Intelligence

Wadsworth, a division of Thomson Learning

Defining Intelligence

The ability to perform varying tasks well The ability to perform tasks associated with

academic success very well

History of Intelligence Testing Galton

• Believed that intelligence was related to visual acuity and reaction time

Binet• Commissioned by the French government to

create a test that would identify students in grade school that would have difficulties performing in the classroom

• proposed the concept of “mental age”-a score obtained by comparing an individual’s performance on an intelligence test with the average score obtained by children of the same age

History of Intelligence Testing

Terman (Stanford-Binet Scale)• revised the Binet scale • created the measure we now know of as the IQ• “IQ” is determined by taking the mental age

obtained on an intelligence test and dividing it by the chronological age of the individual taking the test

• Extended the test to also assess IQ in adults• The normal distribution of intelligence scores

History of Intelligence Testing

Wechsler• Developed a more accurate test for adults• Examples of some of the test developed by

Wechsler include• Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)

• Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)

Characteristics of Tests

Validity-the ability of the test to measure what you say it will measure

Reliability-the ability of the test to measure a construct with consistency

Standardization-the use of reference scores for interpreting an individual’s performance

Extremes of Intelligence Mental Retardation

• mild (IQ scores of 50-70)• These individuals can obtain about a sixth grade education• They usually live in a supervised community• Of the mentally retarded population, about 85% of the

population fall into this category• moderate- (IQ scores of 35-50)

• These individuals can obtain about a second grade education• They are capable of jobs with simple skills but must always be

supervised• About 10% of the mentally retarded population fall into this

category• severe (IQ 20-35)

• These individuals will always require regular supervision and will demonstrate poor motor and communication skills

• About 4% of the mentally retarded population fall into this category

• profound (IQ below 20)• This group makes up about 1% of the total mentally retarded

population• These individuals have very little sensorimotor capability and

will always require supervision

Extremes of Intelligence

Mentally Gifted• Refers to individuals with well above average

IQ scores• May also be used to identify people who have

demonstrated impressive performance on specific skills (ex: someone who performs extraordinarily well on memory tests for numbers but who has an average IQ score)

Kinds of Intelligence

Spearman - “g” and “s”• He believed that intelligence was broken down

into two types• “g”-represented a general intelligence• “s”-represented excellent performance on

specific abilities

Kinds of Intelligence

Sternberg - Triarchic Theory• He believed that intelligence could be broken

down into three categories• creative intelligence-ability to solve problems with

novel solutions

• practical intelligence-”common sense”

• analytical intelligence-ability to analyze a problem into its integral components

Kinds of Intelligence

Gardner - Theory of Multiple Intelligences• He believed that intelligence could be broken

down into seven categories:

Linguistic Logical-mathematical

Musical Movement

Interpersonal Intrapersonal

Spatial Reasoning

Biological Contributions to Intelligence Hereditary

• Estimates place the heritability of intelligence at 50-60%

• Concordance rates for identical twins is about 70%

Environmental Contributions to Intelligence Enriched Environments

• Ex: providing things to touch and to look at

Prenatal Teratogen Exposure• Ex: lead poisoning