Intelligence

1. Intelligence Psychology 1107

2. Intelligence • Do we all have some in born intellectual capacity, or does our environment shape our intelligence? • Huge issue • Perhaps a waste of time

3. A Little History • Galton • Darwin’s cousin • Started eugenics • ‘Hereditary genius’ • Found that genius ran in families • Never occurred to him that rich families had rich environments!

4. More Galton • Tested and measured various qualities • Set up booths, got people to pay to be measured! • Found little • But, RT does correlate with IQ

5. Binet • Wanted to spot kids that needed special attention in school • Well, you have to measure intelligence then • Along with Simon, he assumed we all follow the same path, but some kids were slower than others

6. Binet and Simon • Not that simon…. • Anyway, they measured mental age • Mental aptitude should show up in many ways • Found questions that predicted achievement

7. Terman • Stanford-Binet • IQ = (Mental age / chronological age) • Doesn’t work for adults • Believed IQ was inherited • Racist? • Terman’s Termites

8. What actually is intelligence? • To study something we must know how to measure it • ‘I know what it means’ is not good enough • ‘Goal directed adaptive behaviour?’ • General agreement, but….. • Culture • Many abilities or one • Can you measure it neurologically?

9. Culture • Is intelligence the same here as anywhere? • Some say no and believe a culture free intelligence test is impossible • Others believe that general problem solving ability is culture free • Abstract, novel questions • Digit spam, stuff like that

10. General or specific abilities • Me words together put bad paper on and spel not good • However, I am good at other stuff • Maybe find out how different abilities are related to each other • Best way to do this is by collecting a ton of data and analyzing it using fancy statistical techniques

11. Factor analysis • Statistical technique • Find out what goes with what • Spearman thought there was also a general factor that underlies specific abilities • g • There may be something to this

12. Abilities g and everything • So there is something to g • Hmmm • What about say brain injuries • Or savants? • Well, intelligence is mental ability • What does being able to count the number of toothpicks from a box have to do with it? • Indeed, the mental and physical seem to go together • Forrest Gump was just a story

13. More abilities, more factors, more names • Sternberg et al talk about 3 types of intelligence • Academic • School, IQ tests etc • Practical • Everyday, ill defined tasks • Creative • Novel situations

14. Emotional or social intelligence • You know, like getting along with others • Understanding • Regulating emotions • No mild mood swings, that sort of thing • Hmm, umm, well, errr • Jury is still out

15. Neurological measurement of brain size • Brain size? • Crazy as it sounds, there may be something to this • Brain is altered due to experience • Pretty crude measure though

16. Brain function • May be more telling • PET scans show that good scores on cognitive tasks relate to LESS glucose uptake • Higher IQ, faster perceptual processing • Related to brain function • Why should this have anything at all to do with complex tasks? • Get more stuff in? • We are still pretty far awy (?) best bet is still paper and pencil tests

17. Assessing Intelligence • Have to operationally define intelligence • So, • Intelligence is your score on an IQ test • Aptitude tests predict ability to learn new skill • Achievement tests reflect stuff already learned • Most good IQ tests do both

18. Modern IQ tests • Wechsler adult Intelligence Scale is pretty common • WAIS • WISC too • 2 scores, verbal and performance, should be close • Modern tests are standardized • If you answer the same number of questions correct as the average person, you are given a score of 100

19. A little bit of statistics

20. Just a bit of scary math type stuff • So, IQ is normally distributed with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15 • They (the tests) are constructed that way • Test must be reliable and valid • Reliability -> stable measurement • Test retest • Split half • Validity -> measure what it is supposed to • Predictive • Face • Criterion related

21. More testing stuff • Aptitude tests lose some predictive ability as time goes by • Truncated sample • Reliability and validity are measure using a correlation coefficient • -1.00 <= r <= +1.00 • Sign indicates direction • Size indicated by absolute value

22. The extremes of intelligence • The ‘challenged’ • IQ < 70 and cannot live independently • Most of these folks can, with some training, hold down jobs etc • Down’s syndrome is a big cause • Extra chromosome • Various levels of retardation • Not violent • Not communicable!

23. The extremes • The ‘gifted’ • Terman’s Termites again • IQ > 150 • Better at everything • Still, really extreme may MAY have problems • Should the gifted be tracked?

24. Creativity • What is it? • Dunno • How do you measure it • Ummm not sure • Does it correlate with IQ? • Maybe….

25. Genetics and environment • Just because something is genetic does not make it unchangeable • If something is genetic it is niether right nor wrong • Genetics do play a role in IQ • Identical twins have the same IQ, indeed, they look like the same person has taken the test!

26. Genetics • Even twins raised apart have the same IQ • Adopted kids’ IQs do not correlate with their parents’! • Heritability of IQ is about .50 • Environmental effects are there too • However, you cannot teach someone something that is beyond them

27. Group differences • No doubt they exist • Remember, GROUPS not individuals • Remember, individual variation greater than group • Looks aren’t everything • Sex differences too • spatial/math • Verbal ability • Emotion detection • bias