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Intelligence and its Measurement
• Intelligence is a combination of general
abilities and practiced skill.
• It can also refer to a generalized problemsolving ability that is present in both
familiar and unfamiliar situations.
• This ability develops gradually, reflecting
the contributions of a wide variety of
experience.
What is Intelligence?
• The first intelligence tests were
developed ~ 1900
– School admissions or placement
– The tests had no firm theoretical
grounding.
– No wonder IQ scores correlated best
with ability to do well in school.
What is Intelligence?
• Some definitions…
– The mental abilities to enable one to adapt
to, shape or select one’s environment.
– The ability to judge, to comprehend, and to
reason.
– The ability to understand and deal with
people, objects and symbols.
– The ability to act purposefully, think
rationally and deal with the environment.
What is Intelligence?
• What do these terms mean?
comprehend, think rationally, act
purposefully, judge
• We can’t measure intelligence without
operationally defining it.
What is Intelligence?
• Charles Spearman’s (1863-1945)
Psychometric Approach and the
“g” Factor
What is Intelligence?
• Charles Spearman’s Psychometric
Approach and the “g” Factor
– Attempted to measure individual differences
in behaviors and abilities.
– He measured how well a variety of people
performed on a diverse selection of tasks
– Performance on one task correlated positively
with performance on all of the others.
Spearman and “g”
• Spearman regarded “g” as a single
force that explained most of an
individual’s intellectual potential
• Recent evidence supports this (a little)
– “g” is inherited
– “s” is a result of practice
Spearman and “g”
• Psychologists do not agree yet on what
“g” represents
– Spearman’s tests may correlate well
because they are influenced by a single,
underlying, unitary process.
– Separate processes may depend upon the
same physical factors.
– Probably both of these hypotheses are
true to some extent.
Einstein’s Brain
Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence
• James Cattel (1860-1944)
– The “g” factor has two parts
– Fluid intelligence is the power
of reasoning and applying
information.
– Crystallized intelligence is
comprised of acquired skills and
knowledge
Gardner and Multiple Intelligences
• Howard Gardner’s Theory of
Multiple Intelligences
– A criticism of the psychometric
approach is that the statistical
evidence for “g” is nothing
more than an indication that the
skills that were tested are
related.
Gardner and Multiple Intelligences
• If “intelligence” is expanded to include
other skills, support for “g” is weakened
– Gardner has proposed that human being
actually possess multiple intelligences.
– Multiple intelligences are a variety of
unrelated forms of intelligence.
Gardner and Multiple Intelligences
Gardner’s intelligences:
• Language abilities
• Musical abilities
• Logic and mathematical reasoning
• Spatial reasoning
• Kinesthetic (body movement) skills
• Intrapersonal (self-control and
understanding) skills
• Interpersonal (social sensitivity and
awareness) skills
Gardner and Multiple Intelligences
• People who excel in one area may lack
knowledge and skill in another.
• There is little research to date to
support this view, though it makes a
good deal of intuitive sense.
• The existence of savants is cited as
support for multiple intelligences.
Gardner and Multiple
Intelligences
• The best savants have average or below
average IQs
– Memorizing facts
– Calculating dates
– Reproducing music
Theories and Tests of Intelligence
• IQ tests were developed before we knew
much about memory or cognition.
• Many psychologists are not sure what
intelligence actually is, and are not happy
with the tests that are in current use.
Theories and Tests of Intelligence
• IQ tests
– Intelligence quotient (IQ) tests attempt to
measure an individual’s probable
performance in school
– Binet and Simon, (France ~1900) developed
the first IQ test to help schools identify
children with serious intellectual
deficiencies.
Theories and Tests of Intelligence
• The Stanford-Binet test
– A modified version of Binet’s test developed
by psychologists at Stanford.
– Carefully trained psychologists administer it
to students on an individual basis.
– The mean or average IQ score is 100
Theories and Tests of Intelligence
• The Stanford-Binet test
– Items are classified by age level
– Testing is adaptive: the examiner aims to
find a floor and ceiling level of
performance.
– No time limit on the Stanford-Binet test.
– Ages 2 through adults
– Could you score a 2 year old?
Theories and Tests of
Intelligence
• Raven’s Progressive Matrices
– SB and Wechsler tests rely heavily on a
good understanding of English
– Can we test intelligence across a
language barrier?
Items similar to those in Raven’s Progressive Matrices test.
Theories and Tests of
Intelligence
• Raven’s Progressive Matrices
– Questions get progressively more difficult
– The test attempts to measure the subject’s
abstract reasoning abilities.
Theories and Tests of Intelligence
• The Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT)
– Designed to predict a student’s likelihood
of doing well in college.
– There is a general test measuring verbal
and mathematical reasoning abilities and
subject tests such as history and writing.
– Grading standards differ among
secondary schools, the SAT is a
standardized comparison tool
Terms
• Before you design a test:
– Identify your Construct
– Create an Operational definition
• Evaluate your operational definition by
checking
– Construct validity
– Reliability
Intelligence
• IQ and related tests have strengths and
weaknesses, and IQ tests may have
some useful practical purposes.
• Psychologists are still trying to
improve their understanding of what
intelligence is, and to develop new and
better tests that can measure it.
Lawrence Kohlberg (1927-1987)
• Harvard Center for Moral
Education
• Follower of Piaget’s concept
of cognitive progression
– Morality evolves with
acquired intellectual skills
– Moral stages are acquired in
sequence; no skipping, no
regressing
Lawrence Kohlberg (1963)
• Method
– Present people with moral
dilemmas and ask them to
propose a solution
– The decision is not important,
but the reasoning behind the
decision is!
Lawrence Kohlberg (1963)
• Preconventional (4-10)
– punishment-obedience orientation
– personal reward orientation
• Conventional (10-13)
– good boy-nice girl orientation
– law and order orientation
• Postconventional (14?
– social contract orientation
– universal ethical principle orientation
Implicit Knowledge
• Things that we “just do”
• Does implicit knowledge require
“thought” – Is a cognitive process?
The Source of Reason
• Issue 16 – Do We Use Reasoning to
Make Moral Decisions
– Yes: Takes Kohlberg’s approach
• Situations are considered and then decisions
are made (the mind as a judge)
– No: Assumes a Dual-Process Model
• Positions are taken and then justified (the
mind as a lawyer)
Attitudes and Persuasion
• Cognitive Dissonance
– Cognitive Dissonance Theory suggests
that an individual’s behavior can change
his or her attitudes.
• Cognitive dissonance refers to a state of
tension that exists when an individual
realizes that they hold contradictory attitudes
on an issue, or has exhibited behavior that is
inconsistent with an expressed attitude.
Attitudes and Persuasion
• Cognitive Dissonance
– The classic study on cognitive dissonance was
done by Festinger and Carlsmith (1959).
– A variety of interesting experiments have
shown that cognitive dissonance has effects on
our attitudes.
Implicit Association Test
• Developed to test attitudes about race
• Issue 16 – Do We Use Reasoning to
Make Moral Decisions
– Yes: Takes Kohlberg’s approach
– No: Assumes a Dual-Process Model
The Social Intuitionist Model
•
We know that there are dual
processes at work
– Intuition has the first shot at providing
and answer. When it is confused or
conflicted, reason is invited to the
discussion
Can we “Model” Morality?
• Yes: Assumes the brain is like a neural
network model
• No: Suggests a stage-wise
development (like Piaget’s)
Why a Network Approach
•
•
•
•
Connections are changed as learning occurs
Requires teaching
Can explain the development of prototypes
Can it explain moral ambiguity?
– Bridge/Train example
Development of the Network
• This takes time and isn’t consistent
with stories of “sudden conversions”
• The network eventually stabilizes and
can no longer be readjusted
– Social consequences
Lawrence Kohlberg (1927-1987)
• Harvard Center for Moral
Education
• Follower of Piaget’s concept
of cognitive progression
– Morality evolves with
acquired intellectual skills
– Moral stages are acquired in
sequence; no skipping, no
regressing
Lawrence Kohlberg (1963)
• Method
– Present people with moral
dilemmas and ask them to
propose a solution
– The decision is not important,
but the reasoning behind the
decision is!
Lawrence Kohlberg (1963)
• Preconventional (4-10)
– punishment-obedience orientation
– personal reward orientation
• Conventional (10-13)
– good boy-nice girl orientation
– law and order orientation
• Postconventional (14?
– social contract orientation
– universal ethical principle orientation