Chapter 8:

Intelligence and Individual Differences in Cognition

Chapter 8: Intelligence and Individual Differences in Cognition

Chapter 8 contains three modules:

Module 8.1 What is Intelligence?

Module 8.2 Measuring Intelligence

Module 8.3 Special Children, Special Needs

What is Intelligence?

8.1 Psychometric Theories

• Use patterns of test performance as starting point to answer questions

• Provide evidence for general intelligence and specific intelligences

Hierarchical View of Intelligence

Why is this view a compromise between general and specific theories of intelligence?

Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences• Draws on research in child development,

brain-damaged adults, and exceptional talent

• Proposes 9 intelligences

• Proposes schools should foster all intelligences

Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences

Implications for Education• Fostering all intelligences in school

• Capitalization on strongest intelligence of individual children

Sternberg’s Theory of Successful Intelligence

• Involves using one’s abilities skillfully to achieve personal goals

• Proposes three different kinds of abilities: • analytic ability• creative ability• practical ability

Measuring Intelligence

Binet and the Development of Intelligence Testing

• Used mental age to distinguish “bright” from “dull” children

• Created Stanford-Binet, which gives a single IQ score; average = 100

Distribution of IQ Scores

WISC-IV

• Gives verbal and performance IQ scores and full-scale IQ

• Used as intelligence test and as a clinical tool

Infant Tests: Bayley Scales of Infant Development

• Contains five scales

• Measure mental and motor development and test behavior of infants from one to 42 months of age

Stability of Infant IQ Scores

• Reliable in short term; less in longer term

• Valid as reasonable predictors of success in school and the workplaces

• Validity increased with dynamic testing

Hereditary and Environmental Factors• Effects of heredity shown in family, twin,

and adoption studies

• Effects of environment shown in home environment studies, historical change in IQ scores, and intervention programs

Correlations of IQ for Family Members

How does the information above provide evidence for hereditary factors?

Impact of Ethnicity and Socioeconomic Status

• Asian Americans have highest scores followed by European Americans, Hispanic Americans, and African Americans

• Group differences reduced when comparing groups of similar economic status

Impact of Ethnicity and Socioeconomic Status

Strategies • Culture-fair intelligence tests• Stereotype threat• Test-taking styles

Let’s look at a culture-fair test item.

Culture-fair Test Item

Item based on experiences common to many cultures

Select the piece that would complete the design correctly.

Special Needs, Special Children

Gifted and Creative Children

• Gifted: someone with scores on intelligence tests of at least 130

• Intelligence associated with convergent thinking

• Creativity is associated with divergent thinking

Examples of Creativity

Number of responses and originality of responses used to measure creativity

What would you put in the circles?

Children with Intellectual Disability

• Intellectual Disability: substantially below average intelligence and problems adapting to environment; onset before age 18

• Organic intellectual disability• Familial intellectual disability

Risks Factors for Children with Intellectual Disability

• Biomedical• Social• Behavioral• Educational

Children with Learning Disabilities

Learning disabilities• Normal intelligence

• Difficulty mastering academic material in absence of other conditions that explain poor performance

Children with Learning Disabilities

Common varieties• Developmental dyslexia• Impaired reading comprehension• Inadequate understanding of language and

sound• Mathematical disability