THE ASSESSMENT OF INTELLIGENCE

1. THE ASSESSMENT OF INTELLIGENCE CHAPTER 7 By: Mayaly Alvarez

2. INTELLIGENCE TESTING: Yesterday and Today Two important historical developments in the latter half of the 19th century greatly influenced the ultimate introduction of measures of intelligence. • Compulsory education in the United States and other countries resulted in a very diverse student body. • Psychological scientists believed, and ultimately demonstrated that mental abilities could be measured.

3. INTELLIGENCE TESTINGContinued…….. Alfred Binet and his collaborator, Theodore Simon, became leaders in the intelligence testing movement when they devised the Binet-Simon test to identify individual differences in mental health functioning. Institutions such as schools, industries, military forces, and governments were, by their nature, interested in individual differences (e.g., levels of intelligence that may affect performance in those setting.

4. DEFINITIONS OF INTELLIGENCE There is no universally accepted definition of intelligence. However, we can say that intelligence is defined in terms of the ability to achieve success in life in terms of one’s personal standards within ones socio-cultural context. Several definitions contain distinct overtones of both social values and motivational elements. However, many definitions of intelligence are so broad or general as to be nearly useless.

5. THE CONCEPT OF INTELLIGENCE With regard to psychological test, reliability refers to the consistency with which individuals respond to test stimuli. There are several ways of evaluating reliability: • Test-retest reliability • Equivalent-forms reliability • Split-half reliability • Internal consistency reliability • Interpreter or inter-judge reliability

6. THE CONCEPT OF INTELLIGENCEContinued……. Without reliability, consistency, or stability of measurement, a test cannot be valid. In general, validity refers to the extent to which an assessment technique measures what it is supposed to measure. There are several ways of evaluating validity: • Content validity • Predictive validity • Concurrent validity • Construct validity

7. DEFINITION OF INTELLIGENCE Intelligence should be distinguished among Ability - Aptitude - Achievement • Ability is to have power to perform something • Aptitude is the potential to perform after training • Achievement measures performance

8. DEFINITION OF INTELLIGENCEContinued…….. There is no universally accepted definition of intelligence; however it could fall into three classes: • Definitions that emphasize adjustment or adaptation to environment • Definitions that focus on the ability to learn • Definitions that emphasize abstract thinking Intelligence is defined in terms of the ability to achieve success in life in terms of one’s personal standards, with one’s socio-cultural context. (Sternber, 2003, p. 141)

9. THEORIES OF INTELLIGENCE There have been may theoretical approaches to the understanding of intelligence. These include: Psychometric theories Developmental theories Neuropsychological theories Information processing theories (Kamphaus, 1993; Neisser et al., 1996)

10. FACTOR ANALYTIC APPROACH Spearman (1927), the father of factor analysis, posited the existence of a g factor. g factor= General Intelligence R.B. Cattell (1987), described two important second-order factors that seem to represent partitioning of Spearmen’s g into two components • Fluid Ability • Crystallized Ability

11. FACTOR ANALYSIS APPROACHContinued…….. The capacities tapped by the usual standardized intelligence test that can be attributed to culture-based learning. Gardner (1983, 1999), has described the Theory of multiple intelligence. Human intellectual competence involves a set of problem-solving skills that enable the person to resolves a set of problem-solving skills that enable the person to resolve problems or difficulties.

12. THE IQ: ITS MEANING AND ITS CORRELATES The whole notion of a single IQ score that can represent the individual’s intelligence strongly implies that we are trying to discover how much g the person has. Stern (1938), developed the concept of Intelligence Quotient (IQ) to circumvent several problems that had arisen in using the difference between the Chronological Age (CA) and the Mental Age (MA) to express deviance.

13. DEVIATION IQ It may appear that IQ has decreased over time when in fact one’s intellectual ability has been maintained. Wechsler introduced the concept of deviation IQ. The assumption is made that intelligence is normally distributed throughout the population. A Deviation IQ involves a comparison of an individual’s performance on an IQ test with that of his or her age peers.

14. CORRELATE IQ Whether we define intelligence in terms of g, separate abilities, or hierarchical relationships among factors, society ultimately decides which abilities will be valued, rewarded, and nurtured. Our society tends to reward verbal ability, reasoning, reading information acquisition, and analytic ability and so on.

15. SCHOOL SUCCESS When success or failure in school occurs, is it because of intelligence, motivation, cultural background or what? Any behavior is completely determined by many variables other than just general or specific intelligence. However, the relationship between IQ scores and achievement is so high that many have suggested that intelligence test might be best interpreted as a type of achievement test (Anastasi, 1988; Kaufman, 1990).

16. HERITABILITY OF INTELLIGENCE Behavioral Genetics provide empirical evidence and studies over the past several decades (McGue, Bouchard, Iacono, & Lykken, 1993). Similarity in intelligence appears to be a function of the amount of genetic material share (monozygotic twins are more similar in intelligence that dizygotic twins or siblings). It is notable that this pattern also holds true for biological relatives reared apart. McGue et. al. (1993).