Topic 1 - Intelligence

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  • Topic 1 - Intelligence
    • Intelligence (g)
      • Spearman (1904) - intelligence should be measured by a single test of cognitive skills
        • Your ability of reason, problem solve, decide, learn and act successfully in pursit of your valued goals
    • gf and gc
      • Horn and Catell (1967) - intelligence has two parts: fluid intelligence and crystallised intelligence
        • Intelligence is not what you know but what you do when you don't know something
        • gf - reasoning and problem-sovling abilitied
        • gc - vocabulary, general information and knowledge
    • Multiple Intelligence
      • Spatial
      • Kinasthetc
      • Intrapersonal
      • Musical
      • Interpersonal
      • Logical - Mathematic
      • Linguistic
    • Genetic Heritability
      • The extent to which intelligence is passed from parents to children purely by means of their genes
        • Twin Studies, Adoption Studies, Family Studies and Genetic Testing
      • Desriveres et al (2014) - Individuals with a variant of NPTN has a thinner layer of grey matter in the left cerebral hemisphere and performed less well on IQ tests.
        • DNA analysis, MRI scans and IQ tests.
        • Large sample of teenagers
      • Hill et al (1999) - 32% of individuals in the high IQ group had a variant of IGF2R whereas it was 16% for average IQ group
        • Quasi IV (mean IQ of 136 (bright) and 103 (average)
        • Children aged 6-15 from the UK
    • Gender
      • Haier et al (2005) - males have more grey matter in their frontal and parietal lobes and females have more grey matter in different areas of the frontal lobe and Broca's area
        • MRI scans
        • Frontal and parietal lobes are associated with motor skills and high-level reasoning
        • Different areas in the frontal lobe and Broca's area is associated with speech and writing.
      • Males have a higher standard deviation than females in terms of IQ.
    • Key Research: VAN LEEUWEN ET AL (2008)
      • Evidence for the biological basis of intelligence
        • Concordance rates for intelligence was higher in monozygotic twins than dizygotic twins, sibilings and parents
          • Monozygotic - one egg/ identical
          • Dizygotic - two eggs/ non-identical
        • Associative mating results showed a 0.33 correlation between the IQ of parents due to phenotype assortment
          • Non-random productive patterns that involve individuals with similar observable traits or genes mating with each other
          • 0.33 correlation shows a weak positive correlation between the two variables
        • After the Rasch model was applied, the effect of genes on intelligence was 67%, the rest can be accounted for by random environmental factors not cultural transmission
          • The Rasch model takes into account the difficulty of each item and controls for the extraneous variables of whether items were harder or easier for different participants
          • Cultural transmission is the transmission of environmental factors from the parental generation to the offspring generation, and is shared between sibilings
        • Children pre-disposed to have a low IQ through genetics will seek out non-stimulating environment, suggesting a GE interaction.
          • Certain environments may activate a gene (GE interaction)
          • Similarly children pre-disposed to have a high IQ will seek out stimulating environments
        • There was no gender difference in mean IQ scores on the Raven's Progressive Matrices.
      • Aim: investigates whether biological factors and/or environmental factors might affect intelligence.
        • Van Leeuwan predicted: genetic effect would explain a large part of any individual differences in intelligence
      • 112 families took part
        • Recruited from Netherlands Twin Registry
        • Mean age of twins was 9.1 years
          • 23 MZ male, 23 DZ male, 25 MZ            female,         21 DZ              female,           20 pairs of opposite sex twins
            • Zygosity of the twin was tested at VU medical center
        • Siblings average age is 11.9 years
        • Fathers average age was 43.7 years
        • Mother average age was 41.9 years
      • Day 1: Cheek swab for DNA isolation (collected at home)
        • Day 2: Cognitive testing in laboratory
          • Raven's standard progressive matrices (SPM)
            • 60 items in 5 sets of 12
            • becomes more difficult so provides an index for intelligence
          • Raven's advanced progressive matrices (AMP)
            • 12 practice questions and 36 test items
            • Increasing difficulty and complexity
      • Conclusions
        • Individual differences in intelligence are largely explained by genes that are passed from parent to offspring
        • Parental influence on children's IQ can be explained by the transmission of genes while cultural transmission from a parent doesn't have an effect.
        • Environmental factors are more important for those pre-disposed with a low IQ than those pre-disposed to a high IQ
        • Environmental factors which can influence IQ are generally not shared by siblings.
    • Application: a method of testing intelligence - Raven's progressive matrices
      • A visual spatial test and is multiple choice.
        • It is used to measure intelligence in America and to identify gifted and talented children.
        • takes approximately 30 minutes
        • Pattern completion questions
          • filling in a pattern based on an image shown. It is multiple choice
        • Serial reasoning questions
          • They are given a pattern and they have to identify the correct pattern
            • should be easy depending on their age.
        • Presented in a 6x6, 4x4, 3x3 or 2x2 matrix
          • There is a high correlation between gf and general intelligence
            • matrices are used as a general intelligence test - for overall cognitive ability.
      • It measures GF
        • Fluid intelligence/ innate ability
          • proposed by Horn and Catell (1967)
          • reasoning and problem solving abilities, using new information without relying on previously acquired knowledge and skills
            • The ability to deal with novelty, to adapt one's thinking "fluidity" to a new, unfamiliar problem
      • It's a non-verbal test
        • It is administered on a computer or on paper
          • This is done so it doesn't require language skills, it is culturally neutral and those with language disabilities can use it
      • Parallel versions of the items have been introduced over time
        • Many questions were becoming to widely known since its creation in 1936
      • There are three different versions
        • Raven's advanced
          • For adults 18+, 48 items
        • Raven's standard
          • for children aged 7-18, 60 items, BW
        • Colour progressive matrices (CPM)
          • 4-7 yr old, elderly and mental & physical disabilities
            • 38 items - Colour and BW
        • This allows us to test different abilities based on their individual differences to ensure no one is at a disadvantage
  • Evidence for the biological basis of intelligence
    • Genetics plays a role in intelligence
      • 67% of intelligence is affected by genes
        • Intelligence is affected by genes more than the environment but they do not act alone as there is 33% unaccounted for
    • There is a relationship between genetics and intelligence
      • Correlation of MZ twins was higher than DZ twins,  siblings and parents
        • MZ twins have the same genetic make up, the similarities in genetics could explain the higher correlation.
    • One biological factor that could affect intelligence
      • Assorted related results between the IQ of parents 1 and 2
        • If parents have high IQ level it could be passed onto their children
    • Influence of the family on intelligence
      • Environmental factors are more important for children with a pre-disposition for low IQ than those pre-disposed to have a high IQ
        • This means that if a child is brought up in an intelligent family they are more likely to have a high IQ compared to a family with lower intelligence

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