SOSC1960

Discovering Mind and Behavior

Lecture 8
Intelligence

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Intelligence
 What is intelligence
 Assessing intelligence
 Differences in intelligence
 Alternative perspectives

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What is intelligence
 Intelligence
 The capacity to understand the world, think
rationally, and use resources effectively when
faced with challenges (Feldman, 2009)

 Intelligence as a construct to clarify and

organize this complex set of phenomena

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 Is there a general intelligence or is
intelligence multidimensional?

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 g or g-factor (Spearman, 1927)
 there is one factor that is common to all
intellectual tasks

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 Physiognomy
 Judging inner character of people from their
outward physical appearance, especially the
face
 Phrenology (reading bumps on the head)
 Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828)
 A cranial bump signifies an enlargement of the
underlying faculty corresponding to the brain area

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memory

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Gould (1996) 8
 Craniometry
 Intelligence in particular can be determined by
physical measurement of the skulls either
outside (by ruler or indices of shapes and
sizes of heads) or inside (by mustard seed or
lead shot to fill the cranium and measure the
volume of the skull)

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 Craniometry
 Paul Broca (1824-1880)
 A large skull meant a large brain and high intellectual
capacity
 “In general, the brain is larger in mature adults than in
the elderly, in men than in women, in eminent men
than in men of mediocre talent, in superior races than
in inferior races” (1861, p.304)

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Samuel George Morton
(1799-1851) measured cranial
capacity of various races

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 Alfred Binet (1905)
 To devise a test to identify mentally subnormal
children
 to provide remedial training, and to avoid complete
reliance on teachers’ subjective evaluations

 Philosophy: performance on tasks improves

with _____________________
chronological, or physical, age

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 Alfred Binet (1905)
 Scoring children in terms of _____________
 indicating that a child displays the mental ability
typical of a child of that chronological age

 A child with mental age of 6 performed like the

average of 6-year-old

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Intelligence Quotient IQ = (mental age / chronological age) x 100

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 Deviation IQ Scores

The average score of everyone of the same age who takes the test
is assigned an IQ of 100; a person’s IQ then indicates his/her relative15
performance to this average of his/her own age group
Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-III)
 An examiner estimates the ability of the test
taker, and then administers items of appropriate
difficulty level.
 If the test taker is able to answer all questions at
this level, the examiner proceeds to successively
more difficult items, until the test taker reaches
the limit of their capacity.

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 Flynn effect (Flynn, 1984)
 Steady worldwide rise in intelligence test
performance
 Average gain is about 3 IQ points per decade
since 1940

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 Flynn effect (Flynn, 1984)
 Changes in _____________________
complexity of life may
have produced corresponding changes in
complexity of mind
 Improvements in _____________nutrition (large
nutritionally-based increases in height have
occurred during the same period as the IQ
gains)
 Improvement in ________________

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Determinants of Intelligence
 Is intelligence inherited? (nature vs
nurture debate)

 Adoption studies
 Target sample: individuals adopted early in infancy,
raised without having contact with the biological
parents
 Objective: to examine the resemblance between
adopted children and both their ____________and
biological

their ______________
adoptive parents

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Loehlin, Horn, & Willerman (1994)

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 Is intelligence inherited?
 Twin studies
 Assess hereditary influence by comparing the
resemblance of _____________________and
identical twins

____________________
fraternal twins with respect to a trait
 If sets of identical twins are more like each other on
a trait than fraternal twins (and other kinds of
siblings) are, evidence of a genetic contribution for
that trait

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 ______ do matter!

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McGue et al. (1993)

 ___________ does matter too!

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McGue et al. (1993)

 Gene-environment interaction
Heredity may set certain limits on intelligence (_________________)
genetic factors
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and environment determines where an individual fall within this range
Mental Retardation/Intellectual
Disabilities
 Significantly subaverage intellectual
functioning (IQ < 70)
 Mild: 50-70
 Moderate: 35-49
 Severe: 20-34
 Profound: below 20

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 Impairments in at least 2 of the following areas:
 Communication, self-care, home-living,
social/interpersonal skills, use of community
resources, self-direction, functional/academic
skills, work, leisure, health, and safety

 Age of onset before 18 years

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Some statistics
 1-3% of the population suffers from MR

 Approximately 90% of the cases are mild

mental retardation

 Male-to-female ratio
 1.6 : 1 in mild retardation
 No gender differences in severe forms
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Causes

 One-third of the cases have identifiable biological

reason
 Down syndrome
 an extra chromosome 21
 Linked with maternal age
 Age 20: 1 in 2000; Age 25: 1 in 500; Age 45: 1 in 18
 Perinatal complications e.g. anoxia
 Brain injury

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 Fetal alcohol syndrome
 Abnormal facial features
 Growth retardation
 Permanent CNS damage
 poor memory, attention deficits, impulsive behavior,
poor cause-effect reasoning, mental retardation

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 Two-thirds of MR are classified as familial
retardation
 No identifiable biological defects but a history
of MR in the family
 Possible factors
 Extreme poverty leading to malnutrition

 Abuse, neglect, social deprivation

 Genetic factors

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Does IQ score tell us all about a person?
 The meanings of intelligence
 Neisser et al. (1996)
 Correlation between IQ scores and grades:
 Correlation between IQ scores and total years of
education:
 Correlation between IQ scores and job performance:

 Correlation between IQ scores and juvenile offenses:

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 The meanings of intelligence
 General vs. specific abilities
 intelligence has been traditionally viewed as a single
entity, which is extremely general and underlies all
sorts of abilities
 scholars call for more emphasis on specific abilities as
opposed to the general, single intelligence

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 Multiple intelligences (Gardner, 2000)
 The scope of psychometric intelligence tests
includes only verbal, mathematical, logical,
and some aspects of spatial intelligence, to the
exclusion of other skills
 Even in the included domains, the paper-and-
pencil format rules out many kinds of
intelligence performance that matter a great
deal in everyday life

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 Multiple intelligences (Gardner, 2000)
 8 relatively independent forms of human
intelligences
 Each person has the same eight kinds of
intelligence but in varying degrees

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 Musical Intelligence
 Involves skill in the performance, composition,
and appreciation of musical patterns
 Suitable occupation:

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 Bodily kinesthetic intelligence
 Using one's whole body or parts of the body to
solve problems
 Suitable occupation:

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 Logical-mathematical intelligence
 Capacity to reason and think logically, and to
investigate issues scientifically
 Suitable occupation:

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 Linguistic intelligence
 Sensitivity to spoken and written language, the
ability to use language effectively express
oneself
 Suitable occupation:

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 Spatial intelligence
 Recognize and use the patterns of spatial
relationships
 Suitable occupation:

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 Interpersonal intelligence
 Capacity to understand the intentions,
motivations, behaviors, and moods of other
people
 Suitable occupation:

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 Intrapersonal intelligence
 The capacity to understand oneself, to
appreciate one's feelings, fears and
motivations
 Suitable occupation:

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 Naturalistic intelligence
 The ability to compare and classify living
things and recognize features of the natural
world
 Suitable occupation:

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 It is not how smart you are,
but how you are smart!

 What are the implications for education?

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 Multiple intelligence (Gardner, 2000)
 __________________,
savant syndrome
referring to a rare
condition in which mentally deficient
individuals who have a highly developed talent
in a single area (savants)

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 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2T45r5G3kA&f
eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfDEAIszuQI&fe
ature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhcQG_KItZM&f
eature=related

Kim Peek
In psychological testing, Peek has scored well
below average on general IQ tests. But he
showed superb memory performance. He reads
a book in about an hour and remembers
approximately 98.7% of everything he has read,
memorizing vast amounts of information in
subjects ranging from history and literature,
geography, and numbers to sports, music, and
dates. He can recall the content of some 12,000 52

books from memory.

 Triarchic view of intelligence (Sternberg,
2000)
 Analytical intelligence: the ability to analyze
and evaluate information, solve problems and
make decisions

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 Creative intelligence: involves going beyond
what is given to generate invention, discovery,
and novel ideas

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 Practical intelligence: the ability of an
individuals to solve everyday problems; to find
the best fit between themselves and the
demands of the environment
 How to get a cork out of the bottle?

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 Emotional intelligence
 The set of skills that underlie the accurate
assessment, evaluation, expression, and
regulation of emotions
 Underlies social skills, empathy, and self-
awareness
 May account for successes

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 Emotional intelligence
 Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence
Test (Mayer, Salovey, & Caruso, 2002)
 Four-branch of emotional intelligence
 Perceiving emotions
 Using emotions
 Understanding emotions
 Managing emotions

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Perceiving emotions 58
Using emotions

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Understanding emotions
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Managing emotions
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 Predictive validity of EI
 Correlation with college grade:_________
 Correlation with deviant behaviors (e.g.
aggression, physical fights,
vandalism):__________
 Correlation with quality of interpersonal
interactions: __________

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Required Readings
 Chapter 9

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