Intelligence

Intelligence --> the global capacity to profit from experience and to go beyond given info about the environment 

Intelligence Quotient (IQ)--> index derived from standardised tests of intelligence, originally obtained by individual mental age/chronological age x100. Now it is directly computed as an IQ test score

Alfred Binet; Identify children who would benefit from remedial education

• Binet assumed that intelligence= capacity that matters for many tasks --> good at many tasks means you are intelligent
• IQ scores reflected a composite of performance on all tasks --> general ability

William Stern's Intelligence Quotient;

• IQ= Mental Age/Chronological Age X100
• Mental Age--> level of development reflected in test performance 
• Chronological Age --> expected score at current age of test
• Same Mental & Chronological Age=100
• 8yr old answering 10yr old questions= 125
• BUT... 50 year old with mental age of 20yr old cant have and iq of 40

Recent IQ Tests;

• Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children v4 (WISC-IV)
• Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-IV)--> Variety of verbal and performance tasks. Seperate sub tests assess WM and speed of intellectural processing

Test single specific capacities like the ability to perceive patterns

Minimise influence from verbal skills/ background knowledge

Reliability --> Need to evaluate how consistent a measure is in its results

Validity --> Does the test really measure what its intneded to measure

IQ Heavily influences life outcomes--> larger earnings, higher prestige careers, live longer, less likely to die in accident, less likely to struggle to follow doctor's instructions

Binet--> IQ= Singular ability that can apply to any context

      Score= General Intelligence--> a capacity that would provide an advantage on any mental task    

Alternative View;

          IQ= Level of achievement produced by a person's collection of more specific talents

          Strengths and Weaknesses. 1 Score=Crude Summary

Psychometric Approach to Intelligence--> looking for patterns of actual test scores

WAIS;

• Scores on subtests tend to be highly correlated with each other
• Tests not independent of each other overlap in what they measure

Factor Analysis;

A general factor (g) is general intelligence --> mental attribute that is hypothesised as contributing to performance of virtually any intellectual task

Spearman thought g was the core of human intelligence

g's give a huge advantage

Spearman argued that each subtest depends on g and specialised ability

IQ takes time as it requires complex mental processes

Hypotheses suggest high IQ people are fster in all mental steps or those needed for mental retrieval

HOWEVER.... could be differences in brain structure that lead to differences in mental speed;

• Greater myelination in brain neurons
• Greater availabilty of metabolic fuel for neurons

Simple and choice reaction times are negativly correlated with intelligence. Suggests that intelligent people have brains that operate quiker and more efficiently 

Less energy consumption with a higher IQ- more efficient brain

Working Memory Capacity --> measure of how efficiently a person can manage multiple mental processes at once

Tasks can involve;

Intelligent people may have;

Executive Control --> launch mental actions, redirect attention, shift strategies

Parieto-Frontal Integration Theory of Intelligence (Jung and Haier, 2007);

Important predictor of business success

Analytic Intelligence--> ability measured by IQ Tests and crucial for academic success

Practical Intelligence --> ability to solve everyday problems through skilled reasoning that relies on tacit knowledge 

The ability to understand your own and others emotions and control your own emotions appropriately 

Emotion plays a role in;

Emotion and Cognition interact

Lingustic, Logical-Mathematical, Spatial, Musical

Bodily Kinesthetic -->ability to learna and create, Complex patterns of movement 

Interpersonal --> ability to understand other people

Interpersonal --> ability to understand ourselves

Naturalistic --> ability to understand patterns in nature

Gardner, 1983 & 1999

Understanding of intelligence needs to take into account cultural context

Different Cultures have;

different concpetions of intelligence

different ideas on proper procedure for assesing intelligence

affects how cultures respond to westernised test

VERY HARD TO DEVELOP A CULTURE FREE INTELLIGENCE TEST AND SO WE NEED TO BE CAREFUL OF THIS WHEN TESTS TAKE PLACE

Both

Extent of contribution from each varies person to person;

Correlation between IQ of parent and child is +40

Correlation btween IQ of biological siblings +40

Similar genetics or environment?

Mz Twins have more similar IQs (.86) than Dz Twins (.60)--> must be a genetic component

Mz Twins have similar IQ regardless of whether the twins were raised in the same household oR apart (.75)

Adopted children have an IQ more in common with bith parents and not adoptive parents--> Genetics more important than environment 

Correlation between sibling IQ is less when born further apart--> family circumstances may have changed grew up in seperate environments

Impoverished environments can impede intellectural development;

IQ of children adopted out of horrible environments in which they had been abused or neglected --> after adoption IQ was markedly higher especially if adopted into a family with higher Socio-economic status

Flynn Effect--> worldwide improvement in IQ scores observed over the last few decades

             Many countries. Stronger fluid intelligence

             Better nutrition and healthcare?

             More exposure to info and perspectives

             Cannot be genetic as the increase is too quick

Heritability Ratio (H)--> a measure of the relative weight of genetic and environmental factors in determinng variability of a given characteritic within a population 

Value of H depends on particular population & degree to which variability within a population can be attributed to genetic variance

Fall between .40 and .70;

• 40-70% variance=genetic
• Genetics and environment equally important 
• Middle class children lower heritability than middle class

Example--> phenylketonuria (PKU)= Cant digest phenyalanine so its converted to a toxin --> mental retardation 

          Genetic origin but variation is largely due to the environment 

H only reflects certain circumstances in particular groups

Between group differences may be due to environmental factors 

Within group differences reflects genetic variation 

Sources of differences can be diminished by approrpriate changes to the environment;