Part 3 Unit 3:
Ch. 8 – Measuring Intellectual Ability
• This Chapter Presents:
• The concept of intelligence
• The characteristics of individual and group intelligence tests
• The meaning of IQ
• A discussion of mental [disability] and superior intelligence
• Before we start, keep this in mind…
• Intelligence is a difficult concept to measure. What is considered
intelligent in one culture may not be considered in another.
• i.e. hunting knowhow in the north vs urban awareness in the south (of BC) mean
different things to each “culture/society” that inhabits these places…
• Just because you can get from UBC to Science World in Vancouver using your
GPS/transit knowhow doesn’t mean you’re any more “intelligent” than someone
who can hunt, “gut”, and prepare a caribou for dinner in the same time frame…
Intelligence defined…
• While there are many different interpretations of intelligence, most of
them contain certain elements
• These elements include such things as the ability to learn, to
understand and deal with people and things, and to adapt to the
environment.
• So a possible “definition” of intelligence might be the ability of an
organism to adapt to the new as well as the old situations in the
environment
• An individual will be deemed intelligent should they be able to adjust
to situations quickly and successfully – they adjust to situations
quickly and successfully, using past knowledge to apply to the present
What are the factors that make up
‘intelligence’?
• According to psychologist L. L. Thurstone, the seven main factors of
intelligence include, all of which work in sequence to one another:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Space Factor – ability to visualize flat figures and objects in three dimensions
Number factor – ability to do numerical tasks and arithmetic problems
Verbal comprehension factor – ability to understand words and interpret messages
Verbal fluency factor – ability to express yourself in writing, or think of appropriate
words rapidly
5. Memory factor – ability to recall learned materials & facts with ease
6. Reasoning factor – ability to figure out a general rule based on presented data
7. Perceptual factor – ability to grasp visual details and determine similarities and
differences between pictures
Factor Theories of Intelligence
• Some people have assumed that someone who is bright in some ways must
be bright in all ways, or if someone is “slow” in one area, they must be
“slow” in all areas…
• This is an incorrect assumption, as some people who are high in one area
of intelligence can be found low in another
• This is why teachers teach the way they do – try to cover all areas in
different ways…
• It is important to recognize what factors of intelligence one excels in for
such things as vocational plans (i.e. strong writer = journalism)
• Also, personality development coupled with ones intelligence factors plays
a huge role in life; think of someone who struggles in the classroom for one
reason or an other… they act different until something is done to better
their situation
Factor theory drawbacks…
• Despite being a tool in the understanding of ones intelligence, there
are issues in the use of “factors”
• Factors do not explain how different factors interact with one
another; its more of a “you have it” or “you don’t have it” kind of
scenario
• Also, there is a possibility that there is just one factor (not 7), one that
can be referred to as intellectual ability
• Instead of having “factors” working together, this ability would allow
for all to be learned through learning, with the one true deterrent
being lack of education vs being exposed to situations and then
reacting to the as such…
How to Measure Intelligence
• As we have seen measurement in psychology is very important, this is the case in
regards to Intelligence
• There was a number of attempts to develop measures of general intelligence
before a decent test was developed in 1905.
• Alfred Binet & Theodore Simon developed a test, which has a direct impact on
the tests we use today.
• This test consisted of 30 tasks to be undertaken by children, which were based on
everyday experiences without formal teaching
• This test was then refined and put into categories (age 3 through
adulthood)
• i.e. Children were given tasks based on their age, and
depending on the success rate per age group, they determined
age-based intelligence levels (mental intelligence age)
Example of Intelligence Tests
• Culture-fair tests of intelligence – this involves the measuring
intelligence based on different cultural backgrounds
• This also involves subjects who a) don’t speak English, or b) is too
young to understand the English language
• Performance tests are given to these individuals (aka ‘nonverbal
tests’)
• These include such things as picture completion tests – someone
must complete the parts missing from the picture…
Group Tests of Intelligence & IQ Tests…
• Group Tests of Intelligence – All tests that we have dealt with to this point
have been geared at the individual, sometimes the scenario requires that a
large set of individuals are tested at once
• During WW1, the army was in need of testing thousands of men at a time,
1,726,966 men were tested at one time using methods still in practice
today
• Pros & Cons of Group Tests – Pros, as has been mentioned already = you
can test a large group of people at once; Cons, results may not be a fine
tuned as they could be if done individually
• Group tests more or less are scored by a machine (scantron), these do not
allow for the “human factor” to come into play – both for the tester and
the tested (errors, emotion, cheating, etc.)
IQ tests…
• The Intelligence Quotient is a mathematical measure of intelligence where a ratio
between a persons mental age and chronological age are determined
• An individuals mental age is an estimation of a person’s level of mental
functioning as determined by a standardized test (right vs wrong answers),
chronological age is your age based on DOB…
• The number of “right” questions is applied to an assigned amount of “mental
age” time, i.e. a mental age of 10 years = working at the average of someone who
is ten years old
• IQ is a method used to determine how children are progressing through stages of
their life, and whether or not they are on track compared to others their
chronological age
• IQ does stay “about” the same throughout a person’s entire life… sometimes it
does vary, but not by a lot…
A ‘Crash Course’ Recap…