Development of “Intelligence”
Honors Psychology
Name: _________________________
Period: _____Date: _______________
Origins of Intelligence
Francis Galton (1822-1911)
 British child prodigy
 Fascinated by measuring
human traits.
 Inspired by cousin’s Origin
of Species to apply ideas to
“natural abilities.”
 Wrote Hereditary Genius
 1st to quantifiably measure
mental ability.
Alfred Binet (1857 – 1911)
 Commissioned to find a way to
determine children’s abilities for
school admissions.
 Worked with Theodore Simon on
this task.
 Measured mental age.
 They considered their tests to
measure environmentally
influenced intelligence (not inborn
intelligence).
Louis Terman (1877 – 1956)
 Adapted and “created” the
Stanford-Binet Intelligence
Test (used to measure “inborn
intelligence”)
 Expanded it to fits persons of
all ages.
 Supported Eugenics
William Stern (1871 – 1938)
 Developed the “IQ” from
Terman’s tests.

I.Q. =
mental age
Chronological age x 100
Intelligence Test Terms
Mental age – measure of intelligence performance devised by Binet; the chronological age that most
typically corresponds to a given level of performance.
Stanford-Binet Test – the widely used American revision (by Terman at Stanford University) of Binet’s
original intelligence test.
Intelligence Quotient – defined originally as the ratio of mental age (ma) to chronological age (ca)
multiplied by 100 (IQ = ma/ca x 100). On contemporary intelligence tests, the average performance for a
given age = 100.
Eugenics – 19th century movement that proposed applying the measurements gained from testing to
“encouraging” only the smartest/fittest to reproduce.
What is intelligence?
Definition: Mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use
knowledge to adapt to new situations.
Psychologists Debate:
 Does each of us have an inborn general mental capacity (intelligence), and can we quantify this
capacity as a meaningful number?
 Is intelligence one general ability or several specific abilities?
General Intelligence
Think of a person you consider intelligent. Can you measure that person’s intelligence on one scale?
Can we measure the intelligence of the people we are thinking of right now on the same scale?
Charles Spearman – believed we have one general intelligence (g).
 Helped develop factor analysis – a statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items
on a test (not necessarily an intelligence test).
 Think of intelligence like athleticism (if you are good at one, you are good at many sports)
o At the same time, skills at basketball doesn’t make you the best skater.
Theories of Multiples Intelligences
What would you call the “intelligence” that Spearman discussed? (academic or school smarts)
Psychologists since the 80s have been trying to expand on this.
Howard Gardner – Views intelligence as multiple abilities that come in packages.
Support – brain damage can destroy some aspects of intelligence and leave others unharmed
Savant Syndrome – Savants score very low on intelligence tests but have an “island of brilliance”
Kim Peek – Rain Man – abilities include memorizing books (9,000 including the Bible and
Shakespeare) and maps (directions of any major U.S. city).
Gardner’s 8 Intelligences
 Linguistic
 Logical-Mathematical
o These first 2 are the aptitudes assessed by standardized tests.
 Musical
 Spatial
 Bodily-Kinesthetic
 Intrapersonal (self)
 Interpersonal (others)
 Naturalistic
Take a multiple intelligences inventory
Sternberg’s Three Intelligences – Triarchic Theory of Intelligence
 Analytical (academic problem-solving) intelligence
o Assessed by intelligence test, which present well-defined questions having a single right
answer.
 Creative intelligence
o Demonstrated in reacting adaptively to novel situations and generating novel ieas.
 Practical intelligence
o Required for everyday tasks, which may be ill defined, with multiple solutions.
Intelligence and Creativity
Creativity – The ability to create novel and valuable ideas.
 Studies suggest that a level of aptitude (about 120 on intelligence tests) is necessary but not
sufficient for creativity.
 Intelligence tests, which demand a single right answer require convergent thinking
 Creativity tests require divergent thinking.
Divergent (Non-directed) Thinking Example:
An old moneylender offered to cancel a merchant’s debt and keep him from going to prison if the
merchant would give up his daughter. Horrified yet desperate, the merchant and his daughter agreed to
let Providence decide. The moneylender said that he would put a black pebble and white pebble in a bag
and the girl would draw one. The white pebble would cancel the debt and leave her free.
The black one would make her the moneylender’s, although the debt would be cancelled. If she refused
to pick, her father would go to prison. From the pebble-strewn path they were standing on, the
moneylender picked up two pebbles and quickly put them in the bag, but the girl saw that he had picked
up two black ones.
What would you have done if you were the girl?
When the girl put her hand into the bag to draw out the fateful pebble, she fumbled and dropped it,
where it was immediately lost among the others. “Oh,” she said, “well you can tell which one I picked
by looking at the one that’s left.”
Creativity Test – Think of as many uses for baking soda as you can for 3 minutes.
 Use divergent thinking, go for quantity not quality.
 The adult group record is 83 uses held by Hewlett Packard.
The school group record is 174 uses held by a 5th grade class in San Diego, CA.
The adult individual average is 13 uses.
Classic: “Mix the baking soda with vinegar. Gargle with it and pretend you have rabies on
Halloween.”he
Move one digit to make the equation correct: 26 – 63 = 1. (2 to the 6th power / move it UP)

Sternberg’s 5 Components of Creativity
1. Expertise
 Well-developed base of knowledge furnishes our “mental building blocks.” The
more blocks, the more chances we have to combine them in novel ways.
2. Imaginative Thinking Skills
 Use of divergent thinking, reorganizing ideas, looking at them in new ways,
letting go of the confines of logical rigidity.
3. A venturesome personality
 Seeking new experiences and tolerating obstacles. Encounters with new cultures
foster creativity.
4. Intrinsic motivation
 Being driven more by interest, curiosity, satisfaction, and challenge is very
important.
5. A creative environment
 Colleagues, peers, institutions.
Emotional Intelligence
The ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions.