Chapter 8:
Intelligence and Individual Differences
in Cognition
Chapter 8: Intelligence and
Individual Differences in Cognition
Chapter 8 contains three modules:
Module 8.1 What is Intelligence?
Module 8.2 Measuring Intelligence
Module 8.3 Special Children, Special
Needs
What is Intelligence?
Psychometric Theories
Gardner’s Theory of Multiple
Intelligences
Sternberg’s Theory of
Successful Intelligence
Module 8.1 What is
Intelligence?
• How well do
infants remember?
• How do strategies
help children to
remember?
• How does
children’s
knowledge
influence what
they remember?
Module 8.2
Measuring
Intelligence
Module 8.3
Special Children,
Special Needs
8.1 Psychometric Theories
•
Use patterns of test performance as starting
point to answer questions
•
Provide evidence for general intelligence
and specific intelligences
Hierarchical View of
Intelligence
Why is this view a compromise between general and
specific theories of intelligence?
Gardner’s Theory of Multiple
Intelligences
•
Draws on research in child development,
brain-damaged adults, and exceptional
talent
•
Proposes 9 intelligences
•
Proposes schools should foster all
intelligences
Gardner’s Theory of Multiple
Intelligences
Implications for Education
• Fostering all intelligences in school
• Capitalization on strongest intelligence of
individual children
Sternberg’s Theory of Successful
Intelligence
•
Involves using one’s abilities skillfully to
achieve personal goals
•
Proposes three different kinds of abilities:
• analytic ability
• creative ability
• practical ability
Measuring Intelligence
Binet and the Development of
Intelligence Testing
What Do IQ Scores Predict?
Hereditary and Environmental
Factors
Impact of Ethnicity and
Socioeconomic Status
Module 8.2 Measuring Intelligence
• Why were intelligence tests
devised initially? What are
modern tests like?
• How stable are IQ scores? What
do they predict?
Module 8.1
What is
Intelligence?
• What is dynamic testing? How
does it differ from traditional
testing?
• What are the roles of heredity
and environment in determining
intelligence?
• How do ethnicity and
socioeconomic status influence
intelligence test scores?
Module 8.3
Special
Children,
Special
Needs
Binet and the Development of
Intelligence Testing
•
Used mental age to distinguish “bright” from
“dull” children
•
Created Stanford-Binet, which gives a single
IQ score; average = 100
Distribution of IQ Scores
WISC-IV
•
Gives verbal and
performance IQ scores
and full-scale IQ
•
Used as intelligence
test and as a clinical
tool
Infant Tests: Bayley Scales of
Infant Development
•
Contains five scales
•
Measure mental and motor development
and test behavior of infants from one to 42
months of age
Stability of Infant IQ Scores
•
Reliable in short term; less in longer term
•
Valid as reasonable predictors of success in
school and the workplaces
•
Validity increased with dynamic testing
Hereditary and Environmental
Factors
•
Effects of heredity shown in family, twin,
and adoption studies
•
Effects of environment shown in home
environment studies, historical change in
IQ scores, and intervention programs
Correlations of IQ for Family
Members
How does the information above provide evidence for
hereditary factors?
Impact of Ethnicity and
Socioeconomic Status
•
Asian Americans have highest scores
followed by European Americans, Hispanic
Americans, and African Americans
•
Group differences reduced when comparing
groups of similar economic status
Impact of Ethnicity and
Socioeconomic Status
Strategies
• Culture-fair intelligence tests
• Stereotype threat
• Test-taking styles
Let’s look at a culture-fair test item.
Culture-fair Test Item
Select the piece that would complete the design correctly.
Item based on experiences common to many cultures
Special Needs, Special Children
Gifted and Creative Children
Children with Mental
Retardation
Children with Learning
Disabilities
Module 8.1
What is
Intelligence?
Module 8.2
Measuring
Intelligence
Module 8.3 Special
Children, Special
Needs
What are the
characteristics of gifted
and creative children?
What are the different
forms of mental
retardation?
What are learning
disabilities?
Gifted and Creative Children
•
Gifted: someone with scores on intelligence
tests of at least 130
•
Intelligence associated with convergent
thinking
•
Creativity is associated with divergent thinking
Examples of Creativity
Number of responses
and originality of
responses used to
measure creativity
What would you put
in the circles?
Children with Intellectual
Disability
•
Intellectual Disability: substantially below
average intelligence and problems adapting to
environment; onset before age 18
•
•
Organic intellectual disability
Familial intellectual disability
Risks Factors for Children with
Intellectual Disability
•
•
•
•
Biomedical
Social
Behavioral
Educational
Children with Learning Disabilities
Learning disabilities
• Normal intelligence
• Difficulty mastering academic material in
absence of other conditions that explain poor
performance
Children with Learning Disabilities
Common varieties
• Developmental dyslexia
• Impaired reading comprehension
• Inadequate understanding of language and
sound
• Mathematical disability