Chapter 11: Intelligence and Psychological Testing

A Psychologist Can Release Your Test Results when

1. A court orders it

2. With your written permission (18 or over)

Principle Types of Psychological TestsAptitude=a potential ability to perform a task that is not

yet learned (say to play piano)

Type of tests:– Intelligence – general mental

ability/intellectual potential– Aptitude – specific types of mental

abilities/a potential ability (ex. Verbal/abstract/mechanical reasoning, ASVAB)

– Achievement Tests (mastery of a subject, ex. SAT/ACT, FCAT, AP Exams)

– Personality tests (measure….you tell me)

Key Concepts in Psychological Testing• Standardized Test=piloted on a population

similar to those that are meant to take the test and whose achievement norms are established

• Standardization=uniform procedures used in test administration (ex., instructions) and scoring

-Scoring criteria– Test norms=information on where a score on a

test ranks– Standardization group=the sample of people on

which the norms are based – Percentile score=% of people who score at or

below the score -82nd percentile means scoring higher than or the same as 82 % of those taking test

1. allows comparing scores

2. reduce extraneous variables on scores

3. increase reliability and validity of the test scores

4. objectivity of the scoring procedures used

NOT TO SAVE TIME

Why Standardization

Key Concepts in Psychological TestingReliability=consistency of score if test repeated

1. Test-Retest Reliability=do scores correlate when the person takes it more then once?– Correlation coefficient=number index of

the degree of relationship between two variables-over .70 and above is good

2. split half-reliability=break test in half and correlate one’s performance on the two halves

3. equivalent form reliability=reliability on different forms of the same test (version A or B)

Key Concepts in Psychological Testing

Validity=does the test measure what is was intended to?1. Content validity/face-validity (it represents the

information it is to cover)2. Predictive validity (does it predict what it is

suppose to-SAT/success in college-compare it with the criterion of college success)

3. Construct validity=does it accurately measure a hypothetical construct (ex. Extraversion or personality)

Figure 9.3 Correlation and reliability

Positive correlation example

• The higher a students SAT scores, the higher her college GPA

The BIG controversial, debate question: Is there

construct validity for Intelligence Tests?

Key FiguresKey Figures/contributors in intelligence

research and testing :

Frances Galton-Heredity Genius

Charles Spearman-two Factor theory (g and s)

Alfred Binet-identify slower children and MA

LouisTerman-Stanford Binet Test; IQ=MA/CA X 100

David Wechsler –WAIS and WISC

Howard Gardner-8 Multiple Intelligences

Robert Sternberg-Three Intelligences

Raymond Cattell- Crystallized verses Fluid

Goleman’s- EQ (emotional intelligence)

The Evolution of Intelligence Testing

• *Sir Francis Galton (1869) – *Hereditary Genius-concluded that

success runs in families because intelligence is passed from generation to generation, ( people he looked at had superior upbringing)

– *Coined the phrase nature v. nurture– Measured sensory processes that he saw

as innate potential– *Invented concepts of correlation and

percentile test scores

Intelligence-Innate verses Environmental

Using birth families and adoptive families:

1. Give an example of what would indicate innate dominates

2. Give an example of what would prove environmental dominates

Spearman’s Two-Factor Theory (1904)

• first to take a psychometric (test measurement) approach by measuring cognitive factors that could measure intelligence

• Intelligence has two factors: g=general mental ability (based on what cognitive tasks have in common); s=specific mental abilities (math, mechanical, verbal)

• g is what modern psychologists have changed it into what is now viewed as an objective IQ score

The Evolution of Intelligence Testing

Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon (1905)

-asked to devise test to identify slower children who needed special training– Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale (abstract

reasoning skills)– Mental age-ability typical of a child that

age (would not work for adults)

The Evolution of Intelligence Testing• Lewis Terman worked at Stanford U (1916)-revised

Binet’s test– Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale– Intelligence Quotient (IQ) = MA/CA x 100– Could compare children of different ages

• David Wechsler (1955)-adult test:– Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)– Had a verbal and a performance test– Eventually came up with a test for children, 6-16

(WISC)– WPPSI-Wechsler preschool and primary scale of

intelligence-as young as 4

The Normal Distribution• Bell curve- the center is the mean..every live

in either direction is one standard deviations from the norm/mean, or 15 points.

(Page 537 in the textbook)

In normal distribution, 68% of the distribution falls above and below the mean

Normal IQ Range=85 to115,Average IQ is 100

Below 70=Intellectual Disability-2 standard deviations below mean; before age 18

Gifted 130 and above -2 standard deviations above the mean

Describing DataMeasures of Variability-how scores vary from the center

• Normal Curve (bell shaped)

Figure 9.7 The normal distribution

Reliability and Validity of IQ tests

• *Exceptionally reliable – correlations into the .90s

Extremes of Intelligence: Mental Retardation (aka-Intellectual Disability)

• 4 levels: mild (51 to 70), moderate (36-50), severe (20-35), profound (below 20)– Mild most common

• Causes:– Environmental vs. biological (25% have

organic etiology)

Extremes of Intelligence: Giftedness

– IQ 2 SD above mean standard (130)

Side note- IQ score in adolescence best predicts:

Grades in School

Not: job satisfaction or profession, personal adjustment, or interpersonal skills

Intelligence: Heredity or Environment?

• Heredity– twin studies (reared together):identical twins=.86 correlationreared apart .72Fraternal twins=.60

– Heritability estimates (genetic inheritance)• Environment

– Adoption studies– Cumulative deprivation hypothesis-

environmental deprivation led to erosion in IQ score

– Environmental improvement led to increased scores

Intelligence: Heredity or Environment?

– The Flynn effect=IQ scores have increased through century due to nutrition, education, tecknology

• Interaction– The concept of the* reaction range : 20 to

25 points= genetics places an upper limit on IQ.

-So, enriched environments place children at the higher range

May also explain why children from poor environments have high IQs

Figure 9.16 Reaction range

Stereotype Threat

Anxiety influences achievement of members of a group concerned that that their performance on a test will confirm a negative stereotype; may account for lower scores for blacks on IQ tests or girls on math tests

New Directions in the Study of Intelligence

• Cognitive Conceptualizations of Intelligence– Sternberg’s “successful intelligence”

known as: Triarchic Theory1.Analytical -reasoning/problem solving-

needed for school work and assessed on IQ tests

2. Creative (original information)3. Practical

Side note: creativity=original and divergent

New Directions in the Study of Intelligence

Expanding the Concept of Intelligence– Gardner’s multiple intelligences (verbal,

musical, logical-mathematical, spatial (architect or artist), kinesthetic, intrapersonal, and interpersonal)

– Goleman’s emotional intelligence (EQ)-able to perceive and express emotion, align emotion and thought, understand and reason with emotion, regulate emotion

Other Intelligence Information

• Raymond Cattell– Two types mental abilities:

• Crystallized intelligence =knowledge and skills accumulated over a life time, tends to increase with age

• Fluid intelligence =ability to reason and make sense of abstract information. (ex. spatial /visual skills, rote memory, puzzles) may decrease at about age 60