MYERS FOR AP, UNIT 11Testing and Individual Differences

DO NOW: Make two lists•List 1 = Behaviors characteristic of intelligent people•List 2 = Behaviors characteristic of unintelligent people•In research studies, these behaviors typically fall into three categories:• Practical problem-solving skills• Verbal skills• Social competence

•Categorize your lists. Do you have any outliers?•Share and discuss

ONE VS. MANY???

• Intelligence is a social construct that may mean different things in different cultures• Spearman – We have a common skill set – the g factor that

underlies all of our intelligent behavior (general, not specific, like a city rating without details)• Thurstone – 56 tests that identified 7 clusters, but there was a

persistent tendency for those who excelled in one cluster generally scored well in others (an underlying g factor)• Kanaazawa – g is important for solving novel problems, but doesn’t

correlate with skills for dealing with the common or familiar• Savant video clip: Rain Man “islands of genius” (Clips: 41:30;

61:50; 83)• Gardner – Multiple Intelligence theory

MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES

• Criticisms:• Based on case studies• No valid and reliable test • More philosophy than science

But… Success is not a one-ingredient recipe.

• How many of you know someone not considered highly intelligent who is highly successful?

• The recipe for success combines talent with grit!

ANOTHER IDEA

• Sternberg: Triarchic theory:• Analytical intelligence – single right answers, predicts

grades well• Creative intelligence—reacting adaptively to novel

problems, generating novel ideas (novel = new and unexpected)• Practical intelligence—every day tasks with multiple

solutions

WOW! THE MARSHMALLOW TEST (AGAIN) HTTP://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/WATCH?V=QX_OY9614HQ

Those who resisted employed creative and practical skills, such as:• Covering their eyes• Singing to themselves• Playing games with their hands and feet• Sleeping

Findings 12 years later for those who resisted at age 4:• More socially competent, personally effective and self-assertive• Less likely to freeze under stress and pursued difficult challenges• More self-reliant, confident, trustworthy and dependable

As high school grads• Better students• Scored on average 200 points higher on SAT tests

DO NOW: Review the chart • What overall

conclusions can you draw from these intelligence theories? • What is your

personal opinion about intelligence, based on these theories?

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE“The best mechanic in a factory may fail as a foreman for lack of social intelligence.” – Edward Thorndike.•Rationally smart people sometimes have difficulty processing and managing social information•Mayer, Salovey & Caruso – Emotional intelligence test that measures ability to:• Perceive emotions• Understand emotions• Manage emotions• Use emotions

BENEFITS OF HIGH EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE:

• Higher quality interactions with friends• Less experience of overwhelming depression, anxiety and

anger• Better ability to read others’ emotions• Modestly better job performance• Better at delaying gratification• More successful in marriage, career and parenting

• But is emotional intelligence really “intelligence?”

QUICK REVIEW & BRAIN SIZE• What is the range used to represent a negative correlation to a

positive correlation?

• What are the definitions of positive and negative correlations?

• What does a correlation of .33 tell you?

• MRI scans show a .33 correlation between brain size and intelligence scores

• Einstein’s brain wasn’t larger than average, but his parietal lobe lower region was

• We already know stimulating experiences create more dendrites and neural connections

• G may be concentrated in gray matter

BRAIN FUNCTION

• The frontal lobe seems to be the “global workspace for organizing and coordinating information.” –John Duncan (2000)• Verbal intelligence are related to retrieval speed• Perceptual Speed• Neurological speed

INTELLIGENCE TESTING: BINET• Worked with Theodor Simon• They came up with the concept of

mental age• Purpose: Identification of students

who needed special attention• Purpose: To determine mental age• No assumptions about why a child was

slow, average or precocious• Not a measure of intelligence• Concerned about misuse – labeling

and limitingBelieved that intelligence = good

judgment: “A person may be a moron or an imbecile if he is

lacking in judgment, but with good judgment he can never be

either”

ADAPTATIONS• Lewis Terman: Adapted test

for America • Stanford-Binet• William Stern came up with

the formula • Intelligence Quotient (IQ)• Yikes– eugenics!• Had an influence on

immigration laws• Concerns about cultural

biases

• Terman’s Termites – a group of gifted children to counter the idea of maladjustment in adulthood• New versions of SAT that

are better at predicting college success (now GPA and class rank are better) -- Sternberg

MODERN TESTS• Know the difference between achievement tests and aptitude tests

(reflective vs. predictive)

• SAT = thinly disguised IQ test with correlation of .82

• Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and WISC• Developed, in part, to remove English-language bias• 11 subtests• Helps identify specific areas of need for teachers/therapists

• To be valuable, tests must be:• Standardized• Reliable• Valid

STANDARDIZATION• Representative test

population provides the basis by taking the test before widely administered.

• Also includes the WAY the test is given

• Norming – graphing results

• Normal Curve (applies to AP Exam, too.)

• Periodic restandardization

THE FLYNN EFFECT• Intelligence has

been rising fairly steadily since the early 1900s• Why? Maybe…

• Greater test sophistication?

• Nutrition?• More education?• More stimulating

environments?• Less disease?• More parental

involvement?

RELIABILITY & VALIDITY• Reliable: dependably consistent scores • Test-retest• Split-half• Stanford-Binet, WAIS, WISC reliability of .9

• Valid: It predicts or tests what it’s supposed to• Content validity: it measures a behavior or criterion• Predictive validity: correlation between test scores and

predicted behavior

• Important: Intelligence tests do a better job with predictive validity at younger ages. The correlation decreases over time. What is one reason why?

STABILITY OR CHANGE: THE DEARY STUDY: LONGITUDINAL

WEIRD IQ FACTS• People with lower IQs have

less efficient nervous systems• School attendance

correlates with IQ• IQ is not influenced by

birth order• IQ is related to breast

feeding• IQ varies by birth date

• IQ is correlated with head size• IQ scores correlate with

real-world earnings• Intelligence depends on

context• IQ is going up• IQ may be influenced by

nutrition

INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY• Must have low

score and difficulty adapting• Pendulum swing:

home, institution, home• In schools, least-

restrictive environment• Marijuana study

again• Chart from DSM-IV

INTELLECTUAL GIFTEDNESS

• Myth: Kids with high IQs are socially maladjusted• Controversy over tracking students• DQ: Is it better to separate students into ability groups

or to have mainstreamed classes? Why?• DQ: How can intelligence tests hold students back or

help them succeed?

NATURE VS. NURTURE (AGAIN)• Intelligence is

genetically correlated• It is also polygenetic

(what does that mean?)• Adopted children’s

intelligence scores become more like their biological parents over time. (see chart on p. 546)

ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES• Carefully review the description of heritability on p. 546.

• Heritability is responsible for about 50 percent of intelligence factors

• Remember heritability only applies to groups, not to individuals

• Impoverished environments depress normal intellectual development

• Enriched environments encourage it, but don’t turn babies into geniuses

• Schooling and intellect interact and are correlated with later higher income

• Intelligence is not completely fixed. Discipline, effort and practice exercise your mental “muscles.”

• Dweck: it pays to have a “growth mindset” as opposed to a “fixed mindset”

GENDER DIFFERENCES:SCORES ARE VERY SIMILAR, BUT DIFFERENCES DO EXIST

Females

• Better spellers• Better in verbal fluency and

remembering words• Better in nonverbal memory• More sensitive to touch,

taste and odor• Better emotion detectors• Better at math computation

Males

• Better at math problem solving• Better in spatial ability

tests• Greater variation in mental

ability scores• Higher numbers at both

extremes

ETHNIC DIFFERENCES

Average score differences occur between:•Blacks, Whites and Hispanics•New Zealanders of European descent and native Maoris•Hearing and Deaf people•Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs

•CRITICAL: Average scores say nothing about individual scores

BIAS• Two main types• When a test detects not only innate differences in

intelligence, but also performance differences caused by cultural experiences• When a test predicts behavior for one group, but not

othersDefenders say the tests are not biased because they show

that differences are as great on nonverbal items as on verbal, and because they predict behavior in the same way for all tested

• Stereotype threat – a self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF WISDOM

• Scenario 1, 2 & 3 Groups of 3 (p. 12 Bolt)• Rest of Class scores• Five aspects of wisdom• Handouts for personal assessment from Bolt as time

permits