Intelligence Revision Notes PDF

# Intelligence revision notes ## Introduction to intelligence Intelligence is a theoretical and hypothetical construct, which cannot be measured (latent variable). We use manifest variables to operationalise latent variables. Intelligence is important to everyday life (Sternberg, 1985). All psyc...

# Intelligence revision notes ## Introduction to intelligence Intelligence is a theoretical and hypothetical construct, which cannot be measured (latent variable). We use manifest variables to operationalise latent variables. Intelligence is important to everyday life (Sternberg, 1985). All psychologists share the view that intelligence is: - a general mental ability - capacity to learn from experience - capacity to adapt to the environment - Fluid intelligence- using language as a scientific device to simplify complexity ## Implicit & Explicit | Implicit | Explicit | | :---------------------------------------------------- | :---------------------------------------- | | Constructs in a person's mind | Conducted by scientists | | Used for formulating cross-cultural views about intelligence | Based on data collected | | Can help understand or provide basis for explicit theories | Performance on tasks presumed to measure intelligence | | Data comes from asking people their notion of intelligence | Constructs - could be factors, components, schemata | | Drive the way ppl. evaluate their own & other ppl.'s intelligence | Been tricky to agree on operational definition of intelligence | ## Sternberg (1981) Sternberg (1981) studied individual conceptions of intelligence: - People studying in a college library - People entering a supermarket - People waiting for a train in a railway station ### Phase 1 People were asked to list behaviours there were characteristic of: - Intelligence - Academic intelligence - Everyday intelligence - Unintelligence ### Phase 2 Other ppl were asked to rate how well each the behaviours listed reflected aspects of intelligence. ## Results - Western cultures -> emphasis of the speed of mental processing and the ability to gather, assimilate and sort info quickly and efficiently - Non-Western cultures -> strong cognitive skills and memory, but also good social, historical and spiritual aspects of everyday interaction ## Development of brain areas - **6 months (ideal intelligent baby):** able to recognise people and objects, shows signs of motor coordination, shows levels of awareness, makes some verbalisations - **2 years of age:** verbal abilities, evidence of an ability to learn, awareness of people and environment, motor coordination, curiosity - **10 years of age:** verbal ability, learning, problem solving, reasoning, creativity - **Adults:** problem solving, verbal ability, reasoning, creativity ## Berg & Sternberg (1992) Berg & Sternberg (1992) - emphasis on the importance of relevance in everyday life, creativity ## Sternberg - 200 professors Sternberg - 200 professors in the academic areas of arts, business, philosophy and physics asked to describe an intelligent person in study | | | | :----------------- | :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **Arts** | Knowledge, ability to use knowledge, to weigh up possible alternatives, to see analogies | | **Business** | Ability to think logically, to focus on essential aspects of a problem, to follow others' arguments and see where they lead | | **Philosophy** | Critical and logical abilities, ability to follow complex arguments, to find errors in arguments and generate new arguments | | **Physics** | Precise mathematical thinking, ability to relate physical phenomena to the concepts of physics, to grasp the laws of nature quickly | ## Sternberg's three dimensions of intelligence Sternberg's three dimensions of intelligence: practical problem solving, verbal ability and social competence. ## Moray House Test No. 12 Moray House Test No. 12: 1932 (87,498 children at age 11 tested) 1947 (70,805 children at age 11 tested) Advocate of universal education- he saw his mental ability tests as a useful means to give poor children a chance in life by looking past pupils' social status. Savant syndrome - special ability usually accompanied by prodigious memory. ## Sir Francis Galton (1822 – 1911) - Founder of Differential Psychology. - Galton wanted to measure differences in mental ability - thereby founded psychometrics. ## James McKeen Cattell (1860-1944) - Published a provisional list of 10 'mental tests' designed to measure individual differences. ## Clark Wissler (1870-1947) - The Fall of Cattell's 'mental tests'. - When trying to devise a test of intelligence, one must have some independent criterion of intelligence with which the test can agree. ## Alfred Binet (1857-1911) - Designed an intelligence test for children to identify students requiring alternative educational provision. - Pragmatic approach. ## The Binet-Simon scale The Binet-Simon scale. - Independent criterion of intellectual competence. - Test construction involved continuing experimentation and refinement. ## Binet Binet used a relative and normative measure of intelligence - a mental age of 6 was the average score obtained by lots of 6 year olds. 1. Following a light match with your eyes 2. Naming parts of the body 3. Counting coins 4. Naming objects in a picture 5. Recalling a number of digits after being shown a long list 6. Word definitions 7. Filling in missing words in a sentence ## William Stern (1871- 1938) - Coined the term intelligence quotient (IQ). - IQ scores are only meaningful relative to people of same age. ## Stanford-Binet test Stanford-Binet test: Revision of the Binet-Simon test (still used today). ## Robert Yerkes (1876 – 1956) - 2 tests - alpha and beta. - Questions were timed and multiple-choice style. - Beta test designed for illiterate groups. - Solve simple tasks as quickly as possible. - 1.75M were tested - huge sample. ## Development of IQ testing ## 1939 Wechsler-Bellevue Scale 1939 Wechsler-Bellevue Scale: 2 versions. - Designed to assess intelligence for all people and all ages. - Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS). - Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. - Measured several aspects of intelligence: Measured the following: 1. Similarities 2. Vocabulary 3. Information 4. Comprehension 5. Block design 6. Matrix reasoning 7. Visual puzzles 8. Figure weights 9. Picture completion 10. Digit span 11. Arithmetic 12. Letter-number sequencing 13. Symbol search 14. Coding 15. Cancellation | Verbal | Performance | | :----------- | :---------------------- | | Information | Picture arrangement | | Comprehension | Picture completion | | Arithmetic | Block design | | Digit Span | Object assembly | | Similarities | Digit symbol (perceptual speed) | | Vocabulary | | ## Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS): **IQ formula:** (actual test score + expected test score for that age) × 100 ## Raven's progressive matrices (1938) Raven's progressive matrices (1938): - Questions become progressively harder - less than 1 min per question. - Measured abstract reasoning. - Widespread practical application (can be done online) - military conscripts across the world, high IQ societies, job recruitment, educational & clinical setting. - People who are good at one intelligence test tend to be good at others, regardless of the type of test. | Use | Misuse | | :--------------------------------------------------------------------- | :--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Objective way to identify children requiring special education services/ or gifted children | Exclusion and control of marginalised groups (eugenics, sterilisation, elitism, racism) e.g us army- shouldn't be classified | ## Identify structural inequalities affecting development Identify structural inequalities affecting development. To assess effectiveness of interventions (e.g neurofeedback training for ADHD). ## Cultural specificity makes test biased Cultural specificity makes test biased. ## Flynn Effect Flynn Effect: environment influenced progressive increase in intelligence across generations - improvements in education, healthcare and nutrition, rather than genetics. ## Theories of Intelligence ## Correlations Correlations are the basis of factor analysis - statistical technique to represent correlations between intelligence tests, which can be clustered into more specific factors, e.g. reasoning, vocabulary etc. ## Galton Galton - developed the earliest version of factor analysis - coined the term 'g' factor - developed the 2-factor theory of intelligence. ## Spearman's 2 factor theory of intelligence | Specific Intelligences | General Intelligence (g) | | :---------------------- | :----------------------- | | Verbal | | | Mechanical | | | Spatial | | | Math | | ## Rotated component matrix Rotated component matrix - gives us the loadings of the factors (row) on the variables (column) - this rotation clusters the variables so that certain variables load as high as possible (and other variables load as low as possible) on each factor. ## Thurstone's primary mental abilities Thurstone's primary mental abilities: - Challenge to Spearman's g-factor. - College students. - Individuals have strengths and relative weaknesses in some cognitive domains - no such thing as "g". ## Thurstone's bottom-up approach Thurstone's bottom-up approach: - 7 separable human mental abilities 1. Verbal comprehension 2. Word fluency 3. Number facility 4. Spatial visualization 5. Associative memory 6. Perceptual speed 7. Reasoning ## Carroll's 3 stratum model of cognitive ability | | | | :------------------------------------------------------ | :------------------------------------ | | **Stratum III** | General intelligence (g) | | | Cognitive domain | | | General Fluid Crystallised intelligence | | | Broad memory & visual learning perception | | | Broad auditory retrieval cognitive ability speediness | | | Broad Processing speed | | **Stratum II** | Several narrower abilities | | | Several narrower abilities | | | Several narrower abilities | | | Several narrower abilities | | **Stratum I** | Several narrower abilities | | | Several narrower abilities | | | Several narrower abilities | | | Several narrower abilities | | | Cognitive task | - They are good overall (have high general intelligence). - They are good at that sort of test (high ability for that cognitive domain). - They are good at that specific test (high ability for specific cognitive task). - Chance favoured them on that testing day. ## Fluid (gf) intelligence ## Crystallized (gc) intelligence | Fluid (gf) intelligence | Crystallized (gc) intelligence | | :------------------------------------------------- | :--------------------------------------- | | Primary reasoning ability | Acquired knowledge/skills | | - Abstract | - Related to cultural/historical background of individuals | | - Not cultural | | | - Better tested by Raven's matrices | | | e.g. inductive reasoning in abstract sequences | | | | - Better tested by Weschler scales | | | e.g. vocabulary, social rules | ## Psychometric approach Psychometric approach - based on the findings of factor analysis - psychometric properties of intelligence scales - describes how people tend to differ but cannot explain why - focused on whether people answer items correctly. ## Cognitive approach Cognitive approach - based on another set of intelligence tests - biological and physiological processes involved in intelligence. Dependent on the limits of memory storage and speed of processing. ## Elementary Cognitive Tasks and Intelligence Elementary Cognitive Tasks and Intelligence: - Measures response time - fast decision making = high IQ = well correlated with g. ## Intelligence and life outcomes Intelligence and life outcomes: - CAT scores predict GCSE performance (0.81) correlation (0.61) effect size. - 1/2 of variance can be explained by the CAT score at age 11 - not the only predictor. ## Brenda Plassman Brenda Plassman - evidence for cognitive decline: - APOE gene = higher cognitive decline > Smoking > Depression > Diabetes - Mediterranean diet, eating more vegetables, being in more professional occupations, taking part in some leisure activities. ## Scottish mental Survey Scottish mental Survey: Men and women with a higher IQ were more likely to live longer. ## High blood pressure Thus, higher intelligence in youth was associated with lower risk of being diagnosed by age 50 with: - High blood pressure (20%) - Diabetes (15%) - Lung Disease (29%) - Congestive Heart failure (34%) - Stroke (35%) ## Theory of cognitive reserve Theory of cognitive reserve - differences in brain structure - more cognitive reserve to cope with illness or disorders.