WHAT IS INTELLIGENCE?

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WHAT IS INTELLIGENCE?

• MYTH Each individuals capacity to think solve
  problems, including learning, memory, reasoning
  is
• -innate, genetically determined
• -completely fixed
• -stable
• -unchangeable

Psy 311 Intelligence
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WHAT IS INTELLIGENCE (cont.)?

• 1. Intelligence is NOT unitary
• 2. Intelligence is NOT only genetic
• 3. Intelligence is NOT fixed or stable

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Different Definitions of Intelligence

• 1. G or general intelligence and S or
  specific abilities
• 2. Many distinct mental abilities

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Different Definitions of Intelligence

• 3. Crystallized vs. Fluid Intelligence
• Crystallized ability to use knowledge acquired
  in school through experience.
• Culture specific
• Fluid ability to use ones mind actively to
  solve novel problems.
• Less culture specific

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Different Definitions of Intelligence (cont.)

• 4. Dynamic information processing Intelligent
  behavior depends on
• a. Context
• b. Experience
• c. Information-processing components

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WHAT ARE INTELLIGENCE TESTS?

• SIMON AND BINET
• Children who were "backward" in school
• NORMATIVE TEST
• Questions children of your age know the answers to

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WHAT ARE INTELLIGENCE TESTS (cont.)?

• SUBSCALES/ SUBTESTS
• Verbal
• vocabulary
• Performance
• block design
• math
• story order
• recall
• puzzles

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WHAT DOES IQ PREDICT?

• CORRELATED WITH
• Grades
• Job Success
• Ethnicity
• Socio-economic status
• NOT CORRELATED WITH
• Creativity
• Happiness

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FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE IQ SCORES

• GENES
• Accounts for about half the variation in IQ
  scores within a group of people.
• SOCIAL CLASS DIFFERENCES
• More money and education in the family improves
  IQ scores.

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Factors That Influence IQ Scores (cont.)

• RACIAL ETHNIC DIFFERENCES
• Anglo-American children score better than some
  racial ethnic groups
• DATA versus INTERPRETATIONS
• Data average of 15 points difference
• Interpretations
• WRONG assumptions
• INCOMPLETE comparisons
• WRONG intervention implications

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CORRECT INTERPRETATIONS

• PROBLEMS with tests
• Culture bias in tests
• Culture bias in testing conditions
• PROBLEMS with environment
• Eg., schools
• NOT due to genetic differences

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School Environment

• 1. Teacher expectations
• 2. Teacher behavior
• Warmth and involvement
• More challenging tasks and learning
  opportunities
• Talking and teaching more

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Home Environment

• 1. Parental warmth involvement
• Spending time
• Interacting with child
• 2. Intellectual stimulation
• Appropriate play materials
• Variety of activities
• Developmentally appropriate
• Responsive to child

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Home Environment (cont.)

• 3. Enjoyable
• Fun and interesting
• Everyday activities
• No pressure or evaluation

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Home Environment (cont.)

• EXAMPLE Facilitation of verbal skills
• symbolic development
• talking
• pretend play
• story telling
• reading

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HOW STABLE IS INTELLIGENCE?
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HOW STABLE IS IQ DURING INFANCY?

• 1. Most common assessment BAYLEY Scale of
  Infant Development
• rate of important milestones
• Motor Scale (grasping a cube)
• Mental Scale (searching for a hidden toy)

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HOW STABLE IS IQ DURING INFANCY (cont.)?

• 2. NOT related to later intelligence scores
• 3. WHY NOT RELATED TO LATER SCORES?
• maybe tests measure different things
• maybe universal maturation influences development
  in infancy

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HOW STABLE IS IQ DURING INFANCY (cont.)?

• 4. Other measures of infant intelligence ARE
  correlated with later intelligence test scores
• information processing skills
• speed of habituation
• preference for novelty

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HOW STABLE IS IQ DURING CHILDHOOD?

• GROUP scores are relatively stable
• Predict later scores (e.g., from age 6 to 18)

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INDIVIDUAL scores can change very much over time

• Longitudinal study from age 2 1/2 to 17
• 1. Average difference between lowest and highest
  score was 28.5 pts
• 2. One-third changed more than 30 pts
• 3. One child changed 74 points

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OPTIMIZATION OF INTELLIGENCE

• 1. Family enrichment programs
• 2. Preschool programs
• 3. Adolescent training programs

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LAST NAME, first name

• 1. What do IQ tests measure?
• 2. Name 3 factors that influence a persons
  performance on IQ tests.
• 3. Name 2 things that IQ tests predict.
• 4. What is the most likely explanation of racial
  differences in IQ?

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END
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Different Definitions of Intelligence (cont.)

• 3a. Crystallized intelligence ability to use
  knowledge acquired in school through
  experience. (Culture specific)
• general information
• word comprehension
• numerical abilities

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Different Definitions of Intelligence (cont,)

• 3b. Fluid intelligence ability to use ones mind
  actively to solve novel problems. (Less culture
  specific)
• verbal analogies
• memory for nonsense word pairs
• geometric figures

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Different Definitions of Intelligence (Cont)

• 4. Dynamic information processing Intelligent
  behavior depends on
• a. Context
• Ability to adapt to current context
• Ability to select a better context
• Ability to change current context

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Different Definitions of Intelligence (Cont)

• 4. Dynamic information processing Intelligent
  behavior depends on
• b. Experience
• Novel tasks show intelligence more.
• c. Information-processing components
• Executive components
• Performance components
• Knowledge-acquisition components