PSY 100

Lecture Eleven
Intelligence
Savant Syndrome
Savant Syndrome
Intelligence defined
• Ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge
to adapt to new situations
One Intelligence
• Charles Spearman
• General intelligence (g factor)
• People who score high in one area tend to score high in others e.g.,
verbal intelligence, spatial/reasoning ability
Multiple Intelligences
• Robert Stenberg
• 3 intelligences
• Analytical (academic problem-solving) intelligence
• Creative Intelligence (innovative smarts, adapting to new situations, novel
ideas)
• Practical intelligence (everyday tasks that are poorly defined and have
multiple solutions)
Multiple Intelligences
• Gardner- 8 intelligences
Emotional Intelligence (EQ)
• Perceiving emotions
• Understanding emotions
• Managing emotions
• Using emotions
** Emotionally intelligent people show:
social/self-awareness
Better management of depression, anxiety and anger
Delay gratification
Read social cues and respond effectively
Succeed in relationships, career, parenting etc..
Inside Out
Types of Intelligence Tests
• Achievement tests: designed to assess what a person has learned (PSY
100 Review Tests)
• Aptitude tests: designed to predict a person’s future performance or
capacity to learn (e.g., SAT)
Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
• Mental age divided by chronological age multiplied by 100
• Mental age = 8; Chronological age = 8
• IQ = 100
• Mental age = 10; Chronological age= 5
• IQ = ?
• IQ not really calculated in this way anymore
• Performance is typically compared to an average score (set at 100)
Principles of Test Construction
• Reliability
• The extent to which a test yields consistent results
• Validity
• The extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to.
Age and Intelligence
Aging and Intelligence
• Do your intelligence scores change or remain stable over time?
• Lose-win actually
• Increase in Crystallized intelligence- accumulated knowledge such as
vocabulary
• Decrease in Fluid intelligence- ability to reason speedily and abstractly such as
solving logic problems
Extremes of Intelligence
• Intellectual disability (formerly called mental retardation)
• Developmental condition that is apparent before age 18
• Low intellectual functioning (low score on intelligence test)
• Lowest 3% of population or about 70 or below
• Difficulty adapting to the normal demands of independent living (conceptual,
social and practical)
**Can have a known physical cause e.g., Down’s Syndrome (extra copy of
Chromosome 21).
Extremes of Intelligence- The
“Termites”
Gender and Intelligence
• Most reliable male “edge” is in spatial ability tests
Gender and Intelligence
• Women: outpace men in spelling verbal fluency, locating objects and
detecting emotions
• More boys on high and low extremes
• Gender-equal countries show little to no math gap between males an
females
 • Each generation is smarter than
Flynn Effect the one before
• Greatest gains in fluid intelligence
• What explains this effect
• Better nutrition
• Greater access to education
• Efficient test-taking (better
productivity within time limits)