Unit 8 AP Psychology

ability to gather and use information in productive ways (ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations) -commonly used term but it is an extremely difficult concept to define b/c there is no universally agreed-upon definition

a method for assessing an individual's mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores -actually measure a blend of knowledge and potential - With increasing age, adopted children's intelligence test scores become less like their adoptive parents' scores and more similar to their biological parent's scores -first modern test of intelligence was developed in France -intelligence test scores are least similar for non-twin siblings reared together -correlation of intelligence test scores between identical twins is higher when they are raised together than when they are raised apart.

argued by Charles Spearman that intelligence could be expressed by a single factor -used single analysis to conclude that underlying the many different specific abilities s that people regard as types of intelligence is a single factor that he named g for gneral

a statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items (called factors) on a test; used to identify different dimensions of performance that underlie a person's total score -In order to assess whether intelligence is a single trait or a collection of several distinct abilities, psychologists have made extensive use of factor analysis

a condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill, such as in computation or drawing -characteristics of savant syndrome most directly suggest that intelligence is a diverse set of distinct abilities -been used to support Gardner's argument for multiple intelligence Ex) Some has virtually no language ability, yet are able to compute numbers as quickly and accurately as an electric calculator Ex) Although diagnosed with autism and hardly able to speak coherently, 18-year-old Andrew can produce intricate and detailed drawings of scenes he has viewed only once. Ex) Sandra is below normal intelligence but she is able to tell you the exact day of the week of September 13, 1957

in psychology, grit is passion and perseverance in the pursuit of long-term goals • Recipe for success combines talent with grit!

corresponds to Gardner's notions of interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence Ex) When Professor McGuire asks her students to answer questions in class, she can quickly tell from their facial expressions whether they are happy to participate. Professor McGuire's perceptual skill best illustrates emotional intelligence Ex) When Phoebe strongly disagrees with her sister's opinion, she effectively controls her own anger and responds with empathy to her sister's frustration regarding their dispute. Her behavior best illustrates emotional intelligence

an idea that presupposes that intelligence increases as one gets older

created by Louis Terman -assumes that intellectual ability in childhood improves as age increases.

defined originally as the ratio of mental age (ma) to chronological age (ca) multiplied by 100 (thus, IQ=ma/ca x 100) 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 • Worked fairly well for children, but NOT for adults • Most current intelligence tests, including Standford-Binet, no longer compute an IQ in this manner. Instead, they represent the test-taker's performance relative to the average performance of others the same age -The longer the inspection time, the lower the intelligence. -distribution of IQ scores is approximately normal or bell-shaped -Cross-cultural studies during the last thirty years show IQ gains that are typically 15 points. Ex) A nine-year old child with a mental age of 12 would have what IQ? 133 Ex) A 6-year-old who responded to the original Stanford-Binet with the proficiency typical of an average 9-year-old was said to have a mental age of 9 Ex) If Jane's intelligence quotient is 100, we know that she has mental age typical of children who have the same chronological age

measure what one has learned or accomplished Ex) most test you take in school Ex) Jill, another 10th grader, took a test on the math chapter that had just been covered in class. Ex) A test designed to assess whether newly graduated medical students should be granted the legal right to practice medicine

measure ability or potential; capacity for learning certain and specific abilities Ex) any intelligence test Ex) Bob, a 10th grader, took a test that measured his potential for college success. Ex) A high school counselor gave Amy a test designed to predict whether she could learn to become a successful architect. Amy most likely took an aptitude test Ex) Helena took a special aptitude test which indicated that she could excel in teaching English as a second language.

Speed Tests: consist of large number of questions asked in a short amount of time -goal: to see how quickly a person can solve problems -amount of time allotted should be insufficient to complete the problems Power Tests: measures difficulty level of problems an individual can solve -consists of items of increasing difficulty levels -goal: to determine the ceiling difficulty level, not their problem-solving speed Group Tests: administered to a large number of people at a time -interaction between the examiner and the people taking the test is minimal -instructions are provided to the group, and then people are given a certain amount of time to complete the various sections of the test -If one psychologist administers a test simultaneously to several people, it must be a group test -less expensive; more objective Individual Tests: involve greater interaction between examiner and examinee. Ex) Some IQ tests Ex) Rorschach inkblot test; examiner attends not only what the person says about inkblots but also the process by which he or she analyzes the stimuli

used in testing adults; most widely used intelligence test; consists of separate verbal and performance (nonverbal) subtests; created by David Wechsler. Consists of 15 subtests including ... • Similarities: Reasoning the commonality of 2 objects/concepts, such as \"In what way are wool and cotton alike?\" • Vocabulary: Naming pictured objects, or defining words (\"What is guitar?\") • Block design: Visual abstract processing, such as \"Using the 4 blocks, make one just like this.\" • Letter-number sequencing: One hearing a series of numbers and letters, repeat the numbers in ascending order, and then the letters in alphabetical order: \"R-2-C-1-M-3\" -Comparing the average performance of the initial WAIS standardization sample with the average performance of the most recent WAIS standardization sample provides convincing evidence of Fly effect -WAIS was designed for testing adults' intelligence, whereas the WISC was designed for testing children's intelligence -Superior performance on the WAIS is most likely to be indicative of Sternberg's concept of analytical intelligence -A score on the WAIS that is higher than all but 2 percent of all scores earns an intelligence score of 130 -includes formalizing testing procedures and establishing norms Ex) If you achieve a score of 100 on the current version of WAIS, it would mean you achieved an average IQ score compared to others Ex) 95% of the people who take the WAIS will achieve a score btw. 70 and 130 Ex) Twenty-two-year-old Bernie takes a test that includes measures of his ability in terms of digit span, vocabulary, and object assembly. Bernie has completed the WAIS

test items have been piloted on a similar population of people as those who are meant to take the test and that achievement norms have been established -Researchers are in the process of developing a new college entrance exam. They want to ensure that wherever the test is given, it will be administered, scored, and interpreted in the same manner. In other words, the researchers are concerned with standardization - It can be argued that standardized testing (such as the SAT) is beneficial because they are fairer and more objective than admission officers' judgments. Ex) Before publishing her test of musical aptitude, Professor Reed first administered the test to a representative sample of people. This was most clearly necessary for test standardization

the symmetrical bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many physical and psychological attributes; most scores fall near the average, and few and fewer scores lie near the extremes

repeatability or consistency of the test as a means of measurement -reliability of a test is its ability to yield the same results when given a second time -test-retest is one of 3 approaches to measuring reliability Ex) When retested on the WAIS, people's second scores generally match their first scores quite closely. This indicates that the test has a high degree of reliability Ex) if you were to take a test 3 times that purportedly determined what career you should pursue, and on each occasion you received radically different recommendations, you might question the reliability of the test Ex) Katrina received a 740 on her Math SAT. She decided to take the SAT again and received a 720. The reason the scores are so similar is because the SAT has high reliability

1) Split-half reliability: randomly dividing a test into 2 different sections and then correlating people's performances on the 2 halves. -closer the correlation is to +1, greater the split-half reliability of the test Ex) A large number of people were asked to answer only the odd-numbered questions on a test. Later, they are asked to answer only the even-numbered questions. By comparing each person's two scores, a determination of the test's SPLIT-HALF reliability could be made 2) Equivalent-form reliability: correlation between performance on different forms of the test 3) Test-retest reliability: correlation between a person's score on one administration of the test with the same person's score on a subsequent administration of the test

measures what it is supposed to measure; accuracy of the test -split half validity example: Dr. Yatvin administered his new intelligence test to a group of subjects and then compared each subject's score on the odd-numbered questions to their scores on the even-numbered questions. He found a large positive correlation between the odd and even scores, indicating the test has split-half validity Ex) personality test is valid if it truly measures an individual's personality, and the career inventory described above is valid only if it actually measures for what jobs a person is best suited Ex) Smedley has a theory that intelligence is related to body temperature. He uses an oral thermometer to measure intelligence. His data most likely have good reliability but poor validity. Ex) A college administrator is trying to assess whether an admissions test accurately predicts how well applicants will perform at his school. The administrator is most obviously concerned that the test is valid *a test cannot be valid if it is not reliable; therefore if a test is valid, it will also be reliable *a test may be reliable without being valid

1) Content validity: how well a measure reflects the entire range of material it is supposed to be testing Ex. If one really wanted to design a test to find a good chef, a test that required someone to create an entree and whip up a salad dressing in addition to baking a cake would have greater content validity 2) Face validity: type of content validity; superficial measure of accuracy Ex.test of cake-baking ability has high face validity if you are looking for a chef but low face validity if you are in the market for a doctor 3) Criterion-related validity: consists of two kinds of criterion-related validity which are concurrent and predictive 4) Concurrent validity: measures how much of a characteristic a person has now: is a person a good chef now? 5) Predictive validity: measure of future performance; does a person have the qualities that would enable him/her to become a good chef? 6) Construct validity: thought to be the most meaningful kind of validity. -if an independent measure already exists that has been established to identify those who will make fine chefs and love their work, we can correlate prospective chef's performance on this measure with their performance on any new measure. -the higher the correlation, the more constructive validity the new measure has

refers to how well a measure reflects the entire range of material it is supposed to be testing - Intelligence tests are most likely to be considered culturally biased in terms of their content validity -If course exams assess a student's mastery of a representative sample of course material, they are said to have content validity Ex) if one really wanted to design a test to find a good chef, a test that required someone to create an entree and whip up a salad dressing in addition to baking a cake would have greater content validity Ex) While taking her chemistry midterm, Irene noticed that several questions asked her to identify several countries on a map. Based on what Irene had learned in her Psych 100 class, she argued with her professor that the chemistry midterm was not measuring what it was supposed to measure because it lacked content validity.

measure of future performance; does a person have the qualities that would enable him or her to become a good chef? Ex) University grades are used to assess the predictive validity of SAT

Comparing the intelligence test scores among people from distinctly different age cohorts requires cross-sectional studies

involves using knowledge accumulated over time -seems to hold steady or may even increase as adults age Ex) older person may well have the advantage on a vocabulary test or an exercise dependent upon wisdom

refers to our ability to solve abstract problems and pick up new information and skills -seems to decrease as adults age Ex) a 20 yr old may be able to learn a computer language more quickly than a 60 yr old

limited mental ability. • Intelligence score>70 • Difficulty in adapting to demands of life

proposed by Howard Gardner; thought that there are more to to intelligence than three (linguistic, logical-mathematical, and spatial) 1) Linguistic 2) Logical-mathematical 3) Visual-spatial 4) Musical 5) Bodily-kinesthetic 6) Intrapersonal 7) Interpersonal 8) Naturalist Ex) A school curriculum built on Howard Gardner's theory of intelligence would provide a diverse curriculum with education in skills not traditionally associated with IQ.

a condition of mild to severe intellectual disability and associated physical disorders caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21

mathematical estimate that indicates how much of a trait's variation in a population can be attributed to genes -depends on how similar the environment is for a group of people -The extent to which differences in intelligence among a group of people are attributable to genetic factors

a self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype Ex) Jim, age 55, plays basketball with much younger adults and is concerned that his teammates might consider his age to be a detriment to their game outcome. His concern actually undermines his athletic performance. Ex) when blacks were reminded of their race just before taking verbal aptitude tests, they performed worse

performance on intelligence tests has been increasing steadily throughout the century -suggests environmental factors such as nutrition, education, and television and video games play a role in intelligence; environment influences IQ -the best evidence of environmental influence on intelligence is that there is a positive correlation between IQ of biological unrelated children raised in the same home

provide information about how a score compares with other people's scores -If a psychological test is to tell you how you score relative to other people, test norms must be developed. Ex) Jeremy has a score of 115 on an IQ test that can be compared to the scores of hundreds of other people who took the same test. The capability to compare scores statistically is a function of norms Ex) best norm group for the ACT or SAT college-entrance tests would be high school seniors

thought intelligence can be measured by a single, general ability (g) -Spearman's g factor refers to a general intelligence that underlies successful performance on a wide variety of tasks. -General intelligence tests assess a wide variety of mental abilities -\"g-factor,\" written about by Neisser, refers to general abilities

primary mental abilities, our intelligence may be broken down into seven factors: Word Fluency, Verbal Comprehension, Spatial Ability, Perceptual Speed, Numerical Ability, Inductive Reasoning, and Memory

proposed theory of intelligences - the term \"intelligence\" should be applied to a wide variety of abilities including 8 so far

proposed the Triarchic theory of intelligence - people can be intelligent in different ways; they can evidence analytic, practical, and creative intelligence

pioneer in the study of human intelligence and testing, who initiated the use of surveys for collecting data and developed and applied statistics toward its analysis

psychologist; created first useufl intelligence test for Parisian school children -created concept of mental age -developed his intelligence test to identify children who needed special education programs -Binet's original intelligence test did not include items for adults -in Binet's test of intelligence, items included at each age level were those which could be answered by an average child of that age.

psychologist; worked at Stanford, revised Binet's IQ test and established norms for American children -Terman's longitudinal study of people with extremely high IQs found that nearly all of them had higher than average physical and mental health. -widely used American revision of Alfred Binet's original intelligence test was developed by Louis Terman -showed mentally gifted children are generally successful in their chosen occupations as adults.

psychologist; developed tests similar to the Stanford-Binet IQ test, aimed at both adults and children -Ability to deal effectively with the environment is part of Wechsler's definition of intelligence

reports that believing intelligence is biologically set and unchanging can lead to a \"fixed mindset.\" Believing intelligence is changeable, a \"growth mindset\" results in a focus on learning and growing. o Dweck taught young teens that brain is like a muscle that grows stronger with use as neurons connections grow

-reaction range refer to limits placed on IQ by heredity; it is one biological index of intelligence -to regard an abstract concept as if it were a real, concrete thing is called reification -Bill and Ted had an excellent time-travel adventure back to 1916. In order to come back to the present, Bill (who is a little below average in intelligence) needs a score of 115 on the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test. Bill has to convince Professor Terman that he is younger than he actually is, because the Stanford-Binet IQ was calculated as (mental age/chronological age) ´ 100. -Research indicates that Head Start programs increase the school readiness of children from disadvantaged home environments -Brain size (adjusted for body size) is positively correlated with intelligence, and the speed of taking in perceptual information is positively correlated with intelligence -When interpreting the results from the final exam, Professor Hazen noticed that the students who had test form A scored significantly higher than those who had test form B. Professor Hazen concluded that the final exam was low on alternate-form reliability -vast majority of retard people are classified as mildly retarded -Example of moderately mentally retarded person: Jamie is a 23-year-old female who only completed the third grade. She is employed in a sheltered workshop and has a difficult time with mild stress. - Research on gender and emotional intelligence suggests that women are more skilled than men at interpreting others' facial expressions of emotion. -In solving math computation problems, women perform better than men. In solving math reasoning problems, women perform worse than men - Research on intelligence and brain functioning indicates that highly intelligent children demonstrate greater neural plasticity than their less intelligent counterparts -Generating the single correct answer to an intelligence test question illustrates convergent thinking -IQ tests least likely to be used is China -Eugenics movement would have been most likely to encourage selective breeding of highly intelligent people. -Everyone would agree that intelligence tests are \"biased\" in the sense that test performance is influenced by cultural experiences. -In one experiment, college students were either aware or unaware that experts would evaluate their creativity in constructing paper collages. This experiment most directly illustrated that creativity is facilitated by intrinsic motivation -\"Gifted child\" programs can lead to self-fulfilling prophecies by implicitly labeling some students as \"ungifted\" and isolating them from an enriched educational environment. -The Wilsons note that their 6-month-old daughter Beth seems to be developing more slowly and is not as playful as other infants her age. Research suggests that casual observation of Beth's behavior cannot be used to predict her later intelligence score -University students who focus on the interest and challenge of their schoolwork rather than on simply meeting deadlines and securing good grades are especially likely to demonstrate creativity -To learn whether intelligence is related to information-processing speed, researchers have tested participants to determine how long it takes them to perceive briefly present visual images -Compared with North American students, Asian students perform better on math aptitude and achievements tests and they spend more time studying. -metacognitive skills involves an ability to manage your own thinking and problem solving. -Familial retardation is most closely related to poverty -Mental retardation caused by birth injuries or fetal damage is called organic retardation -Eugenics is selective breeding for desirable characteristics -The fact that fraternal twins are more similar in intelligence than ordinary siblings suggests the importance of common environmental factors -persistence is a factor that influences success for the gifted -items actually selected for an intelligence test provide operational definition of intelligence -speed of processing has been measured by the brain activity that follows exposure to a stimulus - best summary statement regarding the role of heredity on human intelligence is that heredity may impose upper limits on intelligence. -PKU retardation can be controlled by a special diet -genetically-induced lack of an enzyme that is a cause of a type of mental retardation describes phenylketonuria.