slide 1 u t s c chapter 11 - intelligence chapter 11 intelligence

Chapter 11 - Intelligence Slide 1

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Chapter 11

Intelligence


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What is Intelligence?

We all have an intuitive understanding of what intelligence is. In fact, we probably often use terms such as smart, clever, bright or brilliant when referring to others (not to speak of ourselves!)

We would probably all agree that intelligence has to do with good performance in cognitive tasks. But what counts for good performance? Think of:

•Stephen Harper (or better yet, George W. Bush)•Bill Gates•Albert Einstein


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Is Intelligence a Single Thing?

We often use the term intelligence as if we were talking abouta single characteristic a person possesses … we typically talkof someone being intelligent or not … period.

But let’s consider athletic capability. Look at these various sportspersons. Do youthink that one who is good at one ofthe sports would also be good atparticular other sports?

Do you think that asingle athletic ability isrelevant to all of them?


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Autistic Savant Syndrome

Savant syndrome refers to cases (very rare) where anindividual with an IQ that is well below average has anexceptional talent in a particular area.

The exceptional talent is typically in one of these areas:

•Calendar calculation (given date, they know day of week).•Amazing feats of memory.•Great musical ability despite the lack of formal training.•Mastery of several languages.


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Video on Autistic Savant Syndrome


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Partitioning Intelligence

Spearman (1927) was one of the first Psychologists to theorizeabout human intelligence.

He noticed that when tests of various abilities are given to people,there was a strong correlation between the scores. Thislead Spearman to propose that there was one intellectual abilitywhich he called the g factor (g for general) that underliesall cognitive functions.

Spearman also noticed that the correlation between all test scoreswas not perfect, and that people who did well on one test did notalways do well on another. So he concluded there were a variety of s factors (s for specific) that also contributed to asubject’s performance on intellectual tasks.


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Identifying Factors via Factor Analysis

More recently, psychologists have relied on a statistical methodcalled factor analysis to further study the underlying structure ofintelligence.

This method involves assessing people’s performance on a number of different cognitive tasks relevant to intelligence.

Correlations between performance on these various tasks is thenused to try to figure out how many underlying factors exist.

Let’s look at table 11.1 from the book to see how this is done...


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Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale


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What does the word conventional mean?

What is the capital of France?Why are we tried by a jury of our peers?

How are goldfish and canaries similar?


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Verbal Ability


What does the word conventional mean?

What is the capital of France?Why are we tried by a jury of our peers?

How are goldfish and canaries similar?


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Repeat these numbersback to me 462397654

Verbal Ability


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Short-Term Memory Ability


Repeat these numbersback to me 462397654

Verbal Ability


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Verbal Ability Short-Term Memory Ability


Arrange blocks to match design

Assemble “jigsaw” image of object

What is missing from picture? (whisker)


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Verbal Ability Short-Term Memory Ability


Arrange blocks to match design

Assemble “jigsaw” image of object

What is missing from picture? (whisker)

Spatial Ability


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The Modern Stanford-Binet Test


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From 2 to 3 to 7 to 2, etc.

Some studies using the factor analytic approach ended up findingmany different factors related to intelligence … for example,Thurstone (1938) found 7 factors; verbal comprehension, verbalfluency, number, spatial visualization, memory, reasoning, andperceptual speed.

However, when a factor analysis was performed on Thurstone’sfactors, Cattell found that two factors underlie the 7 factors.

He labeled these two factorsFluid intelligence (gf): Ability to see relations and patterns.Crystallized intelligence (gc): Accumulated life knowledge.


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A Theory of Multiple IntelligencesHoward Gardner has proposed a theory of multiple intelligencesthat has proven particularly popular in the field of education.

According to Gardner, there are eight types of intelligences:

• logical-mathematical• linguistic• spatial• naturalist• musical• bodily-kinesthetic• intrapersonal awareness• interpersonal awareness


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Heritability and IQ

One of the most enduring controversy in psychology is whether intelligence is mostly influenced by heredity or by environmental influences (nature vs. nurture).

The cartoon we just saw suggests that behavioural trait (and what we do in life) are completely determined by our genetic make up (identical twins share all their genes).


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Video on Twins Reared Apart and Reunited


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In-Class Poll

Please raise your hand if you agree with the following statement:

“A person is the way that he/she is because of his/her genetic make-up.”


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How do Scientist Study this Issue?

Q: Compare identical twins separated at birth and reared apart? A: That’s one way, and it is what was done in the cartoon and video.

More generally, the heritability of a behavioural trait is the variability in the trait that correlates with genetic differences.

Let’s look at how Table 11.6 in the textbook


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Conclusion on Heritability

Most estimates of heritability of IQ hover around 50%

This does not mean that 50% of intelligence is based on genes, but that 50% of variability in intelligence is related to variability in genetic make-up.

The heritability index tends to increase from childhood to adolescence, presumably because children are under tighter control from parents and other authority figures than adolescents and adults.

slide 1 u t s c chapter 11 - intelligence chapter 11 intelligence

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