3/29: Intelligence

• * Do NOT have to study Stereotype Threat
• Intelligence- mental quality consisting of ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations
• Measurement of Intelligence
• General Ability or Several Specific Abilities?
• Disagreement on Correlates
• Considered a Concept
• Intelligence = General Ability?
• Charles Spearman: ONE general intelligence (g) underlies specific mental abilities
• score high on one factor, score high on others
• Thurstone
• pioneer of Multiple Factor Analyses
• Several Factors found by statistical analyses on exams of various intellectual abilites 
• given labels such as verbal comprehension, numerical ability, spatial reasoning, and memory
• Gardner: we have independent multiple intelligences
• Gardner's 8 Intelligences
• verbal, spatial, understanding self, nature, math, movement, understanding others, music
• Savant Syndrome: limited mental capacities but an island of exceptional talent
• Hierarchical compromise  between Spearman and Thurstone
• model in which specific abilities existed and were important but were all somewhat related to another and a global general intelligence
• Robert Sternberg: Three Aspects of intelligence
• Analytical: intelligence tests
• Practical: required for everyday tasks
• Creative: adapting to new situations, generating new ideas
• Intelligence vs Creativity
• Creativity: ability to produce novel and valuable ideas
• Intelligence = Creativity
• score 120 necessary but not sufficient for creativity
• very creative, don't tend extreme intelligence
• Convergent vs Divergent thinking
• Convergent = one right answer ; intelligence
• Divergent = multiple answers ; creativity
• sometimes subject to expectations and pressures
• Sternberg's 5 Components of Creativity
• Expertise - some knowledge of what you're being creative with
• Imaginative Thinking Skills - ability to see things in new ways
• Venturesome Personality - tolerate ambiguity, overcome obstacles, talk to many people
• Intrinsic Motivation- not reliant on external rewards
• Creative Environment - mentor, access to internet, etc.
• Emotional Intelligence: managing and understanding emotion
• 4 Components
• Perceive emotions - recognize
• Understand emotions - comprehend the type of emotion
• Manage emotions - help others/self
• Use emotions
• positively correlated with increased job performance
• How Measure Intelligence?
• Small correlation of +.15 head size and intelligence score
• Larger correlation of +.33 brain volume and intelligence score
• more intelligent, more brain synapses
• take in info more quickly and faster brain wave responses to stimuli
• look how individuals think and solve problems
• Trial and error
• Algorithm: step by step procedures
• Insight: solution comes to mind suddenly
• Heuristics: mental shortcuts, rules of thumb
• Heuristics: mental shortcuts to make quick and efficient judgments
• help select apt schema to use for processing
• 4 main types
• Availability heuristic
• Representativeness heuristic
• Anchoring and Adjustment heuristic
• Simulation heuristic
• Availability heuristic: base judgement on ease with which they can bring something to mind
• Representativeness heuristic: classify something on how similar is to a typical case (schema)
• e.g. quiet and organized representss librarian more than manager
• not a problem unless ignore base rate information
• Anchoring and Adjustment heuristic: uses number or value as starting point and adjusts one's answer away from anchor
• don't often adjust away from anchor enough
• most common anchor = self
• Simulation heuristic: ease of imagining something happening, influences reactions to it
• e.g. bronze medalists happier than silver medalists
• Intelligence test: assessing mental aptitudes and comparing to others
• Francis Galton: 1st psychologist to develop mental tests
• measures now outdated
• all intelligent people together, breed more intelligent race
• IQ test
• first made by Alfred Binet
• assumed all children follow same intellectual development
• Mental age: age at which child was performing at, relative to chronological age
• goal: ID children that needed help
• Lewis Terman
• Binet's norms didn't fit Californian children
• Adapted Binet's IQ test
• Stanford-Binet (SB) Intelligence Quotient
• IQ= mental age/chronological age x 100
• worked for children but not adults
• Current IQ test
• represents test-taker's ability relative to average performance of other own age
• average = 100
• WAIS: most commenly used intelligence test
• yields single full-scale intelligence score, 4 index scores and 12 specific subset scores
• Hierarchical model of intelligence with "g" and specific areas of ability "s"
• Like SB IQ, raw scores compared with age-based experiences
• average = 100 standard deviation = 15
• 2 Types of Mental Ability tests
• Aptitude tests: predict ability to learn new skill (SAT)
• Achievement tests: reflect what you already know (exams)
• Analogies: measure both aptitude and achievement
• Principals of Test Construction
• 3 Criteria
• Standardized
• Reliable
• Valid
• Standardized: person's performance meaningfully compared to others
• Reliable: dependably consistent scores
• two halves of test
• re-testing
• SB, and WAIS have +.9 reliability
• Valid: measures what it's supposed to
• Predictive validity: predict later performance
• Nature vs Nurture in Intelligence
• Genetic component
• Identical twins reared together = virtually same score
• Identical twins reared apart scores suggests 70% of intelligence is genetic
• ranges 50-75%
• Genes importnat to intelligence and learning disabilities
• Polygenetic: many genes involved, each less than 1% of variance in intelligence
• Environmental component
• adoption enhances intelligence scores of mistreated and neglected children
• fraternal twins tend score alike based on how treated
• Plomin and DeFries
• Adopted and children's scores correlate highly with birth parents