Intelligence - created from Mind Map

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Methods of assessing intelligence

Benet & Simon: first intelligence test, 1904, for students who needed extra help in school, mental age vs chronological age, compared with normal individuals

Wechsler: separated tests into adult and children scales, not one for all, divided into two parts: verbal vs practical/performance (WAIS - for adults, WISC - children)

Initially everyday tasks: copy drawing of a house, repeat string of numbers, recognise currency, explain why a sentence doesn't make sense, tested mental age by ability to solve problems

Average 3 year old should be able to do 50% of following: point to eyes, nose, mouth, repeat two digits, give family name. At 15: repeat seven digits, find three rhymes for given word within a minute, interpret pictures + given facts

*relied on verbal abilities

*must be relevant to culture

Uses of IQ tests: can be used in employment, associations or different groups or immigration

IQ: intelligence Quotient (score on an IQ test)

*doesn't show ability to handle things emotionally or maturely

IQ is normally distributed, thus values around the mean IQ (100) are most common. Variation in scores depends on the test, though all this shape, most common tests show 95% of individuals score between 70 and 130

Becomes problematic in adults, don't stop ageing thus specified today in terms of whereabouts in the overall distribution of scores someone falls (5% or 10% etc.), adult IQ no longer refers to relationship between mental and chronological age, mental age does not keep increasing forever thus cannot help appearing less intelligent

IQ scores based on a large standardised sample developing a norm: standard deviation = degree to which individual scores deviate from the mean

High IQ = stable marriage, higher income, less likely to go to prison, can predict rate of heart disease at age 100 (or cancer), can contribute to predictability of success on job

Theories of Intelligence

Spearman: single-factor solution known as g for general intelligence, thus test will predict not just specific ability on that test but how much general ability they have, due to positive correlations between tasks, covers all levels of intelligence, overall intelligence based on level of g

Cattell & Horn: suggested g be subdivided into fluid and crystallised intelligence, highly correlated but don't always show same characteristics, different brain areas

Fluid: ability to solve novel problems/situations, doesn't rely on previously learned knowledge, thinking on the spot eg. remembering phone number without phone or riddle no one has solved, peaks in early adulthood, may be more effected by drugs/alcohol, declines with age

Crystallised: relies on previous learned knowledge/experience to solve tasks eg. using expert/interest knowledge to answer specific expert question, continues to rise with age

Emotional Intelligence

4-branch model:

Knowing your emotions, managing feelings, recognising others, handling relationships, women tend to score higher than men

1. Perceiving emotions: able to identify emotions on basis of perceptual cues/based on what you see

2. Facilitating thought with emotions: able to harness emotional info to enhance thinking (changing plan to avoid rocky outcome)

3. Understanding emotions: ability to comprehend emotional info about relationships, transitions from one emotion to another + verbal info about emotiions

4. Managing emotions: able to manage emotions/emotional relationships (making an excuse to leave situation in which you're getting annoyed)

Multiple Intelligences

Howard Gardner: 9 forms - linguistic, spatial, musical, logical, bodily-kinesthetic, intrapersonal, interpersonal, naturalist, exisential

Robert Sternberg: 3 forms - analytic, practical, creative

Nature vs Nurture

Large brains can correlate with levels of intelligence (small correlation), areas may be larger than other areas

Einstein: large amount of Glial cells, dominant in lower parietal lobes which are linked to mathematical thinking and spatial awareness, 15% wider than normal

Females: smaller due to smaller skull and body mass overall

*half the variation in IQ can be attributed to heredity

*multiple genes contribute to intelligence

Identical twins share 100% genes, non identical are two separate eggs thus share same amount as siblings born later, env. aspects such as sharing a womb

Environmental Influences

IQ increased when moved to city by 1/2 point (poor black children)

Stoolmiller: effects of env. at 57%, generally less than 50% for environmental influence

Flynn effect: people are performing higher on IQ tests globally, likely to be impact of environment/what they are doing in their life, average of 3 points per 10 years, g factor accounting for less variability in IQ, specific abilities have increased

Changes in environment or gene pool can increase/decrease the percentage contribution of either factor

Genetic influence higher in adulthood due to ability to select env/generally determined properties, more choice on how to live

Genes account for differences within groups but not between due to different environment, env. more likely to affect poor impoverished population IQs

Abecedarian Project: intellectual enrichment, 5 years before kindy, lead to 5-point increase, children at risk of failing school

Way you look leads to being treated differently, project head start: provide stimulation for disadvantaged children, increase in IQ only short term

Intellectual disability & giftedness

Disability: IQ less than 70, limitations in at least 2 aspects of everyday life since childhood, 1% of adult population in NZ (ie. communication skills, brain fails to develop properly

Down Syndrome: extra chromosome, genetic but not inherited, IQ average 55, action potential not functioning properly

Fragile X Syndrome: x chromosome prone to breaking due to repeating itself, highly heritable, IQ below 70, 2x more likely in males

High IQ not associated with high creativity (good at absorbing existing knowledge but no ability in terms of producing anything new, gifted: IQ of 150-180

Characteristics of creative people: make loose associations, keep options open, look from different angles

Intelligence