Intelligence
I.
How is intelligence measured?
A. Binet’s test of intelligence
1.
The concept of mental age
2.
The intelligence quotient
3.
The Stanford-Binet test
B. Other tests of intelligence
1.
The Wechsler scales
2.
The Kaufman assessment battery for children
C. Infant intelligence
1.
The Bayley scales of infant development
2.
Habituation and preference measures
II. What is intelligence?
A. The Psychometric view
1.
Nature/nurture and the stability of intelligence
2.
Is intelligence a single attribute?
a.
Factor analysis
b.
Spearman’s “g” and “s”
c.
Thurstone’s primary mental abilities
d.
Guildford’s Structure of Intellect
e.
Cattell’s Fluid versus Crystallized intelligence
B. The information processing view
1.
Sternberg’s triarchic theory of intelligence
2.
Context, experience, and information-processing skills
III. What do intelligence tests predict?
A. Scholastic achievement
B. Occupational status
C. Health, adjustment, and life satisfaction
IV. Common uses (and abuses) of IQ tests
A. A historical look at IQ testing
B. Uses of IQ tests
1.
Terman’s mass testing of children
2.
Yerkes’ army mental testing
Measures of Intelligence
The Stanford-Binet test
• Mental age and chronological age
• The Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
The Wechsler Scales
The Kaufman Assessment battery for children
• Sequential skills
• Simultaneous skills
Measures of Infant Intelligence
• Bayley Scales of Infant Development
• Subscales of development
• The Developmental Quotient (DQ)
• Habituation and preferential looking
measures
The Psychometric View of Intelligence
Intelligence can be thought of as a trait, or set of
traits, that characterize some people to a
greater extent than other people
Four different psychometric view
1. The ability to carry out abstract thinking
(Terman, 1921)
2. The capacity of an individual to act
purposefully and think rationally, and to deal
effectively with the environment (Wechsler,
1944)
3. Innate, general cognitive ability (Burt, 1955)
4. All of the knowledge a person has acquired
(Robinson & Robinson, 1965)
Factor Analysis
Test Items:
1 2 3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Highly correlated test items:
•
•
•
1, 3, 4, 8
2, 5, 9, 10
6, 10
Factor Structure:
•
•
•
Questions related to verbal ability
Questions related to mathematical
reasoning
Questions related to spatial abilities
Guildford’s (1967)
Structure of Intellect Model
Content: What a person thinks about
Operations: The kinds of thinking required
Products: The kinds of answers required
Raymond Cattell’s
Fluid versus Crystallized Intelligence
Fluid intelligence:
• The ability to solve abstract relational
problems that have not been explicitly
taught and are free of cultural influences
• Ex., Verbal analogies, memory for lists,
etc.
Crystallized intelligence:
• The ability to solve problems that depend
on knowledge acquired in school or
through other experiences
• Ex., General information, word
comprehension
Developmental flavor
Sternberg’s (1985)
Triarchic Theory of Intelligence
Information processing components:
1. Context:
• Acts qualify as intelligent depending on
the social or sociocultural context in which
they occur
2. Experience:
• One’s experience with a task helps
determine whether one’s actions qualify as
intelligent behavior
3. Information-processing skills:
• Estimates of intelligence should also
include “how” a person produces an
intelligent response, as well as the
correctness of that response
What Do Intelligence Tests Measure?
IQ and scholastic achievement
• IQ predicts academic achievement
• Caveats
IQ and occupational success
• IQ and job prestige
• IQ and job performance
IQ and health, adjustment, and life satisfaction
• Terman’s longitudinal study with school
children
• Family environment hypothesis
Binet’s Principles for the Use of the
Intelligence Measure
1. The scores are a practical device; they do not
support any theory of intellect. They do not
define anything innate or permanent. We do
not designate what they measure as
“intelligence.”
2. The scale is a rough, empirical guide for
identifying mild-retarded and learning disabled
children who need special help. It is not a
device for ranking normal children.
3. Whatever the cause of difficulty in children
identified for help, emphasis shall be placed on
improvement through special training. Low
scores shall not be used to mark children as
innately incapable
Gould, 1981, p. 155