Assessing Intelligence Assessing intelligence know the people and

Assessing Intelligence -Assessing intelligence (know the people and the types of tests) -Achievement vs. Aptitude -Standardization and the Normal curve -Reliability -Validity

Assessing Intelligence Psychologists define intelligence testing as a method for assessing an individual’s mental aptitudes and comparing them with others using numerical scores.

Lewis Terman, in the US, adapted Binet’s test for American school children and named the test the Stanford-Binet Test He later did research and applied these IQ tests but his samples were not representative. Validity is tied to how close you match the norming ethnic/racial group

Intelligence Quotient • The formula of Intelligence Quotient (IQ) introduced by William Stern is • Chronological age of the child and the mental age which corresponds to the difficulty of the questions a child can answer

Aptitude and Achievement Tests Aptitude tests are intended to predict your ability to learn a new skill and achievement tests are intended to reflect what you have already learned.

APTITUDE TESTS • The goal is to • discover a person’s talents • Predict how well he or she will be able to learn a new skill • Assessed in terms of Predictive Validity • Examples • • • Differential Aptitude Test General Aptitude Test Battery Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) American College Test (ACT ASVAB

Basics of Intelligence Test Components • Short term memory • Can you replicate this model? • Long term memory • Vocabulary is a good indicator • Association • A cat is to feline as a dog is to • Evaluation • If you could have any one tool on an island, what would it be • Reasoning • Convergent (one answer) and Divergent thinking (many answers)

Principles of Test Construction For a psychological test to be acceptable it must fulfill three criteria: 1. Standardizati on 2. Reliability 3. Validity

Flynn Effect In the past 60 years intelligence scores have steadily risen by an average of 27 points — a phenomenon known as the Flynn effect.

Reliability A test is reliable when it yields consistent results. To establish reliability researchers establish different procedures: 1. Split-half Reliability: Dividing the test into two equal halves and assessing how consistent the scores are. 2. Reliability using different tests: Using different forms of the test to measure consistency between them. 3. Test-Retest Reliability: Using the same test on two occasions to measure consistency.

High Intelligence High-scoring people on intelligence tests—contrary to popular beliefs—tend to be healthy, well adjusted, and unusually successful academically.

Language • Pragmatics: • practical aspects of communicating with others, or the social niceties of language • Semantics • the set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language • Also, the study of meaning • Syntax • the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language

Language • Linguistic Relativity • Whorf’s hypothesis that language determines the way we think

8. Language and Culture • Linguistic-relativity hypothesis (Whorf (1956)) • Language structures the way we perceive the world • Criticism of linguistic-relativity hypothesis • Images and abstract logical propositions may be used as units of thought • Range of concepts represent priority of the language not cognitive limitation

Motivation • Extrinsic Motivation: type of motivation in which a person performs an action because it leads to an outcome that is separate from or external to the person. Example: Going to work for money. • Intrinsic Motivation: type of motivation in which a person performs an action because the act itself is rewarding or satisfying in some internal manner. Example: Creating a web site for fun.

Projective Tests • Projective Tests is an unstructured test in which a person is asked to respond freely, giving his or her own interpretation of various ambiguous stimuli • Rorschach Inkblot Test • Tat

Objective Tests • Objective Tests: Limited- or Force- Choice Format test in which a person must select one of several answers • MMPI • CPI • Myers-Briggs

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15. Nativist Approach to Language Development • Language acquisition device (LAD)- Chomsky • Represents the inborn tendency • Prepares nervous system to learn grammar • Universal grammar • Psycholinguistic theory • Language acquisition involves interaction of environmental influences and inborn tendency to acquire language Interactionist perspective similar to Psycholinguistic theory. Reading to a child is very important for the language development!!!

Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic research: • Research shows that people that are more intrinsically motivated tend to be psychologically healthier and happier. • Over Justification Effect – Promising a reward for doing something you like to do results in you seeking the reward as the motivation for performing the task. • This tends to diminish the intrinsic motivation to do something. • Example: Rewarding a child for drawing a picture 20

• An average 8 -year-old child should have the mental age of 8 years. 8/8=1*100=100 IQ (the mean) • An 8 year old with a mental age of 10 years is 10/8=1. 25*100=125 IQ • Imagine a child who is 5 years old and had an IQ of 165. What is their mental age? X/5=1. 65*100=165 About 8 years, 3 months

What IS Emotion? • Emotion involves: • 1. A subjective conscious experience (cognitive) • Accompanied by… • 2. Bodily arousal (physiological) • and • 3. A characteristic overt expression (behavioral) Think he brushes his teeth? 22

Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic: • Society tends to encourage people to be extrinsically motivated ($$$$!!!! ) • Although everyone needs some money, why is it more important to some and not to others? • Intrinsic – a desire to perform an activity for its own sake rather than an external reward • Extrinsic – a desire to perform an activity to obtain a reward such as money, attention, etc. 23