Unit 11: Testing Intelligence

Unit 11: Testing Intelligence

1. Intelligence test - Mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations

   • WAIS- the most widely used intelligence test; contains verbal and performance tests
     • David Wechsler- designed a test to measure real world intelligence rather than school work; these are called the WAIS and WISC (for children)
   • WISC- an intelligence of similar makeup as the WAIS but targeted towards testing children.
   • Francis Galton- first to quantitatively (numerically) measure intelligence
   • Stanford-Binet- The widely used American revision of Binet's original intelligence test
     • Alfred Binet- published the first measure of intelligence in 1905

2. Intelligence- mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations

3. Validating Tests

   • Content validity - The extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest
   • Predictive validity- The success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict
   • Normal curve - The symmetrical, bell shapes curve
   • Standardization- Defining uniform testing procedures and meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested group

4. After analyzing a test:

   • Factor analysis- a statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items (factors) on a test
   • Intelligence quotient- On contemporary intelligence tests, the average performance for a given age is assigned a score of 100, with scores assigned to relative performance above or below average
     • James Flynn- noticed rise in average IQ scores year after year, all over the year.
     • William Stern- Intelligence quotient formula
     • Claude Steele- theory as an explanation for racial differences on IQ test scores
   • Intelligence disability- A condition of limited mental ability, indicated by an intelligence score of 70 or below
     • Savant syndrome - A condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability, has an exceptional specific skill, such as in computation or drawing
     • Down syndrome- A condition of mild to severe intellectual disability and associated physical disorders caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21

5. Amounts of intelligence???

   • Charles Spearman- developed idea of general intelligence
     • General Intelligence: We have one intelligence and it applies in all categories. Example: IQ tests
   • Howard Gardner- believed in one such thing as multiple intelligence
     • Multiple intelligence: The idea that we have different levels of intelligence in different categories: Example: good at art, but bad with music.
   • Robert Sternberg; devised the Triarchic Theory of Intelligence (academic problem-solving, practical, and creative)

6. John Mayer- worked on emotional intelligence: ability to understand yourself and one another.