1. Slide 1 U T S C Chapter 11 - Intelligence Chapter 11 Intelligence

2. Slide 2 U T S C Chapter 11 - Intelligence What is Intelligence? We all have an intuitive understanding of what intelligence is. In fact, we probably often use terms such as smart, clever, bright or brilliant when referring to others (not to speak of ourselves!) We would probably all agree that intelligence has to do with good performance in cognitive tasks. But what counts for good performance? Think of: Stephen Harper (or better yet, George W. Bush) Bill Gates Albert Einstein

3. Slide 3 U T S C Chapter 11 - Intelligence Is Intelligence a Single Thing? We often use the term intelligence as if we were talking about a single characteristic a person possesses … we typically talk of someone being intelligent or not … period. But let’s consider athletic capability. Look at these various sportspersons. Do you think that one who is good at one of the sports would also be good at particular other sports? Do you think that a single athletic ability is relevant to all of them?

4. Slide 4 U T S C Chapter 11 - Intelligence Autistic Savant Syndrome Savant syndrome refers to cases (very rare) where an individual with an IQ that is well below average has an exceptional talent in a particular area. The exceptional talent is typically in one of these areas: Calendar calculation (given date, they know day of week). Amazing feats of memory. Great musical ability despite the lack of formal training. Mastery of several languages.

5. Slide 5 U T S C Chapter 11 - Intelligence Video on Autistic Savant Syndrome

6. Slide 6 U T S C Chapter 11 - Intelligence Partitioning Intelligence Spearman (1927) was one of the first Psychologists to theorize about human intelligence. He noticed that when tests of various abilities are given to people, there was a strong correlation between the scores. This lead Spearman to propose that there was one intellectual ability which he called the g factor (g for general) that underlies all cognitive functions. Spearman also noticed that the correlation between all test scores was not perfect, and that people who did well on one test did not always do well on another. So he concluded there were a variety of s factors (s for specific) that also contributed to a subject’s performance on intellectual tasks.

7. Slide 7 U T S C Chapter 11 - Intelligence Identifying Factors via Factor Analysis More recently, psychologists have relied on a statistical method called factor analysis to further study the underlying structure of intelligence. This method involves assessing people’s performance on a number of different cognitive tasks relevant to intelligence. Correlations between performance on these various tasks is then used to try to figure out how many underlying factors exist. Let’s look at table 11.1 from the book to see how this is done...

8. Slide 8 U T S C Chapter 11 - Intelligence Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale

9. Slide 9 U T S C Chapter 11 - Intelligence Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale What does the word conventional mean? What is the capital of France? Why are we tried by a jury of our peers? How are goldfish and canaries similar?

10. Slide 10 U T S C Chapter 11 - Intelligence Verbal Ability Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale What does the word conventional mean? What is the capital of France? Why are we tried by a jury of our peers? How are goldfish and canaries similar?

11. Slide 11 U T S C Chapter 11 - Intelligence Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Repeat these numbers back to me 462397654 Verbal Ability

12. Slide 12 U T S C Chapter 11 - Intelligence Short-Term Memory Ability Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Repeat these numbers back to me 462397654 Verbal Ability

13. Slide 13 U T S C Chapter 11 - Intelligence Verbal AbilityShort-Term Memory Ability Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Arrange blocks to match design Assemble “jigsaw” image of object What is missing from picture? (whisker)

14. Slide 14 U T S C Chapter 11 - Intelligence Verbal AbilityShort-Term Memory Ability Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Arrange blocks to match design Assemble “jigsaw” image of object What is missing from picture? (whisker) Spatial Ability

15. Slide 15 U T S C Chapter 11 - Intelligence The Modern Stanford-Binet Test

16. Slide 16 U T S C Chapter 11 - Intelligence From 2 to 3 to 7 to 2, etc. Some studies using the factor analytic approach ended up finding many different factors related to intelligence … for example, Thurstone (1938) found 7 factors; verbal comprehension, verbal fluency, number, spatial visualization, memory, reasoning, and perceptual speed. However, when a factor analysis was performed on Thurstone’s factors, Cattell found that two factors underlie the 7 factors. He labeled these two factors Fluid intelligence (g f ): Ability to see relations and patterns. Crystallized intelligence (g c ): Accumulated life knowledge.

17. Slide 17 U T S C Chapter 11 - Intelligence A Theory of Multiple Intelligences Howard Gardner has proposed a theory of multiple intelligences that has proven particularly popular in the field of education. According to Gardner, there are eight types of intelligences: logical-mathematical linguistic spatial naturalist musical bodily-kinesthetic intrapersonal awareness interpersonal awareness

18. Slide 18 U T S C Chapter 11 - Intelligence

19. Slide 19 U T S C Chapter 11 - Intelligence Heritability and IQ One of the most enduring controversy in psychology is whether intelligence is mostly influenced by heredity or by environmental influences (nature vs. nurture). The cartoon we just saw suggests that behavioural trait (and what we do in life) are completely determined by our genetic make up (identical twins share all their genes).

20. Slide 20 U T S C Chapter 11 - Intelligence Video on Twins Reared Apart and Reunited

21. Slide 21 U T S C Chapter 11 - Intelligence In-Class Poll Please raise your hand if you agree with the following statement: “A person is the way that he/she is because of his/her genetic make-up.”

22. Slide 22 U T S C Chapter 11 - Intelligence How do Scientist Study this Issue? Q: Compare identical twins separated at birth and reared apart? A: That’s one way, and it is what was done in the cartoon and video. More generally, the heritability of a behavioural trait is the variability in the trait that correlates with genetic differences. Let’s look at how Table 11.6 in the textbook

23. Slide 23 U T S C Chapter 11 - Intelligence

24. Slide 24 U T S C Chapter 11 - Intelligence Conclusion on Heritability Most estimates of heritability of IQ hover around 50% This does not mean that 50% of intelligence is based on genes, but that 50% of variability in intelligence is related to variability in genetic make-up. The heritability index tends to increase from childhood to adolescence, presumably because children are under tighter control from parents and other authority figures than adolescents and adults.