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