Developmental Psychology – Chapter 8 – Intelligence and Academic Achievement
What is Intelligence?
Intelligence as a Single Trait
Performance on all intellectual tasks is positvely correlated: children doing well on
one task do well on others (even in dissimilar tasks)
o Each of us possess a certain amount of General intelligence (g) – cognitve
processes that infuence the ability to think and learn on all intellectual tasks
Correlates with school grades & achievement test performance,
informaton processing speed, speed of neural transmission & brain
volume, general informaton about the world
Intelligence as a Few Basic Abilites
Fluid intelligence – ability to think on the spot to solve novel problems (closely
related to adapton to novel tasks, speed of informaton processing, working-memory
functoning, and ability to control atenton)
Crystallized intelligence – factual knowledge about the world: word meanings, state
capitals, answers to arithmetc problems, etc. (refects TT for prior experiences and
is closely related to verbal ability)
1. Each type of intelligence correlates more highly with tests of the same type
2. The two types have diferent developmental courses
o Crystallized intelligence increases steadily from early in life to old age
o Fluid intelligence peaks around 20 and slowly declines thereafer
3. The brain areas most actve difer
o On measures of fuid intelligence is prefrontal cortex is highly actve but not
on measures of crystallized intelligence
Primary mental abilites – seven abilites proposed by Thurstone as crucial to
intelligence: word fuency, verbal meaning, reasoning, spatal visualizaton,
numbering, rote memory, perceptual speed
o Scores on tests of a single ability tend to correlate more strongly with one
another
tradeof between 2 views is between simplicity of the crystallized/fuid distncton and the
greater precision of the idea of 7 primary mental abilites
Intelligence as Numerous Cognitve Process
Informaton-processing analysis of how people solve intelligence tests items, how they
perform everyday intellectual tasks, and arithmetc
viewing intelligence as “many processes” allows more precise specifcaton of the
mechanisms involved in intelligent behavior
A Proposed Resoluton
three-stratum theory of intelligence – Carroll´s model that places g at the top of the
intelligence hierarchy, eight moderately general abilites in the middle (incl. both fuid
& crystallized intelligence and other competencies similar to Thurstone´s primary
mental abilites), and many specifc processes at the botom
, Teasuring Intelligence
The Contents of Intelligence Tests
intelligence is refected in diferent abilites in diferent stages
items on tests developed to measure intelligence at diferent stages refect changing
aspects
greatest success and widest applicaton with children being at least 5/6 years old
(similarity among leading tests)
o Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) – widely used test designed
to measure the intelligence of children 6 years and older
WISC-V:
Underlying concepton of intelligence: Carroll´s three-stratum
framework
Yielding scores on verbal comprehension, visual-spatal processing,
working memory, fuid reasoning, processing speed
The Intelligence Quotent (IQ)
Intelligence quotent – quanttatve measure, typically with a mean of 100 and a
standard deviaton of 15, used to indicate a child´s intelligence relatve to that of
other children of the same age
o Normal distributon – patern of data in which scores fall symmetrically
around a mean value, with most scores falling close to the mean and fewer
scores father from it
o Standard deviaton – measure of the variability of scores in a distributonn in a
normal distributon 688 of scores fall within 1 SD of the mean, and 958 of
scores fall within 2 SD of the mean
scores at diferent ages are easy to compare
Contnuity of IQ Scores
Contnuity from age 5 onward
Intelligence as the most stable of all psychological traits
o The closer in tme IQ tests are given, the more stability is found
o Scores are more stable at older ages
Scores are similar but rarely identcal changes in the same child´s score from one
age to another are due to random variatons in factors of alertness or moodn changes
in the child´s environment
IQ Scores as Predictors of Important Outcomes
Other predictors of Success
Characteristc, e.g. Self-discipline – ability to inhibit actons, follow rules, and avoid
impulse reactons – more predictve of changes in report car grades between 5 th and
9th grade than IQ
Practcal intelligence: skills useful in everyday life, e.g. accurately reading other
people´s intentons & motvatng others to work efectvely as a team – predicts
occupatonal success
Characteristcs of the environment: parent´s encouragement and modeling of
productve careers – predict children´s occupatonal success
What is Intelligence?
Intelligence as a Single Trait
Performance on all intellectual tasks is positvely correlated: children doing well on
one task do well on others (even in dissimilar tasks)
o Each of us possess a certain amount of General intelligence (g) – cognitve
processes that infuence the ability to think and learn on all intellectual tasks
Correlates with school grades & achievement test performance,
informaton processing speed, speed of neural transmission & brain
volume, general informaton about the world
Intelligence as a Few Basic Abilites
Fluid intelligence – ability to think on the spot to solve novel problems (closely
related to adapton to novel tasks, speed of informaton processing, working-memory
functoning, and ability to control atenton)
Crystallized intelligence – factual knowledge about the world: word meanings, state
capitals, answers to arithmetc problems, etc. (refects TT for prior experiences and
is closely related to verbal ability)
1. Each type of intelligence correlates more highly with tests of the same type
2. The two types have diferent developmental courses
o Crystallized intelligence increases steadily from early in life to old age
o Fluid intelligence peaks around 20 and slowly declines thereafer
3. The brain areas most actve difer
o On measures of fuid intelligence is prefrontal cortex is highly actve but not
on measures of crystallized intelligence
Primary mental abilites – seven abilites proposed by Thurstone as crucial to
intelligence: word fuency, verbal meaning, reasoning, spatal visualizaton,
numbering, rote memory, perceptual speed
o Scores on tests of a single ability tend to correlate more strongly with one
another
tradeof between 2 views is between simplicity of the crystallized/fuid distncton and the
greater precision of the idea of 7 primary mental abilites
Intelligence as Numerous Cognitve Process
Informaton-processing analysis of how people solve intelligence tests items, how they
perform everyday intellectual tasks, and arithmetc
viewing intelligence as “many processes” allows more precise specifcaton of the
mechanisms involved in intelligent behavior
A Proposed Resoluton
three-stratum theory of intelligence – Carroll´s model that places g at the top of the
intelligence hierarchy, eight moderately general abilites in the middle (incl. both fuid
& crystallized intelligence and other competencies similar to Thurstone´s primary
mental abilites), and many specifc processes at the botom
, Teasuring Intelligence
The Contents of Intelligence Tests
intelligence is refected in diferent abilites in diferent stages
items on tests developed to measure intelligence at diferent stages refect changing
aspects
greatest success and widest applicaton with children being at least 5/6 years old
(similarity among leading tests)
o Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) – widely used test designed
to measure the intelligence of children 6 years and older
WISC-V:
Underlying concepton of intelligence: Carroll´s three-stratum
framework
Yielding scores on verbal comprehension, visual-spatal processing,
working memory, fuid reasoning, processing speed
The Intelligence Quotent (IQ)
Intelligence quotent – quanttatve measure, typically with a mean of 100 and a
standard deviaton of 15, used to indicate a child´s intelligence relatve to that of
other children of the same age
o Normal distributon – patern of data in which scores fall symmetrically
around a mean value, with most scores falling close to the mean and fewer
scores father from it
o Standard deviaton – measure of the variability of scores in a distributonn in a
normal distributon 688 of scores fall within 1 SD of the mean, and 958 of
scores fall within 2 SD of the mean
scores at diferent ages are easy to compare
Contnuity of IQ Scores
Contnuity from age 5 onward
Intelligence as the most stable of all psychological traits
o The closer in tme IQ tests are given, the more stability is found
o Scores are more stable at older ages
Scores are similar but rarely identcal changes in the same child´s score from one
age to another are due to random variatons in factors of alertness or moodn changes
in the child´s environment
IQ Scores as Predictors of Important Outcomes
Other predictors of Success
Characteristc, e.g. Self-discipline – ability to inhibit actons, follow rules, and avoid
impulse reactons – more predictve of changes in report car grades between 5 th and
9th grade than IQ
Practcal intelligence: skills useful in everyday life, e.g. accurately reading other
people´s intentons & motvatng others to work efectvely as a team – predicts
occupatonal success
Characteristcs of the environment: parent´s encouragement and modeling of
productve careers – predict children´s occupatonal success
