Deck 31: A: Genetic and Environmental Influences on Intelligence

Question 1

Research indicates that Head Start programs

A) fail to produce even short-term improvements in participants' mental skills.
B) contribute to dramatic long-term gains in participants' intelligence test scores.
C) promote aptitude benefits, which generally dissipate over time.
D) are beneficial only to participants from very intellectually stimulating home environments.

Answer 1

promote aptitude benefits, which generally dissipate over time.

Question 2

Males' reading ability scores vary ________ than females' scores and males' math test performance scores vary ________ than females' scores.

A) less; more
B) more; less
C) less; less
D) more; more

Answer 2

more; more

Question 3

With increasing age, identical twins' intelligence test scores become ________ positively correlated. With increasing age, adoptive siblings' scores become ________ positively correlated.

A) more; more
B) less; less
C) more; less
D) less; more

Answer 3

more; less

Question 4

The similarity between intelligence scores of fraternal twins reared together is

A) equal to that between identical twins reared apart.
B) less than that between children and their biological parents.
C) equal to that between ordinary siblings reared together.
D) less than that between identical twins reared apart.

Question 5

The average intellectual aptitude gap between graduating White and Black college graduates has been observed to ________ during their years in high school and to ________ during their years in college.

A) decrease; decrease
B) increase; increase
C) decrease; increase
D) increase; decrease

Question 6

Among entering American collegians, men are ________ likely than women to spend many hours playing video games. Playing action video games has been observed to ________ players' spatial abilities.

A) no more; have no effect on
B) more; have no effect on
C) no more; boost
D) more; boost

Question 7

On which of the following tasks are men most likely to outperform women?

A) speed-reading
B) interpreting literature
C) learning a foreign language
D) mentally rotating three-dimensional objects

Question 8

On which of the following tasks are women most likely to perform as well or better than men?

A) playing checkers
B) reciting poetry
C) playing video games
D) copying geometric designs

Question 9

The heritability of intelligence among children of less-educated parents is relatively

A) low because of the relatively small differences in their environmental settings.
B) low because of the relatively large differences in their environmental settings.
C) high because of the relatively small differences in their environmental settings.
D) high because of the relatively large differences in their environmental settings.

Question 10

Twin and adoption studies are helpful for assessing the ________ of intelligence.

A) stability
B) reliability
C) heritability
D) variability

Question 11

Research on the determinants of intelligence indicates that

A) interest in the heritability of intelligence has declined significantly during the past decade.
B) both genes and environment have some influence on intelligence scores.
C) there are no scientific methods for assessing the heritability of intelligence.
D) there is no relationship between people's position on the determinants of intelligence and their social or political attitudes.

Question 12

The impact of early environmental influences on intelligence is most apparent among young children who experience

A) stereotype threat.
B) intellectual disability.
C) intrinsic motivation.
D) minimal interaction with caregivers.

Question 13

Students are most likely to develop a "growth mindset" that results in a focus on learning when they believe that intelligence is

A) changeable.
B) polygenetic.
C) an indication of one's mental age.
D) distributed in a bell-shaped pattern.

Question 14

Which of the following observations provides the BEST evidence that intelligence test scores are influenced by environment?

A) Identical twins reared apart are less similar in their intelligence scores than identical twins reared together.
B) The intelligence scores of children are positively correlated with those of their parents.
C) Identical twins are more similar in their intelligence scores than are fraternal twins.
D) The intelligence scores of siblings reared together are positively correlated.

Question 15

There are many genes, each of which accounts for much less than 1 percent of intelligence variations. This suggests that intelligence is

A) not heritable.
B) stable across the life span.
C) characterized by divergent thinking.
D) a polygenetic trait.

Question 16

J. McVicker Hunt began a program of tutored human enrichment in an Iranian orphanage. This program trained caregivers to

A) ignore babies' crying.
B) imitate babies' babbling.
C) calculate babies' intelligence quotients.
D) do all of these things.

Question 17

If the heritability of intelligence within both group A and group B is 100 percent, differences in average intelligence between these groups might result from

A) environmental differences if the two groups are genetically similar.
B) genetic differences if the two groups have similar environments.
C) both genetic and environmental differences between the two groups.
D) any of these situations.

Question 18

Compared with men, women are ________ capable of remembering objects' spatial locations and they are ________ sensitive to taste and color.

A) more; less
B) less; more
C) more; more
D) less; less

Question 19

Research on racial differences in intelligence indicates that

A) Black Americans typically receive higher scores than White Americans on nonverbal intelligence test questions.
B) there is currently no difference in the average academic aptitude test scores received by Black and White Americans.
C) on average, Black Americans perform less well than White Americans on intelligence tests.
D) among Black Americans, those with the most African ancestry receive the highest intelligence scores.

Question 20

The distribution of intelligence test scores among ________ Americans is represented by the normal curve.

A) White
B) Hispanic
C) Black
D) members of any of these groups of

Question 21

Experts who defend intelligence tests against accusations of racial bias note that racial differences in intelligence test scores

A) have increased in the past decade despite the introduction of less culturally biased test items.
B) occur on nonverbal as well as verbal intelligence test subscales.
C) are a clear indication that the heritability of intelligence approaches 100 percent.
D) are just as significant as intelligence differences among members of a single race.

Question 22

Self-fulfilling expectations are most likely to be triggered by

A) the Flynn effect.
B) factor analysis.
C) polygenetics.
D) stereotype threat.

Question 23

Psychologists generally agree that intelligence test scores are ________ in terms of being sensitive to differences caused by cultural experiences and are ________ in terms of their predictive validity for different groups.

A) biased; biased
B) biased; not biased
C) not biased; biased
D) not biased; not biased

Question 24

Blacks have been found to score lower on tests of verbal aptitude when tested by Whites than when tested by Blacks. This best illustrates the impact of

A) standardization.
B) emotional intelligence.
C) stereotype threat.
D) the Flynn effect.

Question 25

Intelligence tests are most likely to be considered culturally biased in terms of their

A) content validity.
B) predictive validity.
C) normal distribution.
D) reliability.

Question 26

Support programs that suggest minority students cannot succeed without special academic help may unintentionally promote

A) savant syndrome.
B) stereotype threat.
C) heritability.
D) factor analysis.

Question 27

Psychologists would be likely to agree that

A) intelligence tests have greater predictive validity for men than for women.
B) intelligence tests have comparable predictive validity for Whites and Blacks.
C) intelligence tests have less predictive validity for poor students than for rich students.
D) all of these statements are true.