1. Testing

2. Psychological Tests
Tests abilities, interests, creativity, personality, behavior
Must be standardized, reliable, and valid
Timing, instructions, scoring standards, and conditions should be the same
No matter when you take it and who scores it, the score should be the same.

3. Standardization & Norms
Psychometrics: Measurement of mental traits, abilities, and processes
Psychometricians: focus on methods for acquiring and analyzing psychological data; mental traits, abilities, and processes
Constructs (behaviors): hypothetical abstractions related to behavior and defined by small groups of objects of events
Ideas that help summarize a group of related ideas, objects or phenomena (happiness, honesty, intelligence)
Standardization: 2 step process
Establishes test norms from the test results of the large representative sample
Ensures that the test is both administered and scored uniformly for all test takers
Norms: Standards used to compare scores of test takers

4. Standardized Tests Usually Follow a Normal or Bell Curved Distribution Where Most Scores Occur in the Middle.
Ninety-five percent
of all people fall
within 30 points
of 100
Number of scores
Wechsler intelligence score
Sixty-eight percent
of people score
within 15 points
above or below 100

5. Reliability vs. Validity (DON’T MIX THEM UP)
Reliability deals with consistency (repeatability)
Asks the question: “Do I always get SIMILAR results each time the test is administered?
Interrater reliability: The extent to which two or more scorers evaluate the responses in the same way
Validity deals with accuracy or predictability.
Asks the question does the test measure what it is supposed to measure?

6. Methods to Measure Reliability
Test-Retest
Same test to same group but on different occasions then scores are compared
The closer the correlation coefficient is to 1.0 the more reliable
Split half
The score of half the test is correlated with the score of the other half to see if there is consitency
Alternate form/Equivalent form
Two different versions of a test on the same material is given to the same test takers and scores are correlated

7. Methods for Measuring Validity
Face Validity: A measure of extent to which the content of the test measures all of the knowledge/skills that are supposed to be included within the domain being tested according to the test takers
Content Validity: A measure of extent to which the content of the test measures all of the knowledge/skills that are supposed to be included within the domain being tested according to expert judges
Criterion Related Validity: A measure of the extent to which a test’s results correlate with other accepted measures of what is being tested
Predictive Validity: A measure of the extent to which the test accurately forecasts a specific future result
Construct Validity: The extent to which the test actually measures the hypothetical construct or behavior it is designed to assess.
Some psychologists consider this the true measure of validity
Some people question whether IQ tests have construct validity

8. The Flynn Effect
Since the advent of intelligence tests, people’s IQ scores have been improving with time (Flynn Effect).
If standardized with today’s tests, scores 80 years ago would have an average IQ of 76.
Possible Causes?

9. The Flynn Effect

10. Low Extreme of Intelligence
Mental Retardation: condition of limited mental ability, indicated by an intelligence score of below 70 and difficulty adapting to the demands of life.

11. Extremes of Intelligence
Down Syndrome: condition of retardation and associated physical disorders caused by an extra chromosome in one’s genetic makeup.
Many mentally retarded people with Down Syndrome can adapt to disorder and some have earned college degrees with accommodations…many learn how to read.
Savants: Individuals otherwise considered mentally retarded, that have a specific exceptional skill, usually math (calculating), music, or art.

12. Degrees of Mental Retardation
Level Typical Intelligence Scores Percentage of the Retarded Adaptation to Demands of Life
Mild % Most learn academic skills up to
sixth-grade level. Adults may, with
assistance, achieve self-supporting
social and vocational skills.
Moderate May progress to second-grade level.
academically. Adults may contribute
to their own support by labor in
sheltered workshops.
Severe May learn to talk and perform simple
work tasks under close supervision
but are generally unable to profit from
vocational training.

13. Key Dynamic of Intelligence
Creativity: the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas
components of creativity:
expertise
imaginative thinking skills
venturesome personality
intrinsic motivation
creative environment

14. Is Intelligence Genetic or Environmental?
Influenced by both, but the most genetically similar have the most similar scores.
Similarity of
intelligence
scores
(correlation)
Identical
twins
reared
together
apart
Fraternal
Siblings
Unrelated
individuals

15. Genetic Influences
With age, genetic influences become more apparent.
Adopted children’s intelligence scores become more like their biological parents, and identical twins similarities continue to increase as they age.
Still hard to tell what percentage of intelligence comes from genes to account for differences between people (heritability).

16. Genetic Influences 0.35 0.30 Child-parent 0.25 correlation in
0.20
0.15
0.10
0.05
0.00
3 years years
Child-parent
correlation in
verbal ability
scores
Children and their
birth parents
Adopted children
and their birth
parents
and their adoptive

17. Variation within group Difference within group
Group Differences in Intelligence Scores Are Probably Mostly Attributed to the Environment
Variation within group
Difference within group
Poor soil
Fertile soil
Seeds

18. “Intelligence” is Hard to Define
Intelligence is often defined as the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations.
Intelligence is not a “thing” it is an abstract concept…an IQ is simply a score on an intelligence test.

19. Theories of Intelligence

20. J.P. GUILFORD & L. THURSTONE
key name
J.P. GUILFORD & L. THURSTONE
Used factor analysis to determine that intelligence is comprised of several discrete abilities (for Guilford there are 180!)
Worked with Maslow at U Wisconsin

21. Is Intelligence a Singular Ability?
To measure general ability within specific mental abilities a statistical method is used called:
Factor Analysis: used to identify clusters of related items (called factors) on a test; used to identify different dimensions of performance that underlie one’s total.
Ex: People who do well on vocabulary items also usually do well on paragraph comprehension…which are both related to the verbal intelligence factor.

22. “g-factor”/ general intelligence
key name
Charles SPEARMAN
“g-factor”/ general intelligence
Worked with Maslow at U Wisconsin

23. Charles Spearman and The G-Factor
General intelligence (g): Spearman’s belief that there is a single factor that underlies specific mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test.
Specific intelligences tended to be positively correlated.

24. Howard GARDNER “Multiple Intelligences”
key name
Howard GARDNER
___
“Multiple Intelligences”
From a biological point of view, Gardner has noted that brain damage often may diminish some abilities but not others.
Gardner argues humans do not have one intelligence (g factor) but instead multiple intelligences which are relatively independent of the others.
Worked with Maslow at U Wisconsin

25. Which 2 intelligences are valued the most in schools?
key name
Howard GARDNER
___
“Multiple Intelligences” - continued
Linguistic intelligence
Logical - mathematical intelligence
Musical intelligence
Bodily - kinesthetic intelligence
Worked with Maslow at U Wisconsin
Visual - spatial intelligence
Intrapersonal intelligence
Which 2 intelligences are valued the most in schools?
Interpersonal intelligence
Naturalist intelligence

26. Howard GARDNER “Multiple Intelligences” - continued
The existence of savants, prodigies and other exceptional individuals supports Gardner’s theory:
The Real Rain Man
Derek - 60 Minutes
Lily the geography wiz!
Rain Man on Netflix: 37:50 -39:50 and 42:00

27. Triarchic theory of intelligence
key name
Robert STERNBERG
______
Triarchic theory of intelligence
Analytical (academic problem solving)
Creative (reacting to new situations and ideas)
Worked with Maslow at U Wisconsin
Practical (everyday tasks – common sense)

28. Robert Sternberg
Sternberg looked to overcome the fact that although IQ tests predicted school tests relatively well, they did less well predicting vocational success.
“The true measure of success is not how well one does in school…
…but how well one does.”

29. More “Intelligences?”
Social Intelligence
the know-how involved in comprehending social situations and managing oneself successfully
Emotional Intelligence
-ability to perceive, express, understand, and regulate emotions
-critical part of social intelligence

30. How We Measure Intelligence

31. key name
Alfred BINET
Created an intelligence test that could measure the mental age of school children
Worked with Maslow at U Wisconsin
Mental age
X 100 = IQ
Chronological age

32. Alfred Binet and Intelligence Tests
Binet’s looked to identify a child’s:
Mental Age: chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance.
A child who does as well as the average 8-year-old is said to have a mental age of 8.
Binet did not believe his test measured inborn intelligence.

33. Mental age X 100 = IQ Chronological age 12 X 100 = 120 10 10
What is the IQ of:
a10-year-old with the mental age of a 12 year old? 12
X 100 = 120 10
an 8-year-old with the mental age of a 10 year old? 10
X 100 = 125 8
A 10-year-old with the mental age of a 9 year old? 9
X 100 = 90 10

34. Lewis TERMAN Invented the Stanford-Binet IQ Test
key name
Lewis TERMAN
Invented the Stanford-Binet IQ Test
He revised Binet's test to work for large numbers of people in an attempt to measure what he thought was inherited intelligence.
Worked with Maslow at U Wisconsin

35. Creator of the most widely used intelligence tests today
key name
David WECHSLER
Creator of the most widely used intelligence tests today
WISC: Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children
WAIS: Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale
Verbal & performance scores
Worked with Maslow at U Wisconsin

36. Assessing Intelligence- Sample Items from the WAIS
From Thorndike and Hagen, 1977
VERBAL
General Information
Similarities
Arithmetic Reasoning
Vocabulary
Comprehension
Digit Span
PERFORMANCE
Picture Completion
Picture Arrangement
Block Design
Object Assembly
Digit-Symbol Substitution

37. key name
Raymond CATTELL
Articulated the difference between
fluid intelligence (ability to learn new things, quickly process and apply information)
& crystalized intelligence (facts, "stuff")
Worked with Maslow at U Wisconsin
Fluid intelligence decreases as we age, crystalized intelligence doesn’t.

38. Assessing Intelligence: Aptitude vs. Achievement Test
Aptitude Tests: are tests designed to predict a person’s future performance.
SATs and GREs
Achievement Test: a test designed to assess what a person has learned.
Midterm Psych exam, chapter 3 history test, etc.