Intelligence

Carolyn R. Fallahi, Ph. D.

Intelligence

Why do we want to measure intelligence?

What are some of the reasons we measure intelligence?

If you had to construct an IQ test, what kinds of questions would it contain?

What kinds of abilities do you think you’d want to test?

Alfred Binet

Theodore Simon

Jean Piaget

What is Intelligence?Binet & Simon

Binet and Simon were commissioned by the French government to ID kids who would benefit from receiving remedial education.

Assessment: attention, perception, memory, numerical reasoning, verbal comprehension.

Vygotsky: Zone of Proximal Development

David Wechsler

Wechsler’s definition of intelligence: the global capacity of the individual to act purposefully, think rationally, and to deal effectively with his environment.

Vocabulary scores – the subtest that correlates best with overall IQ tests scores.

David Wechsler

“Intelligence is the aggregate or global capacity of the individual to act purposefully, to think rationally and to deal effectively with his environment.” 1944

The Wechsler Tests

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-IV) and Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV).

Greatly improved the normative process. Wechsler viewed intelligence as an effect

rather than a cause; for example, non-intellective factors, such as personality, contribute to the development of each person’s intelligence.

Intelligence – Some important topics.

Mental Age versus Chronological Age. The issue of Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

• IQ = (mental age / chronological age) x 100

• If a 10 year old can answer questions of the same difficulty level as most 13 year olds, then IQ = (13/10) x100 = 130.

• Now using normative standards.

Intelligence Testing1. “One Score Tests”

Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale IV– Ages 2 through adult.

Modern version – scores no longer reflect mental age. You’re now compared to others – representative sample used to obtain the distribution.

Links to Cattell-Horn’s theory. Greater differentiation of abilities.

Wechsler Tests

4-6.5 years – Wechsler Preschool and primary scale of Intelligence – IV.

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale – IV (16 and older).

Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS-IV).

Wechsler Tests – WAIS-IV

Updated in 2008. Why? Flynn Effect WAIS-IV: 11 subtests, 3 supplementary

scales. Full scale IQ (FSIQ) or g. GAI = General Ability Index = 6 subtests

that comprise Verbal Comprehension Index & Perceptual Reasoning Scale.

Intelligence TestingImportant Issue: Standardization

Standardization: What does this mean?• Lots of people take the test to make sure it’s

reliable and valid.

• Cultural Bias of tests – many have argued that tests were written for white middle class children and they were standardized in that population.

• Now – Stanford – Binet & WAIS tests have been standardized via diverse populations but still….

The Normal Curve

The normal curve

Describe• Show IQ scores for the WAIS-IV.

• 130 and above very superior

• 120-129 Superior

• 110-119 High average

• 90-109 Average

• 80-89 Low Average

• 70-79 Borderline

• 69 and below – Extremely low

WAIS-IV test now measures:

Verbal comprehension Index

Perceptual Organization Index

Working Memory Index

Processing Speed

Verbal comprehension Index

Verbally acquired knowledge and verbal reasoning

Stored knowledge Oral expression General verbal skills

Requires understanding of words, similarities, knowledge of social situations, etc.

Perceptual Organization Index

Visual perception Organization and

reasoning Visual-motor

coordination Nonverbal

reasoning Fluid reasoning

Comfort with new and unexpected situations

Ability to understand a problem

Working Memory Index

Measures the ability to temporarily retain information in memory and manipulate

Attention, concentration, mental control, reasoning

Arithmetic skills, reading ability, verbal fluency

Problem-solving Higher-order

thinking

Processing speed

Visual perception and organization

Processing visual information quickly

Attention and sustained effort

Motor coordination Persistence and

planning

Interpretation

Full-scale IQ 4 indices Individual subtests Pattern analysis Strengths and weaknesses

Extreme scores

Diagnosis of GT Diagnosis of MR Do we do a good job with extreme

scores? Difference between intelligence (ability to

learn) and mastery tests like Wood-cock Johnson (what you have learned).

Factor Analytic Approach

Factor analysis – a statistical procedure for identifying clusters of tests or test items (called factors) that are highly correlated with each other and unrelated to other items.

Some thinkers believed that IQ score might reflect some particular ability, rather than overarching intelligence.

Ask people to perform lots of different mental tasks.

Each factor is a specific mental ability.

Cultural Bias Issues

Verbal ability is a problem – requires specific knowledge of the meaning of words. What if you come from a home where English isn’t spoken?

Vygotsky

Vygotsky’s approach to intelligence testing: “test, train, retest”• Brown & Ferrara (1985)

• Not all average IQ kids are alike regarding the speed of learning or ability to transfer to something new.

• Low IQ kids – some are slow learners with low transfer, some are slow learners with high transfer, some are fast learners with high transfer.

Vygotsky

This pattern holds for high IQ children too.

Thus two kids with IQs of 100 may not be mentally the same!

So we should consider this when developing individualized learning plans for kids.

Robert J. Sternberg

Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

Successful people = identify & capitalize on their strengths, and identify and correct or compensate for their weaknesses in order to adapt to, shape, & select environments.

Sternberg’s theory

Intelligence = forming competencies, and competencies as forms of developing expertise.

Intelligence is modifiable rather than fixed.

Raymond B. Cattell

John L. Horn

Cattell-Horn Theory

Fluid abilities (Gf) drive the individual’s ability to think and act quickly, solve novel problems, and encode short-term memories.

They have been described as the source of intelligence that an individual uses when he/she doesn’t already know what to do.

Cattell-Horn Theory

Crystalized abilities (Gc) stems from learning and acculturation and is reflected in tests of knowledge, general information, use of language (vocabulary) and a wide variety of acquired skills.

Crystallized Intelligence

Personality factors, motivation and educational and cultural opportunity are central to its development, and is only indirectly dependent on the physiological influences that mainly affect fluid abilities.

Horn & Cattell

Fluid Intelligence = ability to perceive relationships, ability to adapt, ability to learn new material. Independent of culture and formal training. Vulnerable to brain damage and aging.

Crystallized intelligence = completely dependent on culture and formal training or learning. Increases with age.

Howard Gardner (Harvard)

“I want my children to understand the world, but not just because the world is fascinating and the human mind is curious. I want them to understand it so that they will be positioned to make it a better place.”

Gardner, 1999

Gardner – Theory of Multiple Intelligences

Surveyed atypical populations, e.g. prodigies, idiot savants, autistic children, LD children.

Found jagged cognitive profile. These profiles inconsistent with a unitary view

of intelligence. Question: does training in 1 area influence

skills in other areas. For example, math training affect musical ability?

Gardner - MI

Gardner (1993) defines intelligence as the ability to solve problems or to create products that are valued within one or more cultural settings.

Within this definition of intelligence, a variety of skills valued in different cultures and a history setting become objects of study.

Gardner – MI – currently 8 intelligences identified Linguistic intelligence

("word smart“) Logical-mathematical

intelligence ("number/reasoning smart")

Spatial intelligence ("picture smart")

Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence ("body smart")

Musical Intelligence (“music smart”)

Interpersonal intelligence ("people smart")

Intrapersonal intelligence ("self smart“)

Naturalistic Intelligence (“nature smart”)

Peter Salovey – Yale University

Yale University Developed the idea

of EQ or emotional intelligence.

Goleman expanded upon this theory.

Emotional Intelligence

Most intelligences can be grouped into 1 or 3 clusters … abstract, concrete, or social intelligence.

Social intelligence (Thorndike): ability to understand and relate to people.

Emotional intelligence has its roots in social intelligence.

Emotional Intelligence includes:

Being aware of one’s own emotions. Being able to manage one’s own

emotions. Being sensitive to the emotions of others. Being able to respond to & negotiate with

other people emotionally. Being able to use one’s own emotions to

motivate oneself.

Emotional Intelligence

Emotionally intelligent individuals are said to be particularly adept at regulating emotions.

Utilized in problem solving. Propose that they have the ability to organize their emotions to solve problems.

Goleman includes: conscientiousness, self-confidence, optimism, communication, leadership and initiative.

Infant intelligence & memory

The history of studying infant intelligence has seriously underestimated their abilities.

Why? High sedatives during childbirth, used

adult based IQ tests, separated from mother.

How infants learn?

Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior resulting from experience.

We are all born with the ability to learn; but learning does not take place without experience.

Only with experience can a baby use his intellect to distinguish between sensory experiences (like sounds) and to build on their inborn repetoire of behaviors (like sucking).

Types of learning

Habituation: repeated exposure to something reduces the response, e.g. nursing baby.

Habituation gives us information about development. Children with lowered apgar scores, brain damage, distress at birth, etc.

Types of learning

Classical conditioning Operant conditioning

• Positive reinforcement

• Negative reinforcement

• punishment

Self-righting tendency

Given a favorable environment, infants generally follow normal developmental patterns unless they have suffered severe damage.

Between 18-24 months, this self-righting tendency seems to decrease as children begin to acquire skills (like verbal abilities).

Infant’s Memory

Infant researcher: Carolyn Rouie-Collier: found that if a mobile was hung over an infant’s crib and attached a ribbon to one of the baby’s limbs.

6 week old infants quickly discovered which arm or leg would move the mobile.

Two weeks later, the infants were placed in the same situations. They remembered which arm/leg to move, even though they were not attached to the mobile.

Is infant’s memory conscious?

One study: 9 month old girls looked for ribbons originally kept in a drawer. When did not find ribbons, she searched new drawer until she found them.

Another study

7 month old infant will search for an object shown to him/her.

Younger infant will not. First 6 months…memory of infants not similar

to what adults think of as memory. It is not conscious memory for specific past

episodes, but learning of adaptive skills.

Why does conscious memory develop later than other learning?

Possibly conscious memory must await the maturation of certain brain structures, such as the hippocampus.

Conscious memory depends on the development of cognitive structures, like Piaget’s theory suggests.

Recall minimum before age 3 – infantile amnesia.