LECTURE 8

Intelligence
Take a look at these digits:

6925713
Repeat the digits in a forward order…
Take a look at these digits:

746183
Rearrange and repeat the digits in reverse order:
 Who is more intelligent?

 “Simon and Michelle are in their final year of their

psychology major, both are doing reasonably well. Michelle
has a GPS of 3.7 and is confident she will graduate with first
class honours. Simon has a GPA of 3.4. Simon is very
involved on campus, he plays football for his Hall of
residence and he is now a member of the Guild of Students.
He is very articulate and people like the fact that he is quick
on his feet, both physically and mentally. Michelle works
very hard in preparation for her exams, she spends her
nights at the library, she has a good relationship with her
lecturers, she exercises regularly but does not like sports
and she likes watching soap operas alone in her room.”
 Intelligence

This is a concept easier to recognize than to define

We often use terms such as bright, sharp, slow, dull
to describe individual’s intelligence
Intelligence relates to:
 how quickly an individual will learn a new task
 adapt to new situations
 doing well at school, different types of jobs
 interacting with others
 Intelligence

The term intelligence is defined as the individual’s

ability to understand complex ideas to adapt
effectively to the environment to learn from
experience to engage in various forms of reasoning,
to overcome obstacles by careful thought
 Is intelligence a single characteristic?

This was the debate among psychologists

Some early approaches believed that intelligence was one
characteristic and people tend to vary along this spectrum.
Spearman agreed with this notion, he felt that although
items on the intelligence tests were designed to measure
different aspects of intelligence, they tend to be highly
correlated with one another
For him intelligence was related to a single primary factor
“g” (general factor) and one or more specific factors relating
to particular tasks
Others refuted this idea and felt that intelligence composed
of several abilities each operated more or less
independently
An individual can be high on some aspects of
intelligence and low on others
 Is intelligence a single characteristic?

Thurstone felt that intelligence consisted of 7 distinct

primary mental abilities
 Verbal comprehension
 Reasoning
 Perceptual speed
 Numerical ability
 Word fluency
 Associative memory
 Spatial visualization

In recent times, we recognize that not only does intelligence involve a

general ability to handle a wide range of cognitive abilities but that it is
expressed in many ways
 Three influential views on intelligence

Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligence

Sternberg’s Triachic theory
Cattell’s theory of fluid and crystalized intelligence
 Gardner’s theory

In the past the focus of research on intelligence were on

individuals who neither greatly exceeded nor fell below
average levels of intelligence
Gardner felt that this approach was limiting
psychologists’ ideas on intelligence
He felt that we should also incorporate individuals who
are geniuses and those whose cognitive function are
impaired, as well as experts in various areas, gifted
individuals (special mental abilities)
Gardner added musical intelligence; an individual who
can for instance play the piano without any formal
training; bodily kinesthetic intelligence and interpersonal
intelligence (ability to get along well with others)
 Sternberg’s theory
There are 3 basic types of human intelligence
1) Componential/analytic intelligence: the ability
to think critically and analytically. Individuals
that score high on this aspect tend to be excellent
students they usually do well academically, they
can apply information they’ve learnt
2) Experiential/creative intelligence: emphasize
intelligence insight and the ability to formulate
new ideas. Individuals who score high in this
section excel in the ability to zone in on the
information that would be crucial in a given
situation and is creative in combining elements
to make them more purposeful
 Sternberg’s theory
3) Contextual/practical intelligence: high scores on
this are intelligent in practical ways “street smart”
they are adept at solving problems of everyday life
 Cattell’s Theory

Researchers tend to use factor analysis to find out

which group is more related and which is not

Cattell felt that there were two major cluster of

mental ability: fluid and crystalized intelligence

Fluid intelligence refers to our inherited abilities to

think and reason. It limits the information processing
capacities

Crystalize- accumulate knowledge- the information

we store over time plus the application of skills and
knowledge to specific problem solving
 Measuring Intelligence

In 1904 Binet and Simon agreed to develop an

objective method for identifying the children who
were mentally retarded
They took the premise that items used should be
ones children could answer without specific
training/study
Test should measure intellectual task- no specific
knowledge garnered from school
They use familiar and non-familiar items with the
children based on exposure to these items
 Measuring Intelligence

Task such as follow simple commands/imitate

simple gestures, name objects shown in pictures…
were included
They created different versions and broadened
their scope to measure variation of intelligence
among all children
It was also revised for use in many countries
One feature of their test that seemed to gain quite
an interest is that it could attain a single score
assumed to reflect the individuals’ level of
intelligence IQ
 IQ: Now and Then

 Originally this stood for intelligence quotient

 To get an IQ score the individuals mental age was divided

by his chronological age then multiplied by 100

 Mental age was based on the number passed correctly on

the test (2 mths credit of mental age for each item passed)
 If the mental and chronological ages were equal an IQ of
100 was obtained, this was an average score
 Above 100 showed that the individual’s intellectual age was
greater than his or her chronological age (individuals more
intelligent than others his age)
 Scores below 100 meant that the individual was less
intelligent than his/her peers
 Problems with this

At some point mental growth levels off/stops while

chronological age continues to grow
As such IQ scores begin to decline in early teen
IQ therefore would have a different definition
They therefore reflect the individual’s performance
relative to that of persons of the same age who had
taken the test
 The Wechsler scales

 Though Binet and Terman among others remain popular for

many years, they seem to have drawbacks in the sense that
they mainly had verbal subtests
 As such they paid little attention to the non verbal activities as
well
 To deal with this matter David Wechsler devised a test for both
adults and children that incorporated nonverbal or
performance as well as verbal items, this test yielded separate
scores for these two components of intelligence
 As such Wechsler felt that intelligence was not unitary
 It is unclear as to whether Wechsler’s subtests actually do
measure different aspects of intelligence
The Wechsler scales
 The Wechsler scales

 Though this is the case it is still widely used

 It is believed that the differences between scores in the
different subtest can be used to diagnose serious
psychological disorders
 A Wechsler’s test was also developed for children
 This can be used to identify children suffering from various
learning disabilities
 High scores on subtests such as picture completion and
object assembly but lower on others such as arithmetic,
information and vocabulary are more likely to suffer from
learning disabilities than children with other patterns of
scores
 The Wechsler scales

The WAIS is designed to measure the ability to

acquire new information or skills (intelligence)

The scores on this test are used to predict future

performance (aptitude)

These are different from achievement test which

measures what you have done in school
 Individual test of intelligence

 These tests though beneficial can be costly

 They can be used to tell you who is gifted as well as who is
mentally challenged
 Mental retardation refers to intellectual functioning that is
considerably below average as well as difficulty in meeting
the demands of everyday life
 Individuals can be classified, as mild, moderate or severely
retarded
 Their level of retardation is determined by their test scores
and their success in carrying out daily activities for their
age
 As such individuals who are mildly mentally retarded can
usually learn to function well
 Individual test of intelligence

The causes of mental retardation in some cases can

be linked to genetic abnormalities such as Down
Syndrome, which is caused by the presence of an
extra chromosome
Mental retardation can also stem from the
environment, factors such as nutrition, or drug use
by expectant mothers, infections, toxic agents and
traumas can result from a lack of oxygen during
birth
Most cases mental retardation cannot be readily
linked to specific causes
 Individual test of intelligence

Individuals whose intelligence are far above average

can also be identified using this these instruments
Studies done on these individuals show that they can
experience high levels of success, they can earn more
degrees, higher occupational status and salaries.
Though they are capable of attaining these luxuries
they don’t necessarily do well in adjusting to real world
situations
Additionally individuals who do not have an IQ above
average can also gain these benefits, including some
mentally retarded individuals who tend to have
amazing abilities in a specific area
 Group tests of intelligence

 The Stanford-Binet and Wechsler scales are designed to

measure one individual at a time
 There are also group tests designed to measure a group of
individuals at one time
 World war I brought about the need for these types of tests
 This was first developed by Arthur Otis who designed two
tests: Army Alpha (for individuals who could not read) and
Army beta (individuals who could not read or speak
English)
 These tests proved to be useful in for example in recruiting
candidates for officer training
 Other tests were also developed such as Otis-Lennon
School Ability Test and Cognitive Abilities Test
The cognitive basis of intelligence: processing
speed

Individuals who have high intelligence both

practically and academically have been described
as “fast learner”, “quick witted” and “quick study”.
Being intelligent is related to being able to process
information quickly
There are several tests that have been constructed
to assess cognition such as Kaufman assessment
battery for children, Kaufman adult intelligence
test and the Woodcock-Johnson Test of Cognitive
Abilties
 The cognitive basis of intelligence:
processing speed
Another cognitive measure of intelligence is
inspection time
This reflect the minimum amount of time a
particular stimulus must be exposed for
individuals to make a judgment about it that
meets some preestablished criterion of accuracy
The faster the duration for the individual to make
a judgment the faster the speed of mental
operations
Researchers show that the task of perception and
making a decision quickly is highly related to all
higher level mental operations in human thought
 The neural basis of intelligence

Research reveal that the speed with which nerve

impulses are conducted in the visual system (nerve
conduction velocity) correlates significantly with
measures of intelligence
Research also suggests that the metabolic activity
in the brain during cognitive tasks is also related to
intelligence
As such, if intelligence is related to efficient brain
functioning then the more intelligent a person is,
the less energy their brains should expend while
working on various tasks
 The neural basis of intelligence

Studies suggest that there is a link between brain

structure and intelligence
Scores on standard measures of intelligence such as
the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale are related to
the size of certain portions of the brain, including the
temporal lobes and the hippocampus