Unit 11: Intelligence
Bring this sheet to class complete on Monday 3/9/2015
1. As you know, the Advanced Placement (AP) Psychology exam involves 100 multiple-choice questions and
two free response essay questions. The goal of the exam is to accurately measure knowledge of psychological
concepts and to communicate to colleges which students would most likely succeed in a college-level
psychology course. Each year, few students receive composite scores of 1 and 5, and more students receive
scores of 2, 3, or 4. Use the following terms to describe how the College Board most likely developed and
evaluates the AP Psychology exam.
• Recognition
• Recall
• Standardization
• Normal curve
• Reliability (test-retest reliability or split-half reliability)
• Content validity
• Predictive validity
2. Theories of Intelligence:
Charles Spearman
L.L. Thurstone
Howard Gardner
Robert Sternberg Mayer, Salovey, & Caruso
3. Give a SUMMARY, a STRENGTH, and a WEAKNESS of Spearman’s idea of general intelligence.
4. Assessing Intelligence
Alfred Binet
Lewis Terman
William Stern
Francis Galton
David Wechsler
5. Label the normal cure according to
Wechsler Intelligence Scores (p. 537)
6. Explain the difference between an achievement & an aptitude test.
7. A good test should be standardized, reliable and valid. Explain the difference between the three.
8. Aptitude tests are NOT as predictive as they are reliable. The predictive power of aptitude tests diminishes as
students move up the educational ladder. Use the analogy of football linemen’s success correlated to weight to
explain why if an elite university takes only those students who have very high aptitude scores, those scores
cannot possibly predict much. (see p. 623 for help)
9. Interpret the scatterplot to the left. (p.541)