PSYC 2500H Chapter Notes - Chapter 10: Normal Distribution, Cultural Bias, Convergent Thinking
26 Jun 2018
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Chapter 10: Intelligence
-What is Intelligence?
Psychometric Views of Intelligence
oPsychometric approach: a theoretical perspective that portrays intelligence as a trait (or set of
traits) on which individuals differ; psychometric theorists are responsible for the development of
standardized tests
Goal is to identify and measure the traits that contribute to intellectual differences
Hard to agree on the structure of intelligence
oAlfred Binet’s Singular Component Approach
Commissioned to identify “dull” children (by French government) who might profit from
remedial instruction
Devised tasks measuring skills important for classroom learning: attention, perception,
memory, numerical reasoning, verbal comprehension…
Binet Simon Test – Rendered Mental Age (MA)
MA: a measure of intellectual development that reflects the level of age-graded
problems a child is able to solve
Enabled them to identify slow learners and to estimate all children’s levels of
intellectual development
Impetus for IQ test
Predicts academic performance
oThe Multicomponent View of Intelligence
Some psychometric theorists challenge that a single score could adequately represent
human intellectual performance
Could subtests be measuring a number of distinct mental abilities as opposed to
one overarching one?
Factor analysis: a statistical procedure for identifying clusters of tests or test items
(factors) that are highly correlated with one another and unrelated to other test items
Early multicomponent Theories of Intelligence
Spearman – General mental factor – g
og: Spearman’s abbreviation for neogenesis, which measures one’s
ability to understand relations (general mental ability)
If cognitive scores across a variety of tests were moderate
correlated, there must be a general mental factor
os: Spearman’s term for mental abilities that are specific to particular
tests
Thurstone – Primary Mental Abilities
oPrimary Mental Abilities: seven mental abilities, identified by factor
analysis, that Thurstone believed to represent the structure of
intelligence
Spatial ability
Perceptual speed – quick processing of visual information
Numerical reasoning
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Verbal meaning – defining words
Word fluency – speed at recognizing words
Memory
Inductive reasoning- forming a rule that describes a set of
observations
oConcluded that these 7 distinct mental abilities make up g
Later Multicomponent theories of Intelligence
Structure-of-intellect model – Guilford
oFactor-analytic model of intelligence, proposes 180 distinct mental
abilities
oConcluded this by classifying cognitive tasks into three major
dimensions
1.Content – what must the person think about, 5 kinds
2. Operations – what kind of thinking is the person asked to
perform, 6 kinds
3. Products – what kind of answer is required, 6 kinds
oAllows for 180 mental abilities, based on all possible combinations of
the various intellectual contents, operations and products (5x6x6 = 180)
oScores obtained were often correlated, abilities not as independent as
thought
Cattell and Horn
oFluid intelligence – ability to perceive relationships and solve relational
problems of the type that are not taught and are relatively free of
cultural influences
One’s ability to solve abstract problems that are not taught and
are relatively free from cultural influences
i.e. recognize relationships between otherwise meaningless
geometric figures
oCrystallized intelligence – ability to understand relations or solve
problems that depend on knowledge acquired from schooling and other
cultural influences
Ability to solve problems that depend on knowledge acquired
as a result of schooling and other life experiences
Tests of general information, word comprehension and
numerical abilities.
Recent Hierarchical Model of Intelligence – a model of the structure of intelligence in
which a broad, general ability factor is at the top of the hierarchy, with a number of
specialized ability factors nested underneath
Hierarchical Model of Intelligence, Intelligence consists of:
o(1) General ability factor – influences one’s performance on many
cognitive tests
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o(2) Specialized ability factors (something similar to Thurstone’s
primary mental abilities) that influences how well performs in one
particular domain
Three-stratum theory of intelligence – Carroll
og at the top of the hierarchy, 8 broad abilities at the second stratum, and
narrower domains for each second-stratum ability at the third stratum
Hierarchial models depict intelligence as both an overarching general mental
ability and a number of more specific abilities that each pertain to a particular
intellectual domain
A Modern Information-Processing Viewpoint
oTriarchic theory of intelligence – Sternberg
Triarchic theory of intelligence: a recent information-processing theory of intelligence
that emphasizes three aspects of intelligent behaviour not normally tapped by IQ tests:
the context of the action, the person’s experience with the task and the information-
processing strategies the person applies to the task (or situation)
Emphasis on: (1) context (the culture and historical period in which they live, and their
ages), (2) experience (their experience with the tasks and whether their behaviour
qualifies as responses to novelty or automatized processes) and (3) information
processing skills (reflect how each person is approaching these tasks)
The Contextual Component
‘Intelligent’ behaviour is contextually defined
Street smart - those who can successfully adapt to their environment or can
shape their environment to suit them better
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Document Summary
Psychometric views of intelligence: psychometric approach: a theoretical perspective that portrays intelligence as a trait (or set of traits) on which individuals differ; psychometric theorists are responsible for the development of standardized tests. Goal is to identify and measure the traits that contribute to intellectual differences. Hard to agree on the structure of intelligence: alfred binet"s singular component approach. Commissioned to identify dull children (by french government) who might profit from remedial instruction. Devised tasks measuring skills important for classroom learning: attention, perception, memory, numerical reasoning, verbal comprehension . Binet simon test rendered mental age (ma) Ma: a measure of intellectual development that reflects the level of age-graded problems a child is able to solve. Enabled them to identify slow learners and to estimate all children"s levels of intellectual development. Predicts academic performance: the multicomponent view of intelligence. Some psychometric theorists challenge that a single score could adequately represent human intellectual performance.
