PSYASS 3 CHAP 9

• Intelligence


  A multifaceted capacity that manifests itself in different ways across the life span
• Abilities that constitute intelligence

  • Acquire and apply knowledge
  • Reason logically
  • Plan effectively
  • Infer perceptively
  • Make sound judgments and solve problems
  • Grasp and visualize concepts
  • Pay attention
  • Be intuitive
  • Find the right words and thoughts with facility
  • Cope with, adjust to, and make the most of new situations
• Young children's definition of intelligence

  Emphasize positive interpersonal skills (such as acting nice, or being helpful or polite)
• Older children's definition of intelligence

  Emphasize on academic skills, such as reading well
• Francis Galton


  • Believed that the most intelligent persons were those equipped with the best sensory abilities
  • Published on the heritability of intelligence, thus anticipating later nature-nurture debates
• Alfred Binet


  • Viewed intelligence as a number of distinct processes or abilities that could be assessed only by separate tests
  • Argued that when one solves a particular problem, the abilities used cannot be separated because they interact to produce the solution
• David Weschler


  • Defined intelligence as the aggregate or global capacity of the individual to act purposefully, to think rationally and to deal effectively with his environment
  • Added that there are nonintellective factors that must be taken into account when assessing intelligence
• Jean Piaget


  • Viewed intelligence as a kind of evolving biological adaptation to the outside world
• Interactionism


  The complex concept by which heredity and environment are presumed to interact and influence the development of one's intelligence
• Factor-analytic theories


  Focus on identifying the ability or groups of abilities deemed to constitute intelligence
• Information-processing theories


  Focus on identifying the specific mental processes that constitute intelligence
• Factor analysis


  A process in which the values of observed data are expressed as functions of a number of possible causes in order to find which are the most important
• Group factors


  Factors common to a group of activities indicating intelligence, such as linguistic, mechanical, or arithmetic abilities
• Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences

  • Interpersonal intelligence: the ability to understand other people
  • Intrapersonal intelligence: the capacity to form accurate self-perceptions, to discriminate accurately between emotions, and to be able to draw upon one's emotions as a means of understanding and an effective guide
• Emotional intelligence


  The ability to perceive, use, understand, manage, and handle emotions
• Crystallized intelligence


  Include acquired skills and knowledge that are dependent on exposure to a particular culture as well as on formal and informal education
• Fluid intelligence


  Nonverbal, relatively culture-free, and independent of specific instruction (such as memory for digits)
• Vulnerable abilities


  Cognitive abilities that decline with age and that do not return to pre-injury levels after brain damage
• Maintained abilities


  Cognitive abilities that do not decline with age and tend to return to pre-injury levels after brain damage
• Three-stratum theory of cognitive abilities

  • John B. Carroll's conception of mental abilities and processing classified by three levels or strata, with g at the broadest level followed by eight abilities or processes at the second level and a number of more narrowly defined abilities and processes at the third level
• Simultaneous (or parallel) processing


  Information is integrated all at one time, described as "synthesized"
• Successive (or sequential) processing


  Each bit of information is individually processed in sequence, logical and analytic in nature
• PASS model


  Planning, attention, simultaneous, and successive
• Ratio IQ


  The ratio of the test taker's mental age divided by his or her chronological age, multiplied by 100 to eliminate decimals
• Deviation IQ


  Reflects a comparison of the performance of the individual with the performance of others of the same age in the standardization sample
• Point scale


  A test organized into subtests by category of item, not by age at which most test takers are presumed capable of responding in the way that is keyed as correct
• Test composite


  A test score or index derived from the combination of and/or a mathematical transformation of, one or more subtest scores
• Routing test


  A task used to direct or route the examinee to a particular level of questions
• Teaching items


  Items designed to illustrate the task required and assure the examinee that the examinee understands
• Floor


  The lowest level of the items on a subtest
• Ceiling


  The highest-level item of the subtest
• Basal level


  A base-level criterion that must be met for testing on the subtest to continue
• Wechsler tests


  • A point scale, not an age scale
  • Items were classified by subtests rather than by age
  • Suffered from some problems with the standardization sample and subtest reliability and difficulty
• Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale

  Organized into Verbal and Performance scales
• Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-IV

  The current Wechsler adult scale, made up of subtests that are designated either as core or supplemental
• Core subtest


  One that is administered to obtain a composite score
• Supplemental subtest

  Also referred to as an optional test, used for purposes such as providing additional clinical information or extending the number of abilities or processes sampled
• Short form

  A test that has been abbreviated in length, typically to reduce the time needed for test administration, scoring, and interpretation
• Group tests of intelligence

  • Army Alpha test
• Composite scores


  Represent small sets of data points that are highly related to one another, both conceptually and statistically