psychology chapter 10 - Class

• Ability to learn
• Ability to apply learned material to life and meet the demands of the environment

ability to understand and control one's cognitive activity

initially believed that individuals have a general intelligence 'g', that is responsible for the performance on all mental tests

• Factor analysis: statistical method to
• determine whether two or more items
• correlate, thus forming a cluster

s-factor: specific factor tied to a specific area of functioning

- g-factor: general factor relating to all clusters

abandoned concept of general intelligence and looked for specific factors

• primary mental abilities - do not rely on general intelligence
• -verbal comp
• -word fluency
• -numberical skills
• -spatial visualization
• -associative memory
• -perceptual speed
• -reasoning

• intelligence is made up of three interacting components
• practical dimension (experiential) apply one's experience with the external world to handle new and complex tasks
• analytic dimension (internal) - use one's intelligence to solve a specific problem that has one correct answer
• creative dimension (external) - determine what needs to be done, how best to do it and monitor performance

• modern multifactor theory
• intelligence is a function of interaction between: innate potential abilities, environment, motivation

• ability to percieve, express, assimilate and regulate emotion
• possess empathy and emotional control

intelligence is the cognitive part of personality

• physchic energy and heightenend sensitivity to external stimul
• developed tests of an individuals sensory processing, motor skills and reaction time

• developed first intelligence test
• identifies students who need extra help
• tests many normal children at each age
• compares individuals score to "normal" scores
• mental age
• chronological age

• developed american version of the binet-simon test, called the stanford-binet test, for ages 2-adult
• used the intelligence quotient

• developed the wais and wisc
• performance and verbal subtests
• recognized two problems with IQ tests
• 1.) the distinction between mental and chronological age becomes less informative with testing adults
• 2.) the need for greater fairness when testing people who do not speak english
• compared individual scores to scores obtained over a very large sample of individuals using the normal distribution

measure intelligence through psychological testing

divide the items on a single test among two groups

the average IQ score is 100 with standard deviations of 15

terman believed that his IQ test could help determine the "fitness" of individuals to reproduce

• includes subscales for verbal and performance skills
• three versions: one for adults, one for children and adolescents and one for younger chidlren

• - High degrees of reliability
• Predictive of school performance  
• High correlation between scores and number of years of schooling  
• Some correlation with occupational and social achievements, income, and health 
• related behaviours, including better health throughout life, greater independence during old age, and a longer lifespan

• emphasizes abstract, nonberbal skills
• less culture bias

• Stoolmiller (1999) estimated the effects of the environment on IQ to be 57%.
• Microenvironment 
• Selecting the environment as we age

• Within-group versus between-group differences - Genetics accounts for 72% of IQ variation in affluent environments.
• - Genetics accounts for 15% of IQ variation in impoverished environments.
• - Racial differences 
• Test biases -
• Environmental differences -
• Sex differences  

• Racial groups differ in their average scores on intelligence tests
• - High-scoring people (and groups) are more likely to attain high levels of education and income
• - Aboriginal Canadians score, on average, 15 to 20 points lower on intelligence tests than their non
• - Aboriginal contemporaries
• - Aboriginal students are twice as likely to drop out of high school
• - Aboriginal children and youth need to work in school systems that acknowledge and celebrate Aboriginal values and heritage
• - Public policy aimed at making more equitable resources available throughout society would lead to more similar intelligence test scores across different groups

• - Head Start is a government-funded preschool program that serves children who come from families below the poverty line
• - Aims to enhance children’s chances for success in school and beyond by boosting their cognitive and social skills

• It produces short-term increases in cognitive skills, but only for impoverished children
• - It increases children’s readiness for school, enhances emotional intelligence, reduces school dropouts, and decreases later criminality
• - Better programs:
• - Begin early in life and continue
• - Are intensive (more hours per day and more days per year)
• - Include programs for maintaining positive attitudes and behaviours

• both lateral prefrontal cortexes are activated when performing spatial tasks
• the left lateral prefrontal cortex is activated when performing verbal tasks

• natural ability, talent or intelligence
• the top 1-2 percent of a tested pop.
• evident at a young age
• environmental contributors
• intrinsically motivated
• may occur in some areas and not others (social)