Intelligence: Intelligence is part of a much larger field of psychology that studies individual differences As human beings we have many similarities but we also have many differences in terms of behaviour – for example: Abilities Beliefs Attitudes Motivations Emotional characteristics Personality traits Psychophysiologically i.e. chronobiological type: owl, lark, cat Intelligence Naturally we are intrigued by our differences more so than by our similarities Individual differences are the result of biological and environmental factors and their complex interaction Defining Intelligence: Abilities, skills and achievement Difficult to find an all encompassing definition of intelligence: Different cognitive attributes may be valued differently across cultures Hunter gather societies for example may value abilities related to cooperative behaviour and the development of successful hunting skills Maritime societies (e.g. South Pacific) may place greater value spatial abilities and intelligence underlying the development of navigational skills An Early definition of intelligence: the capacity to understand the world and the resourcefulness to cope with its challenges Note: central to this definition is the concept of adaptability and even creativity (divergent thinking) What constitutes resourcefulness and rationality can differ from culture to culture e.g., North Americans’ emphasis on verbal abilities and problem solving don't necessarily constitute good coping strategies in other cultures Many early intelligence tests focused heavily on language and verbal performance History of Intelligence Tests: Intelligence tests have existed for over 100 years. First tests developed by Galton (1884), who noticed some families were smarter and some were stronger than others. He believed intelligence was inherited and fundamentally related to sensory/perceptual proficiency (note relation to info processing approach) Modern intelligence tests Binet (1881) is seen as the originator of modern intelligence tests French academic living in Paris interested in individual differences fascinated by differences in the behaviour of his 2 daughters 1905 commissioned by French Government to develop intelligence tests Government wanted to be able to stream children in public school system Government decided slow learners (retarded) would no longer be educated at home Binet's test had 30 questions focused on specific abilities: reasoning, problem solving, memory, imagination His test did not include perceptual motor skill abilities In 1916 Lewis Terman, Stanford University modified Binet's test for North America by testing thousands of children and establishing societal norms for knowledge in various age categories German psychologist, William Stern came up with the idea of expressing intelligence as a quotient IQ=MA/CA X 100 Problems with US government using intelligence tests in the 1930’s to screen immigrants coming to North America Test validity Since the 1930's Weschler, Cattlell, Thurston and others viewed intelligence as mode up of several components or dimensions Factor analysis has been used as a statistical method to identify the various dimensions or types of intelligence Gardner identifies 8 types of intelligence: linguistic, biological, logical - mathematical, spatial, musical, body kinetic, intrapersonal (self), interpersonal (others), naturalist, (possibly existential) Some research has suggested that there may be as many as 30 dimensions underlying intelligence Many psychologist also believe that in addition to there being several dimensions to intelligence, there's also a single intelligence factor - some have called this a G factor A G factor is advocated because many who score high on several dimensions of intelligence usually score high on virtually all dimensions – perhaps there really are ‘intelligent people’ The extreme opposite occurs with Savant Syndrome Sternberg agrees with multiple intelligences but organizes them around 3 main themes Analytic intelligence (academic problem solving) Creative intelligence (dealing with novel situations and generating novel ideas and solutions Practical intelligence – street smarts Many argue that the components of Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory are not as independent as advocated Information processing approach: Looks at specific fundamental processes e.g. encoding, comparison, retrieval, motor response Attempts to determine if these processes correlate with intelligence The fundamental importance of processing speed (r = +0.4 to +0.5) with intelligence test scores Recent studies using PET scans indicate an efficiency model of intelligence Emotional Intelligence Generally, traditional intelligence tests are good predictors of academic performance but not of later success in life Emotional intelligence scores, however, do predict life success - Cantor & Kihlstrom (1987) Emotional intelligence is also called Social Intelligence Predicts well to success in life – friendships, family, work satisfaction and performance Four dimensions - the ability to: perceive emotions (to recognize them in faces, music and stories) to understand emotions (to predict them and how the change and bled) to manage emotions (to know how to express them in varied situations) to use emotions to enable adaptive and creative thinking Genetics and Environment Genetics sets a foundation for the development of intelligence Estimates are that the genetic contribution to intelligence is between 50 to 75% (identical twin studies) The real complexity, however, is that early life experiences are critical for setting up the attributes that allow for the genetic contributions to intelligence to unfold Hence, experience is a critical factor inherent to intelligence Research on culture and intelligence yields reliable differences but the source of these differences is likely related to different environmental experiences Research on sex differences in intelligence also yields reliable differences but the variation within sexes is larger than between sexes In many cases differences observed between sexes seem to have the potential to disappear with changing environments – for example, spatial abilities