Intelligence

Unit 10
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Intelligence
Intelligence
Is Intelligence One General Ability
or Several Specific Abilities?
Intelligence and Creativity
Emotional Intelligence
Is Intelligence Neurologically
Measurable?
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Assessing Intelligence
The Origins of Intelligence Testing
Modern Tests of Mental Abilities
Principles of Test Construction

The Dynamics of Intelligence

Stability or Change?
Extremes of Intelligence
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Genetic and Environmental

Influences on Intelligence
Twin and Adoption Studies
Heritability
Environmental Influences
Group Differences in Intelligence Test
Scores
The Question of Bias
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Intelligence
Do we have an inborn general mental capacity
(intelligence)? If so, can we quantify this
capacity as a meaningful number?

What is Intelligence?
Intelligence (in all cultures) is the ability to
learn from experience, solve problems, and use
our knowledge to adapt to new situations.

In research studies, intelligence is whatever the

intelligence test measures. This tends to be
school smarts.

Intelligence: Ability or Abilities?

Have you ever thought that since peoples mental
abilities are so diverse, it may not be justifiable to
label those abilities with only one word, intelligence?

General Intelligence
The idea that general intelligence (g) exists
comes from the work of Charles Spearman
(1863-1945) who helped develop the factor
analysis approach in statistics.

Athleticism, like intelligence, is many things

General Intelligence
Spearman proposed that general intelligence (g) is
linked to many clusters that can be analyzed by
factor analysis.
For example, people who do well on vocabulary
examinations do well on paragraph
comprehension examinations, a cluster that helps
define verbal intelligence. Other factors include a
spatial ability factor, or a reasoning ability factor.
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Contemporary Intelligence Theories

Howard Gardner (1983, 1999) supports the idea
that intelligence comes in multiple forms.
Gardner notes that brain damage may diminish
one type of ability but not others.

People with savant syndrome excel in abilities

unrelated to general intelligence.

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Howard Gardner
Gardner proposes eight types of intelligences and
speculates about a ninth one existential
intelligence. Existential intelligence is the ability to
think about the question of life, death and existence.

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Robert Sternberg
Sternberg (1985, 1999, 2003) also agrees with
Gardner, but suggests three intelligences rather
than eight.
1.
2.
3.

Analytical Intelligence: Intelligence that is assessed

by intelligence tests.
Creative Intelligence: Intelligence that makes us
adapt to novel situations, generating novel ideas.
Practical Intelligence: Intelligence that is required
for everyday tasks (e.g. street smarts).
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Intelligence and Creativity

Creativity is the ability to produce ideas that are
both novel and valuable. It correlates somewhat
with intelligence.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Expertise: A well-developed knowledge base.

Imaginative Thinking: The ability to see things in novel
ways.
A Venturesome Personality: A personality that seeks new
experiences rather than following the pack.
Intrinsic Motivation: A motivation to be creative from
within.
A Creative Environment: A creative and supportive
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environment allows creativity to bloom.

Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive,
understand, and use emotions (Salovey and
others, 2005). The test of emotional intelligence
measures overall emotional intelligence and its
four components.

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Emotional Intelligence: Components

Component

Description

Perceive emotion

Recognize emotions in faces,

music and stories
Predict emotions, how they
change and blend
Express emotions in different
situations
Utilize emotions to adapt or be
creative

Understand emotion
Manage emotion
Use emotion

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Emotional Intelligence: Criticism

Gardner and others criticize the idea of emotional
intelligence and question whether we stretch this
idea of intelligence too far when we apply it to our
emotions.

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Assessing Intelligence
Psychologists define intelligence testing as a
method for assessing an individuals mental
aptitudes and comparing them with others using
numerical scores.

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Alfred Binet
Alfred Binet and his
colleague Thodore
Simon practiced a more
modern form of
intelligence testing by
developing questions
that would predict
childrens future
progress in the Paris
school system.
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Lewis Terman

In the US, Lewis Terman

adapted Binets test for
American school children
and named the test the
Stanford-Binet Test. The
following is the formula of
Intelligence Quotient (IQ),
introduced by William
Stern:

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David Wechsler
Wechsler developed the
Wechsler Adult
Intelligence Scale (WAIS)
and later the Wechsler
Intelligence Scale for
Children (WISC), an
intelligence test for
school-aged children.

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WAIS
WAIS measures overall intelligence and 11 other
aspects related to intelligence that are designed to
assess clinical and educational problems.

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Principles of Test Construction

For a psychological test to be acceptable it must
fulfill the following three criteria:
1. Standardization
2. Reliability
3. Validity

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Standardization
Standardizing a test involves administering the test
to a representative sample of future test takers in
order to establish a basis for meaningful
comparison.

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Normal Curve
Standardized tests establish a normal distribution
of scores on a tested population in a bell-shaped
pattern called the normal curve.

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Reliability
A test is reliable when it yields consistent results. To
establish reliability researchers establish different
procedures:
1.
2.

Split-half Reliability: Dividing the test into two

equal halves and assessing how consistent the
scores are.
Test-Retest Reliability: Using the same test on two
occasions to measure consistency.
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Validity
Reliability of a test does not ensure validity. Validity
of a test refers to what the test is supposed to
measure or predict.
1.
2.

Content Validity: Refers to the extent a test

measures a particular behavior or trait.
Predictive Validity: Refers to the function of a test
in predicting a particular behavior or trait.

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Extremes of Intelligence
A valid intelligence test divides two groups of
people into two extremes: the mentally retarded (IQ
70) and individuals with high intelligence (IQ 135).
These two groups are significantly different.

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High Intelligence
Contrary to popular belief, people with high
intelligence test scores tend to be healthy, well
adjusted, and unusually successful academically.

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Mental Retardation
Mentally retarded individuals required constant
supervision a few decades ago, but with a
supportive family environment and special
education they can now care for themselves.

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Flynn Effect
In the past 60 years, intelligence scores have risen
steadily by an average of 27 points. This
phenomenon is known as the Flynn effect.

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Genetic and Environmental

Influences on Intelligence
No other topic in psychology is so passionately
followed as the one that asks the question, Is
intelligence due to genetics or environment?

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Genetic Influences
Studies of twins, family members, and adopted children
together support the idea that there is a significant
genetic contribution to intelligence.

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Adoption Studies
Adopted children show a marginal correlation in
verbal ability to their adopted parents.

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Heritability
The variation in intelligence test scores
attributable to genetics. We credit heredity
with 50% of the variation in intelligence.
It pertains only to why people differ from one
another, not to the individual.

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Environmental Influences
Studies of twins and adopted children also show the following:

1. Fraternal twins raised together tend to show

similarity in intelligence scores.
2. Identical twins raised apart show slightly less
similarity in their intelligence scores.

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Early Intervention Effects

Early neglect from caregivers leads children to
develop a lack of personal control over the
environment, and it impoverishes their intelligence.

Romanian orphans with minimal

human interaction are delayed in their development.

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Schooling Effects
Schooling is an experience that pays dividends,
which is reflected in intelligence scores. Increased
schooling correlates with higher intelligence scores.

To increase readiness for schoolwork,

projects like Head Start facilitate leaning.

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Group Differences in Intelligence

Test Scores

Why do groups differ in intelligence? How can we

make sense of these differences?

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Ethnic Similarities and Differences

To discuss this issue we begin with two disturbing
but agreed upon facts:
1. Racial groups differ in their average
intelligence scores.
2. High-scoring people (and groups) are more
likely to attain high levels of education and
income.

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Racial (Group) Differences

If we look at racial differences, white Americans
score higher in average intelligence than black
Americans (Avery and others, 1994). European New
Zealanders score higher than native New
Zealanders (Braden, 1994).
White-Americans

Black-Americans

Average IQ = 100

Average IQ = 85

Hispanic Americans

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Environmental Effects
Differences in intelligence among these groups are
largely environmental, as if one environment is more
fertile in developing these abilities than the other.

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Reasons Why Environment Affects

Intelligence
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Races are remarkably alike genetically.

Race is a social category.
Asian students outperform North American
students on math achievement and aptitude tests.
Todays better prepared populations would
outperform populations of the 1930s on intelligence
tests.
White and black infants tend to score equally well
on tests predicting future intelligence.
Different ethnic groups have experienced periods
of remarkable achievement in different eras.
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Gender Similarities and Differences

There are seven ways in which males and females
differ in various abilities.
1. Girls are better spellers
2. Girls are verbally fluent and have large vocabularies
3. Girls are better at locating objects
4. Girls are more sensitive to touch, taste, and color
5. Boys outnumber girls in counts of underachievement
6. Boys outperform girls at math problem solving, but
under perform at math computation
7. Women detect emotions more easily than men do

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The Question of Bias

Aptitude tests are necessarily biased in the sense
that they are sensitive to performance differences
caused by cultural differences.

However, aptitude tests are not biased in the sense

that they accurately predict performance of one
group over the other.

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Test-Takers Expectations
A stereotype threat is a self-confirming concern
that one will be evaluated based on a negative
stereotype.
This phenomenon appears in some instances in
intelligence testing among African-Americans and
among women of all colors.

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