Intelligence, Creativity, and Wisdom:
Ability Assessments for the New Millennium
Robert J. Sternberg
Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences
Professor of Psychology
Tufts University
robert.sternberg@tufts.edu
Main Message
• Current tests used for assessing abilities
are narrow and do an injustice to certain
groups
• We can create and have created broader,
more equitable, better assessments
Organization of Talk
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Context
Theory of Successful Intelligence
The Rainbow Project
The Tufts Kaleidoscope Project
The Aurora Project
Related Projects
Conclusions
Context
• How have technologies changed since
one century ago:
– Computing
– Telecommunications
– Photography
– Medical (medicines and diagnostic
equipment)
Context
– Standardized tests!
Closed Systems in Higher
Education
•
•
•
•
•
•
Test scores
Socioeconomic status
Gender
Religion
Socially-defined race
Caste
Closed Systems in Higher
Education
• Height!
Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
• Person X is a member of Group A
• People in Group A appear generally not to
succeed
• Person X will not succeed
• Person X does not succeed
• Therefore, people in Group A really are
losers
Theoretical Background:
The Augmented Theory of Successful
Intelligence
People are SUCCESSFULLY
INTELLIGENT, according to the theory,
when they have the abilities to succeed in
life according to their own standards within
their sociocultural context, by:
1. Recognizing and capitalizing on
strengths;
2. Recognizing and correcting or
compensating for weaknesses.
Theoretical Background
Capitalization and compensation enable
people to balance:
1. Adaptation to existing environments;
2. Shaping environments to improve
them;
3. Selecting new environments.
Theoretical Background
• To succeed, a person needs
– Creative skills and attitudes flexibly to generate new
ideas to adapt to a changing environment
– Analytical skills and attitudes to ascertain whether
his/her or others’ ideas are good ones
– Practical skills and attitudes to implement the ideas
and persuade others of their value
– Wisdom-based skills and attitudes to ensure that the
ideas help foster a common good by balancing
intrapersonal, interpersonal, and extrapersonal
interests over the long- and short-terms through the
infusion of positive ethical values
Theoretical Background
Analytical skills and attitudes are evoked when we
•
•
•
•
•
analyze
compare and contrast
evaluate
explain
critique
Theoretical Background
Creative skills and attitudes are evoked
when we:
•
•
•
•
•
create
design
invent
imagine
suppose
Theoretical Background
• It is hard to think creatively because
– We are, for the most part, socialized not to
think creatively, or to think creatively only
within narrow boundaries, lest we be
punished
– Creative thinking involves defying the crowd,
which is hard to do because of
• External pressure to conform
• Internal pressure to conform
Theoretical Background
Practical skills and attitudes are involved when
we:
•
•
•
•
•
use
apply
implement
employ
contextualize
Theoretical Background
Wisdom-based skills and attitudes are involved
when we:
• think dialogically
• think dialectically
• judge according to our ethical values
• balance competing interests over the long-term
as well as short-term
• seek a solution representing a common good
The Rainbow Project:
A Plan for Augmentation of the SAT
Robert J. Sternberg
And the Collaborators of the Rainbow Project
The Context of the Rainbow Project
• Early Admissions Procedures—The Days of the
“Aristocracy”
• The New Wave in Admissions—The Days of the
“Meritocracy”
• What Went Wrong: What Meritocracy?
• Some Proposed Fixes
– Affirmative Action
– Compensatory Scoring
– The End of Testing
• The Rainbow Mission
The “Meritocracy”: Who Benefits
and Who Doesn’t?
• A Winner: Alice
• A Loser: Barbara
• A Loser: Celia
Overarching Goal
• To develop a battery assessing analytical,
creative, and practical intellectual skills
that is reliable and construct valid,
increasing prediction of academic and life
performance beyond that obtained from
conventional “g-based” measures
Specific Project Goals
• To develop and preliminarily validate a set
of based instruments to augment the
prediction of the SAT
– Measuring analytical, creative, and practical
thinking skills in college settings
– Via paper-and-pencil and performance
assessments
Method: Materials
• Outcome Variable (the criterion)
– College GPA
• Baseline Materials
– SAT-Verbal
– SAT-Math
– SAT-Total
– ACT or PSAT scores if SAT scores were not
available
Method: Materials
Analytical
15 multiple choice items
• Including verbal, quantitative, and figural
content
• 4 response options per item
Method: Materials
Practical
15 multiple choice items
Including verbal, quantitative, and figural
• 4 response options per item
Performance tasks – Tacit-knowledge inventories
• College Life (15 vignettes)
• General Workplace/Common Sense (15 vignettes)
• Everyday Situational Judgment - Movies (7 vignettes)
Vignette Sample Item
College Life Tacit-Knowledge Inventory
1
Not at all
Characteristic
2
3
4
5
Neither
Characteristic nor
Uncharacteristic
6
7
Extremely
Characteristic
You are enrolled in a large introductory lecture course. Requirements consist of three term-time exams
and a final. Please indicate how characteristic it is of your behavior to spend time doing the
following, if your goal is getting an A in the course.
___Attending class regularly.
___Attending optional weekly review sessions, if there are any, with the T.A.
___Reading assigned text chapters thoroughly.
___Taking comprehensive class notes.
___Speaking with the Professor after class and during office hours.
___Talking to students who took the course last year.
___Studying regularly instead of cramming in the night before exams.
___Doing the extra credit or optional reading assignments.
___Skimming the required reading in the morning before class.
Vignette Sample Item
General Workplace/Common Sense Tacit-Knowledge
Inventory
1
Extremely
Bad
2
Very
Bad
3
Somewhat
Bad
4
Neither Bad
Nor Good
5
Somewhat
Good
6
Very
Good
7
Extremely
Good
You’ve been assigned to work on a project for a day with a fellow employee whom you really dislike.
is rude, lazy, and rarely does a proper job. What would be the best thing for you to do?
___Tell the worker that you think he is worthless.
___Warn the worker that, if he is not “on his toes” today, you will complain to the supervisor.
___Avoid all conversation and eye contact with the other worker.
___Be polite to the other worker and try to maintain as business-like a manner as possible so that
hopefully he will follow your example for the day.
___Tell your supervisor that you refuse to work with this man.
___The project is going to be impossible to accomplish with this worker, so you may as well not even
try--you can always blame your bad work partner.
___See if you can convince one of your friends to take your place and work with this employee.
___Demand a raise from your supervisor; you should not have to tolerate these conditions.
He
Everyday Situational
Judgment - Movies
• Examinees see seven digitized movies
depicting various real-life situations that
college students confront or may confront:
• The Party: Entering a party where one does not know
anyone
• A Fair Portion: Discussing shares of rental payments
for a flat
• Professor’s Dilemma: Asking for a letter of
recommendation from a professor who does not know
you very well
Everyday Situational
Judgment – Movies, Contd.
• No Free Lunch: Having eaten a lunch and discovering
that you do not have the money to pay for it
• The Unwanted Guest: Dealing with a friend in need of
help at a time when you are just seeing your significant
other for the first time in a long time
• Pressing Corporate Matter: Making a decision
regarding proactive actions that can be taken before a
wave of firings commences in your company
• Jerry’s “Beauty-rest Sleeper”: Organizing your friends
to move your furniture to a new flat
Method: Materials
Creative
15 multiple choice items (STAT – Level H)
• Including verbal, quantitative, and figural
• 4 response options per item
Performance tasks
• 2 written stories
• 2 oral stories
• 3 cartoon captions
Written Stories
SHORT STORY TASK: TITLES
•
•
•
•
•
•
“A Fifth Chance”
”2983“
“Beyond the Edge”
“The Octopus’s Sneakers”
“It’s Moving Backwards”
“Not Enough Time”
Oral Stories
SHORT STORY TASK
The following task may at first seem somewhat novel; however, I am
confident that you will have no difficulty doing it. You will be presented
with several sheets of paper, each containing several images. You are
to choose two of these pages and to formulate a short story for each. In
order to expedite the process, rather than write out each of the stories,
you will dictate them to a cassette recorder. When recording: please
speak clearly; state your name; spell your name; and state the page
number of each story. There is no limitation in the content of the story
or the manner in which you decide to present it.
Do you have any questions?….
So, if there are no [more] questions as to what we are asking you to do,
please get started.
Cartoon Titles
Examinees see five cartoons and need to
provide titles for three of the five.
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Method: Participants
• Total sample
–Collected: n = 1013
–Available for analyses: n = 990
–Included in this presentation: n =
777
• From 13 colleges and universities
around the country
College Sample Composition
White & Asian students
Underrepresented minority
68.5
Ethnicity
0%
50%
31.5
100%
Men
Gender
Women
40.9
0%
59.1
50%
100%
Method: Design
•
Incomplete randomized design (McArdle,
1994)
• Two forms:
1. Web-based (59% of students)
2. Paper-Pencil (41% of students)
All tests were proctored by university
officials.
Exploratory Factor Analysis: Rainbow Tasks
Oral Stories
Written Stories
Cartoons
STAT-creative
STAT-analytic
STAT-practical
Movies
College Life
Common Sense
Factor 1
0.57
0.79
0.20
0.00
-0.06
0.03
0.12
-0.13
0.12
Promax rotation: 62.8% variance explained
Factor 2
-0.06
0.01
0.28
0.73
0.80
0.81
0.05
0.01
-0.01
Factor 3
-0.06
-0.02
-0.08
0.09
-0.04
-0.02
0.52
1.00
0.92
Predicting GPA: SAT + Analytical
Step 1:
20
Step 2:
Analytic (STAT)
R squared (%)
SAT-Verbal, SAT-Math
15
10
9.8
9.9
Step 1
Step 2
5
0
Predicting GPA: SAT + Practical
20
Step 1:
Step 2:
Practical (STAT + Separate Tasks)
R squared (%)
SAT-Verbal, SAT-Math
15
10
12.9
9.8
5
0
Step 1
Step 2
Predicting GPA: SAT + Creative
20
Step 1:
18.6
Step 2:
Creative (STAT + Separate Tasks)
R squared (%)
SAT-Verbal, SAT-Math
15
10
9.8
5
0
Step 1
Step 2
Predicting GPA:
SAT + Analytic, Creative, Practical
20.9
Step 1:
20
Step 2:
All Rainbow Project Items
(STAT Analytic, Practical, Creative,
Practical Tasks,
Creative Tasks)
R squared (%)
SAT-Verbal, SAT-Math
15
10
9.8
5
0
Step 1
Step 2
Predicting GPA:
All measures (practical before creative)*
SAT-M
SAT-V
HSGPA
Step 2: + Analytic
Step 3: + Practical
Step 4: + Creative
30
24.8
25
R squared
Step 1:
20
15.6
15.2
15.9
Step
1
Step
2
Step
3
15
10
5
0
*Controlling for school quality in
dependent variable
Step
4
Regressions: In sum
• In the Rainbow sample,
– Adding Rainbow measures over SAT roughly
doubles prediction of college success
– Adding Rainbow measures over SAT + High
School GPA increases prediction by roughly
half
0.10
0.09
0.05
0.04
0.03
0.02
0.03
0.02
0.02
0.01
0.01
0.01
SAT
Analytic
Creative
Practical
Common
Sense
College
Life
Movies
STAT
Cartoons
Oral
Stories
Written
Stories
STAT
Math
0.00
STAT
0.00
Verbal
Proportion explained by race differences
Amount of Each Measure That Is Predicted
by Racial / Ethnic Differences (ω²)
Effect Sizes: Cohen’s d with
Whites as Reference Group
Blacks Latinos Asians Nat.Am.
• SAT-M -0.7
-1.0
0.5
-1.0
• SAT-V
-0.7
-1.1
-0.2
-0.6
• SAT-T
-0.7
-1.1
0.0
-0.8
Effect Sizes: Cohen’s d with
Whites as Reference Group
Blacks Latinos Asians Nat.Am.
• STAT-A
• STAT-C
• STAT-P
-0.2 -0.4
-0.7 -0.5
-0.5 -0.5
0.3
-0.0
0.1
-0.3
-1.2
-0.7
Effect Sizes: Cohen’s d with
Whites as Reference Group
Blacks Latinos Asians Nat.Am.
• Movies -0.5 -0.4
• Common
Sense
-0.9 -0.2
• College
Life
-0.7 -0.2
0.0
-0.8
0.2
-0.4
-0.2
0.2
Effect Sizes: Cohen’s d with
Whites as Reference Group
Blacks Latinos Asians Nat.Am.
• Cartoons -0.2
• Oral
Stories
-0.1
• Written
Stories
-0.3
-0.5
-0.2
-0.4
-0.5
-0.5
0.5
-0.1
-0.2
0.0
Group Difference Analyses:
In Sum
• In the Rainbow sample:
– Rainbow measures reduce ethnic-group
differences relative to the SAT alone
– The new measures reduce differences
because different ethnic groups show different
average patterns
– Differences are not eliminated, however
The Tufts Kaleidoscope Project
Preliminary Results (’06-’08)
Robert J. Sternberg
and the Kaleidoscope Collaborators
Class of 2011
With special thanks to Tzur Karelitz
Goal
• Insert analytical, creative, practical as well
as wisdom-based essays as part of the
Tufts-specific admissions application in
order to broaden the way we think about
applicants
• Change categories for rating system of
applicants
Tufts Admissions
• Tufts applicants complete the Common
Application and (if they choose to) the
Supplemental Application.
• Applications are rated on 4 dimensions:
–
–
–
–
Academic (AC),
Personal Quality (PQ),
Extracurricular (EX), and
Overall (OV).
• Final admission decision is made by a
committee based on multiple criteria.
The Kaleidoscope Framework
• Kaleidoscope (Kscope) is a framework for
evaluating applicants’
– Creative (C),
– Practical (P), and
– Wisdom (W) skills.
• Applicants submitted optional essays.
• Admission officers were trained and asked to
use a Kscope rubric to evaluate applicants.
Essay prompts (Year 1)
1. The late scholar James O. Freedman referred to libraries as "essential
harbors on the voyage toward understanding ourselves." What work of
fiction or non-fiction would you include in a personal library? Why?
2. An American adage states that "curiosity killed the cat." If that is correct,
why do we celebrate people like Galileo, Lincoln, and Gandhi, individuals
who thought about longstanding problems in new ways or who defied
conventional thinking to achieve great results?
3. History's great events often turn on small moments. For example, what if
Rosa Parks had given up her seat on that Montgomery bus in 1955? What if
Pope John Paul I had not died in 1978 after a month in office? What if Gore
had beaten Bush in Florida and won the 2000 U.S. Presidential Election?
Using your knowledge of American or world history, choose a defining
moment and imagine an alternative historical scenario if that key event had
played out differently.
Essay prompts (cont.)
4. Create a short story using one of the following topics:
a. The end of MTV
c. The Professor Disappeared
b. Confessions of a Middle School Bully
d. The Mysterious Lab
5. Describe a moment in which you took a risk and achieved an unexpected
goal. How did you persuade others to follow your lead? What lessons do
you draw from this experience? You may reflect on examples from your
academic, extracurricular or athletic experiences.
6. A high school curriculum does not always afford much intellectual
freedom. Describe one of your unsatisfied intellectual passions. How
might you apply this interest to serve the common good and make a
difference in society?
7. Using an 8.5x11 inch sheet of paper, create an ad for a movie, design a
house, make an object better, illustrate an ad for an object.
Creative Essay: “What if…”
• If the Trojans had heeded Laocoon’s advice and thrown
Odysseus’ wooden horse into the sea, they would have
defeated the Greeks at Troy. Aeneas would then never
have had reason to flee the city, and he would never have
ventured to Italy to found Rome. Without Rome, neither the
Roman Republic nor a Roman Empire would have existed.
Concrete, the arch, plumbing, and the sauna might never
have been invented. The modern implications of Rome
never having existed are indeed drastic. Lacking even
concrete floors, people would resort to sleeping in the mud,
and, without plumbing or saunas, they would be perpetually
filthy and, generally, quite chilly. France could not have
built the base of the Eiffel Tower without arches, so tourists
would be unable to purchase miniature collectible Towers
in Parisian convenience stores.
Good but Uncreative Essay:
“What if…”
• What if the ratification of the nineteenth amendment did
not pass and women were never given the right to vote?
What would life for women, like me, be like in the United
States? For one thing, I probably would not be writing
this essay. If women were not given their right to vote, I
probably would stop going to school after this year and it
would be unlikely that I would receive a college
education. Without suffrage, my career options would be
limited, if a career were a possibility at all. My accepted
practices would be limited to staying home and taking
care of the family. Rather than being equals, women
would be subservient to men. I might not drive, I might
not dress in the way in which I choose to, and I might not
be able to live my life the way that I can in the twentyfirst century.
Kscope Pilot Study : Research Questions
•
How do Kscope measures relate to other
application information?
–
•
Academic, personal quality, extracurricular activity
How do Kscope measure relate to admissions
decision?
Data - Class of 2011
• 22% of the applicants received at least
one Kscope rating (Creative, Practical and Wisdom)
• K Group- combined C, P, W scores
C = only low scores
B = only medium scores
A = one high score
A+ = two or three high scores
Correlations between admission measures
Creative
Practical
Wisdom
K Group
Practical
0.41*
Wisdom
0.34*
0.32*
Academic
0.17*
0.06
0.11
0.10*
Personal
0.18*
0.22*
0.21*
0.25*
Extracurricular
0.45*
0.44*
0.41*
0.49*
SAT-V
0.14*
0.04
0.08
0.07*
SAT-M
0.05
-0.02
0.00
0.00
GPA
0.03
0.01
0.02
0.00
Post-hoc Prediction of Admission Decision
• Academics explain 28% of the variance in
admission.
• Kscope explains an additional 6%.
• Kscope significantly improves prediction over
Personal Quality score.
Pilot Study Data
• Kscope correlates with extracurricular and
personal quality, but not with conventional
academic measures.
• Kscope significantly improves post-hoc
prediction of admission decisions over
academic and personal quality measures.
• Interviewed admission officers and
students supported the Kscope
framework.
Pilot Study Data
• Number of applications rose
• Bottom third of old application pool greatly
diminished; many more top applicants
• Average SATs rose slightly
• African-American applications up 25%,
acceptances up 30%
• Hispanic-American applications and
acceptances up 15%
Pilot Study Data
• There were no significant ethnic-group
differences on Kaleidoscope
• Kaleidoscope correlated weakly with a
composite academic rating (.11)
• Kaleidoscope correlated moderately with rated
leadership/extracurricular activities (.44)
• First-semester GPAs did not differ significantly
between Kaleidoscope A’s and academically
comparable students admitted for other
reasons
Pilot Study Data
• Greater customer satisfaction
• Message to students, parents, teachers,
and counselors that Tufts is looking for
more than just the high-SAT, high-GPA
student
Larger Program at Tufts
• WICS
– Admissions
– Instruction and Course Assessment
– Value Added
– Leadership Minor
The Aurora Project
Exploring the Entire Spectrum of Giftedness
Collaborators
•
•
•
•
Hilary Chart
Elena Grigorenko
Linda Jarvin
Bob Sternberg
Acknowledgment
• Work on the Aurora Project has been
funded by a private donation from Karen
Jensen.
Why Aurora?
The Need for a Closer Look…
 Traditional overemphasis on analytical skills
 Under-representation of minority students in
gifted programming
 99.9% of special-education funding allocated to
the lower end of the ability spectrum
FAMOUS “FAILURES”
Albert Einstein
*Got poor grades and failed
his entrance exams to Zurich’s
Polytechnic Institute
Leonardo da Vinci
*Lack of aptitude for
learning languages, a
horrible speller with
poor grammar
Thomas Edison
*Of himself:
“I have not failed.
I’ve just found 10,000
ways that won’t work.”
Winston Churchill
*Twice failed the entrance exam to
Sandhurst British military college
FAMOUS “FAILURES”
Sydney Poitier
*Dropped out of his
elementary school
Walt Disney
*Fired by a newspaper editor
because he “had no good ideas”
Agatha Christie
*Thought to have had a
learning disability
Steven Spielberg
*Dropped out of high school
after being placed in a learningdisabled class
Capturing ALL the Variables…
*With SENSITIVITY and SPECIFICITY*
Memory
Images
Reception
Production
Words
Reception
Production
Numbers
Reception
Production
Analytic
Creative Practical
The Aurora Project,
at a glance
• A standardized paper-and-pencil test, with analytical,
creative, and practical components
• A parent interview for further qualification
• An observation schedule for use by clinicians
Analytical Skills using Words
Homonym Fill-in-the-Blanks:
Each sentence below is missing two words which sound the same but have
different meanings, and sometimes different spellings too. Fill in the blanks
with the same-sounding words that make the sentence make sense!
1. Go to the ___________ for some money and meet me by the river ___________.
2. I have a cut on my ___________ and will wear a bandage to help it ___________.
3. You may use an __________ to row across the lake, ___________ take a motorboat.
4. She __________________ heavily and rolled onto her ________________.
Answers:
bank/bank
heel/heal
oar/or
sighed/side
Analytical Skills using Numbers
Thinking Math!
1. I am a three digit number. My tens digit is five more than my ones digit.
My hundreds digit is eight less than my tens digit. What number am I?
___ ___ ___
Answer: 194
2. Jordan is twice as old as Kaya. Kaya is three years older than Max. Max
Is ten years younger than Jordan. How old is each of them?
Jordan’s Age:
Kaya’s Age:
Max’s Age:
Answer: 14, 7, 4
Analytical Skills using Images
Geometry Boats:
Identical to Pattern B:
Pattern A and Pattern B show two ways to
tie four boats together with four strings.
Can you find three brand new ways to do
this? Remember, just moving boats, or
crossing or moving strings does not create
a new pattern (all three examples to the right
are identical to Pattern B, NOT new patterns).
Answers:
Pattern A
Pattern B
Judging Creativity:
(Rated Scales using Criteria
set from Pilot Study Results)
Originality
Cleverness
Humor
Complexity
Descriptiveness
Task
Appropriateness
Emotional
Expressiveness
Make room for Creativity!
Cartoons:
Make room for Creativity!
Sticker Task Examples:
Make room for Creativity!
Math Stories and Mystery Paintings:
Creativity using Words
Impossible Conversations:
Imagine that the world has changed so that almost everything can speak. Write
a little conversation describing what the two things listed might say to each
other if they could talk. Each thing must say at least one thing. Before you write
what they will say, circle who is speaking. Be creative!
A Tree and the Tree-House that is in it
Tree
Tree-House :
Tree
Tree-House :
Creativity using Numbers
Math Stories:
3 -->
3/4ths
Tell a short and interesting story about how the number 3 became the number
3/4ths. Be as creative as you can, but in your story you must include a blue
piece of paper and an ice cream cone! Add a picture if you like!
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
Creative Skills using Images
Children’s Book Covers:
Imagine that each of the following pictures is the cover of a children’s book.
In a couple of sentences, tell what the story in each book might be about. Be
as creative as you can be!
Making room for Practicality
Tacit-Knowledge Examples:
Concrete Problem Solving:
Alex lost his cat two weeks ago and he is desperately trying to find her.
Which of the following is the smartest thing to do?
1)
2)
3)
4)
Ask his parents if they have seen the cat.
Wait for the cat in the last place he has seen her.
Take out an ad asking for people that have seen her to call him.
Wait for the cat to come home on its own.
Intuitive Comprehension:
The teacher said, “We will go on the trip tomorrow
only if the weather permits.”
The teacher meant that the trip will take place only if the weather:
1)
2)
3)
4)
is perfect.
improves.
does not change.
is good for traveling.
Practicality using Words
Applied Riddles:
1. You are standing in a room with three light switches that
can be turned either on or off. In another room, which you cannot see, is a single light
bulb. The light bulb is controlled by one of the switches in your room, and you must find
out which one. You may flick the switches however you like, but you may leave the
room and go to the other room only once. How will you find the right switch?
Answer: Turn switch 1 on for a few minutes, then off. Turn switch 2 on, leave switch 3
off. If the light is on, it’s 2; if it’s off and cold, it’s 3; if it’s off and warm, it’s 1.
2. Laurie and Mariko want to go to the movies. The only way
for them to get to the theater is to drive, and they want to take only
one car, so Laurie must drive and pick up Mariko, or Mariko must
drive and pick up Laurie. They are each at their own houses.
Decide which person should drive if they want to get to the theater
as quickly as possible and you know that: It takes more time to drive to the theater from
Laurie’s house than it takes to drive to the theater from Mariko’s house. It takes longer
to drive between the two houses than from Laurie’s house to the theater.
Answer: Laurie should drive Mariko (longest route + shortest route).
Practicality using Numbers
Applied Math:
1. Which is a better deal. In other words, if you had
to buy a lot of chocolate for a party, would you spend less money buying lots of
the first kind, or even more of the second kind? Circle the better deal:
12 ounces of chocolate for $3.60
5 ounces of chocolate for $1.25
Answer: 5 ounces for $1.25 because here each ounce is .25 (rather than .30).
2. The ages of a father and son add up to 55. If you
reverse the two digits in the father’s age, you have the
age of the son. How old is each of them?
Father’s Age:_______________
Son’s Age:______________
Answer: The father is 41, and the son is 14.
Practicality using Images
Real-World Thinking:
Below are pictures of a girl sitting in her airplane seat and holding a bottle
Of grape juice. The first picture shows what she looks like when the plane
Is still on the ground. In the second, the plane is either taking off (and going
Up), or about to land (going down). Which is it? Circle the answer.
Plane on the ground:
Taking Off
Answer:
Taking Off
About to Land
Social Problem Solving:
Mother baked a cake for her children, Eric and Kathy. The children are looking
for a way to split the cake between them, such that each receives the same amount of cake.
Which of the following arrangements is most likely to result in a fair split of the cake between
Eric and Kathy?
1)
2)
3)
4)
Eric cuts the cake, then Kathy chooses her piece.
Eric cuts the cake, then he chooses his piece.
A friend cuts the cake and Kathy chooses Eric’s piece.
Eric and Kathy eat whatever they want.
Logical Comprehension:
Aaron found a note from his mother saying: “You should not watch TV
until you have eaten dinner, or it is after 8 PM.”
It is 8:35 PM. Can Aaron watch TV now?
1)
2)
3)
4)
Yes, but only if he has eaten dinner.
Yes, he definitely can.
No, he definitely can not.
Yes, but only if he will have dinner later.
Capturing ALL the Variables…
*With SENSITIVITY and SPECIFICITY*
Memory
Images
Reception
Production
Words
Reception
Production
Numbers
Reception
Production
Analytic
Creative Practical
Aurora-a & Conventional Abilities
P, 16%
A, 25%
CogAT
C, 4%
Comments
• Aurora-g appears to act just like a
conventional test of abilities
• Aurora-a appears to be different from a
conventional test of abilities
• Practical “facet” of Aurora-a appears to be
particularly relevant to school
achievements
Comments
• Years of practice taught teachers to pay
attention to conventional indicators of abilities
• It is important for teachers to consider and pay
attention to “other” (non-conventional?) abilities
• For creativity to develop in classrooms teachers
need to “see” it and know how to develop it
To Conclude
• Aurora-a/g are designed to be “laboring” in
academic settings
• They are expected to relate to things that matter
in school
• They are also expected, however, to provide
new information NOT discernable either through
conventional tests of abilities or through tests of
achievement
• Aurora is looking good…. (cautious optimism)
Related Projects
• University of Michigan Business School
• Choate Rosemary Hall
• Advanced Placement
– Statistics
– Psychology
– Physics
Conclusions
• Traditional abilities tests are narrow and
limited
• Our new measures can
– Broaden the range of skills tested for
educational purposes
– Increase predictive validity
– Decrease ethnic-group differences
– Increase customer satisfaction
Conclusions
• WICS can serve as a basis for an
integrated program of transformation in
university admissions, instruction, and
assessment, as well as a sharpening or
clarification of the purpose of university
educatoin