Intelligence and Language

1. Intelligence and Language

2. Intelligence and Language • Defining and Measuring Intelligence • The Social, Cultural, and Political Aspects of Intelligence • Communicating With Others: The Development and Use of Language

3. Intelligence and Language • The ability to think, learn from experience, solve problems, and adapt to new situations • A system of communication that uses symbols in a regular way to create meaning Intelligence Language

4. Intelligence and Language • Key issues in the study of intelligence: • whether intelligence involves a single ability or multiple abilities • how intelligence is measured • what intelligence predicts • social and cultural influences on intelligence • the roles of nature and nurture in intelligence

5. Intelligence and Language

6. Defining and Measuring Intelligence

7. Defining and Measuring Intelligence • Learning Objectives • Define intelligence and list the different types of intelligences psychologists study. • Summarize the characteristics of a scientifically valid intelligence test. • Outline the biological and environmental determinants of intelligence.

8. General (g) Versus Specific (s) Intelligences • Binet and Simon developed the first intelligence test to help teachers educate better and slower learners. • The test contained a wide variety of questions including the ability to name objects, define words, draw pictures, complete sentences, and so on. • Despite the variety of items, performance on each type of item correlated positively with performance on the other types. • Terman developed the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test, an American version of Binet and Simon’s test.

9. General (g) Versus Specific (s) Intelligences • The construct that the different abilities measured on an intelligence test all have in common • Proposed by Charles Spearman • Relates to abstract thinking • A measure of specific skills in narrow domains General Intelligence (g) Specific Intelligence (s)

10. General (g) Versus Specific (s) Intelligences Fluid Intelligence Crystallized Intelligence • The capacity to learn new ways of solving problems and performing activities • Tends to decrease with age • The accumulated knowledge of the world we acquire through our lives • May increase with age

11. General (g) Versus Specific (s) IntelligencesThurstone’s Seven Primary Mental Abilities

12. General (g) Versus Specific (s) Intelligences

13. General (g) Versus Specific (s) Intelligences • Supporting Sternberg’s theory, creativity is not highly correlated with analytical intelligence. • The brain areas associated with convergent thinking – finding the right answer – are different than those related to divergent thinking – coming up with new ideas. • But creativity does rest on some of the basic abilities measured by g, such as thinking abstractly and adapting to new situations.

14. General (g) Versus Specific (s) Intelligences

15. General (g) Versus Specific (s) IntelligencesGardner’s Eight Specific Intelligences

16. General (g) Versus Specific (s) Intelligences

17. Measuring Intelligence: Standardization and the Intelligence Quotient

18. Measuring Intelligence: Standardization and the Intelligence Quotient • Intelligence tests should be standardized regularly, because the level of intelligence in a population may change over time. • Flynn effect • Scores on intelligence tests worldwide have increased substantially over the past few decades.

19. Measuring Intelligence: Standardization and the Intelligence Quotient • IQ = (mental age/chronological age) X 100 • mental age – the age at which an individual is performing intellectually • IQ scores on modern intelligence tests are based on the relative position of a person’s score among scores of other people of the same age.

20. Measuring Intelligence: Standardization and the Intelligence Quotient

21. The Biology of Intelligence

22. Is Intelligence Nature or Nurture?

23. Emotional Intelligence • The ability to accurately identify, assess, and understand emotions, as well as to control one’s emotions • Measures of emotional intelligence may not have adequate reliability or construct validity. • The ability to control and productively use one’s emotions • Positively related to social and cognitive intelligence, SAT scores, the ability to cope with stress and frustration Emotional Intelligence Emotion Regulation

24. Defining and Measuring Intelligence • Key Takeaways • Brain volume, speed of neural transmission, and working memory capacity are related to IQ. • Between 40% and 80% of the variability in IQ is due to genetics, meaning that overall genetics plays a bigger role than does environment in creating IQ differences among individuals. • Intelligence is improved by education and may be hindered by environmental factors such as poverty. • Emotional intelligence refers to the ability to identify, assess, manage, and control one’s emotions. People who are better able to regulate their behaviors and emotions are also more successful in their personal and social encounters.

25. Defining and Measuring Intelligence • Key Takeaways, continued • Intelligence is the ability to think, learn from experience, solve problems, and adapt to new situations. Intelligence is important because it has an impact on many human behaviors. • Psychologists believe that there is a construct that accounts for the overall differences in intelligence among people, known as general intelligence (g). • There is also evidence for specific intelligences (s), measures of specific skills in narrow domains, including creativity and practical intelligence. • The intelligence quotient (IQ) is a measure of intelligence that is adjusted for age. The Wechsler Adult lntelligence Scale (WAIS) is the most widely used IQ test for adults.

26. THE SOCIAL, CULTURAL, AND POLITICAL ASPECTS OF INTELLIGENCE

27. THE SOCIAL, CULTURAL, AND POLITICAL ASPECTS OF INTELLIGENCE • Learning Objectives: • Explain how very high and very low intelligence is defined and what it means to have them. • Consider and comment on the meaning of biological and environmental explanations for gender and racial differences in IQ. • Define stereotype threat and explain how it might influence scores on intelligence tests.

28. Extremes of Intelligence: Retardedness and Giftedness • IQ is distributed in the population in the form of a normal distribution (or bell curve). • Most scores fall toward the middle, with many fewer scores falling at the extremes.

29. Extremes of Intelligence: Retardedness and Giftedness • The distribution of IQ scores for men is more spread out than is the distribution for women. • About 20% more men than women fall in the extreme (very smart or very dull) ends of the distribution. • Boys are five times more likely to be diagnosed with dyslexia than are girls. • Boys are also more likely to be classified as mentally retarded. • But boys are also about 20% more highly represented in the upper end of the IQ distribution.

30. Extremely Low Intelligence • Mental retardation • IQ below 70 • deficits since childhood • trouble with basic life skills • about 1% of the U. S. population

31. Extremely Low Intelligence

32. Extremely Low Intelligence • Down syndrome • mental retardation caused by the presence of all or part of an extra 21st chromosome • occurs in 1 per 800-1000 births • more common in those born to older mothers • accompanied by a distinct pattern of physical features • flat nose, upwardly slanted eyes, protruding tongue, short neck

33. Extremely High Intelligence • Giftedness • IQ above 130 • Lewis Terman studied 1500 gifted high school students for more than seven decades. • These students were not unhealthy or poorly adjusted. They had above average physical health and social relationships. • Many went on to achieve levels of education and to enter prestigious professions, such as law, medicine, and science.

34. Sex Differences in Intelligence • However, the average difference between men and women is small compared to the average differences within each sex. • Sex differences in intelligence reflect both nature (brain lateralization, hormones) and nurture (social expectations and discrimination).

35. Racial Differences in Intelligence • There are differences between racial and ethnic groups in the mean IQ. • The mean IQ of Jews and East Asians is somewhat higher than that of Whites in general. • Blacks and Hispanic have averages somewhat lower than those of Whites. • The mean IQ distribution for African Americans is about 85. That for Hispanics is about 93. • Biases in intelligence tests themselves do not seem to be large enough to wholly explain these differences.

36. Racial Differences in Intelligence • Eugenics • the proposal that one can improve the human species by permitting the reproduction of only those people with genetic characteristics judged desirable • popular in the U. S. early in the 20th century • supported by prominent psychologists and included in high-school and college curricula • led to policies restricting immigration and requiring sterilization, especially of poor ethnic and racial minorities

37. Stereotype Threat • Stereotype threat • performance decrements caused by the knowledge of cultural stereotypes • Test situations may activate negative stereotypes among targeted groups, draining cognitive capacity and creating anxiety. In turn, performance is impaired.

38. The Social, Cultural, and Political Aspects of Intelligence • Key Takeaways • IQ is distributed in the population in the form of a normal distribution (a bell curve). • Mental retardation is a generalized disorder entailing an IQ below 70, deficits since childhood, and trouble with basic life skills, such as dressing and feeding oneself and communicating with others. One cause of mental retardation is Down syndrome. • Extremely intelligent individuals are not unhealthy or poorly adjusted, but are above average in physical health. • Men and women have almost identical intelligence, but men have more variability in their IQ scores than do women

39. The Social, Cultural, and Political Aspects of Intelligence • Key Takeaways, continued • On average, men do better than women on tasks requiring spatial ability, whereas women do better on verbal tasks and score higher on emotional intelligence. • Although their bell curves overlap considerably, there are also average group differences for members of different racial and ethnic groups. • These differences have at times led to malicious attempts to correct for them, such as the eugenics movement in the early part of the 20th century. • The situation in which one takes a test may create stereotype threat—performance decrements that are caused by the knowledge of cultural stereotypes.

40. COMMUNICATING WITH OTHERSThe Development and Use of Language

41. Communicating With Others • Learning Objectives: • Review the components and structure of language. • Explain the biological underpinnings of language. • Outline the theories of language development.

42. The Components of Language

43. The Biology and Development of Language • Children who are not exposed to language early in life will likely never learn one. • Case studies of abandoned or severely deprived show that some socialization is possible after puberty, but the development of language is not. • Deaf children who are not exposed to sign language in their early years probably will not learn it.

44. The Critical Period Hypothesis • Critical period • A time in which learning can occur easily • For language learning, the critical period lasts between infancy and puberty. After puberty, learning language is difficult, if not impossible. • More recent research indicates that language learning can occur during adulthood, but less easily than during childhood.

45. The Biology of Language • For most people the left hemisphere is specialized for language. • Broca’s area, near the motor cortex, is involved in language production. • Wernicke’s area, near the auditory cortex, is specialized for language comprehen-sion.

46. Learning Language Phonological Development

47. Learning Language Morphological Development

48. Learning Language • Syntactic development • Early sentences may include only the noun. • Sentences later increase to two words. • These early sentences begin to follow the syntax of the child’s native language.

49. How Children Learn Language: Theories of Language Acquisition • “nurture” approach • Language development occurs through principles of learning, such as association, reinforcement, and observation. • Associated with Skinner • Children do seem to modify their language based on imitation, reinforcement and shaping. • But children learn language too fast for it to occur solely through reinforcement. • Deaf children whose parents don’t use ASL learn to sign on their own, and make up sign languages if they need to.

50. How Children Learn Language: Theories of Language Acquisition • “nature” approach • Associated with Chomsky • Human brains include a language acquisition device, which includes a universal grammar underlying all human language. • deep structure – how an idea is represented in the fundamental universal grammar • surface structure – how an idea is expressed in a particular language • Psychologists agree that babies are genetically programmed to learn language. • But the evidence for a universal grammar is limited.