Intelligence
Change in Plans
Monday Finish intelligence Grade notebooks FRQ Work on Personality Project
Wednesday Multiple Choice Work on Personality Project
Psychologists define intelligence testing as a method for assessing an individual’s mental aptitudes and comparing them with others using numerical scores.
ASSESSING INTELLIGENCE
Cousin of Charles Darwin.
Assessed reaction time, sensory acuity, muscular power, and body proportion of more than 10,000
visitors of the 1884 London Exposition.
He was unable to show correlations but he did give us
some statistical techniques that are still in use and the phrase “nature
and nurture.”
Why he did it: Wanted to measure “natural
ability” and encourage those of high ability to mate with one
another.
Francis Galton
France instated compulsory education for all children around the turn of the twentieth century and many seemed unable to do
the work. Rather than rely on the subjective reports of teachers,
the French government commissioned Binet to devise
an objective assessment of intelligence.
Why he did it: To identify students who
needed special help in coping with the school curriculum.
Alfred Binet
• All children follow the same intellectual development but some develop more rapidly• Dull (younger) vs. Bright (older) children
• Mental Age is the chronological age typical of a given level of performance
• The average 9 year old has a mental age of 9.• Below-average mental age would be a 9-year-old who
persons at the level typical of 7-year-olds.
Binet‐Simon Scale
• Led to the development of reasoning & problem solving questions that might predict school achievement.
• He hoped it would improve children’s education but feared it would be used to label children and limit their opportunities.
• For low-scoring children, he recommended “mental orthopedics” (exercises) that would help develop their attention span and self-discipline.
Binet‐Simon Scale
Coming to America
• The idea of IQ testing became popular in America for three reasons:• A huge increase in immigration• New laws requiring universal education• Military assessing new recruits for WWI
• It created an inexpensive and objective way to separate those who could benefit from education or military leadership training and those who needed assistance.
Downside of IQ Testing
• Despite its utility, IQ testing had a big downside. Tests ended up reinforcing prevailing prejudices about race and gender.
• They ignored the fact that environmental disadvantages limit the full development of people’s intellectual abilities.
Lewis Terman
In the US, Lewis Terman(Stanford University) adapted Binet’s test for American school children and named the test the Stanford-Binet Test.
He added items, established new age norms, and extended the upper end of the test’s range from teenagers to “superior adults.”
Binet did not believe his intelligence test measured inborn intelligence, but Terman believed his tests revealed the intelligence with which a person was born.
Why he did it:Terman believed in eugenicsEugenics: a social movement aimed at improving the human species through selective breeding…promoted higher reproduction rates of people with ‘superior’ traits, and aimed to reduce reproduction rates of people with ‘inferior’ traits. Resulted in legislation in many states that led to the forced sterilization of more tan 64,000 people (typically the disabled, poor, uneducated, and minority populations)
In particular, California’s program was so robust that the Nazi’s turned to California for advice in perfecting their own efforts. Hitler proudly admitted to following the laws of several American states that allowed for the prevention of reproduction of the “unfit” (Black 2003).
Lewis Terman
• German psychologist, William Stern, createdthe Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
• This original formula worked well for children but not adults
• Modern tests don’t compute IQ even though the expression has stuck• They represent the test-taker’s performance relative to
the average performance of others the same age• Average = 100• 2/3 score between 85-115
William Stern
Misuse and Abuse
• Intelligence testing has been used to encourage only smart and fit people to reproduce. Terman envisioned that the use of intelligence tests would ultimately result in curtailing the reproduction of feeble-mindedness and in the elimination of an enormous amount of crime, pauperism, and industrial inefficiency.
• Intelligence tests were also given to waves of immigrants and, obviously, since they did not speak the language or understand the culture and customs, they had low scores and were thought to be unintelligent. This led to the 1924 immigration law reducing the number of Southern and Eastern European immigrants that could enter the United States.
Achievement Tests• Intended to measure what you have learned• Examples: AP, final exams
Aptitude Tests• Intended to predict a person’s future performance• Aptitude = the capacity to learn• Examples: SAT
MODERN TESTS
Wechsler developed the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)and later the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC), an intelligence test for school-aged children. The most widely used individual intelligence today.
David Wechsler
WAIS measures overall intelligence and 11 other aspects related to intelligence that are designed to assess clinical
and educational problems.
For a psychological test to be acceptable it must fulfill the following three criteria:
StandardizationReliabilityValidity
TEST CONSTRUCTION
Standardizing a test involves defining uniform testing procedures and administering the test to a representative sample of future test takers in order to establish a basis
for meaningful comparison.
The AP® Psychology Exam is designed to assess your performance in a college-level introduction to psychology course; thus, it should be standardized using a population of freshman or sophomore college students taking introduction to
psychology in college. The same test should be given to the college students and the AP® students and the scores can then be meaningfully compared.
Standardization
Standardized tests establish a normal distribution of scores on a tested population in a bell‐shaped
pattern called the normal curve.
Normal Curve
The Flynn effect shows that intelligence test performance has been improving since the 1930s. The cause has been a mystery, but people think it may be due partly to better nutrition, more
education, more stimulating environments, less childhood diseases, and/or smaller families.
Flynn Effect (New Zealand researcher James Flynn who first calculated the phenomenon)
A test is reliablewhen it yields consistent results. To establish reliability researchers establish different
procedures:
1. Split‐Half Reliability: Dividing the test into two equal halves and assessing how consistent the scores are.
2. Test‐Retest Reliability: Using the same test on two occasions to measure consistency.
Reliability
The higher the correlation between the test‐rest and split‐half scores, the higher the test’s reliability.The Stanford‐Binet, the WAIS, and the WISC all
have reliabilities of about +.9 which is very high. In other words, when retested, people’s scores generally match their first score closely.
Reliability
Reliability of a test does not ensure validity. Validity of a test refers to the extent to which the test
actually measures or predicts what it is supposed to.
1. Content Validity: Refers to the extent a test measures a particular behavior, criterion, or trait.
2. Predictive Validity: Refers to the function of a test in predicting a particular behavior, criterion, or trait.
Validity
Are general aptitude tests as predictive as they are reliable?Academic aptitude tests are reasonably good predictors of achievement for children ages 6 to 12 (about +.6 correlation between intelligence score and school performance). Even
closer reliability with achievement tests (+.81).
The SAT is less successful in predicting first‐year college grades (less than +.5). The GRE correlation is only +.4
(modest but still significant).
When we validate w test using a wide range of people but then use it with a restricted range of people, it loses much of
its predictive validity.
Validity
How stable are intelligence scores over the life span?
Cross‐Sectional Studies: Researchers compared people of various ages at one point in time and have found that older adults give fewer correct answers on intelligence tests than do younger adults. Wechsler concluded that the decline of mental ability with age is part of the general aging process
of the organism as a whole.
Stability or Change
How stable are intelligence scores over the life span?
Longitudinal Studies: After colleges in the 1920s began giving intelligence tests to entering students, psychologists began retesting the same cohort over a period of years.They found that until late in life, intelligence remained
stable, and on some tests it even increased.Essentially the cross‐sectional studies were comparing
people of different ages, but also different eras, education levels, family size, etc. and therefore the myth that
intelligence sharply declines with age was laid to rest.
Stability or Change
How stable are intelligence scores over the life span?
The answer depends on what is assessed and how it is assessed.
Crystallized intelligence—our accumulated knowledge as reflected in vocabulary and analogies tests— increases up to
old age. Fluid intelligence—our ability to reason speedily and
abstractly as when solving novel logic problems— decreases beginning in the twenties and thirties, slowly up to age 75 or
so, then more rapidly, especially after age 85.
Stability or Change
How stable are intelligence scores over the life span?
Stability or Change
We lose recall memory and processing speed, but we gain vocabulary knowledge. Our decisions become less distorted by negative emotions such as anxiety, depression, and anger. Despite their lesser fluid intelligence, older adults show increased reasoning, such as taking multiple perspectives, appreciating knowledge limits, and offering helpful wisdom in times of social conflict.
A valid intelligence test divides two groups of people into two extremes: the intellectually disabled (IQ 70) and individuals with high intelligence (IQ 135). These two
groups are significantly different.
Extremes of Intelligence
Today this is referred to as intellectual disability
In addition to an IQ of 70 or below, they also have difficulty in adapting to the demands of life with limitations in the
following areas.
Conceptual SkillsSocial Skills
Practical Skills
Intellectual disability is a developmental condition that is apparent before age 18, sometimes with a known physical cause. EXAMPLE: people with Down Syndrome have an
extra chromosome 21 in their genetic makeup.
Intellectually Disabled
These individuals required constant supervision a few decades ago, but with a supportive family environment and
special education they can now care for themselves.
Intellectually Disabled
Contrary to popular belief, people with high intelligence test scores tend to be healthy, well
adjusted, and unusually successful academically.
High Intelligence
The Termites were the people in Lewis Terman’sstudy group over seven decades. These were high-scoring children who he followed longitudinally. Most of the Termites went on to attain high levels of education and became doctors, lawyers, and professors, for example.
A recent study of precocious youths who aced the math SAT exam at age 13 were at age 33 twice as likely to have patents as were those in the bottom quarter of the top 1 percent. Compared with the math aces, verbal whiz kids were more likely to have become humanities professors or written a novel.
http://www.intelligencetest.com/ Do not show your results to anyone!!! Take this intelligence test and write a
reflection to discuss the results of your IQ test.
