CHAPTER 10 – COGNITIVE ABILITIES

Cognitive ability – the capacity to reason, remember, understand solve problems, and make decisions.

Intelligence – described in terms of three characteristics: the possession of knowledge, the ability to efficiently use knowledge to reason about the world, and the ability to use that reasoning adaptively in different environments (Sternberg).

“Intelligence is whatever an intelligence test measures”


TESTING FOR INTELLIGENCE

Overview and History of Intelligence Research

* Alfred Binet (France, 1904) 
    
o Developed first “modern intelligence test”
o Test purpose - to identify children needing special instruction in school
o Believed intelligence increased with age 
o Measured mental age vs. chronological age
       
* Lewis Terman (U.S., early 1900’s)
             
o Used Binet’s test specifically to try to assess intelligence
o Felt that intelligence is fixed and genetic
o Developed the IQ - (mental age/chronological age x 100)

* Henry Goddard (U.S., early 1900’s)
    
o Adapted Binet’s test for use with US Immigration and World War I draft agencies
o Tests were unfair, required familiarity with American culture

* IQ Tests Today

o IQ scores now based on comparing scores, assigning the average score “100”
o Updated editions of both Wechsler (WAIS-III) and Stanford-Binet tests are used
o Emphasize subtests – WAIS-III have 14, Stanford-Binet has 4


Aptitude and Achievement Tests

* Aptitude tests – 


* Achievement tests – 



Measuring The Quality of Tests

* Reliability - the test results are repeatable or stable, measure same things in same way every time
             
o Test-retest reliability –


o Alternate form reliability –


o Split-half reliability – 


* Validity - degree to which a test measures what it is supposed to measure, only valid for what it is testing, validity depends on how test is used

o Content validity – 



o Criterion validity – 



* Predictive validity – 



Evaluating IQ Tests

* Reliability -




* Validity –




Cultural Learning and Fairness

* Cultural differences

o BITCH and CRUST tests – 


* Socioeconomic and ethnic differences – 



* Narrow slice of cognitive abilities being tested, may be skewed


UNDERSTANDING INTELLIGENCE

Psychometric approach - 



* Spearman – 


* Thurstone’s factor analysis – 


o Numerical ability, reasoning, verbal fluency, spatial visualization, perceptual ability, memory, and verbal comprehension

* Cattell’s theory - “g” exists, but there are two kinds of “g”

o fluid intelligence –



o crystallized intelligence –



Information Processing Approach – analyze the processes of intelligent behavior, rather than products, what mental operations are necessary to perform intellectual tasks




Triarchic Theory of Intelligence – What about everyday problems that have more than one solution?

* Analytic –


* Creative –


* Practical -


Multiple Intelligences – 


* Linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, body-kinesthetic, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and naturalistic


ADDITIONAL LEARNING OBJECTIVES

* Discuss the possible interpretations of evidence from correlational twin studies on the role of heredity and the environment in the development of intelligence. (see IQ Scores as a Measure of Innate Ability)

* Describe the conditions that can raise IQ scores. Explain why a teacher’s expectancies can affect students’ classroom performance and improvement. (see Conditions That Can Raise IQ Scores; see also IQ Scores in the Classroom)

* Describe how emotional arousal affects the measurement of mental abilities. Define test anxiety and stereotype threat. (see Linkages: Emotionality and the Measurement of Cognitive Abilities)

* Explain the differences between cross-sectional and longitudinal studies as tools for examining age-related changes in intelligence. Describe the cross-sequential with resampling design and the confounds for which it corrects. (see Focus on Research Methods: Tracking Cognitive Abilities over the Lifespan)

* Describe the types of changes in intelligence that occur with aging. (see Focus on Research Methods: Tracking Cognitive Abilities over the Lifespan)

* Discuss the relationship between creativity and intelligence. Define divergent and convergent thinking. (see Creativity)

* Describe the correlation between giftedness and success in our society. Define mental retardation, familial retardation, and metacognition. (see Unusual Cognitive Ability)

* Define learning disability. Describe the types of learning disabilities and their possible causes. (see Learning Disabilities)