Approaches to the Study of Intelligence

1. Approaches to the Study of Intelligence HDEV 4110-01SP Jane Bernzweig, PhD

2. Classroom Activity “Everyday” Theories of Intelligence What is your definition of intelligence?

3. Psychometric approach to the study of intelligence Intelligence is composed of some number of factors Spearman: 2 factors (g and specific); g is domain-general and homogeneous), of which g is of primary interest Guilford’s structure-of-the-intellect model: 180 factors organized along three dimensions (mental operations, contents, products) Thurstone – 7 primary mental abilities (verbal comprehension, verbal fluency, number, spatial visualization, memory, reasoning, perceptual speed) Cattell: a general intellectual factor and 2 second-order factors, fluid and crystallized abilities

4. Psychometric Approach Most agree on a general factor and lower-level, specific skills • Support for g: the positive manifold; however, correlations may be higher for lower IQ • Hierarchical model of cognitive abilities: several specific, highly correlated abilities, and a second-order general factor

5. Stanford- Binet Test of Intelligence

6. IQ (intelligent quotient) tests Stanford-Binet: 15 tests measures g, crystallized abilities, fluid analytic abilities, short-term memory Wechsler Scales (WPPSI, WISC, WAIS): 2 factors, Verbal IQ (knowledge of world, similarities, arithmatic, vocab) and Performance IQ (block design, object assembly, mazes, pic completion) IQ initially based on mental age; now a deviation IQ is used

7. Normal distribution of IQ (Bell Curve)

8. IQ (intelligent quotient) tests Some issues regarding standardized tests • IQ tests and minority children: IQ tests standardized for majority children may not accurately measure intelligence among minority children; test administration methods may bias results • Achievement tests and reading comprehension: performance on reading comprehension portion of SAT/ACT. Students not given the passages to read performed better than expected by chance and often nearly as well as students who had read the passage and answered the questions. “good guesses”

9. Information Processing Approach to Intelligence • Criticism of psychometrics is that tests are based on items that discriminate among people and not on theory. They don’t explain why differences occur or what underlies the differences Basic level processes that are implicated in intelligence: Speed of information processing • faster processing by older, brighter, nondisabled children • moderate correlations with IQ Working memory - correlates with speed and IQ; may, at least at some ages, have greater contribution to IQ than speed of processing

10. Information Processing Approach to Intelligence • Higher level cognitive abilities • Strategies (ability to plan and anticipate what will happen – make efficient use of functioning) • higher and lower functioning children may differ in terms of strategy implementation and benefit • gifted children may possess better nonstrategic processes as well • Knowledge base • One possible advantage of good readers is a better-developed semantic memory, language concepts • In some circumstances the advantage of an enriched knowledge base may outweigh the advantages of higher IQ • Metacognition (person’s understanding of own ability) – can you monitor and apply efficient strategies? gifted children may have better understanding of when to use strategies, when to generalize

11. Piagetian approaches to the study of intelligence • Inherently developmental theory unlike the others • Piaget started out to study the intelligence of children with limited ability • Relationship between Piagetian stage and IQ may vary as a function of age, perhaps due to developmental changes in the nature of intelligence

12. Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence • The contextual subtheory (practical) • Intelligence must be viewed in the context in which it occurs • Three processes • adaptation (fitting in with the environment) • selection (choosing an environment for optimal development) • shaping (changing the environment to one’s advantage) • Implies that intelligence is to some extent a function of the requirements of one’s culture • The experiential subtheory (creativity) : how prior knowledge influences future performance. Ability to deal with novelty and to automatize processes

13. Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence The componential subtheory (analytic): problem solving – recognizing and defining the nature of the problem, devising an efficient strategy for tackling the problem and then evaluating the solution - 3 information processing components (metacomponents, performance, knowledge-acquisition) The Triarchic Theory applied to education: • 3 parts of the theory represent three thinking styles: practical (contextual), creative (experiential) and analytical (componential) – strengths in parts of the system • Independent subcomponents – no g factor • instruction tailored to child’s thinking style produces better learning

14. Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences Criteria to be an intelligence • Potential isolation of ability-controlled areas of brain by brain damage • The existence of savants and prodigies • An identifiable core operation or set of operations • A distinctive developmental history, along with a definable set of expert end-state performances • An evolutionary history and evolutionary plausibility • Support from experimental psychological tasks and from psychometric findings • Susceptibility to encoding in a system

15. Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences Multiple intelligences and education • Supports intellectual assessment only if it evaluates all types of intelligence rather than just the 2 measured by current tests • Because intelligences are independent, expect differences in ability level for the various intelligences

16. Multiple Intelligences in Early Childhood Curricula • Zero to Three article on assessing intelligences in preschool curriculum

17. Transactional Approach to Intelligence • Sameroff and Sameroff and Chandler • The child’s biology organizes the child’s development and the environment also organizes the child • Applied to parent-child interactions • SES impacts intelligence; SES is highly correlated with environments one finds oneself • Negative effects on intelligence due to impairment at birth are obliterated when children of same age (impaired and not impaired at birth) grow up in middle class homes • Ramey’s studies show that children with early malnutrition who receive responsive caretaking and nutritional supplements have similar IQ scores to those same-aged babies who were not malnourished. Positive effects on early intervention

18. Behavior Genetics and Intelligence • Heritability of a characteristic (how much it is influenced by one’s genes) • IQ heritability about .52 based on studies of identical and non-identical twins (.86 identical twins and .60 for non-identical twins) • IQ is similar to one’s biological parents from early childhood until adolescence • Shared and non-shared environments (siblings become less alike as they get older thus reflecting influence of non-shared environment)

19. Experience and Intelligence • Virtual twin – they are two children reared in the same family at the same time but who are not identical twins (bio and adopted child only 9 months apart or 2 adopted children) to look at the environmental effects without the strong genetic component • Correlation of IQ for these children is .26 which is must less than .86 for identical twins or fraternal twins (.60) or bio siblings (.50). Shared environments have only a small effect on development compared to genetics • Harmful environmental effects have a strong impact on some traits and average or above average environments have little impact beyond what is contributed by genes (parents need to be just “good enough”)

20. Stability of Intelligence • How likely are you to maintain your intelligence or IQ ranking throughout life? • Suggest a general intelligence that is relatively stable throughout life • Some aspects of intelligence my change continuously and show stability while others are discontinuous and less stable