Intelligence and

Psychological Testing

Who Is the Most Intelligent?

What is Intelligence?

Define…..

Serena Williams

• Age 22 won a record-setting three Grand Slam tennis titles in a row for an unheard-of 6 Grand Slams

• Won the 2003 Wimbledon title

• First woman tennis player to earn $4 million in a single year

Bill Gates• At age 48 he became

the richest man in the US- worth $61 billion

• He began writing computer programs in 8th grade

• Wrote one of the first operating systems to run a computer

• In his 20s he founded Microsoft

Kim Ung-Yong

• Scored a 210 IQ on the Stanford-Binet test and made the Guinness Book of World Records

• By age 3 he learned differential calculus

• By age 4 he could read & write 4 languages

• He received his Ph.D in physics at age 15 and then began work for NASA

Midori• Age 3 she began

playing the violin• She could memorize

and flawlessly perform long and complicated pieces of classical music

• By age 10 she was considered a musical prodigy and played with the NY Philharmonic Orchestra

So, who is more intelligence?

• It depends how you define intelligence

• Psychometrics- area of psych concerned with developing intelligence tests & other individual abilities (I.E- skills, beliefs, personality traits)

Psychological Tests

Mental Ability Tests Personality Tests

Intelligence Aptitude Achievement

Have you ever taken any of these? What are some of the issues that come with these tests?

Types of measures

Intelligence- measures general mental ability- a standardized measure of a sample of a person’s behavior– Spearman’s Two-Factor Theory: g (general

intelligence) & s (specific mental abilities)

Aptitude- assess specific types of mental abilities (ex: numerical, abstract reasoning)

Achievement- knowledge of various subjects (ex: history, literature, psychology)

Standardization and Norms

• Standardization- uniform measure and procedures

• Test norms-the ranking on a particular test or measurement

• Percentile score- shows how many people score above and below a particular score

Reliability-

• To determine reliability you must compute the correlation coefficient between the two sets of scores

• Most IQ test range into the .90s• From .7 to 1.0 are considered acceptable

reliability coefficients• Low motivation or high anxiety could drag

a person’s score down

consistency of a test (similar results upon repetition)

Validity- ability of the test to measure what it was designed to• Are IQ tests valid?• They measure the kind of intelligence that’s

necessary to do well in academic work (abstract reasoning & verbal fluency)

• Positive correlations have been found between IQ scores and school grades (.5-.6)

• The IQ test cannot assess intelligence in a broader sense (practical problem solving, social competence, creativity, etc)

Types of Validity

• Content-representative of the entire domain covered

• Criterion-corresponding to another measure that is assessed

• Construct- how a test measure a hypothetical construct

History of Intelligence Testing

• Galton’s Study of Hereditary Genius (late 1800s)• Alfred Binet (1904)- 1st intelligence test

– But NOT first IQ test– Mental Age

• Stanford-Binet Test (1916)– Revised by Lewis Terman– New scoring based on “intelligent quotient” (IQ)

IQ = MENTAL AGE x 100 Chronological AGE

History of Intelligence Testing (cont.)

• David Wechsler’s WAIS (1939)– Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale– Less dependent on verbal ability (p. 240)– New scoring based on a normal distribution– Raw scores translated into deviation IQ scores

and then into percentile scores (p.241)– Extremes (Gifted & Retarded)- 2 SDs from

mean

Fluid v. Crystallized Intelligence

Fluid • Involves reasoning

ability, memory capacity, & speed of information processing

Crystallized• Ability to apply

acquired knowledge and skills to problem solving

Standard Intelligence Curve

Hereditary v. Environment

• Twin & Adoption Studies

• Heritability Ratio -proportion of a trait variability related to genetics

• Cumulative Deprivation Hypothesis

• Reaction Range –genetically determined limits in intelligence

• Flynn Effect

• Economic component

Extremes in Intelligence

• Mental retardation or intellectual disability- deficiencies in adaptive skills prior to age 18

• Mild- IQ 55-70

• Moderate- IQ 40-55

• Severe- IQ 25-40

• Profound IQ below 25

Giftedness

With all three - Eminence

Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

Contexual

Experimental Componential

Contexual- behaviors considered intelligent by a given culture (Adaptation Selection Shaping)

Experimental- relationship between experience and intelligence (Novelty Automation)

Componential- types of mental processes that intelligent thought depends on (practical, analytical, & creative)

Sternberg: Why Intelligent people fail

• lack of motivation

• lack of impulse control

• lack of perseverance

• fear of failure

• procrastination

• inability to delay gratification

• too little/too much self-confidence

Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences

• TAKE THE TEST!

Creativity & Intelligence

• RAT Test- based on the assumption that creative people see unusual relationships between items

• No correlation between creativity & intelligence

• Correlation between creativity & mental disorders

– General population: 15% has a mood disorder

– Writers & artists: 50%

– Composers: 45%

Test your creativity

• What does it say about you?? Lets score it and see!

Cultural Differences in IQ

• Jensen’s Heritability Explanation & the controversial “Bell Curve”

• Stereotype Vulnerability

• Cultural Bias on IQ Tests (take the cultural bias test)