Testing and Individual Differences

1. Testing and Individual Differences Intelligence AP Psychology

2. What is Intelligence? Some Key Terms • Intelligence is our ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations • Intelligence test – a method for assessing a person’s mental abilities through the comparison of others. • Psychometric approach is a method of studying intelligence that emphasizes the score of an IQ test.

3. Early Theories of Intelligence Spearman, Thurstone, Cattell

4. Charles Spearman—2 Factor Theory • Charles Spearman postulated two types of intelligence that account for test scores: • general intelligence or g • special intelligences, or s, which are the specific skills and knowledge needed to answer the questions on a particular test.

5. Charles Spearman: G Factor • Developed the g factor, which stood for general intelligence, • He believed that this single g factor was responsible for each type of mental ability.

6. Charles Spearman • Spearman did not believe in separate intelligences like musical or analytical, but just one overall general intelligence. • If you received a score of 120 on an IQ test then this would be your indicative of your g factor. • Since your g factor is high, then no matter what profession or career you chose you would be successful.

7. Discounting Spearman’s Theory • Most people know a person who may be intelligent in math, but struggle with verbal abilities. • In other words, even people that are intelligent in one area may struggle in another area, which proved Spearman’s theory wrong

8. Discounting Spearman’s Theory • People who are diagnosed with Savant Syndrome, which are individuals who are mentally challenged, but have one unique ability like good memory, also disproved Spearman’s theory • according to Spearman since their g factor (intelligence test score) was low they should struggle with everything they mentally perform).

9. L.L. Thurstone: Factor Analysis • L.L. Thurstone used a factor analysis, • A statistical procedure that identifies relationships or clusters of mental abilities he called factors. • Through this process he found 7 primary independent mental abilities that are interrelated

10. L.L. Thurstone: Factor Analysis • Spatial ability • perceptual speed • numerical ability • verbal meaning • Memory • word fluency • and reasoning • Thurstone believed that the average taken from these 7 types of mental abilities would equal a number similar to Spearman’s g factor G

11. R.B. Cattell—Fluid and Crystallized • Identified two clusters of mental abilities • Crystallized intelligenceincludes abilities such as reasoning and verbal skills • Fluid intelligenceincludes skills such as spatial and visual imagery, rote memory, and the ability to notice visual details • While education can increase crystallized intelligence, it was not thought to have any effect on fluid intelligence

12. Contemporary Intelligence Theories Gardner, Sternberg

13. Howard Gardner: Multiple Intelligences • He believed that a person’s intelligence included separate abilities. A person may excel in math, but struggle in verbal/ reading • Brain damage may diminish one type of ability but not others.

14. Howard Gardner: Multiple Intelligences • Gardner proposes eight types of intelligences and speculates about a ninth one • Existential intelligence: The ability to think about the question of life, death and existence.

16. Robert Sternberg—Triarchic Theory of Intelligence • Robert Sternberg developed the Triarchic theory of intelligence- identifying 3 types of intelligence • To remember that Sternberg identified 3 types of intelligence; creative, analytical, and practical- think of Sternberg wearing a thinking CAP- creative, analytical, practical

17. Triarchic Theory of Intelligence • Creative intelligence- using previous information in new situations • Ex: Application of material- what job employers are looking for employees to do when they get hired

18. Triarchic Theory of Intelligence • Analytic intelligence- analyzing, comparing, evaluating • Ex: School work, ACT and SAT score

19. Triarchic Theory of Intelligence • Practical intelligence- applying, adapting to the environment • Ex: Street smarts/ common sense

20. The Triarchic Model Robert Sternberg must have a fetish for triangles because he is also famous for his triangular theory of love (in social psychology chapter).

21. John Mayer: Emotional Intelligence (Not the singer…although that’s a great way to remember him!) • Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to the ability to perceive, control and evaluate emotions. • Some researchers suggest that emotional intelligence can be learned and strengthened, while others claim it is an inborn characteristic. • Salovey and Mayer proposed a model that identified four different factors of emotional intelligence

22. The Four Branches of Emotional Intelligence • Perceiving Emotions: The first step in understanding emotions is to accurately perceive them. • In many cases, this might involve understanding nonverbal signals such as body language and facial expressions.

23. The Four Branches of Emotional Intelligence • Reasoning With Emotions: The next step involves using emotions to promote thinking and cognitive activity. • Emotions help prioritize what we pay attention and react to; we respond emotionally to things that garner our attention.

24. The Four Branches of Emotional Intelligence • Understanding Emotions: The emotions that we perceive can carry a wide variety of meanings. • If someone is expressing angry emotions, the observer must interpret the cause of their anger and what it might mean. • For example, if your boss is acting angry, it might mean that he is dissatisfied with your work; or it could be because he got a speeding ticket on his way to work that morning or that he's been fighting with his wife.

25. The Four Branches of Emotional Intelligence • Managing Emotions: The ability to manage emotions effectively is a key part of emotional intelligence. • Regulating emotions, responding appropriately and responding to the emotions of others are all important aspect of emotional management.

26. Theories: Comparison

27. Diversity in Cognitive Abilities

28. Creativity • Creativityis often assessed by tests of divergent thinking, which measure the ability to generate many different but plausible responses to a problem. • The correlation between IQ scores and creativity is not very high. IQ tests measure convergent thinking, whereas creativity is characterized by divergent thinking.

29. Unusual Cognitive Abilities: Mental Retardation • This label is applied to people whose IQs are 70 or below and who fail at daily living skills. • Mental retardation sometimes has very specific causes, such as Down syndrome. • retardation and associated physical disorders caused by an extra chromosome in one’s genetic makeup

32. Unusual Cognitive Abilities: Mental Retardation • Children with mild retardation differ from other children in three ways: • they perform certain mental operations more slowly, • they know fewer facts about the world, • and they are not very good at using particular mental strategies in learning and problem solving. • In general, children with mental retardation are deficient in metacognition.

33. Unusual Cognitive Abilities: Giftedness • Those with extremely high IQs • do not necessarily become creative geniuses. • They do, however, usually become very successful in this society or culture.

34. Unusual Cognitive Abilities: Learning Disabilities • People with learning disabilities have academic performance that doesn’t measure up to their measured intelligence. • People with dyslexia see letters as distorted or jumbled. • Dysphasiais difficulty in understanding spoken words. • In dysgraphia a person has trouble writing, • In dyscalculia a person has trouble with arithmetic.

35. Tracking • From early age students are often tracked into “gifted”programs and “remedial”programs… what’s a potential problem with this? • Self-Fulfilling Prophecy