1. Unit Seven: Psychological Testing and Intelligence
No Test this unit!

2. Key Concepts in Psychological Testing
Psychological Test – a standardized measure of a sample of a person’s behavior.

3. Two Principal Types of Tests
Mental Ability
Personality
Intelligence tests: general mental ability; intellectual potential
Aptitude tests: specific types of mental ability
Achievement tests: content/knowledge mastery
Personality tests: various aspects of personality (i.e. motives, interests, values, attitudes); sometimes called scales.

4. Test Characteristics
1. Standardization: administered/scored the same way each time
 test norms: used to compare scores to others
 raw score vs. percentile score
2. Reliability: consistency of a test
test-retest reliability
correlation coefficient (best = closest to +1.00)
most .70 to .90

6. Validity
Refers to the ability of a test to measure what it was designed to measure.
also refers to the accuracy/utility of the decisions made based on a test
content validity: content representative of the intended domain (exam that tests on info that has not been taught/learned)
criterion validity: correlation of test scores and an independent measure  of a trait assessed on the test (i.e. pilot training...predictive validity)
construct validity: measure of hypothetical construct (i.e. a test measuring extraversion should correlate negatively with one measuring introversion)

8. Standard Testing – Help me out
Pros
Cons

9. The Evolution of Intelligence Testing

10. History Sir Francis Galton: Lewis Terman: Alfred Binet:
nature v. nurture
Invented concepts of correlation, and percentile test scores
Alfred Binet:
1st useful intelligence test (1905)
 mental age – mental performance typical of a child of that chronological age.
Lewis Terman:
Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale (1916)
 intelligence quotient (IQ) = mental age/chronological age x 100
 can compare children of different ages
David Wechsler:
Wechsler Adult Intelligent Scale [WAIS] (1939)
less dependent on verbal ability; includes non-verbal reasoning
separate scores for verbal, performance, and full-scale IQ.
Disregards IQ in favor of normal distribution

11. Theories - Intelligence is a…
Cluster of Abilitie
General Ability
L.L. Thurstone’s Primary Mental Abilities (7)
Word fluency, verbal comprehension, spatial ability, perceptual speed, numerical ability, inductive reasoning, and memory.
Led to SAT.
Debated by Charles Spearman
Used Factor Analysis
All cognitive abilities share g for general mental ability.

12. “Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad” – Anonymous
Fluid Intelligence – decreases up to old age.
Crystallized Intelligence – Increases up to old age.
Reasoning ability, memory capacity, and speed of info processing.
Accumulated knowledge based on vocab/analogy tests.

13. Basic Questions About Intelligence Testing

14. Meaning of IQ Scores?
Normal Distribution – symmetric bell-shaped curve to represent patterns in the pop.
Normal falls near the center (average)
Deviation IQ Scores – locate subjects precisely within the bell-curve, using standard deviation as the unit of measurement.
Modern IQ scores indicate exactly where you fall in the normal distribution of intelligence.
mean distribution = 100, standard deviation = 15

16. Intelligence Tests Reliability??? Validity??? Yes
Generally .90 correlation
Sample behavior
Score lowered by low motivation or high anxiety.
Yes for academic work, debatable in broad sense.
.70 correlation
Sternbergs 3 categories of intelligence:
Verbal, practical, social

17. Are IQ scores stable over time?
Preschool IQ is unstable

18. Do Intelligence Tests Predict Vocational Success?
High IQ is more likely to land high-stakes job than low IQ.

19. Are IQ Tests Widely Used in Other Cultures?
Western = yes
Eastern = no (minus Japan)
IQ tests do not translate well into the language and cognitive frameworks of other non-western cultures.

20. Extremes of Intelligence

21. Intellectual Disability
New classification– intellectual disability
Old classification – mental retardation
Definition: subnormal general mental ability accompanied by deficiencies in adaptive skills, originating before 18.
Adaptive skills = conceptual, social, practical skills.
Levels: 1-3% of school-age population
mild*, moderate, severe, profound
origins: organic syndromes (Down syndrome, phenylketonuria, hydrocephaly);  physiological and/or environmental factors

23. Giftedness
Giftedness: not in theory, but in reality based almost entirely off of IQ
top 2-3%; 130 = typical minimum IQ
Terman's long-term study (longest running study ever)
Ellen Winner:
moderately gifted ( ) v. profoundly gifted (180 and up)
life success dependent upon: high intelligence, creativity, and motivation
innate talent vs. hard work [drudge theory]?
Simonton: innate talent and environment

24. Giftedness test - 1st grade
misdiagnosis giftedness
careers for people with intellectual disabilites
The Horror of Willowbrook
Session 9

25. Heredity/Environment as Determinants of Intelligence
Nature, Nurture, and Intelligence

26. Family studies can only determine if genetic influence on a trait is plausible, not certain.
Twin Studies (Nature)
Adoption Studies
Identical v. fraternal intelligence
.86 versus .60
Reared apart identical v. fraternal twins
.72 versus .60
When adopted children resemble biological parents in intelligence, when not raised by them, helps support genetic hypothesis.
Hereditary Influence!!!

27. Heritability Ratio
estimate of the proportion of trait variability determined by variations in genetic inheritance.
% chance of inheriting something like height (90%) or weight (85%)
intelligence estimations = 40-80%
Recent consensus = 50%
*group statistic

28. Environmental Influence
Adoption Studies (Nurture)
Environment Deprivation
Children show some resemblance to their foster parents in IQ.
Siblings reared together = greater IQ relationship
Identical twins too.
Unrelated children too.
Cumulative Deprivation Hypothesis – gradual decline in IQ with age.

29. The Flynn Effect
Performance on IQ tests has steadily increased over the years.
Attributed to environmental factors

30. Interaction of heredity/environment
Sandra Scarr
Heredity may set certain limits on intelligence and that environmental factors determine where individuals fall within these limits.
Reaction Range – refers to the genetically determined limits on IQ or other traits.

31. Culture Differences in IQ scores
minorities tend to score (on average) points lower than whites
Explanations:
heritability (Arthur Jensen-1969); Herrnstein/Murry: The Bell Curve
problems: boundaries between racial groups porous/overlap
race must be social, not biological concept
socioeconomic disadvantage: seed bag story (Leon Kamin)
Minorities grow up in more deprived environments that create disadvantage.
Ethnic class disadvantages are really just social class disadvantages in disguise.
stereotype vulnerability (Claude Steele)
derogatory stereotypes = feelings of vulnerability in education
male/female, white/minority
undermines emotional investment, high test anxiety...lose/lose
cultural bias on IQ tests: only weak and inconsistent effects; transcends racial lines in history

32. New Directions in the Assessment and Study of Intelligence

34. Investigating Cognitive Processes in Intelligent Behavior
Sternberg’s Three Facet’s of Intelligence
Analytical: abstract reasoning, evaluation, judgment.
Creative: ability to generate new ideas and be inventive in dealing with novel problems.
Practical: dealing effectively with the kinds of problems people encounter in everyday life.
Tacit knowledge – what one needs to know to work efficiently in an environment that is not explicitly taught and that is often not even verbalized.

35. Gardner’s Eight Intelligences (Multiple Intelligences Theory)
IQ tests have emphasized verbal/math skills ignoring or excluding other important skills.
Visual: Good with art and design
Linguistic: Good with words
Logical: Good with numbers and math
Bodily: Good at action, movement and sports
Musical: Good with music, tone and rhythm
Interpersonal: Good at communicating with others
Intrapersonal: Good at self-reflection
Naturalistic: Good at appreciating the world and nature

37. Understanding Creativity
Creativity – generation of ideas that are original and useful.
Convergent thinking – narrow down a list of alternatives to converge on a single correct answer.
Elimination answer choices on m/c exam down to 1.
Divergent thinking – expand the range of alternatives by generation many possible solutions.
Threshold hypothesis – creative achievements require a minimum level of intelligence.

38. 30 Circle Challenge…
Grab a pencil, pen, crayon, marker, and the 30 circles template.
Fill as many of the 30 circles as you can. The goal is quantity, not quality.
Patterns, doodles, shapes, animals, plants, words, and objects are all fair game, as are drawings that incorporate more than one circle.