REVIEW Intelligence and Its Assessment

Learning Objectives

Test Yourself by taking a moment to answer each of these Learning Objective Questions (repeated here from within the module). Research suggests that trying to answer these questions on your own will improve your long-term memory of the concepts (McDaniel et al., 2009).

Question

27-1 How do psychologists define intelligence, and what are the arguments for g?
ANSWER: Intelligence is a mental quality consisting of the potential to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations. Charles Spearman proposed that we have one general intelligence (g) underlying all other specific mental abilities. He helped develop factor analysis, a statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related abilities.

Question

27-2 How do Gardner's and Sternberg's theories of multiple intelligences differ, and what criticisms have they faced?
ANSWER: Savant syndrome seems to support Howard Gardner's view that we have multiple intelligences. He proposed eight independent intelligences: linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and naturalist. (He has also proposed a ninth possible intelligence—existential intelligence—the ability to ponder deep questions about life.) Robert Sternberg's triarchic theory proposes three intelligence areas that predict real-world skills: analytical (academic problem solving), creative, and practical. Critics note research that has confirmed a general intelligence factor. But highly successful people also tend to be conscientious, well-connected, and doggedly energetic.

Question

27-3 What are the four components of emotional intelligence?
ANSWER: Emotional intelligence, which is an aspect of social intelligence, is the ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions. Emotionally intelligent people achieve greater personal and professional success. Some critics question whether calling these abilities “intelligence” stretches that concept too far.
Page 353

Question

27-4 What is an intelligence test, and what is the difference between achievement and aptitude tests?
ANSWER: An intelligence test is a method for assessing an individual's mental aptitudes and comparing them with others, using numerical scores. Aptitude tests measure the ability to learn, while achievement tests measure what we have already learned.

Question

27-5 When and why were intelligence tests created, and how do today's tests differ from early intelligence tests?
ANSWER: Alfred Binet started the modern intelligence-testing movement in France in 1904 when he developed questions to help predict children's future progress in the Paris school system. During the early twentieth century, Lewis Terman of Stanford University revised Binet's work for use in the United States. He believed intelligence was inherited, and he thought his Stanford-Binet could help guide people toward appropriate opportunities. Terman's assumption that certain ethnic groups were naturally more intelligent realized Binet's fear that intelligence tests would be used to label children and limit their opportunities. William Stern contributed the concept of the IQ (intelligence quotient). The most widely used intelligence tests today are the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and Wechsler's tests for children. These tests differ from their predecessors in the way they offer an overall intelligence score as well as scores for various verbal and performance areas.

Question

27-6 What is a normal curve, and what does it mean to say that a test has been standardized and is reliable and valid?
ANSWER: The distribution of test scores often forms a normal (bell-shaped) curve around the central average score, with fewer and fewer scores at the extremes. Standardization establishes a basis for meaningful score comparisons by giving a test to a representative sample of future test-takers. Reliability is the extent to which a test yields consistent results (on two halves of the test, on alternative forms of the test, or when people are retested). Validity is the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to. A test has content validity if it samples the pertinent behavior (as a driving test measures driving ability). It has predictive validity if it predicts a behavior it was designed to predict. (Aptitude tests have predictive ability if they can predict future achievements; their predictive power is best for the early school years.)

Question

27-7 How does aging affect crystallized and fluid intelligence?
ANSWER: Cross-sectional studies (comparing people of different ages) and longitudinal studies (retesting the same group over a period of years) have shown that fluid intelligence declines in older adults, in part because neural processing slows. However, crystallized intelligence tends to increase.

Question

27-8 How stable are intelligence test scores over the life span?
ANSWER: The stability of intelligence test scores increases with age. At age 4, scores fluctuate somewhat but begin to predict adolescent and adult scores. By early adolescence, scores are very stable and predictive.

Question

27-9 What are the traits of those at the low and high intelligence extremes?
ANSWER: At the low extreme are those with unusually low scores. An intelligence test score of or below 70 is one diagnostic criterion for the diagnosis of intellectual disability; other criteria are limited conceptual, social, and practical skills. One condition included in this category is Down syndrome, a developmental disorder caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21. People at the high-intelligence extreme tend to be healthy and well-adjusted, as well as unusually successful academically.

Terms and Concepts to Remember

Test yourself on these terms.

Question

intelligence (p. 341)
general intelligence (g) (p. 341)
savant syndrome (p. 342)
emotional intelligence (p. 344)
intelligence test (p. 345)
aptitude test (p. 345)
achievement test (p. 345)
mental age (p. 346)
Stanford-Binet (p. 346)
intelligence quotient (IQ) (p. 346)
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) (p. 347)
standardization (p. 348)
normal curve (p. 348)
reliability (p. 348)
validity (p. 348)
content validity (p. 348)
predictive validity (p. 348)
crystallized intelligence (p. 349)
fluid intelligence (p. 349)
longitudinal study (p. 349)
cross-sectional study (p. 349)
intellectual disability (p. 351)
Down syndrome (p. 351)
a condition of mild to severe intellectual disability and associated physical disorders caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21.
defined originally as the ratio of mental age (ma) to chronological age (ca) multiplied by 100 (thus, IQ = ma/ca × 100). On contemporary intelligence tests, the average performance for a given age is assigned a score of 100.
a method for assessing an individual's mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores.
the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to. (See also content validity and predictive validity.)
a condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill, such as in computation or drawing.
research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period.
the extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest.
the mental potential to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations.
the WAIS and its companion versions for children are the most widely used intelligence tests; contain verbal and performance (nonverbal) subtests.
a general intelligence factor that, according to Spearman and others, underlies specific mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test.
(normal distribution) a symmetrical, bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many types of data; most scores fall near the mean (about 68 percent fall within one standard deviation of it) and fewer and fewer near the extremes.
our ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease with age, especially during late adulthood.
the success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict; it is assessed by computing the correlation between test scores and the criterion behavior. (Also called criterion-related validity.)
a condition of limited mental ability, indicated by an intelligence test score of 70 or below and difficulty adapting to the demands of life. (Formerly referred to as mental retardation.)
the ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions.
a test designed to predict a person's future performance; aptitude is the capacity to learn.
our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age.
a study in which people of different ages are compared with one another.
a test designed to assess what a person has learned.
the widely used American revision (by Terman at Stanford University) of Binet's original intelligence test.
the extent to which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test, on alternative forms of the test, or on retesting.
defining uniform testing procedures and meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested group.
a measure of intelligence test performance devised by Binet; the chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance. Thus, a child who does as well as an average 8-year-old is said to have a mental age of 8.

Experience the Testing Effect

Test yourself repeatedly throughout your studies. This will not only help you figure out what you know and don’t know; the testing itself will help you learn and remember the information more effectively thanks to the testing effect.

Question 9.13

1. Charles Spearman suggested we have one underlying success across a variety of intellectual abilities.

Question 9.14

2. The existence of savant syndrome seems to support

A.
B.
C.
D.

Question 9.15

3. Sternberg's three types of intelligence are , , and .

Question 9.16

4. Emotionally intelligent people tend to

A.
B.
C.
D.

Question 9.17

5. The IQ of a 6-year-old with a measured mental age of 9 would be

A.
B.
C.
D.

Question 9.18

6. The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) is best able to tell us

A.
B.
C.
D.

Question 9.19

7. The Stanford-Binet, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children yield consistent results—on retesting, for example. In other words, these tests have high .

Question 9.20

8. Use the concepts of crystallized and fluid intelligence to explain why writers tend to produce their most creative work later in life, and scientists may hit their peak much earlier.
ANSWER: Writers' work relies more on crystallized intelligence, or accumulated knowledge, which increases with age. For top performance, scientists doing research may need more fluid intelligence (speedy and abstract reasoning), which tends to decrease with age.

Question 9.21

9. Which of the following is NOT a possible explanation for the fact that more intelligent people tend to live longer, healthier lives?

A.
B.
C.
D.

Use image to create your personalized study plan, which will direct you to the resources that will help you most in image .

[Leave] [Close]