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Intelligence
Theories
StanfordBinet
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WAIS
Culture
Fair
General
Intelligence
Multiple
Intelligences
Emotional
Intelligence
IQ
Tests
Psychometrics
Reliability
Standardization
Validity
What is Intelligence?
Intelligence (in all cultures) is the ability to learn
from experience, solve problems, and use our
knowledge to adapt to new situations.
In research studies, intelligence is whatever the
intelligence test measures. This tends to be
“school smarts.”
APA on Intelligence
Intelligence refers to intellectual functioning. Intelligence
quotients, or IQ tests, compare your performance with other
people your age who take the same test. These tests don’t
measure all kinds of intelligence, however. For example,
such tests can’t identify differences in social intelligence, the
expertise people bring to their interactions with others. There
are also generational differences in the population as a
whole.
What is intelligence?
“It seems to us that in intelligence there is a
fundamental faculty, the alteration
or the lack of which, is of the utmost importance
for practical life. This faculty is judgment,
otherwise called good sense, practical sense,
initiative, the faculty of adapting ones self to
circumstances.” --Alfred Binet
What is intelligence?
“An intelligence is the ability to solve
problems, or to create products, that
are valued within one or more
cultural settings.” --Howard Gardner
What is intelligence?
“. . . I prefer to refer to it as ‘successful intelligence.’ And
the reason is that the emphasis is on the use of your
intelligence to achieve success in your life. So I define it
as your skill in achieving whatever it is you want to attain
in your life within your sociocultural context — meaning
that people have different goals for themselves, and for
some it’s to get very good grades in school and to do well
on tests, and for others it might be to become a very good
basketball player or actress or musician.”
--Robert Sternberg
What is intelligence?
“The ability to carry on abstract
thinking.” Lewis Terman
What is Intelligence?
“A global concept that involves an
individual’s ability to act purposefully,
think rationally, and deal effectively
with the environment.”
-David Wechsler
IQ Score Distribution
Conceptual Difficulties
Psychologists believe that intelligence is a
concept and not a thing.
When we think of intelligence as a trait
(thing) we make an error called reification
— viewing an abstract immaterial concept
as if it were a concrete thing.
Controversies About Intelligence
1.
2.
3.
4.
Is it more nature or more nurture?
Is it general or multiple?
Can it be measured?
Can we locate and measure it in the
brain?
Cultural Influences on Intelligence
Definitions
• West: view intelligence as a means for
individuals to devise categories and to engage
in rational debate
• East: sees it as a way for members of a
community to recognize contradiction and
complexity and to play their social roles
successfully.
Theories of Intelligence
• 4 main
theoretical
concepts of
intelligence….
Charles Spearman (1863-1945) and
his G factor
*If you are good at
one subject you are
usually good at many
others.
G= verbal, math,
Jack Bauer is good
analytical ability
at torturing, bomb
defusing, shooting, S= mechanical, logical,
figuring out evil
spatial
plots and saving
the country (and he
is good looking). Is
there anything he
cannot do?
General Intelligence
• How did he prove it g? Spearman used factor analysis:
– A statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items on a test (can
be any test, not just intelligence). It is used to identify the different
dimensions of performance that underlie a person’s total score.
Recap:
• Technical definition: The g factor is a variable
that summarizes positive correlations among
different cognitive tasks, reflecting the fact
that an individual's performance at one type
of cognitive task tends to be comparable to his
or her performance at other kinds of cognitive
tasks.
• Huh? If you are good at one cognitive test,
you will be good at many other cognitive tests.
General Intelligence Critics
L. L. Thurstone, a critic of Spearman, analyzed
his subjects NOT on a single scale of general
intelligence, but on seven clusters of primary
mental abilities, including:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Word Fluency
Verbal Comprehension
Spatial Ability
Perceptual Speed
Numerical Ability
Inductive Reasoning
Memory
Multiple Intelligences
• Howard Gardner disagreed
with Spearman’s g and
instead came up with the
concept of multiple
intelligences.
• He came up with the idea
by studying savants.
– juxtapositions of severe mental
handicap and prodigious mental
ability
Howard Gardner and Multiple
Intelligences
• Gardner believed that
there exists at least 8
different types of
intelligences.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Linguistic
Logical-mathematical
Spatial
Musical
Body-kinesthetic
Intrapersonal
Interpersonal
Naturalist
Existential
Sternberg’s Three Aspects of
Intelligence
(Basically it’s Gardner
Simplified)
Most commonly accepted
theory today
• Analytical (academic; one
solution).
• Creative (generating novel
ideas)
• Practical (required for
everyday tasks where
multiple solutions exist).
Triarchic Theory of Intelligence
• Alice is a good student, always getting good grades
until she reached graduate school. Required to come
up with original ideas, Alice began to fall behind.
• Barbara is not such a good student, but she’s
brimming over with ideas for research.
• Celia is neither a good nor a creative student, but
she’s street smart; she knows how to play the game--how to get things done.
Daniel Goleman and his EQ
• Interpersonal and
intrapersonal
intelligences.
• EQ in most studies,
is a better predictor
for future success
than IQ.
COMPONENTS OF E. I.
• FIRST THREE ARE PERSONAL
– SELF-AWARENESS
– EMOTIONAL SELF-REGULATION
– PERSEVERANCE
• LAST TWO ARE SOCIAL
– EMPATHY
– RELATIONSIHPS
Brain Size and Intelligence
Is there a link?
• Small +.15
correlation between
head size and
intelligence scores
(relative to body
size).
• Using an MRI, found
+.44 correlation with
brain size and IQ
score.
Is Intelligence Neurologically
Measurable?
As brain size decreases with age, scores on verbal
intelligence tests also decrease.
Gray matter concentration in people with high intelligence.
Brain Function and Intelligence
• Higher performing
brains are less
active than lower
performing brains
(use less glucose).
• Neurological speed is
also a bit quicker.