Unit 11: Intelligence (Cognition)

1. CHS AP Psychology Unit 11: Intelligence (Cognition) Essential Task 11.1: Define intelligence, list characteristics psychologists include in their definition, and discuss how culture influences the definition of intelligence. 

2. What is Intelligence? Intelligence (in all cultures) is the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use our knowledge to adapt to new situations. In research studies, intelligence is whatever the intelligence test measures. This tends to be “school smarts.”

3. APA (American Psychological Association) on Intelligence • Intelligence refers to intellectual functioning. Intelligence quotients, or IQ tests, compare your performance with other people your age who take the same test. These tests don’t measure all kinds of intelligence, however. • For example, such tests can’t identify differences in social intelligence, the expertise people bring to their interactions with others. • There are also generational differences in the population as a whole. • Better nutrition, more education and other factors have resulted in IQ improvements for each generation.

4. What is intelligence? According to Alfred Binet: “It seems to us that in intelligence there is a fundamental faculty, the alteration or the lack of which, is of the utmost importance for practical life. This faculty is judgment, otherwise called good sense, practical sense, initiative, the faculty of adapting ones self to circumstances.” A. Binet [5]

5. What is intelligence?According to Howard Gardner: “An intelligence is the ability to solve problems, or to create products, that are valued within one or more cultural settings.” H. Gardner

6. What is intelligence?According to Robert J. Sternberg “. . . I prefer to refer to it as ‘successful intelligence.’ And the reason is that the emphasis is on the use of your intelligence to achieve success in your life. So I define it as your skill in achieving whatever it is you want to attain in your life within your sociocultural context — meaning that people have different goals for themselves, and for some it’s to get very good grades in school and to do well on tests, and for others it might be to become a very good basketball player or actress or musician.” R. J. Sternberg [36]

7. What is intelligence?According to Lewis M. Terman: “The ability to carry on abstract thinking.” L. M. Terman

8. What is Intelligence?According to David Wechsler: “A global concept that involves an individual’s ability to act purposefully, think rationally, and deal effectively with the environment.” D. Wechsler

9. IQ Score Distribution

10. Conceptual Difficulties Psychologists believe that intelligence is a concept and not a thing. When we think of intelligence as a trait (thing) we make an error called reification — viewing an abstract immaterial concept as if it were a concrete thing.

11. Controversies About Intelligence Despite general agreement among psychologists about the nature of intelligence, controversies remain: • Is it more nature or more nurture? • Is it generalor multiple? • Can it be measured? Think of examples that argues each point. A “for” and “against” each controversy.

12. Intelligence: Ability or Abilities? Have you ever thought that since people’s mental abilities are so diverse, it may not be justifiable to label those abilities with only one word, intelligence? You may speculate that diverse abilities represent different kinds of intelligences. How can you test this idea?

13. Cultural Influences on Intelligence Definitions • People in Western cultures tend to view intelligence as a means for individuals to devise categories and to engage in rational debate • People in Eastern cultures see it as a way for members of a community to recognize contradiction and complexity and to play their social roles successfully.

14. Cultural Differences • Taiwanese-Chinese conceptions of intelligence emphasize understanding and relating to others--including knowing when to show and when not to show one's intelligence.

15. Cultural Differences • Among the Luo people in rural Kenya, ideas about intelligence consist of four broad concepts: • rieko, which largely corresponds to the Western idea of academic intelligence, but also includes specific skills. Only one of the four correlated with traditional Western measures of intelligence. • luoro, which includes social qualities like respect, responsibility and consideration;  • paro, or practical thinking; • winjo, or comprehension.