Bernstein Chapter 10 Cognitive Abilities page 365

What is intelligence?

How good are tests designed to measure intelligence?

Can test scores be compared without considering the social and academic background of the people who took the tests?

How are intelligence tests created?

What do intelligence tests measure?

How can intelligence tests be evaluated?

General Intelligence Tests – measure:

  1. Remembering
  2. Reasoning
  3. Verbal Abilities
  4. Mathematic Abilities

Cognitive abilities- deal with capacity to:

  1. Reason
  2. Remember
  3. Understand
  4. Solve problems
  5. Make decisions

We draw conclusions about people’s intelligence from what can be observed and measured

Robert SternbergDeferent view of Intelligence

Said intelligence has 3 main characteristics

Created the Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

Argued that there are 3 types of Intelligence

  1. Analytic- Traditional intelligence Tests, being able to learn, remember, reason, information processing skills
  2. Creative- using skills to solve problems, Skills to solve problems
  3. Practical- Being able to alter or adapt to new and changing environment

Suggested that tests should measure these components of intelligence to make a more accurate assessment

Alfred Binet, 1904 France

Education Researcher

Tried to measure reasoning, thinking, problem solving, and found all depended on intelligence

Tasks that would highlight differences in children’s ability to do these things

Age based tasks

“6 year old item” types of questions that most kids should be able to answer

Test measured a child’s mental level (aka) Mental Age

He found by determining the age level of most advanced items a child could consistently answer correctly then he made inferences about the child in reference to most children of that age…

“Children whose mental age equaled their actual chronological age were considered to be regular level intelligence.” (p. 367)

Louis Terman of Stanford (p. 368)

Developed the Stanford-Binet (1918)

Intelligence test for adults

Mental age was decided by chronological age and the result multiplied by 100

Identified by Intelligence Quotient

Chronological age and mental age are equal then the IQ is 100

Example 10year old with mental age of 12 = 10/12x100= 120 IQ

New StandfordBinet (SB5) Still age based IQ

Measures:

  • Fluid Reasoning
  • Knowledge
  • Quantitative Reasoning
  • Working Memory
  • Visual + Spatial Processing
  • (Verbal and Non-verbal)

Wechsler, David (1930)

(WAIS) Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale

Tested

  1. Verbal
  2. Non-verbal

Success was not measured on formal school

WAIS IV newest version gives IQ based on Verbal and Non-verbal

Verbal Tasks-

  • Remembering a series of digits
  • Solving arithmetic
  • Defining vocabulary
  • Understanding and answering general knowledge questions

Performance Tasks

  • Understanding relationships between objects
  • Manipulation of blocks, mazes, pictures/stories, completing unfinished pictures

Other Tests:

Aptitude Tests:

  • Measure readiness to learn certain things
  • Or preform certain tasks
  • Examples: SAT, ACT, GRE

Achievement Tests:

“Measures what a person has learned in a particular area”

Measuring the Quality of Tests

Tests are standardized procedure, observing and describing behavior

Objective in nature to remove biases

Score= a performance summary

Norms= the frequency of particular scores related to other people and groups

Reliability= Replication, identified as a Correlation Coefficient

Validity= test measures what it is supposed to measure

Evaluating Tests: Are IQ Tests Fair

  • There are many variables that can impact test performance
  • English language
  • Vocabulary and experiences
  • Culture Specific
  • Many tests reflect the attitudes and experiences of the authors example middle class culture
  • Context dependent questions
  • Biased questions

Intelligence is a developed ability… asking questions helps

Rewards for progress

Encouragement

Expectations (aid) (Rosenthal and Jacobsen study… teacher expectations)

Twin Studies- tell us about nature

But also nurture makes a big difference

Psychometricsis the field of study concerned with the theory and technique ofpsychologicalmeasurement, which includes the measurement of knowledge, abilities, attitudes,personalitytraits, andeducational measurement. The field is primarily concerned with the construction and validation of measurement instruments such asquestionnaires,tests, and personality assessments.

Cattell + Spearman

Found 2 types of intelligence

Fluid Intelligence- basic power of reasoning and problem solving

Crystallized Intelligence- specific knowledge

Howard Gardner and Multiple Intelligence

Found some insight into how people learn

He identified different skills that make up intelligence

Said they are complimentary and interact

Some intelligences are developed further than others

  1. Linguistic- vocabulary and reading comprehension
  2. Logical/mathematics- reasoning
  3. Spatial- relationships
  4. Music- rhythm, tempo, sound
  5. Kinesthetic- Body
  6. Intrapersonal- knowing yourself
  7. Interpersonal- understanding and interacting others
  8. Naturalistic- finding patterns in nature

Gardner said traditional intelligence tests only look at the first 3.