Chapter 8 Unit 2

• intelligence


  mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations
• factor analysis


  a statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items (called factors) on a test; used to identify different dimensions of performance that underlie one's total score
• general intelligence (g)


  a general intelligence factor that according to Spearman and others underlies specific mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test
• savant syndrome


  a condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional skill, such as in computation or drawing
• emotional intelligence


  the ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions
• creativity


  the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas
• intelligence test


  a method for assessing an individual's mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores
• mental age


  a measure of intelligence test performance devised by Binet; the chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance
• Stanford-Binet


  the widely used American revision (by Terman at Stanford University) of Binet's original intelligence test
• intelligence quotient (IQ)


  defined originally as the ratio of mental age to chrnological age multiplied by 100
• aptitude test


  a test designed to predict a person's future performance
• achievement test


  a test designed to assess what a person has learned
• Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)


  the most widely used intelligence test; contains verbal and performance (nonverbal) subtests
• standardization


  defining meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested standardization group
• normal curve


  the symmetrical bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many physical and psychological attributes; most scores fall near the average, and fewer scores lie near the extremes
• reliability


  the extent to which a test yields consistent results; as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test, on alternative forms of the test, or on retesting
• validity


  the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to
• content validity


  degree to which the content of the test is representative of the domain it's supposed to cover
• predictive validity


  the success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict; it is assessed by computing the correlation between test scores and the criterion behavior
• mental retardation


  a condition of limited mental ability, indicated by an intelligence score of 70 or below and difficulty in adapting to the demands of life; varies from mild to profound
• Down syndrome


  a condition of retardation and associated physical disorders caused by an extra chromosome in one's genetic makeup
• stereotype threat


  a self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype
• percentile score


  indicates the percentage of people who score at or below the score one has obtained
• construct validity


  Extent to which scores suggest that a test is actually measuring an ABSTRACT theoretical idea (such as anxiety, personality, introversion, etc.).
• convergent thinking


  Narrowing down a list of alternatives to converge on a single correct answer
• divergent thinking


  generating many possible solutions to a problem/question
• cognition


  the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating
• concept


  the mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.
• prototype


  a mental image or best example of a category
• algorithm


  a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem.
• heuristic


  a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently.
• insight


  a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem
• confirmation bias


  a tendency to search for information that supports out preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.
• fixation


  the inability to see a problem from a new perspective, by employing a different mental set.
• mental set


  a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way. often a way that has been successful in the past.
• functional fixedness


  the tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions, an impediment to problem solving.
• representativeness heuristic


  judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information.
• availability heuristic


  estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind, we presume such events are common.
• belief perseverance


  clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.
• intuition


  an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning.