Intelligence and Cognitive Abilities

7/29/2019 Intelligence and Cognitive Abilities

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Intelligence and

Cognitive Abilities



Intelligence

• What is intelligence? Or, what is (is not )

intelligent behavior?

• How do you know if someone isintelligent?

• If you wanted to find out if someone was

intelligent what would you do?



Intelligence

• Why are these questions important?



Some ideas for intelligent behavior

• Ability to: – Think abstractly

– To plan

– To gather information

– To understand complex ideas and to manipulatethem for later use

– To solve problems

– To reason, e.g., deduction and induction

– To adapt effectively to the environment andovercome obstacles

– To learn from experience

– To adapt to a novel situation



Intelligence

• Intelligence should be universal

– Some behaviors everyone should agree

are intelligent• Exactly how intelligence is expressed

will differ given the context

– Language skills are good indicators of intelligence but would be invalid measure if

the person did not speak the language



Intelligence

• Cooper definition of “mental ability”

– Person’s performance on some task that

has substantial information-processingcomponent when the person is trying to

perform that task as well as possible

– Traits that relate to cognitive ability and

information processing



Three A’s

• Ability

– Present competence to perform a task

• Achievement – Present competence that reflects specific

learning experience or instruction

• Aptitude – Potential to acquire particular skills, withreference toward future performance



Three A’s

• Ability

– Skill you have, e.g., reading or mechanical ability

• Achievement – Given instruction what do you now know? E.g.,

exam in Psy3135

• Aptitude

– How well might you performance givenappropriate instruction & motivation? E.g., SAT

and college performance



Under and Overachievers

• Underachiever

– Achievement tests or performance falls below

what would be predicted by aptitude or intellectual

ability tests

– Learning disability (LD) defined as 2 SD difference

between achievement and aptitude

• Overachiever – Achievement tests or performance exceeds the

level predicted by aptitude or intellectual ability

tests



Three A’s

• 3 A’s are distinct but there is substantial

overlap

• In practical terms, it’s very difficult tocompletely separate them at least in

terms of measurement



Three A’s

• Function of educational system is to

foster cognitive development

• Therefore, achievement and aptitudetend to be tied

• Also, persons with high aptitude tend to

receive the most instruction





Not Intelligence

• Intelligence does not include every skill

or ability a person could have

• Jimmi Hendrix was a musical genius

• Michael Jordan was an athletic genius

• That doesn’t make them an intellectualgenius



Gardner’s Theory of

Multiple Intelligences• 7 different and independent intelligences

– Linguistic

– Logical-mathematical

– Musical

– Spatial

– Bodily-kinesthetic – Interpersonal

– Intrapersonal



Not Intelligence

• How can we figure out what is and is

not intelligence?

• Remember validity?



Intelligence

• However you want to define or measure

it

• Intelligence is the single mostconsequential individual difference trait

– Some researchers even think of life as a

series of poorly defined intelligence tests,i.e., situations that require cognitive

reasoning



Brief History

• Sir Francis Galton

– Father of individual differences

– Believed intelligence was an inheritedcharacteristic

• Inheritance of “eminence”

– Eminent individuals tended to run infamilies

– Conducted family studies of eminence



Galton study of eminence

• Eminence occurred aprox. 250 per

million individuals (.025%)

• The 1000 eminent men he identifiedcame from only 300 families

• Therefore, eminence runs in families

• Any problems with these conclusions?



Galton and eminence

• Reputation only a proxy for intelligence

• Confound with social status

• Suggested adoption study to avoid the

confound

– Studied adopted sons of popes



Anthropometric Laboratory

• Galton (later Cattell) devised several

sensorimotor tests to measure

intelligence – Make fine discriminations in pitch, sight, or

texture

– Physical traits such as head size, arm

length, grip strength

• How do you think that turned out?



Galton other discoveries

• Assortative mating

– “clever men marry silly women”

– NO, eminent men marry eminent women

• Positive manifold

– “men of genius are uhealthy puny being-all brain and no muscle-weak sighted and

generally poor constitutions” – NO, intellect is associated with health,

strength, vitality, and long, productive life



Range of Human Capacity

• As many people below the mean as

above it

• Talent deviated from an average

• Intelligence had a symmetric, normal

distribution



2 types of Mental Retardation

• Familial MR – Individuals at the low end of the intelligence

distribution

– MR due to “natural” causes; mild MR; runs infamilies

• Organic MR – MR due to some unusual event

– Congenital factors (e.g., Down’s syndrome) or serious brain injury

– Severe impairment; doesn’t run in families



Alfred Binet

• Devised first successful and widely

used intelligence test (1904)

• Wanted to identify children in publicschools that will special needs that

would require intervention

• Why use a test and not teacher’srecommendation?



Binet and Intelligence tests

• Intelligence tests are more objective

– Predict success and allow for ready

classification

• Diagnose MR

– Doctors were consulted, but no standard

– Develop age norms – Establish cut-offs scores



Binet Intelligence tests

• Measure higher mental processes

– Memory

– General knowledge – Abstract Reasoning

– Attention

– Comprehension

– Coordination

– Visual judgment





IQ

• Thus, if a 9-year old can answerquestions of the same difficulty level as

most 12-year-olds then– IQ = (12/9) * 100 = 133

• Also, add up many different scales to

calculate a total score– General reasoning ability



Binet and IQ

• How did it work out? Good.

– Discriminated MR from “normal” children

– Discriminated MR from behavior problems

– IQ scores predicted grades

• Eventually transplanted to the U.S. by

Terman and evolved into the Stanford-Binet



Spearman’s Two-factor

Theory (1904)• All individual tests of intelligence consist

of two additive components of variance

– General variance (g)

– Specific variance (s)

– [Also error variance, (e)]



Two-factor Theory

• “g” is the variance shared by all tests of

intelligence

– General intelligence

• If two tests are heavily loaded with “g”,

expect them to correlate highly



Factor Analysis

• Data reduction technique

• Identifies “latent” or unobserved

variables that account for thecorrelations among the observed

variables

• Each observed variable is a function of the latent variable(s)





Factor Loadings

• Regression coefficient (correlation) betweenthe factor and the observed variable

•How much variance the factor accounts for in the observed variable (standardized to1.0)

• Higher factor loadings indicate the observedvariable is a better marker (measure) of thefactor



G-factor

Vocabulary Arithmetic Memory

V specific A specific M specific

.80.70

.60

.60 .70 .80

r voc-arith = .55 r voc-memory = .50 r arith-memory = .39



G-factor

Vocabulary Arithmetic Memory

V specific A specific M specific

.80.70

.60

.40 .55 .58

r voc-arith = .55 r voc-memory = .50 r arith-memory = .39

Error

.45 .45

Error Error

.55



Multiple Factor Theories

• G is not the whole story

• “Group” factors are at a level between

specific (primary) measures and g

• These factors are common to a group of

tests



Test Factor I’ Fac tor II’

Vocabulary .91 -.06

Analogies .75 .02

Sentence Completion .80 .00

D isarranged Sentences .39 -.02

Reading Co m prehension .86 -.04

Addition -.09 .55

Multiplication .07 .64

A rithmetic Problem s .18.68

Equation Relations .16 .54

N um ber Series C om pletion .13 .38

Rotated Factor Matrix



Group Factor Examples

• From Thurstone’s Primary Mental Abilities:

– Verbal comprehension (vocabulary)

– Word fluency (letter naming) – Number (capacity for arithmetic)

– Space (visualizations)

– Associative memory (paired associates)

– Perceptual speed (visual processing speed) – Reasoning (number series)



gf-gc Theory

• Fluid intelligence (gf)

– Abilities to think, reason, and acquire new

knowledge• Crystalized intelligence (gc)

– Knowledge and understanding that a

person has acquired



Hierarchical Theories

• Integrate the single (“g”) and multiple

group factor approaches



Hierarchical Structure

• G is at the top

• Second level is Major Group Factors

• Third level is Minor Group Factors

• Bottom level is specific factors

(Spearman’s s)



Hierarchical Structure

G-factor

S5 S6 S7 S8S1 S2 S3 S4

Verbal Number Spatial Visualization

V:ed K:m



Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scales

• David Wechsler devised adult

intelligence test (1939)

• Now most widely used measure of intelligence for adults and children

• IQ is calculated differently

– IQ declines as people age



Deviation IQ

• Compare scores to a normative sample

of a similar age

• Mean = 100, SD = 15

Deviation IQ = (z-score * ) + x= (z-score * 15) + 100



Deviation IQ

• Average range: 85 to 115

• “Gifted” range: 130+

• Mentally retarded: < 70

• How does that correspond to SD units?



WAIS-IV Subtests

• 11 subtests, with 3 supplementary scales

• Full scale IQ

• Verbal IQ

• Performance IQ

• Index Scores – Verbal Comprehension

– Perceptual Organizational – Working Memory

– Processing Speed



Verbal Subtests

• Vocabulary (VC) – Define words

– Best measure of G

• Similarities (VC) – Tell how two things are alike

– Abstract verbal reasoning

• Information (VC) – Questions of general knowledge

– Crystalized intelligence



Verbal Subtests

• Arithmetic (WM)

– Solve arithmetic problems in your head

– Working memory, mathematical reasoning• Digit Span (WM)

– Repeat a list of numbers forwards and

backwards

– Working memory



Performance Subtests

• Block Design (PO)

– Make designs using colored cubes

– Spatial and nonverbal reasoning

• Matrix Reasoning (PO)

– Given an incomplete pattern, choose from

a number of options how to be complete apicture

– Pattern recognition, non-verbal reasoning



Performance Subtests

• Digit Symbol Coding (PS)

– Paired associates

– Each number has a mark put the mark thatgoes with the number

– Processing speed, learning ability or speed

of acquisition



WAIS-IV Subtests

• Each subtest assesses slightly differentmental abilities

• All a measure of G• Multiple measures that assess multiple

abilities provides a comprehensivemeasure of a person’s intelligence

• Highly reliable

– Test-retest correlation = .90

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Intelligence and Cognitive Abilities

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