Intelligence:



Intelligence:

What is it?

Is it innate or learned?

Is it culturally driven? Does it vary place to place, time to time? The G-Factor.

Is it one thing or many? Neuroprocessing? Memory?

Intelligence Defined

Intelligence is the ability to adapt successfully to your environment.

Intelligence Testing History

First modern tests were used during WWI for military job placement.

Culturally bias: Western Europeans ranked above Eastern Europeans, Southern Europeans and African-Americans--fueled the Eugenics movement.

Eugenics hypothesized that intelligence, like cows, could be bred.

History

Why couldn’t intelligence be bred? Or related to race?

Answer:Not one gene but many. With recessive genes, the ability to sort and choose “smart genes” would be impossible. Is ability to survive today related to your IQ or the groups?

History

Binet and Terman developed the Stanford-Binet test to determine which students would be successful in school. Highly verbal. Fairly accurate.

I.Q. determined by dividing the mental age (as determined by the test) by the chronological age and multiplying by 100. Mean, median, mode 100 with SD of 15.

IQ Testing

Stanford Binet replaced by WISC and (children and Wais (adults), less verbal IQ tests. Weschler Intellience Tests: clusters of questions which measure different aspects of intelligence: Factor analysis. View overhead. Verbal; non-verbal; math component.

Different Intelligences

Multiple Intelligence: Gardner

Theory put forward that there are many adaptations or intelligences, some not included in traditional tests: For instance:

Linguistic

Logical-mathematical

Musical

Bodily-Kinesthetic and

Multiple Intelligences cont.

Spatial

Interpersonal

Intrapersonal

Emotional Intelligence: Goleman

Ability to self-regulate

Introspection and self-knowledge: including what makes you feel good/bad, and maximize the good.

Empathy: understanding what others feel and how to handle it.

Optimism: strong correlation to happiness.

Perseverance

Neuroscience and Intelligence

Scientist have been exploring the relationship between neural processing speed and IQ. Also which parts of the brain are wired well for intelligence. Wiring becomes denser in used parts of the brain.

Descriptive Stats: Central Tendencies.

Mean: the average

Median: half the scores above, half below

Mode: the most often occurring score

Range: the bottom score subtracted from the top score.

Descriptive stats: Distribution

Percentile rank: shows where your score falls in relation to the norm or standard group. If your score falls in the 80th percentile, you’ve done better than 80% of the standard group, not gotten 80% right.

Testing Terms

Standardization: a test is give to a large sample, under exactly the same test conditons.. The scores should result in a normed distribution. That normed score can then be used to compare to individual scores and a percentile score determined. So if the standard IQ score is 100. And you achieve a score of 100, you would be in the 50th percentile, with half above and half below.

Normative Curve or Bell Curve

Standard test fall into a norm curve in which the mean, median and mode, all are the same. This curve allows testers to take and individual score and compare it to the standard score and figure out where it fits by percentile. See overhead.

Standard Deviation

This number is the average amount a specific percentage of the scores varies from the mean, median and mode on a standard score. For instance, on IQ tests the Standard Deviation is 15. So 68% of the scores fall 15 points plus or minus from 100. If the SD was 10, 68% would fall between 110 and 90. The lower the SD the closer together the scores are clustered to the mean.

Reliable and/or Valid?

Reliability means the results will come out consistently. If different forms of the test are given, takers will still get the same score, external reliability. Or if odd and even numbers get the same score, called internal Reliability.

Validity means the measures what it is trying to measure. With validity you get into cultural bias, content validity, and predictive validity.

Achievment vs. Aptitude Tests

Achievement test test what you’ve learned in the past, what you’ve achieved. SATs, Stanford 9s and Sols test achievement.

Aptitude tests measure what you can or should be able to do. What your potential to learn is. The ASVAB and IQ tests are examples of that.

Either test can be predictive of future behavior.

Extremes of Intelligence

Defined as top and bottom 5%.

Gifted: top 5%, IQ 125-130.

Retarded: IQ of about 70. Most retarded (80%)are educable and can be taught to live on their own with assistance.

Creativity

Think of four to eight things that would happen if people were suddenly to have three arms. You have two minutes.

Creativity

The ability to look at problems in a different way (breaking set) and to come up with unique solutions which work.

Traits of the Creative

Above average, but not exceptional intelligence. Positively Correlated with IQ until 120, then no correlation.

Expertise

Imaginative thinking skills (set breakers)

Venturesome Personality

Intrinsic motivation

Creative, supportive environment.

IQ, Bias and Group Differences

Question: African Americans have a 15 point lower group mean on IQ tests and lower mean scores on SATs. They are also over represented, in terms of their population percentage, in “speed sports,” sprinting, football, basketball. Can we conclude a genetic difference or “breeding difference,” between blacks and whites?

Answer: I think Not

Here’s why….

But first, you should understand the concept of heritability...

Differences among individuals and groups in intelligence scores

Heritability: the amount of variation that can be attributed to genes among people in the same group, with roughly the same environment. NOT the percentage of a person’s intelligence created by genes. It is used to compare individuals in the same group. For identical twins the heritability would be 0. For two unrelated boys raised in the same pickle barrel, it would be 100%.

Back to the question….

So…it is ok to compare individuals within the same group with similar environments, and assess genetic differences. But when environment impacts a person heavily, conclusions about genetic differences between groups can’t be made.

Here is anecdotal evidence that supports that assumption….

African-Americans raised in white middle-class homes have similar IQ scores to whites. Poor whites lower than affluent whites

Japanese children score significantly higher on math achievements tests than North Americans, but go to school 30% more. Should we assume genetic superiority. (language may determine the superiority).

When asked to report race, African Americans do worse than when not asked to report race.

Gender differences

Males score higher than females on math SATS and are over represented in genius math competitions. However when women are given challenging math problems and are told that women do as well as men on these types of problems, they do equally as well. Males may however be genetically superior in spatial skills, and females in verbal skills, which makes evolutionary sense.

Labeling

Simply telling a class that they are a smart class will increase their academic performance when other factors are controlled.

The Flynn Effect

“Modern People” outscore Americans from the 1930s by about the same as whites do African Americans on IQ tests. Nutrition and enriching academic environments seem to be the reason. Flynn Effect

We modern American are also taller than colonial Americans. Genetics? No…nutrition and environment.

Other marginilized Groups.

European New Zealanders outscore native Maoris.

Israeli Jews outscore Arab Israelis.

Japanese outscore Burakumi, a marginalized minority in Japan.

Hearing people outperform deaf people.

Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair. (don’t know that is true)

So, what about speed.

How many African Africans are represented in the Olympic sprints and how are their basketball teams doing?

If breeding is the answer, most African-Americans, without their consent I might add, have been infused with European blood, rendering that argument useless. Plus evolution doesn’t occur n a few hundred years and speed and athleticism isn’t one gene like eye color that can be bred for.

Question?

How come nobody suggests that black athletes just work harder as a group? This sociocultural explanation seems more reasonable and doesn’t require a magic genetic bullet. When few opportunities are available to you, or you perceive that anyway, you work real hard at the ones that are. Plus if the perception is that African Americans are faster, they are sought out and cultivated, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Is it equally as possible that living in a tougher environment where mommy can’t drive you everywhere in a minivan creates better athletic conditioning. Not for all, but as a group those predisposed to athleticism are given extra conditioning, thus are selected and developed by the coaches.

Genetics

In small population with little outside influence, certain genes may be expressed more often than in others (Tay sachs, sickle cell anemia). However, most “skills” take lots of genes and any intermixing will quickly wash out those features.

Remember this…..

IQ test can predict success in a culture.

You can compare the heritability among individuals in the same group with environment held fairly constant.

But groups outside the standard testing group are apt to do worse than the standard group. The language, skill and concepts of the standard group are reflected in the test. Remember the aboriginal children who did better with spatial intelligence than whites. Probably because they use it more.

So, Are they bias?

Yes, because they are culturally sensitive.

Yes, because they are designed to discriminate among individuals.

No, in that they are not purposely designed to exclude anyone. It is all in how they are used.

No, it gives all an objective measure, regardless of race or religion or ethnicity and may have a predictive validity.

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