Intelligence:
What is it?
Is it innate or learned?
Is it culturally driven? Does it vary place to place, time to time? The G-Factor.
Is it one thing or many? Neuroprocessing? Memory?
Intelligence Defined
Intelligence is the ability to adapt successfully to your environment.
Intelligence Testing History
First modern tests were used during WWI for military job placement.
Culturally bias: Western Europeans ranked above Eastern Europeans, Southern
Europeans and African-Americans--fueled the Eugenics movement.
Eugenics hypothesized that intelligence, like cows, could be bred.
History
Why couldn’t intelligence be bred? Or related to race?
Answer:Not one gene but many. With recessive genes, the ability to sort and choose
“smart genes” would be impossible. Is ability to survive today related to your IQ or the
groups?
History
Binet and Terman developed the Stanford-Binet test to determine which students would
be successful in school. Highly verbal. Fairly accurate.
I.Q. determined by dividing the mental age (as determined by the test) by the
chronological age and multiplying by 100. Mean, median, mode 100 with SD of 15.
IQ Testing
Stanford Binet replaced by WISC and (children and Wais (adults), less verbal IQ tests.
Weschler Intellience Tests: clusters of questions which measure different aspects of
intelligence: Factor analysis. View overhead. Verbal; non-verbal; math component.
Different Intelligences
Multiple Intelligence: Gardner
Theory put forward that there are many adaptations or intelligences, some not included
in traditional tests: For instance:
Linguistic
Logical-mathematical
Musical
Bodily-Kinesthetic and
Multiple Intelligences cont.
Spatial
Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
Emotional Intelligence: Goleman
Ability to self-regulate
Introspection and self-knowledge: including what makes you feel good/bad, and
maximize the good.
Empathy: understanding what others feel and how to handle it.
Optimism: strong correlation to happiness.
Perseverance
Neuroscience and Intelligence
Scientist have been exploring the relationship between neural processing speed and IQ.
Also which parts of the brain are wired well for intelligence. Wiring becomes denser in
used parts of the brain.
Descriptive Stats: Central Tendencies.
Mean: the average
Median: half the scores above, half below
Mode: the most often occurring score
Range: the bottom score subtracted from the top score.
Descriptive stats: Distribution
Percentile rank: shows where your score falls in relation to the norm or standard
group. If your score falls in the 80th percentile, you’ve done better than 80% of the
standard group, not gotten 80% right.
Testing Terms
Standardization: a test is give to a large sample, under exactly the same test
conditons.. The scores should result in a normed distribution. That normed score can then
be used to compare to individual scores and a percentile score determined. So if the
standard IQ score is 100. And you achieve a score of 100, you would be in the 50th
percentile, with half above and half below.
Normative Curve or Bell Curve
Standard test fall into a norm curve in which the mean, median and mode, all are the
same. This curve allows testers to take and individual score and compare it to the
standard score and figure out where it fits by percentile. See overhead.
Standard Deviation
This number is the average amount a specific percentage of the scores varies from the
mean, median and mode on a standard score. For instance, on IQ tests the Standard
Deviation is 15. So 68% of the scores fall 15 points plus or minus from 100. If the SD
was 10, 68% would fall between 110 and 90. The lower the SD the closer together the
scores are clustered to the mean.
Reliable and/or Valid?
Reliability means the results will come out consistently. If different forms of the test
are given, takers will still get the same score, external reliability. Or if odd and even
numbers get the same score, called internal Reliability.
Validity means the measures what it is trying to measure. With validity you get into
cultural bias, content validity, and predictive validity.
Achievment vs. Aptitude Tests
Achievement test test what you’ve learned in the past, what you’ve achieved. SATs,
Stanford 9s and Sols test achievement.
Aptitude tests measure what you can or should be able to do. What your potential to
learn is. The ASVAB and IQ tests are examples of that.
Either test can be predictive of future behavior.
Extremes of Intelligence
Defined as top and bottom 5%.
Gifted: top 5%, IQ 125-130.
Retarded: IQ of about 70. Most retarded (80%)are educable and can be taught to live
on their own with assistance.
Creativity
Think of four to eight things that would happen if people were suddenly to have three
arms. You have two minutes.
Creativity
The ability to look at problems in a different way (breaking set) and to come up with
unique solutions which work.
Traits of the Creative
Above average, but not exceptional intelligence. Positively Correlated with IQ until
120, then no correlation.
Expertise
Imaginative thinking skills (set breakers)
Venturesome Personality
Intrinsic motivation
Creative, supportive environment.
IQ, Bias and Group Differences
Question: African Americans have a 15 point lower group mean on IQ tests and lower
mean scores on SATs. They are also over represented, in terms of their population
percentage, in “speed sports,” sprinting, football, basketball. Can we conclude a genetic
difference or “breeding difference,” between blacks and whites?
Answer: I think Not
Here’s why….
But first, you should understand the concept of heritability...
Differences among individuals and groups in intelligence scores
Heritability: the amount of variation that can be attributed to genes among people in
the same group, with roughly the same environment. NOT the percentage of a person’s
intelligence created by genes. It is used to compare individuals in the same group. For
identical twins the heritability would be 0. For two unrelated boys raised in the same
pickle barrel, it would be 100%.
Back to the question….
So…it is ok to compare individuals within the same group with similar environments,
and assess genetic differences. But when environment impacts a person heavily,
conclusions about genetic differences between groups can’t be made.
Here is anecdotal evidence that supports that assumption….
African-Americans raised in white middle-class homes have similar IQ scores to whites.
Poor whites lower than affluent whites
Japanese children score significantly higher on math achievements tests than North
Americans, but go to school 30% more. Should we assume genetic superiority. (language
may determine the superiority).
When asked to report race, African Americans do worse than when not asked to report
race.
Gender differences
Males score higher than females on math SATS and are over represented in genius math
competitions. However when women are given challenging math problems and are told
that women do as well as men on these types of problems, they do equally as well. Males
may however be genetically superior in spatial skills, and females in verbal skills, which
makes evolutionary sense.
Labeling
Simply telling a class that they are a smart class will increase their academic
performance when other factors are controlled.
The Flynn Effect
“Modern People” outscore Americans from the 1930s by about the same as whites do
African Americans on IQ tests. Nutrition and enriching academic environments seem to
be the reason. Flynn Effect
We modern American are also taller than colonial Americans. Genetics? No…nutrition
and environment.
Other marginilized Groups.
European New Zealanders outscore native Maoris.
Israeli Jews outscore Arab Israelis.
Japanese outscore Burakumi, a marginalized minority in Japan.
Hearing people outperform deaf people.
Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair. (don’t know that is true)
So, what about speed.
How many African Africans are represented in the Olympic sprints and how are their
basketball teams doing?
If breeding is the answer, most African-Americans, without their consent I might add,
have been infused with European blood, rendering that argument useless. Plus evolution
doesn’t occur n a few hundred years and speed and athleticism isn’t one gene like eye
color that can be bred for.
Question?
How come nobody suggests that black athletes just work harder as a group? This
sociocultural explanation seems more reasonable and doesn’t require a magic genetic
bullet. When few opportunities are available to you, or you perceive that anyway, you
work real hard at the ones that are. Plus if the perception is that African Americans are
faster, they are sought out and cultivated, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Is it equally as possible that living in a tougher environment where mommy can’t drive
you everywhere in a minivan creates better athletic conditioning. Not for all, but as a
group those predisposed to athleticism are given extra conditioning, thus are selected and
developed by the coaches.
Genetics
In small population with little outside influence, certain genes may be expressed more
often than in others (Tay sachs, sickle cell anemia). However, most “skills” take lots of
genes and any intermixing will quickly wash out those features.
Remember this…..
IQ test can predict success in a culture.
You can compare the heritability among individuals in the same group with
environment held fairly constant.
But groups outside the standard testing group are apt to do worse than the standard
group. The language, skill and concepts of the standard group are reflected in the test.
Remember the aboriginal children who did better with spatial intelligence than whites.
Probably because they use it more.
So, Are they bias?
Yes, because they are culturally sensitive.
Yes, because they are designed to discriminate among individuals.
No, in that they are not purposely designed to exclude anyone. It is all in how they are
used.
No, it gives all an objective measure, regardless of race or religion or ethnicity and may
have a predictive validity.