What is

Intelligence?

Chapter 12
Intelligence (and Individual Differences)
Outlines
• What is intelligence?
• How do we measure intelligence?
• Factors that influence intelligence
 Think on Your Own…
How do YOU define Intelligence?
Is it the ability to use reason and logic?
Is it the ability to write and speak clearly?
Is it limited to one’s performance in school?
Is it behavior in social situations?
……

Not that simple, right?

There are many psychological theories about
intelligence that we will examine in this
module!
• Psychometricians specialize in measuring
psychological characteristics for
intelligence and personality.
• By using patterns of test scores, they have
found evidence for general intelligence as
well as for specific abilities.
What is Intelligence?
•Intelligence is an inferred process that
humans use to explain the different degrees of
adaptive success in people’s behavior.
• The mental abilities that enable one to adapt to, shape,
or select one’s environment
• The ability to judge, comprehend, and reason
• The ability to understand and deal with people, objects,
and symbols
• The ability to act purposefully, think rationally, and
deal effectively with the environment
Spearman’s Psychometric Approach -
Intelligence as a Single Trait
• Psychometric Approach
• The measurement (metric) of individual differences in
behaviors and abilities

• George Spearman (1904) reported findings

supporting the idea that performance on any test of
mental ability was based on a single general ability
factor that he termed “g”

• Spearman also believed that performance on any test

of mental ability required the use of a specific ability
factor that he termed “s”
 s

Logical

s Mechanical g Spatial s

Arithmetical

s
Cattell’s View of Intelligence -
Intelligence as a Few Basic Abilities
• Fluid Intelligence (流體智能)
• The ability to think on the spot and solve novel
problems
• The ability to perceive relationships
• The ability to gain new types of knowledge

• Crystallized Intelligence (結晶智能)

• Factual knowledge about the world
• The skills already learned and practiced
• Examples
• Arithmetic facts
• Knowledge of the meaning of words
• City capitals
Intelligence Tests and Basic Abilities

• Fluid intelligence on tests is measured by:

• The ability to assemble novel puzzles
• The ability to determine the next entry in a series of
numbers
• The ability to identify which one of four objects is related to
the others

• Children who do well on one test of fluid intelligence

usually do well on other tests of fluid intelligence
• They may no necessarily perform well on tests of crystallized
intelligence
Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory

• A prominent figure in the

research of human
intelligence, developed
an alternative intelligence
model, comprising 3
elements of thinking
process kept in balance
by metacognition.
Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory

• Robert Sternberg believes that the ability to function

effectively in the real world is an important indicator of
intelligence
• He views intelligence as consisting of three cognitive parts:
• a. Processing components (skills used in problem
solving)
b. Contextual components (links between intelligence and
the environment)
c. Experiential components (mechanisms for modifying
intelligence through experience).
Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory
• Sternberg believes that practice in relating new to existing ideas
improves intelligence.
• He emphasizes three different kinds of thinking that improve
intelligence through allowing students to process information in
different ways:
a. analytic- involves comparing, contrasting, critiquing, judging,
and evaluating.
b. creative- includes investigating, discovering, imagining, and
supposing
c. practical- includes implementing, applying, using, and
seeking relevance in ideas.
Broader Theory of Intelligence
• Howard Gardener proposed a theory of multiple
intelligences, in which he identified 9 distinct types
of intelligence.
• The first three intelligences are included in
psychometric theories of intelligence:
• Linguistic intelligence
• Logical-Mathematical Intelligence
• Spatial Intelligence

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its

ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life
believing that it is stupid.” (Albert Einstein)
Gardener’s Theory of Multiple Intelligence
Gardener’s theory has prompted
researchers to begin looking
at/examining other “nontraditional”
aspects of intelligence!

For example, emotional intelligence (EQ),

social intelligence (SQ)…
 How is Intelligence
Statistically Measured?
The first Intelligence test was created
by Binet and Simon using simple
tasks to distinguish children who
would do well in school from those
who wouldn’t.

Binet and Simon used Mental age to

distinguish “bright” from “dull”
children.
What is IQ?

• Lewis Terman revised Simon and Binet’s test and published

a version known as the Stanford-Binet Test in 1916.

• Performance was described as an intelligence quotient (IQ)

which was imply the ratio of mental age to chronological age
multiplied by 100:

• IQ=MA/CA x 100
Stanford-Binet IQ Test
• This test measures things that are necessary for school
success
• Understanding and using language, memory, the ability to
follow instructions, and computational skills
• Binet’s test is a set of age-graded items
• Binet assumed that children’s abilities increase with age
• These items measure the person’s “mental level” or
“mental age”
• Adaptive Testing
• Determine the age level of the most advanced items that a
child could consistently answer correctly
• Children whose mental age equal their actual or
chronological age were considered to be of “regular”
intelligence
Another test used frequently are the
Wechsler Intelligence Scale
• Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fifth Edition (WISC-V)
• Used with children 6 to 16
• Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Fifth Edition (WAIS-IV)
• Used with people 16 and older
• The VCI is derived from the sum of scaled scores for
Similarities and Vocabulary.
• The VSI is derived from the sum of scaled scores for Block
Design and Visual Puzzles.
• The FRI is derived from the sum of scaled scores for Matrix
Reasoning and Figure Weights.
• The WMI is derived from the sum of scaled scores for Digit
Span and Picture Span.
• The PSI is derived from the sum of scaled scores for Coding
and Symbol Search.
Culture-Fair Intelligence Tests
• Raven’s Progressive Matrices
• A “culture-fair” or culture-reduced test that would make
minimal use of language and not ask for any specific facts
• These matrices progress from easy to difficult items --
measures abstract reasoning
Do Intelligence tests work?

To answer this question we must

examine Reliability and Validity
How Stable is IQ?

• Research suggests that intelligence is relatively

stable from early childhood on

• IQ scores tend to be fairly stable

• IQ test at 4 and a second at 17 - 13 points up or down
• IQ test at 8 and a second at 17 - 9 points up or down
• IQ test at 12 and a second at 12 - 7 points up or down

• The closer together in time that IQ tests are

given… the more consistent (stable) the scores.
Do tests scores really measure
intelligence?

This is a question of validity. Does the test

measure what it claims to measure?
Most test developers argue that their tests are
valid measures of intelligence by showing that
test scores are related to children’s grades in
school. But there might be somethings elsa...
Factors that Influence
Intelligence
 Factors Influencing Intelligence
• The Child’s Influence
• Genetics
• Genotype–Environment Interaction
• Gender

• The Immediate Environment’s Influence

• Family Environment
• School Environment

• The Society’s Influence

• Poverty
• Race/Ethnicity
Gender
• Boys and girls tend to be equivalent in most aspects of
intelligence
• The average IQ scores of boys and girls is virtually identical
• The extremes (both low and high ends) are over-
represented by boys

• Girls as a group:
• Tend to be stronger in verbal fluency, in writing, in
perceptual speed (starting as early as the toddler years)

• Boys as a group:
• Tend to be stronger in visual-spatial processing, in science,
and in mathematical problem solving (starting as early as
age 3)
Schooling
• Attending school makes children smarter

• Children from families of low SES and those from families

of high SES make comparable gains in school achievement
during the school year

• What about during summer break?

• Children from families of low SES have a drop in

achievement scores

• Children from families of high SES have achievement

scores that stay constant or rise slightly
Poverty

• The more years children spend in poverty, the lower

their IQs tend to be

• Children from lower- and working-class homes average 10-

15 points below their middle-class age mates on IQ tests

• In many countries, children from wealthier homes

score better on IQ test than children from poorer
homes

• The greater the gap in wealth in a country the greater the

difference in IQ scores