What makes us intelligent
Or
Not so intelligent

• One of the most controversial areas of psychology
– Definition?
• Difference between achievement and intelligence?
• Achievement: what you know, can do
• Intelligence: makes achievement possible
– How to measure?
– Do racial and ethnic groups have more or less of it?
– What accounts for the differences?
• Theory rich but data poor

• 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?

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 develop his two factor theory
100 years ago
– “g” factor: general intelligence
• If good in one area, good in other areas as well
– “s” factor: specific intelligence
• Better in some areas than others

• 1941: Louis Thurstone
– 7 Factors of Intelligence
• Space, numbers, verbal comprehension, word verbal fluency, memory, reasoning, perceptual speed
• Originally seen as separate but further evidence shows that they are related
• 1967: J. P. Guilford
– 120 factors
• Included creativity and imaginative thinking

• Antiquated thoughts assumed if bright in one area, bright in all
– Today we know individuals may excel in one area and be deficient in others
• If we can identify factors where students excel we can mold education to fit
• Increase self-esteem
• Help select careers
• Can’t explain how factors interact with each other

Gardner is the current guru of education
• Howard Gardner (1989) disagreed with Spearman’s
(and others) theory and instead came up with the concept of multiple intelligences.
• He came up with the idea by studying savants (a condition where a person has limited mental ability but is exceptional in one area).

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences
• Visual/Spatial
• Verbal/Linguistic
• Logical/Mathematical
• Bodily/Kinesthetic
• Musical/Rhythmic
• Interpersonal
• Intrapersonal
• Natural
Learn More about Gardner
Activity: What kind of intelligence do you have?

Robert Sternberg’s Triarchic
Theory of Intelligence (1995)
Gardner Simplified
• Analytical (academic problem solving
…analyze, compare, evaluate).
• Creative (generating novel ideas)
• Practical (required for everyday tasks where multiple solutions exist…applying, using, doing).

• 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

• Self-awareness: recognize own feelings
• Mood management: get out of a bad mood
• Self Motivation: move ahead with confidence & enthusiasm
• Impulse control: delay pleasure until task complete
• People skills: empathize, understand, communicate & cooperate

Brain Size and Intelligence
Is there a link?
• Small +.15 correlation between head size and intelligence scores
(relative to body size).
• Using an MRI we found
+.44 correlation with brain size and IQ score.

• Earlier attempts to measure intelligence
– head size and intelligence
• Francis Galton (cousin to C. Darwin)-in favor of Eugenics
– noticed that intelligent people often had intelligent relatives and concluded that intelligence was, to a large extent, biological or inherited
– low correlation between head size and intelligence
– using head size as a measure of intelligence was abandoned in favor of using skull or brain size

• Earlier attempts to measure intelligence
– brain size and achievement
– enormous variation in brain size and achievement
– brain size, sex differences, and intelligence
– women’s brains weigh about 10% less than men’s
– little or no difference in intelligence between men and women
– larger size of men’s brains does not result in higher IQs

Brain Function and Intelligence
• Perceptual Speed:
Individuals who perceive information quickly have a tendency to do better on intelligence tests
• Neurological processing speed is also a bit quicker.

Question: Long side on left or right?

How do we Assess Intelligence?
• 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 finding someone’s mental age they can predict future performance.
• Hoped they could use test to help children, not label them.

• Take out a scrap piece of paper.
• A 8 year old has a mental age of 10, what is her IQ?
• Answer: 125
• A 12 year old has the mental age of 9, what is his IQ?
• Answer: 75
• A boy has the mental age of 10 and an IQ of
200, how old is he?
• Answer: 5
• Used Binet’s research to construct the modern day IQ test called the Stanford-
Binet Test.

•IQ is just a number
•IQ is just a number
•IQ is just a number

• 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!!!!!

– Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale
(WAIS-III), ages 16 and older
– Wechsler Intelligence Scale for
Children (WISC-III) for children ages 3-16
– both have items that are organized into various subtests.
– verbal section
– performance section
– verbal and performance combined give a single IQ

• California Test of Mental Ability
– Language and non-language sections
• Otis-Lennon Mental Ability Test
– Mixes factors together
– Emphasizes verbal aspects of intelligence
• This is the test used most in Georgia

How do we construct Intelligence tests?

Modern Tests of Mental Abilities
Aptitude Achievement
• A test designed to predict a person’s future performance.
• A test designed to assess what a person has learned.
• The ability for that person to learn.

• The test must be pre-tested to a representative sample of people and
• Form a normal distribution or bell curve

Aptitude and Intelligence Scores

•Better nutrition?
•More education?
•More stimulating environments?
•Smaller families?
•More parent involvement?

• The extent which a test yields consistent results over time.
• Spilt halves or
test–retest method looks at correlation– the higher the correlation = more reliable test

The extent to which a test measures what it is supposed to measure.
• Content Validity : does the test sample a behavior of interest (driving test & driving tasks
• Predictive Validity : does the test predict future behavior it was designed to predict? (aka criterion-related validity)

Does Intelligence Change Over
Time?
• By age 3, a child’s IQ can predict adolescent
IQ scores.
• Depends on the type of intelligence, crystallized or fluid.
Crystallized: one’s accumulated knowledge and skills; tends to increase with age
Fluid: ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease with age

• Many times cause is unknown
• Organic retardation
– results from genetic problems or brain damage
– Chromosomal factors: Down’s syndrome
• Cultural-familial retardation
– results from a greatly impoverished environment.
• Injury before, during, after birth
• Poisonous substances: lead, carbon monoxide
• Malnutrition
• Disease: Measles
• Theory about Autism: vaccinations around 18 months

• Moderately gifted
– usually defined by an IQ score between 130 and 150
• Profoundly gifted
– usually defined by an IQ score around 180 or above
• Prodigies
– Display a mastery in a particular area at a young age,
“normal” in other areas
• Rarely excel in more than one area
• Galileo  math  invented the pendulum at age 17
• Mozart  played piano at 3, composed at 4
• Savants
– Gifted in one area but mentally challenged in all others

• Lewis Terman’s Study of the Gifted
• Studied 1528 superior individuals in California
– Flaw??
• Findings:
– Read before enter school
– ¾ in 8 th grade score on achievement tests equal to
12 th graders
– Leaders in school
• Not as self-centered as other students
• Interested in the problems of society
• Develop early career plans

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kA78 zeCR0iQ

• Twin studies
– Identical & fraternal
– Twins reared apart
• Adoption studies
– More like biological parents or adoptive parents?

• Heritability
– number that indicates the amount or proportion of some ability, characteristic, or trait that can be attributed to genetic factors (nature)
• Reaction range
– indicates the extent to which traits, abilities, or IQ scores may increase or decrease as a result of interaction with
environmental factors

Group Differences in Intelligence
Test Scores
• The Bell curve is different for
Whites v. Black.
• Math scores are different across genders and the highest scores are for Asian males.
Why?
Nature or Nurture

Tests do discriminate.
But some argue that there sole purpose is to discriminate.
We have to look at the type of discrimination.

• Stereotype threat a self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype.
– EG Blacks score higher when tested by blacks than when tested by whites

• Gender similarities and differences…
– What do males do well?
– What do females do well?