What Is Intelligence?
For most of the 20th century, people believed
there was such a thing as intelligence
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Some people were believed to smarter than others
because of their higher intelligence level—creating life
long impact
IQ scores gathered in children are generally predictive
of education, income, and longevity in later life.
Does this mean that IQ measures intelligence?
Why? Why not?
What is Intelligence?
General intelligence (g) (Spearman)
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Intelligence is one basic trait that involves all cognitive
abilities, which people possess in varying amounts.
It cannot be measured directly but inferred from various
abilities.
– Examples: Vocabulary, memory, and reasoning.
Many scientists are trying to find one common factor
(genes, early brain development, or some specific
aspect of health) that underlies IQ.
Research on Age and Intelligence
Research strategies
• In 20th century psychometricians
• Believed that intelligence could be measured and quantified
via IQ tests
• Disagreed about interpreting the data—especially about
whether g rises or falls after age 20
Methodology used
• Cross-sectional
• Longitudinal
• Cross-sequential
TIME LIFE PICTURES/US SIGNAL CORPS/TIME LIFE
PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES
Research on Age
and Intelligence
Smart Enough for the Trenches?
These young men were drafted to fight
in World War I. Younger men (about
age 17 or 18) did better on the
military’s intelligence tests than slightly
older ones did.
Cross-sectional research
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U.S. Army: Tested aptitude of
all literate draftees during
World War I
– Intellectual ability peaked
at about age 18, stayed at
that level until the mid-20s,
and then began to decline.
Classic study of 1,191
individuals, aged 10 to 60,
from 19 New England villages
– IQ scores peaked between
ages 18 and 21 and then
gradually fell, with the
average 55-year-old
scoring the same as the
average 14-year-old.
Research on Age and Intelligence
Longitudinal research (Bayley and colleagues)
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Data found many intellectual gains through adulthood
– Younger cohorts often better than older cohorts (Flynn Effect)
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Probably due to changes in the environment (more
education, improved nutrition, smaller family size, fewer
infections) and NOT changes in innate intelligence
Better than cross-sectional research but also has
problems
– Examples: Practice effects, high attrition rates, unusual cohort
effects
Research on Age and Intelligence
Cross-sequential research
Combines both cross-sectional and longitudinal
designs
Seattle Longitudinal Study
– Cross-sequential study of adult intelligence
– Schaie began this study in 1956; the most recent
testing was conducted in 2005
– 500 adults, aged 20 to 50, were tested on five primary
mental abilities
– New cohort was added and followed every 7 years
Research on Age and Intelligence
Cross-sequential research
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Combines both cross-sectional and longitudinal
designs
Reduces complications of historical change
Impact of retesting, cohort, and experience
analyzed
Research on Age and Intelligence
Seattle Longitudinal
Study
• Cross-sequential
study of adult
intelligence
• Schaie began this
study in 1956; the
most recent testing
was conducted in
2005.
• 500 adults, aged 20
to 50, were tested
on five primary
mental abilities.
• New cohort was
added and followed
every 7 years.
Measures
• Verbal meaning
(comprehension)
• Spatial orientation
• Inductive reasoning
• Number ability
• Word fluency (rapid
associations)
Findings
• People improve in
most mental abilities
during adulthood
and decline later in
life.
• Each ability has a
distinct pattern for
each gender.
Age Differences in Intellectual Abilities
Components of Intelligence: Many and
Varied
Two Clusters of Intelligence (Cattell)
Fluid intelligence
• Those types of basic intelligence that make learning of
all sorts quick and thorough
• Includes abilities such as working memory, abstract
thought, and speed of thinking
Crystallized intelligence
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Those types of intellectual ability that reflect
accumulated learning
Vocabulary and general information are examples
Think Before Acting
Both of these adults need to combine fluid and crystallized intelligence,
insight and intuition, logic and experience. One (left) is a surgeon,
studying X-rays before picking up her scalpel. The other (right) is a
court reporter for a TV station, jotting notes during a lunch recess
before delivering her on-camera report on a trial.
Both Together Now
Total picture of intellectual aptitude
• Both fluid and crystallized intelligence must be
measured
• Age complicates calculations: Fluid intelligence
decrease with age and crystallized increases
• Subset scores change over time: Speed
decreases with age and verbal ability increases
• IQ scores fall only after substantial declines in
fluid intelligence affect crystallized intelligence
Components of Intelligence: Many and
Varied
Three forms of intelligence: Sternberg
• Analytic intelligence
– Valuable in high school and college, as students are
expected to remember and analyze various ideas
• Creative intelligence
– Allows people to find a better match to their skills,
values, or desires
• Practical intelligence
– Useful as people age and need to manage their daily
lives
Sternberg’s Three Forms of Intelligence
Age and Culture
Value of kind of intelligence depends on age
and culture.
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Analytic intelligence valued in high school and college,
may be seen as absentminded
Creative intelligence valued when new challenges arise,
in only some political systems
Practical intelligence valued during adulthood, useful in
every society
What makes a good parent?
• View one: Tests of good infant care are useful;
knowledge of infant development causes good care
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KIDI (Knowledge of Infant Development Inventory)
measures how much caregivers know about infants
View Two: Knowledge of infant care development
does not matter in caregiving
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Immigrant child’s later cognitive development is best
predicted by parents’ SES and language use and NOT
KIDI scores
Cultures vary in what they believe about infant
development
Which view do you believe is more accurate?
Stress
Selective Gains and Losses
Accumulating stressors
Humans have always experienced stresses, some of which
becomes stressors, and they have developed ways to cope
with them
• Stress is internal; stressors are external
• Stressor: Experience, circumstance, or condition that
affects a person
Same Situation, Far Apart: Two 2013
Disasters
In the Boston marathon (left), three people were killed and more than
200 injured when a terrorist bomb exploded, and in South Africa
(right), 34 striking mine workers were shot dead when police opened
fire. Despite the obvious differences, survivors everywhere cope by
crying and holding each other.
Selective Gains and Losses
Coping methods
• Stress correlates with and causes illness
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Undercuts thinking; reduces future mental ability
Affects logic; increases depression and other
psychological illnesses
• Gender differences
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Male: Problem-focused; sympathetic nervous
system prepares for “fight-or-flight”; testosterone
level rises
Female: Emotion-focused; oxytocin produced to aid
“tend and befriend”
Selective Gains and Losses
Choosing methods
Avoidant
coping
Problemfocused coping
Emotionfocused coping
• Method of
responding to a
stressor by
ignoring,
forgetting, or
hiding it.
• Strategy to
deal with stress
by tackling a
stressful
situation
directly.
• Strategy to
deal with stress
by changing
feelings about
the stressor
rather than
changing the
stressor itself.
Selective Gains and Losses
Choosing methods
• Weathering: Gradual accumulation of stress; direct
impact on intelligence
• Effect of reduced IQ of African Americans
• Gap most evident in early adulthood
• Religious coping: Process of turning to faith as a method
of coping with stress
• During adulthood, religious faith and practice tend
to increase; past experience coping with stress
may be the reason
Coping with Katrina:
Aftermath
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Many physical and
psychological stresses
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Most survivors: Stress
reactions
One in nine survivors:
Serious mental health
problems
One in 250: Suicide
plan; less than rate
before storm
Increased resilience
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Three of four
survivors: Deeper
sense of purpose
Those who believed in
caring and benevolent
God: Coped well
Lingering Effects of Hurricane Katrina
Selective Gains and Losses
Selective optimization with compensation
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People try to maintain a balance in their lives by looking
for the best way to compensate for physical and
cognitive losses and to become more proficient in
activities they can already do well (Paul and Margaret
Baltes, 1990).
Each adult selects certain aspects of intelligence to
optimized and neglect.
What consequences might this have for intelligence testing?
Selective Gains and
Losses
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Example of selective
optimization; more
difficult with age
Older adults utilize
compensatory strategies
for optimal functioning
© RYAN MCGINNIS/ALAMY
Multitasking
Too Many Distractions?
Expert Cognition
Selective expert
• Guided by culture and context
• Is notably more skilled and knowledgeable than the
average person about whichever activities are
personally meaningful
• Is more skilled, proficient, and knowledgeable at a
particular task than the average person, especially
a novice who has not practiced that skill
• Does not necessarily have extraordinary intellectual
ability
Expert Cognition
Expertise
• Specialized skills and knowledge developed
around a particular activity or area of special
interest
Expert thought
• Intuitive
• Automatic
• Strategic
• Flexible
Expert Cognition
Intuitive
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Experts rely on their past experiences and on
immediate contexts; their actions are more intuitive and
less stereotypic
Novices follow formal procedures and rules
Automatic
Automatic processing
– Thinking that occurs without deliberate, conscious
thought
– Experts process most tasks automatically, saving
conscious thought for unfamiliar challenges
Expert Cognition
Strategic
• Experts have more and better strategies, especially
when problems are unexpected.
Flexible
• Experts are creative and curious, deliberately
experimenting and enjoying the challenge when things
do not go according to plan.
Expertise and Age
• Essential requirement of expertise is time.
• Circumstances, training, talent, ability, practice,
and age affect expertise.
• Expertise sometimes overcomes the effects of
age.
• Experienced adults often use selective
optimization with compensation.
FROM TALENT IN THE TAXI: A MODEL SYSTEM FOR EXPLORING EXPERTISE BY
WOOLLETT ET AL,PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS: BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE, VOL. 364,
NO. 1522, MAY 2009, PP. 1407–1416, FIG. 2B.COPYRIGHT © 2009, THE ROYAL
SOCIETY
Red Means Go!
The red shows the activated brain
areas in London taxi drivers as
they navigated the busy London
streets.
Not only were these areas more
active than the same areas in the
average person’s brain, but they
also had more dendrites.
In addition, the longer a cabby
had been driving, the more brain
growth was evident.
This research confirms plasticity,
implying that we all could develop
new skills, not only by
remembering but also by
engaging in activities that change
the very structures of our brains.
Family Skills
Two recent occupational shifts
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More women are working in jobs traditionally
reserved for men.
Women’s work has gained new respect.
U.S. Medical School Graduates,
1982-83 to 2011-12