Intelligence Questions

When Morton tried to measure skull capacity as a measure of mental worth, what did he
conclude? How did he fail science?
 He had measured an innate difference in intelligence.
 Failed to take into consideration stature and gender of individual
 Highly imprecise measurement

Who was the start of what we know as IQ tests today? What was it called? How did he
create it.
 Binet!
 The Binet-Simon scale
 Age level assigned to each task.
 Mental Age assigned to the person

What is a problem with testing using ‘mental age’? How was this problem resolved?
 It is hard to make comparisons across people of different ages.
 The ratio “intelligence quotient” IQ
o ratio IQ = Mental Age/Chronological Age x 100

What is a problem with the Ratio IQ? How was this problem solved?
 Only works if mental age increases proportionally with chronological age … which
isn’t the case. Would the mental age of a 50 year old really be any different to a 30
year old?
 Cut-off age is 16…. still not great though.

How did David Wechsler solve the problem with Ratio IQ? What were the new scores?
 Created a ‘Deviation IQ’
o Norm-referenced testing – judges a person’s test score in terms of how it
compares to an appropriate “standardization sample”.
o Average score = 100, SD = 15

What is norm-referenced testing?

 Deriving meaning in a score by referencing it to what is “normal”.
 A score may have different percentile ranking for each group, an thus different
psychological interpretations.

How do you convert any score to an IQ score?

 IQ = M + (z x SD)
 Where M = 100 and SD = 15

Lecture 2

What is the psychometric approach to intelligence based on?

 An analysis of the correlations between test scores
What is the goal of factor analysis?
  To analyse how many factors, in the simplest way possible, explain the
observed pattern of correlations.

What is the law of positive manifold?

 If do well on one test, you will also tend to do well on another type of test. All
tasks that tend to require some intellectual processing are positively correlated
with eachother.

What did Spearman mean when he spoke of the ‘indifference of the indicator’?
 It didn’t matter which intelligence test you used, they all showed positive
correlation.

What did Spearman observe in his tests of intelligence? What did he propose was the
explanation?
 All tests of intelligence correlate positively with all others – positive manifold.
 Some general entity exists that explains this positive manifold.
 BUT correlations among tests are not perfect – so some other factor determining
performance on each test….
 Each test is made up of two factors:
o Specific factor “s” (different for each test)
o General factor “g”

What was Spearman’s Two Factor Theory?

 Each test is made up of two factors:
o Specific factor “s” (different for each test)
o General factor “g”

Covariation is just another word for correlation

How would Spearman explain the total intelligence of Vocab?

 Vocab = (G + Svocab) + Evocab
 E = Error that we can’t explain.
 S = specific to vocab
 G = general factor

What were Thurstone’s two groupings of intelligence?

 Verbal meaning and Reasoning

What is an ‘eye-ball’ factor analysis?

 Just looking at the results and trying to create correlations.

What is the difference between uncorrelated factors and correlated factors theory?
 Thurman: Intelligence is a combination of a series of processes (diff types of
intelligences) that are internally consistent but unrelated to eachother.
o A variety of abilities
  Spearman’s g

What is the difference between Gf (fluid intelligence) and Gc (crystallized intelligence)?

 Gf – to be able to process information, create connections between things –
culture free!
 Gc – acquired knowledge and skills - you acquire over your lifetime – through
culture  probably is acquired through application of fluid intelligence!

What was Cattell’s investment hypothesis?

 Gc if developed through the application of Gf  crystallized intelligence is the
culturated knowledge which comes from you working hard, thinking, reasoning,
problem solving.

Most tasks require both Gf and Gc!

What does Raven’s Progressive Matrices task show? What is it?

 Gf
 Figuring out which shape/pattern/jigsaw piece fits … working out the pattern of
relation.

What are the 3 tests of Gf?

 Abstract Reasoning
 Matrices
 Series comp.

What are the 3 tests of Gc?

 Vocabulary
 Verbal Comprehension
 General Knowledge

What is the main reason we can’t just say the correlations between Gf and Gc is the general
factor ‘g’?
 They increase and decrease at different times:
o Fluid rises to young adulthood, then falls off in old age
o Crystallized rises and plateaus, roughly speaking.

Is Gf and Gc a first order factor or second order factor?

 Second order factor

How did John Horn structure intelligence?

 There are up to 10 forms of intelligence (not just Gf and Gc)
 3 spider maps:
o Expertise abilities: Gc, Long-term memory, quantitively reasoning.
o Vulnerable abilities: Gf, STM, processing speed (vulnerable because these
abilities increase till mid-twenties and then start to decline)
 o Sensory/Perceptual abilities: differences in processing speed, auditory
abilities, visual abilities.

How did Carroll view all of Horn’s different forms of intelligence?

 The common g still exists, as there is correlation between all the different 2nd order
gs. This creates a 3rd order g.

Lecture 3: Alternative Models of Intelligence

What is the current state of hierarchical theory of intelligence?

 Carroll’s theory – general intelligence at the top, broad abilities, and then narrow
sets of abilities.

What is the difference between Gardner’s and Sternberg’s theories of intelligence?

 Gardner – there are many different types of intelligence – moving away from
analytic.
 Sternberg – triarchic theory of intelligence.

What was Gardner’s focus in intelligence?

 Exceptional people such as savants, prodigies, or people with a distinctive
developmental history.

What were Gardner’s 7 intelligences?

 Linguistic, logico-mathematic, spatial, musical, bodily kinaesthetic, inter-personal,
intra-personal

What is the difference between inter-personal and intra-personal?

 Inter – understanding and relating to others
 Intra – understanding oneself.

What was Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence?

 Analytic (think critically)
 Practical (street-smarts)
 Creative (interesting ideas)

What were Sternberg’s three sub-theories, and which triarchic form of Intelligence was it
related to?
 Componential = Analytic; internal-world of the individual, declarative knowledge
 Contextual = Practical; external world, procedural knowledge
 Experiential = Creative; experience

What are the three aspects of the Componential Sub-theory?

 Metacomponents (planning, monitoring, evaluation)
 Knowledge-acquisition (selective encoding, combination, comparison)
  Performance components (perceiving, generating, comparing)

What does the Contextual Sub-Theory show?

 External aspects of intelligence
 Practical intelligence
 People mastering their environment seem to be able to capitalize upon their
strengths and compensate for weakness

What are the three aspects of the Contextual sub-theory?

 Adaptation (adapt self to fit environment)
 Shaping (shape/change the environment to fit us)
 Select new environment

What does the Experiential Sub-Theory relate to? What are its components?
 Creative intelligence!
o Ability to deal with novelty
o Automization (although the lecturer doesn’t think this belongs here)

What would most people call practical intelligence?

 Common sense – the ability to adapt to, shape and select everyday environments

How is practical intelligence measured?

 Through tacit knowledge tests

What is perspicacity?
 Someone who questions social norms, truisms, assumptions – is willing to take a
stand

What did Guilford propose as the two thinking patterns underlying creativity?
 Convergent thinking (generating one correct answer from the available information)
 Divergent thinking (generating many possible answers from the same source)

What is the Creativity Threshold Hypothesis?

 Creativity is unrelated to intelligence above a threshold of intelligence (120~)

Lecture 4

What does PPIK theory stand for?

 P – Intelligence as Process (fluid intelligence)
 P – Personality
 I – Interest
 K – Intelligence as Knowledge

Which two personality traits is Intelligence-as-knowledge related to?

 Openness to experience
 Typical Intellectual Engagement
What are the aspects of Interests in Ackerman’s PPIK theory?
 RIASEC:
o Realistic
o Investigative
o Artistic
o Social
o Enterprising
o Conventional

How would you describe the correlations of the RIASEC model?

 The closer they are, the more likely they will correlate with each other.

Which Interests are most closely linked to Intelligence-as-process?

 Investigative
 Realistic

How is (intelligence as) Knowledge in Ackerman’s PPIK theory different to Gc?

 Similar, but broader and more encompassing (not just academic)
 A test of intellectual performance that is contextual

How is Ackerman’s PPIK theory different to the G theory?

 G theory only really looks at Gf (Intelligence as Process in Ackerman’s theory)
 ‘G’ is predictive up to a certain point (what happens when someone becomes an
expert at something?)
 G theory is more important in early life. Importance diminishes as someone goes
into university.
 Ackerman’s theory takes Personality, Interest, and Intelligence as Knowledge into
account

Lecture 5

Why is experimental psychology not good enough to Cronbach? What did he focus on in his
Correlational Psychology
 The variables the experimenter left home to forget
 Goal is to predict variation within a treatment.
 Treat the ‘noise’ as systematic and something be explained.

What was Cronbach’s suggested solution to the narrow scope of experimental psychology?
 Aptitude x Treatment Interaction
 If we construct a set of tasks with understanding of how aptitude impacts
performance, we can target people with a particular aptitude with the best
outcome.

Why didn’t Cronbach’s Aptitude x Treatment Interaction not really work?

  Oversimplification
 Difficult to replicate
 Practical and resource constraints on individualisation

This is called differential psychology from psychometrics – we were not successful – the goal
was to identify the mental processes that underlie intelligent functioning

What was Lohman and Ippel’s main claim surrounding Individual Differences. How did they
do it?
 Cognitive approach to measurement is most useful when applied to tasks designed
to elicit responses that reveal qualitative differences between individuals in
knowledge or strategy.
 Repeated the same test (e.g. Raven’s Progressive Matrices to test the Matrices
Cognitive Process) many many times with an individual to understand their
individual difference. Then combine this with Abstract Reasoning and Series Comp.
to understand their Gf.

What type of design should we use to understand individual differences in exeriments?

 Within-subject process designs

What is the Information-Processing approach?

 Treats mental activities as different operations performed on symbols and symbol
structures (mental representations)

What processes are needed for a mental rotation task?

 Stimuli   Encoding  Mental Rotation  Comparison   Response

Lecture 6

What is cognitive flexibility?

 Dealing with novel processing
 A conative disposition towards novelty – seeking out intellectual challenges
These ideas are not new to us – the new thing is the paradigm to try to study this
 Cognitive flexibility is reflected in adaptive performance which emerges as a
strategic response to novelty in dynamic environments.

How can we test cognitive flexibility?

 By using WITHIN-SUBJECTS DESIGNS (between-subjects is what is usually used for
experiments, but it has limited capability for understanding dynamic decision
making)
What is an example of a set-switching task?
 Wisconsin card sorting test – trying to sort cards into different categories, getting
feedback on colour/shape/category  having to switch categories. THE RULE
CHANGES!
How is the Wisconsin card sorting test scored?
 Total number of preservative errors

How can we test the mental processes that underlie intelligent functioning?
 Within-subjects design. BUT NOT JUST THAT! Experimental manipulations OF the
within-subjects design.

In a Latin Squares test, how is the difficulty of each test manipulated?

 2 manipulations:
o Steps – how many steps it takes to figure it out.
o Relational Complexity load (2D, 3D, 4D – how many rows/columns needed) –
just one row/column is 2D

What does the Latin Squares test show?

 The relationship between Gf and manipulation of task complexity.

What were the findings of the Latin Squares test? Did more RC and Steps show less of effect
for those with high Gf? What does this show?
 NO! High Gf participants were better than low Gf for the more Steps condition, but
NOT for the more RC condition.
 It has more to do with memory (Steps uses memory, RC is just complex thinking)

How did the study in the lecture test individual differences for performance and learning on
the Raven’s Progressive Matrices?
 Testing the difference in performance and learning for people with neuroticism.

What are the 4 conditions to test the differences in Gf for mental arithmetic tasks?
 Arithmetic Reasoning, Working memory, Fixed Binding, Random Binding.
o Control: Arithmetic Reasoning (substitute letter into equation)
o Retention: Working Memory (Remember the values of A, B, and C, after the
arithmetic task)
o Fixed Binding: Chunking via systematicity (remember the values to put into
equation)
o Random Binding: Chuck via systematicity not possible (remember the values,
but now its in a different order)

What is complex problem solving as an ability, and as a task?

 Tasks that have been made to look like real-world tasks.

What is an example of a microworld, a complex problem? What’s the point?

 A flight simulator.
 Manipulate something, and look at how people deal with those manipulations.

In a microworld, what are these simulation variables: input (decision) variables, output
variables, mediator variables, decision variables,
  Input variables – decision variables: those for which the problem solver or learner
sets the values.
 Output variables – consequences of the input decisions plus effects due to
intervening relationships within the model. Can be decision-based or “run” based
 Mediator variables – outside the control of the learner
 Moderator variables: changes relationship between inputs and outputs under
specific conditions.

From the microworld example in the lecture, what example is given for each category?
Input variables, Output variables, Mediating variables, Moderating variables
 Input variables - Staff hiring
 Output variables - Penalty score at the end
 Mediating variables – Delay (has an impact on decision making - you don’t have
control over it, but you need to consider it) AND outflow (no control, but part of
decision making)
 Moderating variable – going under is better than over (differential decision cost).

When are microworlds used? And why are they useful?

 Used in business education and training to allow trainees to explore, make mistakes
and gain experiences in a risk-free virtual environment that does not impose real
costs on the trainee or the organisation.
 More engaging that commonly used case-study discussions.

Microworlds are an example of complex problem solving – relationships between inputs and
outputs you have to figure out to control the system.

What are the parameters that we are taking out of the microworlds model to be able to
better understand this dynamic process (complex problem solving)?
 Mean penalty – we can look at all of the people who scored a penalty, and create a
distribution (to understand their level of complex problem solving).
 Outflow costs
 Attempts
 Delay – hiring and firing decisions

What did high reasoning abilities predict in the microworld example?

 Reasoning (reasoning, verbal abilities, numeric abilities, abstract abilities) PREDICT
average scores and number of attempts (you learn better over time), delays, BUT
NOT loss of stock (outflow).
 Being able to manage loss of stock was difficult, but not predicted by
reasoning/intelligence. It made the task difficult, but its not related to intelligence.

How do we assess cognitive flexibility? Which tasks?

 Through shifting and set-switching tasks which are tested as within-subjects design
(the same person gets tested many times, with the test getting harder each time)
BECAUSE cognitive flexibility involves DYNAMIC decision making.
What tasks do we use to assess cognitive flexibility?
 Wisconsin Card Sorting Task (colours, shapes, numbers)
 Latin Square Task (sudoku)
 Raven’s Progressive Matrices
 Mental Arithmetic (fixed and random binding)
 Symmetry span (memory test + symmetry image)
 Microworlds

Emotional Intelligence
Understand the different theoretical and measurement models of EI
Be able to evaluate and compare the different models of EI
Know how the three different streams are measured
Know which factors affect the relationships between EI and other constructs

What are the two different theories of EI?

 Ability models – take the position that EI is an ability – something that you do e.g.
emotional intelligence as creativity
 Mixed models – EI is a mix of many things – pull together personality, intelligence,
social etc.
o EI is a mix of constructs – character traits, emotion-related abilities,
motivation beliefs, etc.

What are the two scales?

 Ability scales – used to measure ability models - you’re measuring what people can
do  minimum/maximum performance
 Rating-scales – used for mixed models – because they are built from things like
personality constructs, we don’t have a way of really measuring mixed models.

What are the 4 branches under Emotional Intelligence in the ability model?
 Emotion regulation, emotion understanding, emotion facilitation (use your emotion
for some kind of positive effect), emotion perception
 REGULATION
 UNDERSTANDING
 FASCILITATION
 PERCEPTION

What are the 5 measurements used for the mixed-model measurement (rating scales) for
EI?
 Intra-personal abilities
 Inter-personal abilities
 Adaptation (problem solving, flexibility)
 Stress management
 General mood
Explain each ‘stream’ of emotional intelligence measurement + theories.
 Stream 1: measures ability as an ability (you see what people can do)
 Stream 2: ability with a rating scale (asks you to assess your ability e.g. when you are
sad how good are you at dealing with it)
 Stream 3: Mixed models with rating scale

How is mixed models of EI and ability models of EI different?

 Mixed model – made up of many constructs: traits, abilities, motivation, beliefs etc.
 Abilities model: JUST abilities (regulation, understanding, fascilitation, perception)

What is an example of a rating scale? What is an example of an ability scale?

 Rating scale: ‘how strongly do you agree with these statements from 1-5?  I know
why my emotions change’
 Ability scale: Given scenario of someone acting a certain way at work. These actions
were a. very ineffective, b. somewhat ineffective ETC .

How is the rating scale better than ability scales? How is it worse?
 Better: high correlations with personality, quick and easy to administer, high
reliability
 Worse: easily faked

How is the ability scale better than rating scales?

 More strongly related to actual intelligence (but that’s not what we’re measuring),
cannot be faked.

Which stream overlaps with personality measures e.g. that come from neuroticism?
 Stream 3 – mixed model measured through ability scales

Which personality traits have strong relationships with high emotional intelligence?
 Low neuroticism
 High extraversion
 High openness to experience

Lecture 2
What is the typical pattern for Gf and Gc over time?
 Gf declines with age (hits 20 then declines)
 Gc increases with age (hits 50 then usually plateaus)
What are some factors when you are older that have positive effects on Gf?
 Physical health and alcohol!

What is the Flynn effect again?

 People are getting higher scores on IQ tests from one generation to another

WHat happens when you look at the data between our generation and the older generation,
and adjust for the Flynn effect?
  The older generation are not actually worse with Gc (if anything they are a little
better)
 But Gf is still getting worse

What are two kinds of IQ stability?

 A lack of change over time
 Rank order stability - minimal change in relative scores - those who scored higher
than average at one time point score higher than average at later time points

How do you test rank order stability?

 Test-retest measures - looking at correlations of people's scores at one timepoint
and the next
 High correlations between measures = within-person stability

What did the Scottish mental survey (longitudinal study using rank order stability) show?
 Showed rank order stability (same level of mental ability from one generation to the
next)

What do we have to keep in mind with IQ stability?

 Low stability of intelligence in early childhood
 Stability of IQ increases with age

What did Tucker-Drob find in his study on gene stability ( with regards to genetics vs
environment on intelligence)?
 Across all ages, genetic impact is greater than environmental
 Impact of genes is more in childhood than adulthood
 With age, impact of environmental factors increases

What did Tucker-Drob find in his study on gene stability ( with regards to Gf and Gc)?
 General intelligence more stable than Gf and Gc
 Gc stability more impacted by environment
 Gf stability more impacted by genes

What is the reason that the old nuns that translated bibles never got dementia?
 They DID all have signs of dementia, BUT as they stayed constantly engaged, it
meant there was neuronal growth going on even as they declined in other areas.

Lecture 3
How did Lynn and Irwing measure sex differences in IQ in their meta-analysis? What did
they find?
 Used Raven's Progressive Matrices
 Men are 5 IQ points higher than women

How can significance be faked in intelligence data? Why is looking at effect sizes better?
 p-hacking: increasing number of people so the data falls under the p-value and
becomes significant.
  Effect sizes mean you just look at relationships between things (correlation) and you
assess the strength of the relationship regardless of statistical significance.

Where is there a large male advantage?

 Mental rotation
 Mechanical Reasoning

Why might men be better at mental rotation from a neurological point of view?
 Tasks are solved better when solved in one side of the brain - women use both
during mental rotation tasks

What is something else we should consider when comparing sex differences in intelligence?
 Variability - men tend to be more at the extreme ends (very dumb or very smart)

What are some different perspectives on gender differences in IQ?

 Evolutionary, Neurological, Hormonal, Environmental

What are some moderators of the Black-White Gap (factors that affect the outcome)?
 Time (IQ gap has narrowed over time)
 SES
 Age

What did The Bell Curve say about IQ and race?

 IQ differs between races and is lower for immigrants (95)
 Low-IQ races and immigrants have more children, create more social problems and
are less successful

What does Terman's Termites predict?

 IQ>135 = >income, >education, <children
 BUT no social indicators (suicide, alcoholism, divorce)
 But a lot of people didn't fit in this category and ended up performing better (one
boy didn't have high enough IQ but got a nobel prize)

What was The Bell Curve actually measuring?

 Crystallised intelligence

What did the Pareto curve show?

 20 percent of the population owns 80 percent of the wealth - this is not a normal
distribution.

What were Lynn and Vanahen's claims for IQ differences across different countries?
 Differences between countries have genetic basis
 Differences in IQ cause the differences in wealth between nations
What were the criticisms of Lynn and Vanahen's claims for IQ differences across different
countries?
 Many IQs were estimates
 Within-group differences may not explain between-group differences
 Causal direction not clear: IQ  Wealth, Wealth  IQ?
 Neglect of motivation, structural factors, education
 Unsophisticates statistics

What were the two main arguments made by The Bell Curve?
 Social Darwinism - IQ predicts success, is genetic, unchangeable!
 Racial differences in IQ is because of genetics - lack of success among black people is
genetic, affirmative action will not work

Lecture 5

We say that a construct relies in the identification of it's 'nomological net'

 A network of laws
 If Y happens, X happens
 These vary across cultures and sub-cultures (any groups)

What 3 aspects do construct contingencies (relationships) rely on?

 Iconicity (resemblances)
o e.g. seeing Raven's progressive matrices differently to different people
o e.g. seeing something that resembles a needle
 Indexality (resemblances in context)
o Seeing a doctor hold a needle
 Symbolicity (symbols used to identify things)
o Needle disposing sign

What are some "construct irrelevant" test bias examples?

 Stimuli that is more familiar to some groups than others - systematically biased
towards one group (e.g. reading comprehension taken from Men's Health or a Bible
passage)
 Using small print - biased towards short-sighted people
 Test of spatial ability with long complex verbal instructions

How can you tell the difference between bias and real group differences?
 Bias - group differences on construct IRRELEVANT to aspect of test
 Real group differences - group differences on construct RELEVANT to aspect of test

Some content/cultural bias biases covered in the lecture:

 ESL students may have difficulty understanding certain concepts, words, currencies.
 Testing not just the construct but also what the proverbs mean.
 Linguistic bias (calling a truck a lorry - so that answer works for one person)
o Choosing 'lipstick' is also a gender bias
  Not everyone is familiar with tennis or bowling - intelligence tests during the war

What are we aiming for when finding differences between groups? Is this enough?
 Not test bias, but group differences. BUT group differences in test performance
alone cannot show test bias.
 We need to think of predictive validity

What is test bias?

 Construct underrepresentation or construct-irrelevant components