chapter seven chapter seven intelligence. the big bang theory “who’s smarter, sheldon or...
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CHAPTER SEVENCHAPTER SEVEN Intelligence
The Big Bang Theory“Who’s Smarter, Sheldon or Leonard?”
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZUVqyrctI4
Describe an Intelligent Person
• Form a group consisting of 3 or 4 students.• Imagine your group is looking for one more
member who will give your group the best chance at winning an intelligence competition.
• Create a list of the characteristics you are looking for in your new member.
Intelligence Test: Build a bridge over the creek with the materials provided
Intelligence Test: Make a profit at the PCC flea market
Intelligence Test: Survive 3 days in the desert
Defining Intelligence
Intelligence in Everyday Life• Intelligence involves more than just a particular
fixed set of characteristics.• Laypersons and experts agree on three clusters
of intelligence:– Problem-solving ability– Verbal ability– Social competence
Defining Intelligence
A Life-Span View of Intelligence includes four concepts: 1. Multidimensionality: There are many domains of intellectual abilities
Defining Intelligence
2. Multidirectionality: Abilities change over life span, but the pattern of change depends on each ability
Defining Intelligence
3. Plasticity: The ability to modify cognitive functioning and skills over time 4. Interindividual variability: Adults differ in the direction of their intellectual development
Research Approaches to Intelligence
• The psychometric approach– Measuring intelligence as a score on a standardized
test• Focus is on getting correct answers.
• The cognitive-structural approach– Ways in which people conceptualize and solve
problems emphasizing developmental changes in modes and styles of thinking
Psychometric Measurement of Intelligence• Primary mental abilities - intellectual abilities and their
interrelationships that are focused on in the psychometric approach:– Numerical facility—basic math skills and reasoning– Word fluency—production of verbal descriptions– Verbal Meanings—vocabulary– Inductive reasoning—extrapolating from facts to general concepts– Spatial orientation—ability to reason 3-dimensionally– Perceptual Speed—rapid visual processing– Verbal memory—ability to recall language
Age-Related Changes in Primary Abilities
• Data from Schaie’s Seattle Longitudinal Study of more than 5,000 individuals from 1956 to 1998 in six testing cycles:– People tend to improve on primary abilities until late 30s or early 40s.– Scores stabilize until mid-50s and early 60s.– By late 60s consistent declines are seen.– Nearly everyone shows a decline in one ability, but few show decline
on four or five abilities.
Secondary Mental Abilities
• Secondary Mental Abilities: broad-ranging skills composed of several primary abilities
• Fluid Intelligence: Abilities that make you a flexible and adaptive thinker, to draw inferences, and relationships between concepts independent of knowledge and experience
• Crystallized Intelligence: The knowledge acquired through life experience and education in a particular culture
Moderators of Intellectual Change
• Information processing– Perceptual speed may account for age-related
decline.– Working memory decline may account for poor
performance of older adults if coordination between old and new information is required.
Moderators of Intellectual Change
• Social and lifestyle variables– Slower rates in intellectual decline are related to:
• Gaining skills needed in different occupations• Higher education and socioeconomic status• A cognitively engaging lifestyle
• Personality– High levels of fluid abilities and a high sense of internal
control lead to positive changes in people’s perception of their abilities.
Moderators of Intellectual Change
• Health– A connection between disease and intelligence
has been established in general and in cardiovascular disease in particular.
– The participants in the Seattle Longitudinal Study who declined in inductive reasoning had significantly more illness diagnoses and visits to physicians for cardiovascular disease.
– Hypertension is not as clear. Severe HT may indicate decline whereas mild HT may have positive effects on intellectual functioning.
Modifying primary abilities
• Project ADEPT and Project ACTIVE– Seven year follow-up to the original Project ADEPT
showed significant training effects.• 64% of trained group’s performance was above the pre-
training level compared to 33% of the control group.– Project ACTIVE training slows declines and has reversed
14-year declines in some abilities
Piaget’s Theory: A Cognitive-Structural Approach
• Basic concepts– Assimilation
• Use of currently available information to make sense out of incoming information (e.g. zebra=horse with stripes)
– Accommodation• Changing one’s thoughts to make a better approximation of
the world of experience (e.g. zebra=new category of animal)
Piaget’s 4 Stages of Cognitive Development • Sensorimotor Period
– Object permanence: objects exist even when they are out of sight
Piaget’s 4 Stages of Cognitive Development
• Preoperational Period– Egocentrism: the inability
to view the world from another person’s perspective
Piaget’s 4 Stages of Cognitive Development
• Concrete Operations Period– Classification,
conservation, mental reversing
Piaget’s 4 Stages of Cognitive Development
• Formal Operations Period– Abstract thought
Going Beyond Piaget
• Postformal Thought—thinking that is characterized by the recognition that:– truth varies from situation to situation– solutions must be realistic to be reasonable– ambiguity and contradiction are the rule rather than the
exception– emotion and subjective factors usually play a role in thinking
Wisdom• Involves practical knowledge• Is given altruistically• Involves psychological insights• Based on life experience• Implicit conceptions of wisdom
are widely shared within a culture and include:– Exceptional level of functioning– A dynamic balance between
intellect, emotion, and motivation– A high degree of personal and
interpersonal competence– Good intentions