1. What makes us intelligent Or Not so intelligent
Intelligence
What makes us intelligent Or
Not so intelligent

2. Intelligence
The ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations.
Is socially constructed thus…
Can be culturally specific.
According to this definition, are both Einstein and Ruth intelligent?

3. Is intelligence one thing or several different abilities?
To find out scientists use FACTOR ANALYSIS:
A statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items on a test.
Charles Spearman used FA to discovery his g or (general intelligence).
He saw using FA that doing well in one area of a test predicted that you will do well in another.

4. Multiple Intelligences
Howard Gardner – multiple intelligences
He came up with the idea by studying savants
Savant clip

5. Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences
Visual/Spatial
Verbal/Linguistic
Logical/Mathematical
Bodily/Kinesthetic
Musical/Rhythmic
Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
Natural
Existential

6. Sternberg’s Three Aspects of Intelligence
Gardner Simplified
Analytical (academic problem solving).
Creative (generating novel ideas)
Practical (required for everyday tasks where multiple solutions exist).

7. Emotional Intelligence (EQ)
First called social intelligence.
The ability to perceive, express, understand, and regulate emotions.
Some studies show EQ to be a greater predictor for future success than IQ

8. How do we Assess Intelligence?

9. History of Intelligence Tests
Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon set out to figure out a concept called a mental age (what a person of a particular age should know).
They discovered that by discovering someone’s mental age they can predict future performance.
Hoped they could use test to help children, not label them.

10. History of Intelligence Tests
Terman used Binet’s research to construct the modern day IQ test called the Stanford-Binet Test.
IQ=Mental age/Chronological age X 100.
An 8 year old has a mental age of 10, what is her IQ?
A 12 year old has the mental age of 9, what is his IQ?
A boy has the mental age of 10 and an IQ of 200, how old is he?
125 75 5

11. Problems with the IQ Formula
It does not really work well on adults, why?
If a 60 year old man does as well as an average 30 year old
then his IQ would be 50!!!!!!
That makes no sense!!!!!

12. Modern Tests of Mental Abilities
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) – most widely used today - consists of 11 subtests and cues us in to strengths by using…..
Factor Analysis
WISC – (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children)

13. Average IQ - 100
Mental retardation – below 70
Gifted – above 130

14. Mental Retardation
Mentally retarded individuals required constant supervision a few decades ago, but with a supportive family environment and special education they can now care for themselves.

15. Does IQ Change Over Time?
By age 4, a child’s IQ can predict adolescent IQ scores.
After about 7, IQ scores stabilize
Bring up the idea that different kinds of intelligence definitely change – crystallized and fluid

17. Flynn Effect

18. Intelligence and Creativity
Creativity is the ability to produce ideas that are both novel and valuable. It correlates somewhat with intelligence.
Expertise: A well-developed knowledge base.
Imaginative Thinking: The ability to see things in novel ways.
Adventuresome Personality: A personality that seeks new experiences rather than following the pack.
Intrinsic Motivation: A motivation to be creative from within. (as opposed to extrinsic – outwardly motivated)
A Creative Environment: A creative and supportive environment allows creativity to bloom.
OBJECTIVE 5| Identify the factors associated with creativity, and describe the relationship between creativity and intelligence.

19. Brain Function
Studies of brain functions show that people who score high on intelligence tests perceive stimuli faster, retrieve information from memory quicker, and show faster brain response times. They also use less glucose to carry out complex tasks.
OBJECTIVE 7| Discuss the findings on the correlations between perceptual speed, neural processing speed, and intelligence.

20. “Is intelligence due to genetics or environment?”
Today’s Question
“Is intelligence due to genetics or environment?”
Nature or Nurture?
No other topic in psychology is so passionately followed as the one that asks the question,

22. Which of the following observations provides the best evidence that intelligence test scores are influenced by environment?
Identical twins are more similar in their intelligence scores than are fraternal twins.
The intelligence scores of children are positively correlated with those of their parents.
Fraternal twins are more similar in their intelligence scores than are ordinary siblings.
The intelligence scores of siblings reared together are positively correlated.

23. Early Intervention Effects
Early neglect from caregivers can hurt intelligence.
Romanian orphans who are adopted into better environments score notably higher on IQ tests than siblings left behind.
Summer reading study?

24. Schooling Effects
Schooling is an experience that pays dividends, which is reflected in intelligence scores. Increased schooling correlates with higher intelligence scores.
To increase readiness for schoolwork, projects like Head Start facilitate leaning.

25. Group Differences in Intelligence Test Scores
Why do groups differ in intelligence test scores?
How can we make sense of these differences?

26. Ethnic Similarities and Differences
To discuss this issue we begin with two disturbing but agreed upon facts:
Racial groups differ in their average intelligence scores.
High-scoring people (and groups) are more likely to attain high levels of education and income.
OBJECTIVE 17| Describe ethnic similarities and differences in intelligence test scores, and discuss some genetic and environmental factors that might explain them.

27. Environment and Race
Races are remarkably alike genetically. (There is more genetic variation in fruit flies than in all humans)
Race is a social idea – the way we group people isn’t based on nature, but on our ideas.
There is no single gene, characteristic, or trait that distinguishes one “race” from another.
Interesting Facts:
Many people in Spain, Algeria, and China have similar skin tones.
Some people in Southern India have as dark a skin tone as many Africans.
Africa has the widest range of skin tones
(Source: Race: The Power of an Illusion)

28. Racial (Group) Differences
If we look at racial differences, white Americans score higher in average IQ than black Americans (Avery and others, 1994). European New Zealanders score higher than native New Zealanders (Braden, 1994).
White-Americans
Black-Americans
Average IQ = 100
Average IQ = 85
Hispanic Americans = 93
These differences are shrinking… about 4-7 points since 1970 (Dickens & Flynn, 2006)

29. Environmental Effects
Most psychologists believe differences in intelligence among these groups are largely environmental. One environment is more fertile in developing these abilities than another.
Even if within-group differences in IQ are highly heritable, between-group differences in IQ could be caused entirely by environmental factors.

30. Flynn Effect and Environmental Arguments
70 years is not long enough for the world’s gene pool to have changed…. Supports the idea that environment can change IQ scores
1940
2012

31. Reaction Range Idea
Does this support nature, nurture or both?

32. Socio-Economics? Poorer children are more likely to:
Come from large families and from single-parent homes
Be exposed to fewer books, have fewer learning supplies, to have less privacy for study, and get less parental assistance in learning and preparedness for school.
Have poorer role models for language development (can make school harder), experience less pressure to work hard on intellectual pursuits, and attend poorer-quality schools that are underfunded and understaffed.
Grow up in neighborhoods where street intelligence is more important than school intelligence
Suffer malnutrition and be exposed to environmental toxins

33. Socioeconomics
The average IQ scores among children from lower social classes tend to run about 15 points below the average scores obtained by children from middle and upper class homes.
Occurs even when studying only white families.
Are there causal relationships between IQ and income though?
Is the racial IQ difference social class in disguise?

34. Gender Similarities and Differences
Ways in which males and females differ in various abilities.
1. Girls tend to be better spellers
2. Girls tend to be more verbally fluent and have larger vocabularies
3. Girls tend to be more sensitive to touch, taste, and color
4. Boys outnumber girls in counts of underachievement
5. Boys outperform girls at math problem solving, but under perform at math computation
6. Women detect emotions more easily than men do
7. Boys tend to do better on visual-spatial reasoning
OBJECTIVE 18| Describe gender differences in abilities.

35. Stereotype Threat (vulnerability)
A stereotype threat is a self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype.
This phenomenon appears in some instances in intelligence testing among African-Americans and among women of all colors.
OBJECTIVE 19| Discuss whether intelligence test are biased, and describe the stereotype threat phenomenon.

36. Question Bias?
Bias: items on a test may be culturally or gender related and performance on a test may be based on an individual’s cultural experiences, not on actual intelligence.
OBJECTIVE 19| Discuss whether intelligence test are biased, and describe the stereotype threat phenomenon.

37. How could this question be culturally biased?
Tennis is to racquet as golf is to:
a. club b. strike c. bat d. swing

38. Which doesn’t belong
Over ½ of the lower status children picked the harp… why?

39. Another example:
The WISC test asks for reasons why it is better to pay bills by check than by cash and why it is better to give money to an organized charity than it is to a street beggar.
A child whose family lives on the fringe of poverty may have little idea of the values associated with checking accounts or donating to organized charities.

40. Last thing to consider…
Tests are designed to discriminate…
We have to look at what kind of discrimination is taking place.

41. WWI – Intelligence Test
Alpha and Beta Tests