Psychology 2 Chapter 7 Study guide

Assessing/ Measuring Intelligence

• Intelligence test: quantify and measure intelligence in an objective manner
• Tests such as: Stanford-Binet IV, Wechsler,
• Adaptive Testing using computers to assess performance
• Adaptive in the sense that the computer individualizes the test to the test-taker
• The use of the bell curve helps determine what is average and what are the extremes
• Contemporary IQ Tests: gauging intelligence
• Achievement test: designed to determine a person's level of knowledge in a specific subject area
• Aptitude test: designed to predict a person's ability in a particular area or line of work

Assessing Intelligence Cont.

• Reliability: tests measure consistently what they are trying to measure (produce the same results with each time)
• Validity: tests actually measure what they are supposed to measure
• Norms: standards of test performance that permit the comparison of one person's score on a test to scores of others.

• The Relative Influence of Genetics and Environment: Nature, Nurture, and IQ

• Culture- fair IQ test
• Is one that does not discriminate against the members of any minority group
• Heritability:
• measure of the degree to which a characteristic can be attributed to genetic, inherited factors

Theories of Intelligence

• Fluid intelligence: reflects information-processing capabilities, reasoning, and memory
• Crystalized intelligence: accumulation of information, skills, and strategies that people learn through experience ( like crystals, wisdom that we gain as we mature)
• Gardner had 8 type of intelligences that he believed people had
• Musical
• bodily kinesthetic
• logical-mathematical
• linguistic
• spatial
• interpersonal
• intrapersonal
• naturalist

Theories of intelligence Cont

• information processing as intelligence:
• the way people store material in memory and use that material to solve intellectual tasks
• Practical intelligence: street smarts
• Emotional intelligence: set of skills that underlie the accurate assessment, evaluation, expression, and regulation of emotions

Variations in intellectual ability

• Mental retardation - intellectual disabilities disability characterized by significant limitations both in intellectual functioning and in conceptual, social, and practical adaptive skils
• The intellectually gifted: have IQ scores greater than 130
• IDENTIFYING THE ROOTS OF MENTAL RETARDATION:
• Fetal alchol syndrome: caused by a mother's use of alcohol while pregnant
• Familial retardation: no apparent biological defect exists but there is a history of retardation in the family

Intelligence and culture

• how culture could essentially affect intelligence. How you're brought up can affect your reaching of your intelligecne potential

pitfalls to problem solving

• Mental set: where you persists on approachig a problem in a way that has waorked in the past but is clearly not working now
• Functional fixednessis a type of mental set where you cannot perceive an object being used for something other than what it was designed for.
• anchoring bias: occurs when you focus on one piece of information when making adecision or solving a problem.
• confirmation bias
• is the tendency to focus on information that confirms your existing beliefs
• Hindsight bias
• leads you to believe that the event you just experienced was predictable, even
• though it really wasn’t
• Representative bias
• describes a faulty way of thinking, in which you unintentionally stereotype someone
• or something;

Reliability and validity

• Reliability: tests measure consistently what they are trying to measure (produce the same results with each time)
• Validity: tests actually measure what they are supposed to measure

Intellectual disabilities

• Children with dysgraphiahave a learning disability that results in a struggle to write legibly
• An individual with dyslexia exhibits an inability to correctly process letters