Chap 9 - Intelligence

• Interactionism refers to the complex concept by which heredity and environment are presumed to interact and influence the development of one’s intelligence.
• In factor-analytic theories, the focus is squarely on identifying the ability or groups of  abilities deemed to constitute intelligence. 
• In information-processing theories, the focus is on identifying the specific mental processes that occur when intelligence is applied to solving a problem.
• Factor analysis is a group of statistical techniques designed to determine the existence of underlying relationships between sets of variables, including test scores
• As early as 1904, the British psychologist Charles Spearman pioneered new techniques to measure intercorrelations between tests.
• This theory is sometimes referred to as a two-factor theory of intelligence because every ability test was thought to be influenced by the general factor g and a specific ability s, with each s unique to each test
• As Spearman and his students continued their research, they acknowledged the existence of an intermediate class of factors common to a group of activities but not to all. This class of factors, called group factors, is neither as general as g nor as specific as s. Examples of these broad group factors include verbal, spatial, and arithmetical abilities.
• Interpersonal intelligence is the ability to understand other people: what motivates them, how they work, how to work cooperatively with them.
• Aspects of Gardner’s writings, particularly his descriptions of interpersonal intelligence and intrapersonal intelligence, have found expression in what Mayer and colleagues have called emotional intelligence.
• crystallized intelligence is relatively robust such that knowledge continues to accumulate throughout middle and late adulthood
• crystallized intelligence are dependent on exposure to a particular culture as well as on formal and informal education
• fluid intelligence are nonverbal, relatively culture-free, and independent of specific instruction.
• vulnerable abilities - decline with age and tend not to return to preinjury levels
• maintained abilities; they tend not to decline with age and may return to preinjury levels following brain damage
• Carroll’s interpretation of the data differed sharply from Gf-Gc theory on only one question. He believed that the data clearly showed that Spearman’s general factor sat atop the hierarchy of broad and narrow abilities. Thus, he called his model of intelligence the three-stratum theory of cognitive abilities because he thought intelligence is best described at three levels (or strata): general, broad, and narrow.
• In simultaneous (or  parallel) processing, information is integrated all at one time. 
• In successive (or sequential) processing, each bit of information is individually processed in sequence.
• The strong influence of an information-processing perspective is also evident in the work of others (Das, 1972; Das et al., 1975; Naglieri, 1989, 1990; Naglieri & Das, 1988) who have developed what is referred to as the PASS model of intellectual functioning. Here, PASS is an acronym for planning, attention, simultaneous, and successive.
• Stanford-Binet was the first published intelligence test to provide organized and detailed administration and scoring instructions. 
• Stanford-Binet was also the first American test to employ the concept of IQ. And it was the first test to introduce the concept of an alternate item, an item to be substituted for a regular item under specified conditions (such as the situation in which the examiner failed to properly administer the regular item).
• Earlier versions of the Stanford-Binet had employed the ratio IQ, which was based on the concept of mental age (the age level at which an individual appears to be functioning intellectually as indicated by the level of items responded to correctly).
• The ratio IQ is the ratio of the testtaker’s mental age divided by their chronological age, multiplied by 100 to eliminate decimals. As illustrated by the formula for its computation, those were the days, now long gone, when an IQ (for intelligence quotient) really was a quotient:
• The deviation IQ reflects a comparison of the performance of the individual with the performance of others of the same age in the standardization sample.
• Previously, different items were grouped by age and the test was referred to as an age scale. The Stanford-Binet: Fourth Edition (SB:FE) was a point scale. 
• In contrast to an age scale, a point scale is a test organized into subtests by category of item, not by age at which most testtakers are presumed capable of responding in the way that is keyed as correct. 
• A test composite—formerly described as a deviation IQ score—could also be obtained. In general, a test composite may be defined as a test score or index derived from the combination of, and/or a mathematical transformation of, one or more subtest scores.
• A routing test may be defined as a task used to direct or route the examinee to a particular level of questions. A purpose of the routing test, then, is to direct an examinee to test items that have a high probability of being at an optimal level of difficulty.
• The routing tests, as well as many of the other subtests, contain teaching items, which are designed to illustrate the task required and assure the examiner that the examinee understands. 
• In intelligence testing parlance, the term floor refers to the lowest level of the items on a subtest. So, for example, if the items on a particular subtest run the gamut of ability from developmentally delayed at one end of the spectrum to intellectually gifted at the other, then the lowest-level item at the former end would be considered the floor of the subtest.
• The highestlevel item of the subtest is the ceiling. On the Binet tests, another useful term is basal level, which is used to describe a subtest with reference to a specific testtaker’s performance. 
• Many Binet subtests have rules for establishing a basal level, or a base-level criterion that must be met for testing on the subtest to continue. 
• If and when examinees fail a certain number of items in a row, a ceiling level is said to have been reached and testing is discontinued.
• The SB5 is exemplary in terms of what is called adaptive testing, or testing individually tailored to the testtaker. Other terms used to refer to adaptive testing include tailored testing, sequential testing, branched testing, and response-contingent testing.
• In addition to formal scoring and analysis of significant difference scores, the occasion of an individually administered test affords the examiner an opportunity for behavioral observation. More specifically, the assessor is alert to the assessee’s extra-test behavior.
• the WAIS-IV is the current Wechsler adult scale. It is made up of subtests that are designated either as core or supplemental. 
• A core subtest is one that is administered to obtain a composite score. Under usual circumstances, a supplemental subtest (also sometimes referred to as an optional subtest) is used for purposes such as providing additional clinical information or extending the number of abilities or processes sampled.
• One test became known as the Army Alpha test. This test would be administered to Army recruits who could read. It contained tasks such as general information questions, analogies, and scrambled sentences to reassemble
• Army Beta test, designed for administration to foreign-born recruits with poor knowledge of English or to illiterate recruits (defined as “someone who could not read a newspaper or write a letter home”).
• In general, we may define a screening tool as an instrument or procedure used to identify a particular trait or constellation of traits at a gross or imprecise level. 
• A cognitive style is a psychological dimension that characterizes the consistency with which one acquires and processes information.