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Intelligence and Intelligence Testing

Intelligence and Intelligence Testing. Definitions of intelligence: Terman: the ability to carry on abstract thinking. Wechsler: The capacity of an individual to act purposefully and think rationally and to deal effectively with the environment. Definitions continued.

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Intelligence and Intelligence Testing

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  1. Intelligence and Intelligence Testing Definitions of intelligence: Terman: the ability to carry on abstract thinking. Wechsler: The capacity of an individual to act purposefully and think rationally and to deal effectively with the environment.

  2. Definitions continued • Burt: innate general cognitive ability • Robinson & Robinson: All of the knowledge a person has acquired. • Piaget: a basic life function that helps the organism (person) to adapt to its environment.

  3. Major Questions • Is intelligence a general characteristic? • Intelligence conceptualized as products that arise from activity or the processes people use to solve problems? • How stable is intelligence? • What do IQ scores predict? • What factors influence IQ scores?

  4. Origins of Intelligence Testing • Alfred Binet (psychologist) and Theodore Simon (physician) in France, 1904 • Requested to identify children who needed special instruction • Devised a test that examined a variety of cognitive tasks (e.g., carry out multiple instructions, identify the missing part of a picture, remember a string of random digits, etc.)

  5. Post Binet & Simon • Lewis Terman (at Stanford) modified the Binet-Simon scales to create the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale • David Wechsler developed tests both for adults and for children (e.g., WISC…) • Raven’s Progressive Matrices were designed to assess reasoning about perceptual patterns…

  6. Calculating IQ • William Stern (Germany) developed concept of IQ, in which IQ=(MA/CA)*100 • Now use “deviation IQ” based on the normal distribution… • Tests evaluate verbal and nonverbal abilities.

  7. Achievement Tests • IQ Test: underlying competence • Achievement Test: performance • Is this distinction realistic?

  8. Is IQ a stable attribute? • Infant IQ predicting later IQ? • Preschool IQ predicting later IQ? • Validity of IQ test? • IQ and grades in school • IQ and amount of schooling

  9. Limitations of IQ tests • Cannot tell us about a fixed underlying intellectual capacity • Do not measure other skills important to adaptive living.

  10. Terman study (1922) • Stereotypes of the “gifted child”? • 1500 California school children with IQ’s 140 or higher.

  11. How do we explain IQ differences? • Twin studies and adoption studies. • Bouchard & McGue (1981). • Identical twins reared together .85 • Identical twins reared apart .67 • Fraternal twins reared together .58 • Siblings .24 • What does this data suggest?

  12. Adoption Studies • Texas Adoptiin Study (Loehlin et al.,1994) • Minnesota Transracial Adoption study (Scarr et al., 1993) Texas Minnesota biological mother .44 .29 adoptive mother .03 .14 adoptive father .06 .08

  13. Capron & Duyme, 1989 Adoptive parent High Low Biological High 119.60 107.50 Parent Low 103.60 92.40

  14. Environmental Influences • National US study: n=50,000 children; SB IQ scores • Family characteristics associated with IQ? • Family climate • Number of children in the family • Birth order • Zajonc: intellectual climate

  15. Interaction of heredity and environment • Reaction range • Normal range of environments

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