Types of Tests

Achievement - Measures amount of knowledge of a particular area that you have now.

• History, math

oSAT, GRE

·Intelligence - Measures overall mental ability

oWAIS-III, Stanford-Binet

History of Intelligence Testing

• Binet (1857-1911)
• Developed test to identify slow learners who needed special schooling.
• Mental Age
• Chronological Age
• IF MA>CA, bright
• IF MA<CA, dull

• William Stern (1871-1938)
• Revised Binet’s test & scoring
• Converted "mental age" measure to a ratio
• Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
• IQs over 100 are above average
• IQs under 100 are below average
• IQ = (MA/CA) x 100

• Wechsler (1896-1981)
• deviation IQ - Individual score compared to mean of peers. Based on Norms (what we use now)
• Measure both verbal and nonverbal (performance, RT) abilities (subtests).
• Age specific tests
• WPPSI - Young children
• WISC-III - Children
• WAIS-III - Adults

• Picture Arrangement
• Block Design

• General Information
• Vocabulary
• Digit Span (forwards and backwards)

• Reliability - Consistency of measurement. Yield similar results (+.90 for WISC)
• Test/retest, alternate forms
• Validity - Evidence that a test measures what it should.
• Predictive Validity - Relationship bet test scores and future performance.
• SAT and 1st year grades +.41.
• IQ tests and grades (.40 to .75).
• Standardization - Establish Norms - Standard against which individual’s score is compared. Revised since IQ scores increasing over time (Flynn effect)

Mean = 100

Standard Deviation = 15

68% score between 85 and 115

95% score between 70 and 130 (these were the traditional cut-offs for retarded and genius)

99% score between 55 and 145

•Percentiles – how scored as compared to everyone else (55 percentile – did better than 55% of the people who took the test).

Genetics or Environment?

• Galton, Binet
• In 1917, Henry Goddard tested immigrants arriving at Ellis Island
• Concluded that most Italian, Hungarian, Jewish, and Russian immigrants were "feebleminded"
• Differences in scores on IQ tests led to immigration restrictions.
• Sterilization Laws, immigration laws, eugenics

• Debate still goes on today
• Jensen (1973) & Hernstein & Murray (1994)
• Claimed 80% of intelligence genetically determined.
• Enrichment programs like Headstart are a waste.
• Others argue heredity accounts for about 50% of intelligence.
• Casto, DeFries, & Fulker (1995)
• Variability of IQ scores of a group of people - NOT an individual

Identical Twins reared together .85 - .90

Identical Twins reared apart .75 - .80

Fraternal Twins same sex .55

Fraternal Twins different sex .45

Siblings reared together .40 - .45

Siblings reared apart .20 - .25

Unrelated siblings reared together .20 - .25

Foster parent and child .20

Heritability

An index of the degree to which a characteristic is estimated to be influenced

Twin studies – heritability between +.50-+.70

Estimations do not apply to individuals – only to variations within the population

Heritable traits can be modified by the environment

Environment

• Maze-Bright and Maze-Dull rats
• See difference in normal environ, but difference disappear in restricted or enriched environment
• Skeel’s orphanages study (1930’s)
• Children placed in adult mental wards higher IQ’s than those in orphanage
• Adopted children raised in more enriching environment 10-15 point increase on intell tests as compared to siblings with bio parents
• Economic conditions - nutrition, proper health care, adequate schools
• Culture fair - what you have been exposed to - is it tested?
• Opinion - teacher study
• Prenatal care
• Malnutrition
• Exposure to toxins
• Family circumstances (standard of living)
• Intervention programs have been found to help

Culture

Stereotype threat – doubt felt about performance because of negative stereotype of group. Can also have positive stereotype impact scores

Asian vs. American parents – believe more in nature or nurture? Differ in standards of children’s performance and education, value of education

Extremes of Intelligence

• Mental Retardation (MR)
• IQ less than 70
• Problems in day to day functioning.
• Difficulty securing or maintaining employment, inadequate self-care, impaired social skills.
• Classification of MR
• Mild (IQ of 50 to 70)
• Moderate (IQ of 35 to 49)
• Severe (IQ of 20 to 34)
• Profound (IQ below 20)

• Cultural-Familial Retardation (about 75% of MR)
• Some event after conception affects intellectual development
• Poor nutrition (During pregnancy or after birth)
• Poor schooling
• Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
• Hypoxia
• Lack of oxygen after birth
• Can result in Cerebral Palsy
• Genetic Causes
• Phenylketonuria (PKU)
• Lack of metabolizing enzyme, phenylalanine
• Down Syndrome
• Extra chromosome on the 21st chromosome pair.

• IQ above 130
• Early misconception
• Mentally gifted are emotionally and personally more troubled than those with normal intelligence.
• Terman’s Studies of Giftedness
• Followed a sample of high IQ children for over 50 years.
• Findings:
• Excelled academically & vocationally.
• Had better health and marriages than controls.
• Programs – usually acceleration or enrichment

• Spearman’s Theory of General Intelligence
• Used Factor Analysis
• Intercorrelate scores on many tasks
• To perform well, you need:
• General ability (g)
• Specific abilities (s)
• Task performance combines g and s.
• Thurstone’s Theory of Primary Mental Abilities
• Also used Factor Analysis
• No g, only 7 primary mental abilities.

• Guilford’s Theory of the Structure of the Intellect
• 120 factors or mental abilities
• Horn & Cattell’s Two-Factor Theory
• Fluid Intelligence
• Similar to g
• Consists of memory, reasoning, & speed of processing
• Crystallized Intelligence
• Knowledge learned in school or acquired in everyday life.

• Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences
• Eight types of intelligence
• Language – sensitive to the sounds, rhythms, and meanings of words and different functions of language, involved in reading, writing, listening, and talking (poet, journalist)
• Logical-mathematical – sensitivity and capacity to discern logical or numerical patterns, ability to handle long chains of reasoning, involved in most scientific thinking including solving logic puzzles, deriving proofs, performing calculations (scientist, mathematicians, philosophers)
• Spatial – capacity to perceive the visual-spatial world accurately and to perform transformations on initial perceptions, involved in moving from one location to another or determining orientation in space (architects, marine navigators, sculptor)
• Musical – Ability to produce and appreciate rhythm, pitch, and timbre, appreciation of the forms of musical expression, singing, composing, conducting or performing a musical instrument (musician, composer)
• Body Kinesthetic – ability to control bodily movements and to handle objects skillfully, involved in using one’s body or its various parts to perform skillful, purposeful movements (surgeons, dancer, athletes)
• Naturalist – Ability to make fine discriminations among the flora and fauna of the natural world or the patterns and designs of human artifacts (botanist, chef)
• Interpersonal – capacity to discern and respond appropriately to the moods, temperaments, motivations, and desires of other people, involved in understanding others and one’s relation to them (therapists, teachers, salespeople, politicians)
• Intrapersonal – Access to one’s own feelings and the ability to discriminate among them and draw on them to guide behavior, knowledge of one’s own strengths, weaknesses, desires, intelligences, involved in understanding one’s self and having insight (Zen masters)
• Why? – Brain damage, giftedness, different areas of the brain, different symbol systems

• Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence
• Componential intelligence – Analytical, information processing ability, acquire new knowledge, analytic, think abstractly. Measure by traditional IQ tests
• Experiential intelligence - Creativity, New ways of seeing the world or solving problems, use what know, combine seemingly unrelated information
• Contextual intelligence – Practical, street smarts, choose activities that reflect strengths and compensate for weaknesses, adapt to changing environment

Extremes of Intelligence

Mental retardation (MR)

• IQ less than 70
• Problems in day to day functioning, difficulty securing or maintaining employment, inadequate self-care, impaired social skills
• Classification of MR
• Mild – (IQ of 50-70)
• Moderate (IQ of 35-49)
• Severe (IQ of 20-34)
• Profound (IQ below 20) – usually other severe problems as well
• Causes of MR
• Cultural-Familial retardation (about 75%)
• Some event after concept affects intellectual development
• Poor nutrition (during pregnancy or after birth)
• Fetal alcohol syndrome
• Hypoxia – lack of oxygen
• Poor schooling – study done with 6-12 month olds of low IQ, low-income families were either in intensive 40 hour per week day care program throughout preschool. Control group received medical care and nutritional supplements. When school age, those in program scored higher on IQ test, with 12.8% classified as borderline or retarded. Control group had 40% with IQ scores classified as borderline or retarded

Mental Giftedness (IQ about 130)

Early misconception – Mentally gifted are emotionally and personally troubled than those with normal intelligence (early ripe, early rot)

Terman’s study of giftedness – followed 1528 high IQ children over 50 years, found excelled academically and emotionally, had better health, jobs, and marriages than controls