ALHT106 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Affect Heuristic, Decision-Making, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Intelligence
Lecture 1
• What is intelligence
o Intelligence is the set of mental abilities and talents that an organism can employ to
achieve its goals by overcoming challenges and obstacles
o The notion of intelligence is usually not conceived of or described in terms of
absolute ability, but rather as a means of comparing individuals
o Difficult to define because people are primarily interested in individual differences
o Varies with context and goals
o Something to do with being smart though not necessarily wise and is described with
metaphors like having more brain power
o Associated with particular kinds of cognitive abilities, namely reasoning and
problem solving, but also involves memory/knowledge, skill, attention and general
self-control
o Allied health
• Help us understand, describe and quantify degrees of mental impairment
• Easy to take the abilities granted by typical, adult human intelligence for
granted, which can result in poorer clinical outcomes for clients with impaired
cognitive faculties
• Testing levels of intelligence
o Sir Francis Galton - started intelligence testing to select out those of higher ability
• Testing consisted of simple memory, reaction time and puzzle tasks
• These practices set the standards for nomothetic research practices in
psychology for centuries to come
▪ i.e. mass testing of large groups using standardised measures
• Galton's work also pioneered the tool of statistical correlation
o Galton's work was paralleled by the work of the French psychologist Alfred Binet
• Interested in identifying which children were struggling in school, and how
best to address their ability
• Tested children on their ability to perform diverse, complex tasks, and
discovered the rates at which scholastic abilities typically improve with age
• Introduction of 'mental age' - a standardised description of the mental
prowess children (and adults) typically show by certain ages
• From this psychologists were able to quantify the extent of intellectual
impairment as mental age lagging behind true age
• Stanford-Binet Scale - widespread standard in intelligence testing
▪ The scale popularised a single digit means of quantifying overall
intelligence - the intelligence quotient (IQ)
▪ IQ = mental age/chronological age x 100
▪ Because IQ depends on gauging the typical intellectual ability of an
average person at a particular age, the mean is always 100
▪ As such, when general cognitive abilities change over time, new
averages must be established so the IQ is always reset to 100
▪ IQ is calculated as an individual's position relative to peers of the same
age on a frequency distribution - standard deviation
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o Wechsler Intelligence Scales
• Focused primarily on testing adult subjects, and took special measures to
factor out biases known to be introduced by language ability
▪ Verbal intelligence - word-based comprehension and reasoning
▪ Non-verbal intelligence - working memory and processing speed
• Estimates of intelligence outside of school/academic contexts
o Intellectually impaired/developmentally delayed
• IQ lower than 70
• Noteworthy impairments or delays in multiple domains of cognitive
functioning
• Causes
▪ Genetic/chromosomal (Down syndrome, Fragile X)
▪ Metabolic (Phenylketonuria, Smith-Lemli-Opitz Syndrome)
▪ Environment/Uterine (foetal alcohol syndrome)
▪ Injury (infant asphyxiation)
• 3% of Australian population have a noteworthy intellectual impairment
• 61% of whom have severe limitations in activities of daily living, requiring
routine assistance or health interventions
• Intellectual impairment is not uncommon, but under-noticed
o Intellectually gifted/atypical talent or creativity
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• Exceeds over 130
• Great problem solving abilities and can also reflect immense novelty of
thinking (creativity)
• Gifted individuals are often encouraged to invest in areas of talent (academic,
musical, sports), but typically retain a high capacity for divergent thinking
(generate multiple solutions)
• Limitations and problems with IQ
o Extremely useful in
• Identifying vulnerable groups
• Improving educational attainment
• Measuring epidemiological impacts on mental abilities
o Most problems stem from poor administration/interpretation
o Validity of IQ test are questionable
• Most predictive in written, scholastic and academic settings, less so elsewhere
• Definitely valid in predicting performance in these domains but struggle with
predicting more hands-on talents
o Not all IQ tests are created equal in this regard
• Some such as Raven's Progressive Matrices, are specifically designed so as to
not rely on language, cultural familiarities or potentially practiced domains
(e.g. multiplication tables) in assessing IQ
• Others like the Wechsler Scales, have multiple subtests that are expected to
be differentially affected by these factors
o Reliability was a concern in early intelligence testing
• Modern IQ tests are extremely well-refined and have demonstrably high
reliability across many different sessions
o Run the risk of containing systematic biases (e.g. in favour of English speaking white
men) that may go unexamined in cultural contexts where the superiority of
favoured groups is assumed, or at least expected
find more resources at oneclass.com
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Document Summary
Interested in identifying which children were struggling in school, and how best to address their ability: tested children on their ability to perform diverse, complex tasks, and discovered the rates at which scholastic abilities typically improve with age. Introduction of "mental age" - a standardised description of the mental prowess children (and adults) typically show by certain ages. From this psychologists were able to quantify the extent of intellectual impairment as mental age lagging behind true age. Stanford-binet scale - widespread standard in intelligence testing: the scale popularised a single digit means of quantifying overall intelligence - the intelligence quotient (iq) Iq is calculated as an individual"s position relative to peers of the same age on a frequency distribution - standard deviation: wechsler intelligence scales. Iq lower than 70: noteworthy impairments or delays in multiple domains of cognitive functioning, causes, genetic/chromosomal (down syndrome, fragile x, metabolic (phenylketonuria, smith-lemli-opitz syndrome, environment/uterine (foetal alcohol syndrome)
