Chapter SummaryWhat Is Intelligence?
It is misleading to reify concepts such as "intelligence" and "giftedness"—to regard these abstract concepts as if they were real, concrete things. To most psychologists, intelligence is defined as the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and adapt to new situations. Is Intelligence One General Ability or Several Specific Abilities? Psychologists agree that people have specific abilities, such as verbal and mathematical aptitudes. However, they debate whether a general intelligence (g) factor runs through them all. Recent research finds that general intelligence scores do correlate with ability to solve novel problems (those found in educational or vocational areas) but do not correlate with “evolutionarily familiar” skills (such as parenting or exhibiting social competence). Factor analysis and studies of special conditions, such as the savant syndrome; have identified clusters of mental aptitudes. Emotional Intelligence A part of social intelligence, emotional intelligence involves the ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions. Those with a high emotional intelligence are better able to have higher-quality relationships with others. Some feel that high general intelligence gets you in a profession but it does not necessarily make you successful once there. Critics of this idea feel that the concept of intelligence is stretched too thin by applying it to emotion. Intelligence and Creativity Creativity is the ability to produce ideas that are novel and valuable. Intelligence correlates weakly with creativity. Increases in intelligence beyond a necessary threshold level are not linked with increased creativity. Is Intelligence Neurologically Measurable? Several studies report a very slight correlation between brain size (adjusted for body size) and intelligence test score. Other studies suggest that highly intelligent people tend to have more brain synapses, to take in information more quickly, and to show faster brain-wave responses to simple stimuli such as a flash of light. Time will tell whether these new neurological approaches to intelligence will bear important fruit. If they do, researchers will surely debate the extent to which nature and nurture affect the brain’s structure and functioning. Assessing Intelligence The Origins of Intelligence Testing More than a century ago in France, Alfred Binet started the modern intelligence-testing movement by developing questions that helped predict children’s future progress in the Paris school system. Lewis Terman of Stanford University revised Binet’s work for use in the United States. During the early part of the twentieth century, intelligence tests were sometimes used in ways that, in hindsight, even their designers regretted—to "document" a presumed innate inferiority of certain ethnic and immigrant groups. Modern Tests of Mental Abilities Tests are commonly classified as either aptitude tests (designed to predict learning ability, as is the Wechsler) or achievement tests (designed to assess current competence). The two tests are not so completely different. For example, current competence influences aptitude. Principles of Test Construction A good test must be standardized, so that any person’s performance can be meaningfully compared to others’; reliable, so it yields dependably consistent scores; and valid, so it measures what it is supposed to measure. Test scores usually fall into a bell-shaped distribution, the normal curve. The average score is assigned an arbitrary number (such as 100 on an intelligence test). Aptitude tests tend to be highly reliable, but they are weak predictors of success in life. However, their predictive validity for academic success in the early grades is fairly strong. Test validity weakens for predicting grades in college and even more so in graduate school, as the range of student ability becomes more restricted. The Dynamics of Intelligence Stability or Change? The stability of intelligence test scores increases with age, with practical predictive value beginning by age 4 and scores becoming fairly stable by age 7. Among infants, those who quickly become bored with a picture, preferring to look at a new one, tend to score well on later intelligence tests. Extremes of Intelligence Comparing those who score extremely low with those who score extremely high magnifies a test’s apparent validity and significance. Researchers have studied and debated how to define, understand, and educate those with unusually low intelligence scores (sometimes related to Down syndrome) and those with exceptionally high scores. Genetic and Environmental Influences on Intelligence Because of its political and racial overtones, the debate over the nature and nurture of intelligence is an ongoing controversy. Genetic Influences Studies of twins, family members, and adopted children together point to a significant hereditary contribution to intelligence scores. Heritability, the proportion of person-to-person variation attributable to genes, can vary, depending on the range of populations and environments studied. Environmental Influences These same studies, plus others that compare children reared in extremely impoverished or enriched environments or in different cultures, indicate that life experiences also significantly influence intelligence test performance. Environmental factors such as responsive caregiving and nutrition affect intelligence. Group Differences in Intelligence Test Scores Like individuals, groups vary in intelligence test scores. Hereditary variation within a group need not signify a hereditary explanation of between-group differences. In the case of the racial gaps in test scores, the evidence suggests that environmental differences are largely, perhaps entirely, responsible. Psychologists debate evolutionary and cultural explanations of gender differences in specific aptitudes. The Question of Bias Aptitude tests aim to predict how well a test-taker will perform in a given situation. So they are necessarily "biased" in the sense that they are sensitive to performance differences caused by cultural experience. But bias can also mean what psychologists commonly mean by the term—that a biased test predicts less accurately for one group than for another. In this sense of the term, most experts do not consider the major aptitude tests to be significantly biased. |
Key TermsIntelligence Test - a method for assessing an individual's mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores.
Mental Age - a measure of intelligence test performance devised by Binet; the chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance. Stanford Binet - the widely used American revision of Binet's original intelligence test. Intelligence Quotient - defined originally as the ratio of mental age (ma) to chronological age (ca) multiplied by 100 (thus, IQ = ma/ca × 100). On contemporary intelligence tests, the average performance for a given age is assigned a score of 100. Aptitude Tests - a test designed to predict a persons future performance; capacity to learn. Achievement Tests - tests designed to assess what a person has learned. Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale - the WAIS is the most widely used intelligence test; contains verbal and performance (nonverbal) subtests. Standardization - defining meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested standardization group. Normal Curve - the symmetrical bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many physical and psychological attributes. Most scores fall near the average, and fewer and fewer scores lie near the extremes. Reliability - the extent to which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test, on alternate forms of the test, or on retesting. Validity - the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to. Content Validity - the extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest. Criterion - the behavior (such as future college grades) that a test (such as the SAT) is designed to predict; thus, the measure used in defining whether the test has predictive validity. Predictive Validity - The success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict; it is assessed by computing the correlation between test scores and the criterion behavior. Intelligence - mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations. Factor Analysis - a statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items (called factors) on a test; used to identify different dimensions of performance that underlie one's total score. General Intelligence (g) - a general intelligence factor that according to Spearman and others underlies specific mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test. Savant Syndrome - a condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill, such as in computation or drawing. Mental Retardation - a condition of limited mental ability, indicated by an intelligence score of 70 or below and difficulty in adapting to the demands of life; varies from mild to profound. Down Syndrome - a condition of retardation and associated physical disorders caused by an extra chromosome in one's genetic makeup. Creativity - the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas. Heritability - the proportion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genes. Emotional Intelligence - the ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions. Stereotype Threat - a self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype. Psych Sim 5 ActivitiesTricky Spots
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