Apr 04 Intelligence

• Intelligence relates to efficient and appropriate reasoning

  • varies across individuals
• Chat GPT CAN do these tasks:

  • automated tasks
  • routine activities
  • create content
  • create songs
• ChatGPT CAN'T do these tasks:

  • editing - avoid repetition and content
  • write accurate news articles
  • cannot provide opinions or advice
  • can't create original puzzles
• Psychometrics: the study of psychological assessments
• Standardization: test scores are compared to pre-tested 'standardization' or 'norm' groups
• Normal Distribution/Curve: a symmetrical bell-shaped curve that describes test score distribution
• Reliability: consistency across instances of testing

  • IQ scores have high test-retest reliability
  • low test-retests reliability = discrepancies between scores
• Validity: the test is measuring what it is intended to measure

  • IQ scores should have predicted validity
• Predictive Validity: the test is a predictor to what we assume intelligence is related to
• Alfred Binet: developed a test in response to a request from french government

  • identified children that needed special education in school
  • his test measured academic output and not intelligence
• The Stanford-Binet Test: based on the Simon-Binet Test

  • relied on age-related testing - adults and children
  • used ratio method
  • if mental age > chronological age = ability is above average of peers (gifted)
  • if mental age < chronological age = ability is below average of peers (delayed)
• The Simon-Binet Test: had 30 questions of increasing difficulty

  • the child's mental age was calculated by comparing the score /30 to the score of a group of children the same chronological age
• Wechsler thought stanford-binet test wasn't accurate to measure intelligence because:

  1. tests were made for kids and adults were just added in
  2. it didn't appreciate that you can be intelligent in different forms and ways
• Wechsler Test: tests based on 2 categories with 14 different items to get full-scale IQ

  • verbal & non-verbal scales
  • shows the differences in intelligence for different forms
• Raven's Progressive Matrices: used to measure intelligence without language bias

  • used non-verbal assessment
  • relatively free from linguistic influences and thus free from cultural bias
• Working memory capacity shares at least half its statistical variance with 'general intelligence'

  • working memory can predict intelligent behaviours
  • if you score high on IQ test, you will also score high on working memory test
• studies show that IQ tests are linked to genetics

  • your genes are very high predictor of how you'll do on IQ tests
  • 50-70% variability
• Factors that affect performance on intelligence tests:

  1. Socioeconomics
  2. Gender differences in self-estimated intelligence
  3. Culture - familiarity with task and stimuli can affect performance
• The Flynn Effect: american's IQ scores have increased by 3 points per decade over the last 100 years

  • found environmental factors influence intelligence
• Flynn Effect and how intelligence has increased;

  • Complexity: over time, more focus on abstract thinking, especially in wealthier countries
  • Health: there is a greater focus on health, which thus improves brain function and enhances IQ test scores
• Theories of Intelligence

  1. Intelligence as a single entity
  2. Intelligence as many things
• Spearman's 2 Factor Theory: found that tests of cognitive abilities correlated with each other

  • suggested that higher correlations are driven by a common reliance on a single factor

  1. General Intelligence (g factor) varies across people but is stable within one person
  2. Specific abilities (s factor) are performance on tasks, are affected by education and environment, and vary within a person
• Cattell and Horn Theory: suggests we have a biological form to intelligence & a variable form

  1. Fluid Intelligence (similar to g): the capacity to acquire new knowledge and engage in flexible thinking - genetic basis
  2. Crystallized Intelligence (similar to s): knowledge and learning that has been acquired throughout the lifetime - motivated learning
• • Crystallized Intelligence becomes better with age
  • Fluid Intelligence get worse with age (as prefrontal cortex gets affected with age)
• Savant Syndrome: a person who is otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific ability

  • suggests there are different forms of intelligence, supported by different cognitive processes
• Acquired Savant: people who acquire specific skills from brain injury

  • suggests that we have specific pockets of ability
• Sternberg's Theory of Intelligence: a process view that states that intelligence is not a system or structure but rather it is the capacity to automize information processes and use them in appropriate settings

  • can work with info automatically
• Sternberg's Intellectual Components:

  1. Meta-Component: higher order processes for planning and decision making (making decisions about how to solve a problem)
  2. Performance Component: processes for executing a task
  3. Knowledge Acquisition Component: processes to learn and store new information
• Sternberg thought the intellectual components were universal but the way we use them will vary across individuals & will determine what type of intelligence is strongest/weakest per individual
• Triarchic Theory - Types of Intelligence

  1. Analytic Intelligence: mental steps or 'components' used to solve problems
  2. Practical Intelligence: ability to apply information to daily ambiguous situations (emphasizes contextual information)
  3. Creative Intelligence: ability to think in new ways and apply information flexibly (emphasizes experimental information)
• A positive mood promotes a general 'assimilative thinking'

  • leads to greater susceptibility to misinformation
  • more global processing
• A negative mood promotes specific 'focused thinking' style

  • lowers susceptibility to misinformation
  • creates more focused thinking
• Positive affect increases your tendency to gamble