Origins of Intelligence Assessments/Inventories (“ Testing ”)

1. Origins of Intelligence Assessments/Inventories (“Testing”) • Plato: Saw & noted individual differences • Intelligence Test: *Binet (1905 +-) • method of assessing an individual’s mental aptitudes & comparing them to those of others, using numerical scores • Testing Paris school kids to ID those who were low & needed help

2. Mental Age • measure of intelligence test performance devised by Alfred Binet, Paris, late 1800’s • Why? to ID slower kids in Paris school system to help them do better • chronological age: actual age • mental age: if a child does as well as the average 8-year-old is said to have an IQ of 100 • Stanford-Binet: widely used American revision of Binet’s original intelligence test (1914-15) • revised by Terman at StanfordUniversity • Stern designed the intelligence quotient (IQ)

3. Intelligence Quotient (IQ) • Originally, ratio of mental age (ma) to chronological age (ca) multiplied by 100 • IQ = ma ÷ ca x 100 (ma/ca x 100) • on contemporary tests, the avg performance for a specific age is assigned a score of 100 • Most intellg. tests (including the Stanford-Binet) no longer compute an “IQ” score (reification: p. 422) • What IS Intelligence? • ability to learn from experience, solve problems, & use knowledge to adapt to new situations • Is determined by a social definition & varies from culture to culture, era to era

4. What is Intelligence? • Factor Analysis • statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items (called factors) on a test • ID’s different performance dimensions that underlie our total score • These factors indicate a basic ability level • Eugenics: Terman & others belief that genetics was the predominate factor in IQ --was a “scientific” sort of racism…no major basis in modern psych…Basically said some races, etc., were genetically better than others. Who used these ideas?

5. Spearman’s G Factor: • Spearman’s General Intelligence(g factor) • Spearman & others said one single factor (a general factor) underlies specific mental abilities • This factor is measured by every task on an intelligence test • g = general

6. Most commonly administered intelligence assessments: • WISC-IV: most commonly used IQ test for ages 6-16 • WAIS -III is for adults.  • WIPPSI-III is for preschoolers.  • Others also use the Stanford-Binet,5th edition, or the Kaufman ABC-II battery for children. NOTE: Roman numerals reflect the multiple revisions of the tests since their original versions.

7. Are There Multiple Intelligences? • Savant Syndrome • condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill… --often (NOT always..) related to autism • Computation • Drawing (EX below) • Social Intelligence • the know-how involved in comprehending social situations & managing oneself successfully • Emotional Intelligencep.426 • ability to perceive, express, understand, & regulate emotions

8. Intelligence & Creativity • Creativity: the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas… • Those = creative usually have at least avg. or above avg. g factor • Things that make this possible: • Expertise (have knowledge base) • imaginative thinking skills (outside the box) • venturesome personality (take chances) • intrinsic motivation • creative environment

9. Mask Stimulus When FLASHED, is Long side on left or right? Brain Function & Intelligence • People who can perceive the stimulus FLASHED very quicklytend to score somewhat higher on intelligence tests • P. 430:processing speed, perceptual speed & neurological speedare all involved in assessing the final intellig. Score. • BUT…is that valid? Is FASTER actually BETTER? • Idea is that faster can process MORE info

10. Assessing (“Testing”!!) Intelligence • Aptitude Test: designed to predict a person’s future performance • looks at abilities…what you should be able to do • aptitude is the capacity to learn • Achievement Test • test designed to assess what person has learned • Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) • most widely used intelligence test (WWI) • 2 subtests 1) verbal 2) performance (nonverbal) • WAIS-R = revised adult test; • WISC-R = revised kids’ test

11. PERFORMANCE VERBAL response Picture Completion Picture Arrangement Block Design Object Assembly Digit-Symbol Substitution General Info Similarities Arithmetic Reasoning Vocabulary Comprehension Digit Span From Thorndike and Hagen, 1977 Assessing Intelligence: Weschler added Performance Component in 1939 b/c of problems assessing those w/ some verbal disadvantagesSample Items from the WAIS

12. WAIS-R EX’s:Visual Analogies…..block design….. pic sequencing…..WAIS-R performance assessment kit

13. Assessing Intelligence • Standardization • defining meaningful scores by comparison w/ the performance of a pre-tested standardization group to create a norm…what is “normal” Normal Curve • symmetrical bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many physical & psych. Attributes • PEAK (mid-point) of curve = 50th percentile—mid-point… ½ higher than that & ½ lower than that… • most scores fall near the avg, & fewer & fewer scores lie near the extremes 

14. Divergent vs. convergent thinking:ADD! 2 kinds of thinking: Convergent: 1 right answer – like IQ on tests (damage to left parietal can hurt this kind) Divergent: More creative.. “outside the box” Damage to the FRONTAL lobe can hurt this type

15. Normal Curve: (sometimes aka the bell curve)3 magic #’s: 68 (15 pts. above or below mid-pt.) 96 (or 95) 2 (inclusive of 99.7%)So..what’s mentally challenged & “genius” ? (Psy’s HATE “genius”)

16. Kids getting smarter?! Who’d a thunk it…Flynn effect: Consistent worldwide rise in IQ scores, even though achievement scores like SAT dropped …WHY?  

17. Why Flynn Effect (James Flynn, 1987, 1999)occurs…It’s a mystery…but could be lots of things… • Test sophistication: assessments are better now…more accurately assess • Nutrition: taller, smarter, longer life expectancies • More formal educations for more ppl • More stimulating environment b/c of t___? • Less kid-diseases that might cause handicaps • Smaller families = more parental resources (time, money, effort) on each kid ------------- So....Why are SAT scores down? Probably b/c more ppl and more diverse ppl taking SAT now instead of just the middle & upper middle class.

18. Assessments of Intelligence (aka Testing)  Reliability & Validity • Reliability:extent to which a test yields consistent results assessed by consistency of scores in 3 ways: • two halves of the test • alternate forms of the test • retesting • Validity: How well a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to EX: Does SAT predict success in the 1st year of college? 3 aspects to validity… Content validity Predictive validity Criterion validity

19. Assessing Intelligence: 3 major considerations: 1. Content Validity: extent to which a test samples a behavior that is of interest EX: Driving test that samples driving tasks… DOES it evaluate the content you want to look at? 2. Criterion validity • the measure (part of the operational definition)used in defining whether the test does have predictive validity (next slide ) • Some behavior that a test is designed to predict EX: Are college grades being predicted by SAT performance? …or... In driving, do 3 pt. turns, parking, handling the car in tight spaces, etc., represent things you will need to do while driving? • Criterion is what they are shooting for, trying to do

20. 3. Predictive Validity (aka criterion-related validity) • How good a test is at predicting • compute the correlation between test scores & the “target” behavior (behavior you’re interested in) • Can give good predictions RE: the behavior looked at… or not? EX: DOES the SAT predict success in college? Generally, yes. BUT…GRE (graduate record exam)…not as much b/c all are higher performing…

21. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Greater correlation over broad range of body wts. (Lg. #) Football linemen’s success Little correlation w/in restricted range (sm. #) 180 250 290 Body weight in pounds Assessing Intelligence: (436) Relating body wt. & success to predict…The larger the sample the better it can predict • As the range of data under consideration narrows (goes from larger to smaller range), its predictive power diminishes • BTW:What is this type of graph called?

22. The Dynamics of Intelligence: The Low extreme of Intelligence: • Mentally Challenged (previously called “mental retardation” or mentally handicapped but M-C is the preferred reference) • a condition of limited mental ability • indicated by an intelligence score at or below 70 • produces difficulty in adapting to the demands of life • varies from mild to profound

23. Down Syndrome • A type of retardation & associated physical disorders caused by an extra chromosome in one’s genetic makeup… • Usually related to mom’s age (older moms)… (extra #21 chromosome for a total of 47 chromosomes)

24. The Dynamics of Intelligence: Know chart! (p. 439) Supreme Court Hearing on executing mentally challenged:http://www.newsy.com/videos/supreme-court-hears-debate-on-executing-mentally-disabled/

25. Heritability: proportion of variationamong individuals that we can attribute to genesVariability depends on range of populations & environments studied • Intelligence heritability = about 50% • The most genetically similar people have the most similar scores

26. Genetic Influences: psychologists look at both twin studies & biological parents vs. adoptive parents

27. Environmental Influences: The Schooling Effect: IQ’s tend to rise during the school year…& drop during summer…& drop after schooling stops… So…a good argument for year-round school? ...Asian students vs. N. American students?

28. What’s wrong with this picture???

29. Variation within group Variation within group Seeds Poor soil Fertile soil Difference within group Group differences & impact of environment: The Seed Analogy: • Same seeds(genetics) • …but different soil…levels of fertilizer…water….sun these = so a differing environ.Would they grow the same? HEAD START: Data from research on Head Start programs (public “pre-school” to helped kids from lo-socio-econ. environments) show H-S kids are less likely to repeat grades than those in similar environments NOT in Head Start

30. Standard Responses Group Differences: Gender • KNOW the general male & femaletendencies toward certain abilities… (from info p.448-9) • Do these stronger abilities apply to ALL males or females? • The Mental Rotation Test : spatial understanding • Which of the other circles contain a configuration of • blocks identical to the “standard” fig. (left)?

31. Group Differences • Stereotype Threat • Self-confirming concern/belief: negative stereotypes give us “true” evaluation • Relates to “self-fulfilling prophecy” & placebo effect: believing something IS true increase chance it happens: “I will probably score low” = scoring lower Students told they are at a disadvantage on a test tend to do worse than those who are told the test should be one they do well on… “You are not likely to do as well on this as usual…” …OR “You should do very well on this b/c it is written in a way that will show your strengths…” Also African-Amer. or females taking test w/ only that group perform better than in mixed groups Summary: What you think & believe about YOU affects how you perform!

32. High vs. low extremes of intelligence: • Myth: High IQ kids are mal-adjusted, weird, socially inept….this is NOT TRUE -There is a high correlation for high IQ & healthy, well-adjusted, academically successful adults… Most thrive, though some are isolated more as kids b/c they don’t fit in w/ immature other kids • Remember: “giftedness” is a socially defined trait & not a “naturally occurring trait” like eye color (what is this called?) • Brain size (relative to body size) IS slightly positively correlated to intelligence

33. Big debate: tracking: This is “gifted” kids separated into other classes/schools (segregating by ability level): • Often this means low income & minority put into low levels, which encourages the stereotype threat…which... • Tends to widen, not shrink, the gap betwn. lo & hi especially in elementary school Best idea may be, like China & Japan:  Avoid tracking thru elementary

34. Pitfalls in Diagnostic Labeling of High OR Low Intelligence: To what do you think the term “diagnostic labeling” refers? If we determine someone is of HIGH IQ…Or…LO IQ, what might make that a problem? How might the following be involved in that consideration? • Motivation? (either hi or lo?) • Stereotype threat? • Flynn Effect? • Reification? *****GO BACK to slide # 29 to H-S notes!!!

35. Theories of Multiple Intelligences (pp. 424-426) Is there 1 kind? …or 2? …or 3? ..or 8? Remember: Spearman: 1 basic general intel. (g factor) Sternberg’s Big 3: Analytical intelligence: academic problem solving— there’s 1 right answer Creativeintelligence: react to novel situations & use novel ideas Practical intelligence: deal w/ everyday problems & come up w/ multiple solutions

36. Howard Gardner: Theory of 8 Multiple Intelligences Verbal Movement (kinesthetic) Math Understanding ourselves (our emotions/feelings) Music Understanding others (emotion—reading others) Spatial analysis/visual (art) Understanding our physical environment (naturalistic world)

37. Some review ?’s How does head size correlate with intelligence? (p. 429) Can you assess an infant’s possible intelligence?

38. PPL to know RE: Intelligence & intelligence assessments: Binet Flynn Gardner Spearman Stern Sternberg Terman Wechsler

39. “Hey, I don’t have time to exercise!!”

40. ANSWERS to PRACTICE Test from class… 18.C 19.D 20.E 21.D 22.B 23.D 24.C 25.C 26.C 27.D 28.D 29.B 30.D 31.D 32.E 33.B 34.C 1.A 2.D 3.D 4.A 5.D 6.C 7.D 8.B 9.E 10.D 11.C 12.C 13.B 14.D 15.D 16.D 17.E