INTELLIGENCE Hannah Anees, Maria Sabillon, Josie Mayorga and Mikhail D’Mello

The Origin of Intelligence Testing Alfred Binet : Predicting school achievement - Created an intelligence test to help the government in France. - Used it to figure out if a child was “dull” or “bright”.

- Also used it to find a child’s mental age i. Mental Age : The chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance His test did help find kids who needed help but didn’t explain why - He didn’t wan this test to measure intelligence, just to identify which kids needed help

Lewis Terman: Innate IQ - - Terman made an edited version of the Binet test and renamed it the Stanford-Binet test. - With the test he calculated the intelligence quotient, or IQ - Terman was alot more judgemental based on the tests than Binet

What Is Intelligence? Intelligence is not something concrete, but a concept When we think education is concrete, we reify it - Reify : to invent a concept and give it a name. Intelligence is a social concept - Cultures deem intelligence whatever attributes enable success in those cultures

Two Major Controversies Is intelligence a single overall ability or several specific ability’s? With the tools of modern neuroscience, can we now measure intelligence as the brains information-processing speed?

Overall ability or specific ability ? To determine this, researchers use factor analysis - Factor Analysis : enables researches to identify clusters of test items that measure a common ability Charles spearman believed there is general intelligence which is a factor that underlies the specific factors

Which means that people have certain ability’s that stand out. The idea of a general mental capacity expressed by a single intelligence store was controversial at the time, and it still is One of his major opponents was L.L Thunderstone he did not rank his subjects on a single scale of general aptitude

Since the mis-1980s some psychologist have sought to extend the definition of intelligence as much more than academics People with Savant Syndrome tend to score less on intelligence tests Howard Gardner states that we do not have an intelligence but instead have multiple intelligences each independent of the others.

Robert Sternberg agrees with Gardners theory of multiple intelligences but he distinguishes it among 3 factors. - Analytical intelligence- which is academic and the results come from tests which have a single right answer - Creative intelligence- reacting adaptively to novel situations and general novel ideas - Practical intelligence- required for everyday tasks, and involve multiple solutions

Emotional Intelligence Nancy cantor and John Kihlstrom believe in social intelligence which is the know how involved in comprehending social situations and managing oneself successfully. Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive, express, understand, and regulate emotions. Howard gardener believes that concepts such as emotional intelligence and moral intelligence stretch intelligence too far

Is Intelligence Neurologically measurable? Fran Gall realized human intelligence was greater than animal intelligence Wondered if intelligence depended on the size and structure of the brain – it did not

Brain Glucose Consumption R. J. Haier and Randolph Parks have done PET scans while people of high or low abilities perform cognitive tasks. High performers brains are less active they guzzle less glucose energy Earl hunt found that verbal intelligence scores are predictable from the speed that people access information from their memories.

Perceptual speed Those who perceive quickly tend to score higher on intelligence tests, based on perception rather than problem solving.

Neurological Speed Studies have found that people who have quicker perceptions have brain waves that register a simple stimulus more quickly and with greater complexity. Brain response also tends to be quicker with people on a higher intelligence compared to a low one. The neurological approach to understanding intelligence is still on a stand still.

Assessing Intelligence Aptitude tests- A test designed to predict a person’s future performance; aptitude is the capacity to learn (college entrance test) Achievement tests – a test designed to assess what a person has learned(subject tests) Aptitude tests predict future performance and achievement tests predict current performance

WAIS Most widely used intelligence test is the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale and was created by psychologist David Wechsler who was an immigrant from East Europe The WAIS consists of 11 subtests which yields not only an overall intelligence score but also separate verbal and performance (nonverbal) scores

Principles of Test Construction For any psychological test to be widely accepted, it must meet 3 criteria 1. Standardization 2. Reliability 3. Validity

Standardization Scores would have no meaning if you had nothing to compare them to. Standardization : Defining meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested “standardization group” Typically form a normal distribution Flynn Effect : Over time our aptitude scores have been improving

Reliability Reliability: The extent to which a test yields consistent results. We measure reliability by repeating the test or splitting up the test and seeing if the results correlate High correlation means that the test is reliable – Both the Stanford-Binet test and the WAIS have a correlation of +9

Validity Validity : the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to Content Validity : The extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest Predictive Validity: The success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict - assessed by computing the correlation between test scores and criterion behavior

Stability or Change? Intelligence tests before the age of 3 do not predict much, but those after age 3 can be very predictive of their adolescent and adult scores. Children who learn how to read at a younger age ( 4 or 5) tend to score higher. At about age 7, intelligence test scores start to stabilize

The Extremes of Intelligence One way to see the validity of a test is to compare its two extremes – the low extreme and the high extreme These extremes should, and do, vary noticeably

The Low Extreme Those whose intelligence scores are below 70 and are labeled as having mental retardation - Mental Retardation : Both a low score and difficulty adapting to normal demands of independent life Down Syndrome : A condition of retardation and associated physical disorders caused by extra chromosome Options for those with mental retardation has fluctuated over the last two centuries

The High Extreme Terman found, contrary to popular belief, that high scoring children were healthy and well adjusted to life. Critics question the “Gifted Programs” implemented in schools Tracking for gifted students can cause a whole arrat of problems One thing is agreed upon - Children have differing gifts

Creativity and Intelligence Creativity : The ability to produce ideas that are both novel and valuable Creativity varies by culture Results from tests of intelligence and creativity suggest that a certain level of aptitude is necessary to but not sufficient for creativity.

Five Components of Creativity Expertise: Well developed base of knowledge Imaginative thinking skills: ability to see things in new ways Venturesome Personality: perseveres and takes risks Intrinsic Motivation Creative Environment Amabiles experiments demonstrated that creative environments also free people from concern about social approval.

Genetic Influences do genes interpret intelligence? Sometimes yes. - Fraternal/ Identical twins The heritability of Intelligence is about 50%. But that is not always the case Environmental differences are more predictive of Intelligence scores of kids and low- educated parents which can be from any place in the world environment and heredity interact with each other.

Environmental Influences Environment isn’t everything - Ex: smart school ≠ smart people Psychologist J. McVicker Hunt’s Experiment - Showed effects of bad early experiences with children If a kid from an impoverished environment is exposed to higher education/ care = high intelligence

Schooling Effects Schooling itself has a dramatic effect on Intelligence Exs: Length, drop outs, Summer, Birthdays

Group Differences in Intelligence Test Scores Ethnic differences Racial groups differ in average scores on intelligence tests High scoring people/groups will get a higher Therefore: - Group differences are genetic, but they are mostly affected by the environment Gender Differences Stereotypes and actual differences are based on genetics and culture

It is also based on the advantages each group has Group differences deal with both environment and genetics. It’s not that some groups are more dumber, groups just have their own rise and falls over time It is also based on the advantages each group has

The Question of Bias Yes & No Yes : No : Do intelligence tests discriminate? Yes & No Yes : - The purpose of tests IS to discriminate. They serve to distinguish among individuals. No : - Test also reduce discrimination by reducing reliance on subjective criteria for school and job placement (race, charisma, ect.)