Chapter 10:

Intelligence and Intelligence Assessment

Psychology and Life (Gerrig, 2013)

Dr. Suzan Ceylan-Batur

Department of Psychology
TOBB University of Economics and Technology
 Group Discussion

What are the common characteristics of intelligent behavior?

(Try to come up with 5-6 common characteristics)
 What is Assessment?

Use of specified procedures to evaluate

abilities, behaviors, and personal qualities
Psychological
Assessment

Measurement of individual differences

(the majority of assessments specify how
an individual is different from or similar to
other people on a given dimension)
 History of Assessment

• 1900s – Western Psychology

• 4,000 years ago – China: Officials were required to demonstrate their

competence every third year at an oral examination.

• 1800s – Modified versions of China’s system were adopted by the British

and later by the Americans for the selection of civil service personnel.
He was interested in how and why people differ in their abilities.

Galton’s Ideas Sir Francis Galton

of Intelligence Hereditary Genius (1869)

Differences are
Correlations
quantifiable

Differences form
Objective tests bell-shaped
curve
 Galton’s Ideas Sir Francis Galton
of Intelligence

Differences are
Correlations
quantifiable

Differences form
Objective tests bell-shaped
curve
Correlational Research

A variable: Anything that has a quantity or quality that varies.

e.g., available information, the time taken to perform a given task, age, etc.

X Y Y X
X Y X Y

Positive Correlation Negative Correlation

X = exercise Y = calorie burn X = absence Y = grade

Yorgunluk ile Dikkat

 Correlational Research

Correlation coefficient (r) = the strength of association

-1 1
a strong negative a strong positive
no relationship
relationship between x relationship between x
between x and y.
and y. and y.

e.g. X= age of men, Y = hair, r = -.87

There is a strong negative relationship between age of men and their hair.
The older a man gets, the less hair that he has.
He was interested in how and why people differ in their abilities.

Galton’s Ideas Sir Francis Galton

of Intelligence He believed
that genius
was inherited
Differences are
Correlations
quantifiable

Differences form
Objective tests bell-shaped
curve
Features of Formal Assessment

Reliability Validity Standardization

Concept of Reliability

Reliability Test-Retest Reliability

• Stability/consistency of • Test given on two

scores produced by separate occasions
instrument • Measured by
correlation

If you stepped on your scale

three times in the same
morning and it gave you a
different reading each time, the
scale would not be doing its
job. You would call it unreliable
because you could not count
on it to give consistent results.
 Internal Consistency Split-Half Reliability

• Test yields similar • Odd versus even

scores across its numbers on test
different parts
Concept of Validity

Extent to which test measures

Validity

what it is intended to
measure
 Criterion-
Content Validity Related/Predictive Construct Validity
Validity
• Extent to which test • Degree to which test • Degree to which test
adequately scores indicates adequately
measures full range result on specific measures underlying
of domain of interest measure consistent construct
with another
criterion of
characteristic being
measured

Suppose you wanted to If a test is designed to A new measure of

assess people’s predict success in college, depression has construct
satisfaction with their then college grades would validity if the scores it
lives. It wouldn’t be be an appropriate criterion. produces correlate
enough to focus, for If the test scores correlate highly with valid
example, on success in highly with college grades, measures of the features
school. then the test has criterion- that define the construct
related validity. of depression.
Norms and Standardization

18 on a test designed to reveal how depressed you are.

What does that mean? Are you a little depressed, not at all depressed, or
about averagely depressed?

Beck Depresyon Ölçeği Puanlama

• 0-9: Minimal Depresyon.

• 10-16: Hafif Depresyon.
• 17-29: Orta Depresyon.
• 30-63: Şiddetli Depresyon.

Standardization is the administration of a testing device to all persons,

in the same way, under the same conditions.
 Intelligence Assessment

A group of 52 intelligence researchers:

“Intelligence is a very general mental capability that involves the ability

to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex
ideas, learn quickly and learn from experience” (Gottfredson, 1997, p.
13).
Origins of Intelligence Testing

1905 - Alfred Binet & Theodore Simon:

An objective test of intellectual performance that could be

used to classify and separate developmentally disabled from
other schoolchildren.
• Age-appropriate problems or test items on which many
children’s responses could be compared.

• The problems:
o scored objectively as correct or incorrect
o vary in content
o not heavily influenced by differences in children’s
environments
o assessed judgment and reasoning rather than rote
memory.
• Average score for normal children at each age was computed.

• Mental age vs. Chronological age

• At the beginning of the 20th century, as a result of global
economic, social, and political conditions, millions of
immigrants entered the U.S.

▪ schoolchildren
▪ recruiting stations
Ellis Island
IQ (intelligence quotient) Tests

• A numerical, standardized measure of intelligence

Chronological age = 8
1. Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test (Terman) Mental age = 10
IQ = 125 (10 / 8 x 100 = 125)

• IQ = MA/CA x 100 Chronological age = 8

• Mental Age/Chronological Age x 100 Mental age = 6
IQ = 75 (6 / 8 x 100 = 75)

Mental age = Chronological age => IQs of 100 => the average IQ.

IQ scores are no longer derived by dividing mental age by chronological age.

2. Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)
• Verbal subtests
• Performance subtests
The WAIS-IV is designed for people age 16 years and older, but similar tests have been
developed for children.
Distribution of IQ Scores in General Population
Extremes of Intelligence
Intellectual Disability

Individuals:
(1) have IQ scores of 70 or below Mental retardation
(2) demonstrate limitations in life tasks abilities =
Zeka geriliği

Intellectual disability
=
Zihinsel engellilik
Extremes of Intelligence

Education?
Intellectual Disability

Separate
Brought about by number of vs.
genetic and environmental Combined
factors

The environment that is most often

critical for intellectual disability is
Down syndrome—a disorder caused the prenatal environment. Pregnant
by extra genetic material on the 21st women who suffer diseases such as
chromosome—often have low IQs. rubella and syphilis are at risk.
Learning Disorder Large discrepancy
between individual’s
measured IQ and
achievement
 IQ score above 130
Giftedness

But…does IQ score
adequately define
giftedness?
 Joseph Renzulli

• Three-ring conception
 Lewis Terman began a long-term study of a group of
over 1,500 children.

They were followed all the way into their 80s.

For example, Terman explored the myth:

« gifted children have problems with social and emotional adjustment »

Terman concluded just the opposite: The gifted children were largely
successful in life.
He found his sample to be better
adjusted than their less gifted peers. IQ is a good predictor of occupational
status and income.

• The concern:

They don’t receive sufficient educational support to allow them to develop

their gifts fully.
 Theories of Intelligence

Charles Spearman Spearman’s “g”

• Performance of individuals on each of a variety of intelligence tests was

highly correlated. There is general intelligence, or g, underlying all
intelligent performance.
 Crystallized Intelligence

Raymond Cattell

Fluid Intelligence
• Crystallized intelligence: The knowledge a person has already acquired and
the ability to access that knowledge.

• Fluid intelligence: The ability to see complex relationships and solve

problems.
 Analytical intelligence

Robert Sternberg’s
Triarchic Theory
Creative intelligence

Practical intelligence

Successful intelligence reflects performance in all three domains.

1. Analytical intelligence: Mental processes that underlie thinking and problem
solving.

(1) Knowledge acquisition: Learning new facts

(2) Performance: Problem-solving strategies and techniques
(3) Metacognitive: Selecting strategies and monitoring progress toward success.
1. Ç – A – R – I – K = ______________________

2. V – E – Z – İ – R = ______________________

3. P – A – T – İ – K = ______________________

4. F – A – İ – D – E = ______________________

5. M – O – T – E – L = _____________________
2. Creative intelligence: People’s ability to deal with novel problems.

It involves skills used to

• create,
• invent,
• discover,
• imagine,
• suppose,
• or hypothesize.

3. Practical intelligence: Management of day-to-day affairs.

 Logical-mathematical, linguistic,
Gardner’s Theory of Multiple naturalist, musical, spatial, bodily
Intelligences kinesthetic, interpersonal,
intrapersonal

Western society values logical–mathematical and linguistic intelligence,

whereas non-Western societies often value other types of intelligence.
In the Caroline Island: In Bali:
spatial intelligence musical intelligence

Interpersonal intelligence is more central to collectivist societies such as Japan.

Emotional Intelligence

The abilities:

• to perceive, appraise, and express emotions accurately and appropriately,

• to use emotions to facilitate thinking,
• to understand and analyze emotions,
• to use emotional knowledge effectively,
• to regulate one’s emotions to promote both emotional and intellectual
growth.
The Politics of Intelligence
History of Group Comparison

• In the early 1900s: Mental testing of all immigrants and the selective
exclusion of those who were found to be “mentally defective.”

• 1924 Immigration Restriction Act: National policy to administer intelligence

tests to immigrants as they arrived at Ellis Island in New York Harbor.
• Vast numbers of Jewish, Italian, Russian, and immigrants of other
nationalities were classified as “morons” on the basis of IQ tests.

• Immigrants: Genetically inferior

• Not familiar with the dominant language and culture

• When children of Latino immigrant parents go to school, the emphasis on

understanding rather than speaking, on respecting the teacher’s authority
rather than expressing one’s own opinions leads to negative academic
assessment.
IQ and Genetic Relationship

The greater the genetic similarity, the greater the IQ similarity.

Environments and IQ

• More global measures of environment, e.g., the socioeconomic status

(SES)

• Children who come from more privileged, high-SES backgrounds are

likely to have higher IQs than their less privileged, low-SES peers.

• Why does SES affect IQ?

Poor health during pregnancy and low birth weight are solid predictors of a
child’s lowered mental ability.

Impoverished homes may suffer from a lack of books, written media,

computers, and other materials that add to one’s mental stimulation.
Interactions of genes and environments

• 750 twin pairs from ages 10 months to 2 years.

• By 2 years, a pattern emerged:

The children raised in high-SES homes showed levels of mental ability that
were greatly influenced by their genes.

The mental ability of children from low-SES homes still failed to show an
impact of genes.

• The environments in which low-SES children were reared did not allow
them to experience their full genetic potential.
The Head Start program - 1965

Not to move children to privileged environments but to improve the

environments into which they were born.

• Children are exposed to special preschool education

• They receive decent daily meals
• Their parents are given advice on health and other aspects of child rearing.