportunities • studies show that children with poor educational opportunities and low IQ scores can show an increase in IQ scores when they are adopted into families that provide increased educational opportunities

25. NATURE-NURTURE QUESTION (CONT.) • Interaction: nature and nurture • Heritability • number that indicates the amount or proportion of some ability, characteristic, or trait that can be attributed to genetic factors (nature) • Reaction range • indicates the extent to which traits, abilities, or IQ scores may increase or decrease as a result of interaction with environmental factors