INTELLIGENCE
HOW IS IT MEASURED AND DEFINED?
DEFINE INTELLIGENCE
• The ability to learn from experience, solve
problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new
situations
• It typically operationally defined by the tool used to
measure it: Stanford-Binet and Wechsler are the
most commonly used tests.
HOW DO YOU THINK INTELLIGENCE SHOULD BE
MEASURED?
• Most intelligence tests consist of reasoning
tasks, math and verbal tasks
• Most are timed tests as well
HISTORY OF INTELLIGENCE TESTING
• Galton 1822-1911
• Binet 1857-1911
• Spearman 1863-1945
• Terman 1877-1956
• Wechsler 1896-1981
• Gardner 1943• Sternberg 1949
HISTORY OF INTELLIGENCE TESTING
• GALTON
• BINET
• First to employ the use of a survey
for research purposes
• Was commissioned by the French
government to develop a test for
assessing children's’ academic
potential (especially those labeled
as “retarded” as to need special
schooling).
• Darwin’s cousin
• Believe ability was inherited
• Support eugenics and
“selective breeding” of intelligence.
• “father of behavioral genetics”
• Recognized many things influenced
intelligence and that it is malleable.
• Twin studies
• Test developed: Binet-Simon Scale
HISTORY OF INTELLIGENCE TESTING
• Spearman
• Identified that results from tests evaluating
different elements of intelligence were positively
correlated using a statistic known as factor
analysis
• This statistic resulted in a single scored termed:
general intelligence, g
• Terman
• Redeveloped Binet’s test to the Stanford-Binet to be
used in America
• Goal was to push eugenics and to promote
discriminatory practices against the “feeble-minded”
• More interested in identifying the “gifted”
• Developed IQ formula = mental age
chronological age
x 100
HISTORY OF INTELLIGENCE TESTING
• Wechsler
• Developed today’s most widely used
intelligence test
• Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale
(WAIS)
• Scoring is based on “normal
distribution” and most test today,
follow suit
• Normal distribution of IQ scores.
• Z =standard deviation, X = mean
DIFFERENT THEORIES OF INTELLIGENCE
• Gardner: Multiple Intelligences: 7 categories:
linguistic, logic-math, music, body-kinesthetic,
interpersonal, intrapersonal, spatial
http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/multipleintelligences.html#lesson
• Sternberg: Triarchic theory of intelligence: 3
distinction measures: analytical, creative,
practical
• http://educationportal.com/academy/lesson/sternbergs-triarchictheory-of-intelligence.html#lesson
• Emotional Intelligence: skilled at
perceiving, understanding,
managing, and using emotion
ETHICS IN TESTING
• Test are great tools to obtain a lot of
information.
• They have their limits, though. It is
a snapshot of one moment in time.
• The tool needs to be valid and
reliable.
• The tool needs to be fair.
RELIABILITY
• RELIABILITY IS FOUND WHEN A TEST
YIELDS DEPENDABLE AND CONSISTENT
SCORES.
• To determine reliability, a test is used
repeatedly.
• Stanford-Binet & Wechsler are highly
reliable, meaning you would likely score
very similarly every time you too one.
• Motivation to perform, anxiety, illness,
etc. will impact reliability.
• RELIABILITY IN SCORING
• Those scoring a test need to have
common expectations.
• If one AP grader gave your exam a 5
and another gave it a 2, that’s
evidence of a lack of grader
reliability.
VALIDITY
• VALIDITY IS FOUND WHEN A TEST
MEASURES WHAT IT SAYS IT IS
MEASURING OR PREDICTS WHAT IT
CLAIMS TO PREDICT.
• IQ tests can be valid if the
information is interpreted and
applied correctly.
• Predictive validity: A test predicts what it
claims to predict. The SAT is designed to
predict college success. It does a good
enough job, to warrant its use as a criteria
for admissions.
• Content validity: A test is testing what it
claims to be testing. If when we take our
next quiz/test I give you questions over
memory or sensation and claim it is a test
over personality, then it does not have
content validity.
STANDARDIZATION
• STANDARDIZATION IS THE UNIFORM PROCEDURES USED IN THE
ADMINISTRATION AND SCORING OF A TEST.
• Tests must be administered the same way, every time, for every person.
• Tests must be scored the same way, every time, for every person.
• Norms must be established as a basis of comparison.
THE BOTTOM LINE…
• The test is simply a tool, not the culprit of inequality,
though. It is what we do with the information that leads
to the inequitable treatment of people.
TYPES OF INTELLIGENCE
• FLUID INTELLIGENCE
• Our ability to reason speedily and
abstractly; tends to decrease during late
adulthood
• CRYSTALLIZED INTELLIGENCE
• “Young person smarts”
• “Old person smarts”
• Our accumulated knowledge and verbal
skills; tends to increase with age; wisdom