Mental Ability – The capacity to reason, remember; understand, solve
problems, and make decisions
Advanced Placement
Psychology
Chapter 10: Mental Abilities
What is Intelligence?
Current Definition for Intelligence
Three Main Characteristics
 The possession of knowledge
 A high schooler who knows more “stuff” will be considered more
intelligent than a first grader who knows less about the world.
 The ability to efficiently use knowledge to reason about the world
 If two people both solved the same problem correctly, then the one who
did it faster would be considered more intelligent.
 The ability to use that reasoning adaptively in different
environments
 Seniors will soon be freshmen in college and will need to adapt to their
new environment.
History of Intelligence Tests
 In 1904, the French government commissions Alfred Binet to
identify, study, and provide special programs for children who
weren’t doing well in school
 Focused on the ability to reason, judge, and solve problems
 Assumed that children’s abilities increased with age
 Age-Graded
 Chronological Age – A person’s actual age
 Mental Age – A person’s mental level.
 Stanford-Binet: English version a decade later that includes items
for adults and an intelligence quotient (IQ)
 (Mental age / Chronological age) x 100
 One problem  not fair for immigrants who didn’t speak English
Chronological Age vs. Mental Age
History of Intelligence Tests
 Intelligence Testing for Soldiers (1st group administered tests)
 Army Alpha – IQ test for English speakers
 Arithmetic, analogies, general knowledge
 Army Beta – IQ tests for non-English speakers
 Visualizing 3-dimensional objects and solving mazes
 David Wechsler
 Verbal and nonverbal were completed by all test takers
 Answers less culturally dependent
 Subtests scored separately
 Why was Wechsler’s test better?
IQ Tests Today
 Wechsler test
 Verbal scale
 Remembering a series of digits, solving math problems, defining vocab
words, etc.
 Performance scale
 Assembling block puzzles, solving mazes, completing pictures, etc.
 Average result obtained at each level is assigned IQ score, then
compared to the average of the person’s age to compute an IQ
 Mean score of 100, standard deviation of 15
 “Gifted” (130) or “Mentally retarded” (70)  2 standard deviations
from the mean
IQ Tests Today
 Stanford-Binet
 Verbal Reasoning

What is similar about and orange, apple, and
grape?
 Quantitative Reasoning
 Math problems
 Abstract/Visual Reasoning
 Explaining why one should wear a coat in the
winter
 Working Memory
 Repeating a string of numbers in reverse order
 Raven Progressive Matrices (Non-verbal)
 Decide what the next item in the series will be
IQ Standard Distribution
 Today, IQ is not just
mental age divided by
chronological age.
 It involves more complex
computations that rely on
norms about each age’s
intelligence established
over the years.
www.highiqsociety.com
Test your own IQ online
Intelligence?
Tests & Quality of Tests
 Test: A systematic procedure for observing a standard
situation and describing it with the help of a numerical scale
or a system of categories
 Standardized – Conditions are as similar as possible for
everyone taking the test
 Objective – Results are not influenced by tester
 Quantifiable – Measurable results
 Economic & Efficient – Can be given to many people in less time
and for less money
 Norms
 Descriptions of the frequency of particular scores
Aptitude vs. Achievement Tests
 Aptitude
 Measures a person’s capability to learn certain things or perform
certain tasks
 Assesses your potential to learn
 SAT & ACT
 Achievement
 Measures what a person has accomplished or learned in a
certain area
 AP Tests, MME tests, etc.
Features of Testing
Reliability
 Results are repeatable or stable
 A test must measure the same thing in the same way with the
same results every time
 Correlation coefficient must be high & positive
 Methods to check reliability:
 Test-retest  Compares the scores between multiple trials of the
same test
 Alternate-form  Compares the scores between different but very
similar tests
 Split-half method  Compares the scores between the first and
second halves of a test
Features of Testing
Validity
 A test must measure what it is designed to measure
 Measures of validity:
 Content  how much the test items relate to the test’s area
 Ex: if I spend only 5 mins. out of 5 class periods talking about IQ and
devote half of the final exam on IQ, the exam would be low in content
validity
 Construct  scores must relate to tester’s theory about what it being
tested
 Ex: if my theory is that babies cry more than adults, my results should
indicate those findings (positive correlation)
 Criterion  scores must correlate with another measurement
 Ex: a test for hand-eye coordination should have high content validity for
diamond cutters or sports players
 Predictive  when the goal is to predict future behavior (related to
criterion)
The Reliability & Validity of IQ Tests
 How reliable are IQ tests?
 Test-retest reliability can be low if initial testing is done before age 7
 Testing conditions & person’s motivation also affects results
 How valid are IQ tests?
 Validity is difficult to measure because intelligence is hard to define
 But tests can be effective at predicting future success
 How fair are IQ tests?
 Tests today try to avoid biased & culturally unfair questions
 Some areas most influenced by culture (e.g., language) can be
assessed separately
Intelligence?
Innate Ability
 Intelligence is influenced by:
 Heredity
 Identical twins have similar IQ scores,
even if raised separately
 The environment
 No matter how genetically similar two
people may be, if they are raised in the
same environment, they will have similar
IQ scores
Group Differences in IQ Scores
 Socioeconomic differences
 Upper-class communities in the U.S. have shown average IQ
scores of 17 points higher than those of lower-class communities
with the same ethnic makeup
 Why?
 A child’s ability is influenced:
 Genetic factors
 Parents’ occupations
 Parents’ education
 Home environment
Group Differences in IQ Scores
 Ethnic Differences
 Variation between ethnic groups & within ethnic groups
 Differences may be due to:
 Socioeconomic environment
 Parental education
 Nutrition
 Health care
 Schools
 Cultural values placed on education
Conditions That Can Raise IQ Scores
 Efforts to intervene in the lives of children & enrich their
environments have had some success
 Conditions for improving performance
 Rewards for progress
 Encouragement of effort
 Expectations for success
Conditions That Can Raise IQ Scores
 Project Head Start
 Established by gov’t in 1960s to help preschoolers from lower-income



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backgrounds
Teachers visit the home or children attend classes
Some programs emphasize health & nutrition, as well as family mental
health & social skills
May cause a child to be more motivated & have a better attitude
toward school
Such programs can cause as least temporary gains in IQ scores
Measuring Mental Abilities
 People tend to perform at their best when their arousal level is
moderate
 Those whose arousal inhibits their performance in testing suffer
from test anxiety
 Concern over negative stereotypes may play a role in explaining
low test performance
 …Basically, people who are severely anxious about testing will
not perform to the best of their ability
Understanding
Intelligence
The Main Approaches for Explaining Intelligence
Psychometric Approach
 The Psychometric Approach emphasizes the products of
intelligence, including IQ scores
 Implications
 Is intelligence a single general trait or is it a bundle of specific
abilities?
 This matters because if intelligence is a single “thing,” an employer
might assume that someone with a low IQ couldn’t do any tasks well
 Charles Spearman – Found a positive correlation between almost
all tests of mental abilities.
 General Intelligence (g) – Intelligence for general use
 Special Intelligence (s) – Intelligence for specific cases
 Correlations that could not be explained by either g or s were called group
factors
Psychometric Approach

L.L. Thurstone - Didn’t believe in a single dominant gfactor, and split g into Primary Abilities
 Factor Analysis: Statistical technique useful for analyzing the correlations
between IQ tests to identify underlying factors (or abilities)
 Seven Primary Abilities: Numerical ability, reasoning, verbal fluency,
spatial visualization, perceptual ability, verbal comprehension, and
memory
 Raymond Cattell – Through his own factor analysis, believed that there
were two kinds of g
 Fluid Intelligence – Reasoning and problem solving (evaluate, think
critically, understand relationships, etc.)
 Crystallized Intelligence – Specific knowledge (vocabulary, multiplication
table, etc.)
Information-Processing Approach
 Information-Processing focuses more on the process of
intelligent behavior rather than the products of intelligence.
 Intelligence is the direct result of other mental processes
 Perception – How you process what you sense
 Learning – Amount of learning and learning strategies
 Memory – Developmental factors
 Cognition – Ability to abstract and think
Triarchic Theory of Intelligence
 Robert Sternberg believed that a complete theory of intelligence
must deal with three different types of intelligence: analytic,
creative, and practical.
 Analytic
 The kind of intelligence tested by traditional IQ tests
 Creative
 The kind of intelligence needed to compose a symphony or paint a
masterpiece
 Practical
 The kind of intelligence that helps you figure out how restart your
dead car
Intelligence?
Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences
 Linguistic Intelligence
 Logical-Mathematical Intelligence
 Spatial Intelligence
 Musical Intelligence
 Body-Kinesthetic Intelligence (skills used by dancers, athletes, and
doctors)
 Intrapersonal Intelligence (self-understanding)
 Interpersonal Intelligence (interaction with others)
 Naturalistic Intelligence (seeing patterns in nature)
Intelligence?
The Ecological Approach
 Intelligence is mental activity that allows people to select,
shape, and adapt to those aspects of the environment that
are the most relevant to life.
 Intelligence is different depending on the situation
 It is not the same in all environments
 Rather than focusing on elements of intelligence that are
universally shared, tests should account for the environment
in which the person operates.
Diversity in Cognitive
Abilities
From Creativity to Giftedness to Mental Retardation
Creativity
 The ability to produce novel but effective solutions to challenges
 Divergent Thinking
 The ability to think along many paths to generate many solutions to a
problem
 Imagine all of the possible uses of a Wii remote
 Convergent Thinking
 The ability to apply logic and knowledge in order to narrow down the
number of possible solutions to a problem.
 On a multiple choice test, you have to narrow down the possible choices
to the one most likely to be right.
Characteristics for Creativity
 Expertise in the area
 A master painter must have certain skills like how to handle a
paintbrush or which colors to mix together
 Creative skills
 Problem solving, capacity for divergent thinking, a willingness
to take risks, etc.
 Internal motivation
 A person who paints only for money will be limited in his
creativity because he is externally motivated.
Unusual Mental Ability
 Giftedness
 Gifted people tend to very rarely become creative geniuses, but they
do tend to lead more successful lives.
 Mental Retardation
 50 – 70 Mild (typically Down syndrome individuals)
 35 – 49 Moderate
 20 – 34 Severe
 Below 20 Profound
 Characteristics of Mentally Retarded People
 Perform certain mental operations more slowly
 Know fewer facts about the world
 Are less skilled at using particular mental strategies
Learning Disabilities
 Dyslexia
 Difficulty in understanding reading
 Difficulty in sounding out or identifying written words
 Dysphasia
 Difficulty in understanding speech
 Difficulty in recalling the words one needs for effective speech
 Dysgraphia
 Difficulty in writing and forming letters
 Omission or reordering of words and parts of words in one’s writing
 Discalculia (least common)
 Difficulty with math skills and/or in the comprehension of basic
arithmetic principles and operations