Intelligence

1. Intelligence What Makes Us Intelligent Or Not So Intelligent

4. “Battle of the Brains”

5. MENSA • An organization of intellectually superior individuals • www.mensa.org • Mensa is a Latin word meaning “table” and symbolizes the coming together of equals. Its original agenda was to discuss and arrive at ways of preserving world peace. • To qualify for membership in Mensa, you must score in the top 2 percent of any standard intelligence test, which means a minimum score of 132 on the Stanford-Binet and 130 on the most current Wechsler scales, the two major tests of intelligence described in the text. • Each year, about thirty thousand people apply for membership; only 1 out of every 25 applicants is admitted.

6. How Smart Are You? • Respondents score one point for each correct answer. Add 5 points if you finished in less than 20 minutes, and 3 points if you finished in less than 30 minutes.

7. How Smart Are You? • Respondents score one point for each correct answer. Add 5 points if you finished in less than 20 minutes, and 3 points if you finished in less than 30 minutes. • 1) Friday • 2) a. PY The alternate letters starting with S spell “silver anniversar,” and this sequence completes the phrase “silver anniversary.” • 3) 25 • 4) ANNIVERSARY

8. How Smart Are You? • 5) MENSA • 6) b • 7) b • 8) b • 9) TOM • 10) HOUSE • 11) JANE • 12) 9 p.m. • 13) b. Both grow in the ground

9. How Smart Are You? • 14) a. Alternate numbers go up by 2 and down by 1, starting with 1, and 10. • 15) e is the only one that is not an artistic work made by man. • 16) PARACHUTE • 17) 5 • 18) C • 19) LAND

10. How Smart Are You? • 20) C. The number of lines goes down opposite the stick, up on the side with the stick, and the stick alternates from lower left to top right. • 25 You’re an excellent Mensa candidate • 24-20 You can almost surely pass the Mensa supervised test. • 19-14 A very good candidate for Mensa • 13-10 A fair candidate • Below 10 Everyone has an off day! 

11. Socratic Seminar: Self-Discipline May Beat Smarts As Key to Success • Our Seminar will take place next Monday, February 24th. To prepare for the seminar, you are required to complete a 50/50 write-up about the Washington Post article AND develop 2-3 interpretive discussion questions. • First read and annotate the article; then complete your write-up. • Staple your write-up to the Socratic seminar observation form.

12. Intelligence • What is intelligence? • Intelligence is NOT achievement • We usually measure intelligence with TESTS! • There are two basic types of tests: • Achievement tests • Aptitude tests

13. Achievement and Aptitude Tests • Aptitude tests measure what an individual is able to do later – it measures ability. • A test designed to predict a person’s future performance. • Achievement tests measure knowledge and skills gained from experience and practice. • A test designed to assess what a person has learned. *Although intelligence is not achievement, it can provide the basis to make achievement easier. *Aptitude tests are more accurate measurements of intelligence.

14. Intelligence • The ability to learn from experience, solve problems, think rationally, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations (deal effectively with the environment). • Is socially constructed thus… Can be culturally specific. According to this definition, are both Einstein and Babe Ruth intelligent?

15. Intelligence: Its Nature and Measurement; A Brief History Individual differences • Even though psychological theories make generalizations about behavior and mental processes, each human being is different (yet we are similar). • Nineteenth century industrialization in the Western world, in part, lead to the need for society to describe people’s individual differences (because jobs were becoming specialized). • Also contributing to an increasing interest in measurement and understanding of individual differences (including intelligence) was the fact that compulsory elementary education was becoming the norm in industrialized nations.

16. Brief History of Intelligence (continued) • The focus on individual differences also grew from a new and revolutionary theory: evolution. • Because of this new theory and industrialization, Western societies needed a way to measure individual abilities to place them in educational and occupational niches. • From this need to measure individual differences and intelligence, grew a variety of mental (intelligence) tests. • Remember: Intelligence is measured by aptitude tests.

17. Is intelligence one thing or several different abilities? • To find out scientists use FACTOR ANALYSIS: A statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items on a test. • Charles Spearman used FA to discovery his g or (general intelligence). Spearman’s Two-Factor Theory: He saw using FA that doing well in one area of a test of mental ability predicted that you will do well in another.

18. Thurstone’s Theory of Primary Mental Abilities • Unlike Spearman, Thurstone did not believe in one “g” factor of intelligence. • Instead, he concluded that intelligence was a set of seven primary mental abilities (each measurable). • Verbal Comprehension • Numerical Ability • Memory • Inductive Reasoning • Perceptual Speed • Verbal Fluency • Spatial Relations

19. Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences • Howard Gardner disagreed with Spearman’s g (general intelligence) and instead came up with the concept of multiple intelligences. • He came up with the idea by studying savants (a condition where a person has limited mental ability but is exceptional in one area).

20. Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences • Visual/Spatial – images / space • Verbal/Linguistic – words / language • Logical/Mathematical – logic / numbers • Bodily/Kinesthetic – body movement / control • Musical/Rhythmic– music / sound / rhythm • Interpersonal – other people’s feelings • Intrapersonal – self-awareness • Natural – natural environment *Preferred learning style clues

21. Linguistic

22. Logical-Mathematical

23. Musical

24. Bodily-Kinesthetic

25. Spatial-Visual

26. Interpersonal

27. Intrapersonal

28. Robert Sternberg emphasized how three different aspects of intelligence meet to help us face the demands of daily life. Gardner Simplified Analytical intelligence is the traditional intelligence measured by aptitude tests Creative intelligence is the ability to invent or problem solve creatively. Practical intelligence is the ability to apply what you know to common everyday things (sense of street smarts). Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory (Three Aspects of Intelligence).

29. Emotional Intelligence (EQ) • First called Social intelligence. • The ability to perceive, express, understand, and regulate emotions. • Some studies show EQ to be a greater predictor for future success than IQ

30. How do we Assess Intelligence? • Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon set out to figure out a concept called a mental age (what a person of a particular age should know). • They discovered that by discovering someone’s mental age they can predict future performance. • Hoped they could use test to help children, not label them.

31. Measurement of Intelligence • By the turn of the 20th century, compulsory elementary education was the norm among many Western industrialized nations. • In France in 1904, psychologist, Alfred Binet, was given the task by the French government of developing a test to identify “special” children (for placement in schools). • Binet and his associates developed an objective diagnostic test (instrument) to measure a child’s intelligence. • Binet developed the IQ (Intelligence Quotient) test (and coined the term).

32. Binet’s IQ Test • Binet gave his test to a special standardized group of French Parisian children with different ages. • The results showed a gradual increase in mental ability with increasing age. • Each set of subtests were successfully passed by the average child of a given age. • Thus, he determined the Mental Age of a child in relationship to their Chronological Age – this is essentially IQ. IQ = MA/CA x 100

33. IQ = MA/CA x 100 • Mental Age is the level of cognitive capacity. • To determine whether a child was “bright” or “dull,” one has to compare his MA with his CA • If MA exceeds CA, then the child is considered bright/advanced. • If MA is below CA, then the child is considered slow/retarded.

34. After Binet • Alfred Binet died in 1911; Stanford University professor Lewis Terman attempted to use Binet’s IQ test in California, but found that the French developed age norms did not work well with white California schoolchildren. • Terman adapted Binet’s test – added/changed items, established new age norms, and extended the upper end of the test’s range to include adults. • Terman named his revised test: the Stanford-Binet IQ Test.

35. Terman’s IQ Legacy • Before and during World War I, the U.S. government used Terman’s test to evaluate arriving immigrants (primarily Ellis Island in New York) and army recruits. • The results, in general, showed the “inferiority” of people not sharing the Anglo-Saxon heritage (i.e., white protestant). • These “inferiority” findings led to the 1924 Immigration Law – which significantly reduced immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe as compared to Northern and Northwestern Europe.

36. Brain Size and IntelligenceIs there a link? • Small +.15 correlation between head size and intelligence scores (relative to body size). • Using an MRI we found +.44 correlation with brain size (volume) and IQ score.

37. Neurology, Culture and Intelligence Neurology and Intelligence • If the intelligence is correlated with brain size, then the contributing factors could include genes, nutrition, environmental stimulation, and/or some combination thereof. Culture and Intelligence • Intelligence is a socially constructed concept. • Cultures deem intelligent whatever attributes enable success in that specific culture.

38. Brain Function and Intelligence • 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. • Faster cognitive processing may allow more information to be acquired.

39. Modern Tests of Mental Abilities • Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) the most widely used intelligence test; consists of 11 subtests (verbal and nonverbal) which cues us in to strengths by using Factor Analysis

40. VERBAL PERFORMANCE Picture Completion Picture Arrangement Block Design Object Assembly Digit-Symbol Substitution General Information Similarities Arithmetic Reasoning Vocabulary Comprehension Digit Span From Thorndike and Hagen, 1977 Assessing Intelligence: Sample Items from the WAIS

41. Measuring Intelligence How are tests constructed to accurately measure aptitude? • How many questions you answer right on a test of IQ tell us virtually nothing about your intellectual abilities. • Test results must be compared with others’ performance on the same test. • For the comparison to be scientifically meaningful, test-makers (psychologists) first give the test to a representative sample of individuals. • This process of defining scores relative to pretested group is called Standardization.

42. 68.26% Number of score 95.44% 0.13% 0.13% 13.59% 34.13% 34.13% 13.59% 2.14% 2.14% 50 70 85 100 115 130 145 Wechsler IQ score Measuring Intelligence (continued) • Standardized test results usually form a normal distribution – a bell-shaped curve that is also called the normal curve. • All test results fall within this curve.

43. The Normal Curve

44. Flynn Effect

45. Test Reliability Measuring Intelligence (continued) • Comparing test scores with those of a standardized group still won’t tell us much about your intelligence unless the test has reliability. • Reliability is the degree to which a test produces/yields dependable, consistent scores time after time. • Researchers re-test individuals and look to find similar scores time and again – this is reliability of a test.

46. Test Validity Measuring Intelligence (continued) • High reliability does not ensure that the test is valid, (i.e., that the test actually “tests” what it claims to.)  this is called validity. • Validity is the extent to which the test actually measures what it is supposed to measure.

47. There are 3 types of validity: • Content validity = tests the pertinent behavior of interest/concept Example – A driving test that samples driving tasks • Criterion validity = how well does the test agree with some independent criteria or measure • Predictive validity = how well does a test predict future achievement

48. Does Intelligence Change Over Time? • By age 3-4, a child’s IQ can predict adolescent IQ scores and adult scores. • Depends on the type of intelligence: fluid or crystallized • Fluid = involves being able to think and reason abstractly and solve problems (peaks in adolescence; declines around age 30 or 40) • Crystallized = involves knowledge that comes from prior learning and past experience (continues to grow throughout adulthood)

49. Extremes of Intelligence *The Average IQ score is 100 *Half the population’s IQ is between 90-110 *25% fall below 90 *25% are above 110 *Mental retardation = generalized disorder with IQ scores under 70 *Any score over 140 is counted as a high IQ. A score over 160 is considered by many to be a geniusscore

50. Group Differences in Intelligence Test Scores • The Bell curve is different for Whites versus Blacks. • Math scores are different across genders and the highest scores are for Asian males. Why? Nature or Nurture