Deck 12: Individual Differences and Development

Question 1

Two students take a History exam. The first student has an A average but makes a C on the test whereas the second student who has a D average makes an A on the exam. Assuming that these discrepancies on this test are due to measurement error, it is likely that the first student will make a(n) _______ and the second student will make a(n) _______ on the next exam.

A) C; A
B) A; D
C) C; C
D) C; B

Answer 1

A; D

Question 2

Subject variables, by definition,

A) can be experimental manipulated in all situations.
B) are not experimentally manipulated.
C) are classified as dependent variables.
D) can be experimentally manipulated in certain controlled conditions.

Answer 2

are not experimentally manipulated.

Question 3

A five year old child with a mental age of 10 years has an IQ of

A) 120.
B) 50.
C) 100.
D) 200.

Answer 3

200.

Question 4

The empirical approach to the study of intelligence

A) is concerned with the hypothetical construct of intelligence rather than with scholastic performance.
B) primarily involves a search for measures which are highly correlated with school performance.
C) is guided by theory.
D) is based on theoretical models of human cognition.

Question 5

The primary difference between the analytical and empirical approaches to scientific investigation is that

A) empirical approaches attempt to predict events on the basis of theoretical models.
B) analytical predictions are based on events accompanying the event of interest.
C) analytical approaches are guided by theory.
D) empirical approaches provide a deeper understanding of phenomena than do analytical approaches.

Question 6

The study of individual differences

A) has been actively studied by experimental psychologists.
B) began because of important practical decisions that had to be made about people.
C) is concerned with differences between individual groups in society.
D) concerns the effects of experimental manipulations on personality.

Question 7

The main difference between the parallel forms and splite-half techniques for assessing reliability is that

A) the parallel forms techniques involves testing participants on two separate occasions and the split-half technique does not.
B) items are arbitrarily divided for comparison in the parallel forms procedure but this is not true for the split-half technique.
C) a high positive correlation between scores reflects good reliability for the parallel forms procedure but a high negative correlation is indicative of good reliability for the split-half procedure.
D) split-half correlations reflect stability whereas parallel forms correlations do not.

Question 8

Cross-sequential designs

A) incorporate features of cross-sectional designs within them.
B) incorporate features of longitudinal designs within them.
C) allow the experimenter to attribute changes in the dependent variable to age and not to some other confounded factor.
D) all of these

Question 9

Often, psychologists are interested in the degree to which genetic and environmental factors play a role in determining intelligence, so they study twins raised in different homes and compare them with twins reared together. A potential problem with the interpretation of such results is that

A) all pairs of children in the same household will not necessarily have equally similar experiences.
B) for the twins reared apart, there is a delay between birth and placement in foster homes which may span a critical learning period.
C) prenatal experiences are more similar for twins than for other children.
D) all of these

Question 10

Which of the following is NOT a subject variable?

A) intelligence
B) nationality
C) age
D) the ratio of women to men in a group

Question 11

Which of the following is true concerning cross-sectional designs?

A) They require that the same group of participants be tested over and over across a long period of time.
B) They are much less convenient to run than longitudinal studies.
C) They are likely to confound age with some other variable of interest.
D) They are less likely than longitudinal designs to be influenced by cohort effects.

Question 12

An experimenter who gives a test to participants on one occasion, repeats the test on the same participants at a later date, and then correlates the scores is interested in

A) face validity.
B) test-retest reliability.
C) parallel forms reliability.
D) split?half reliability.

Question 13

As __________ increases, __________ decreases.

A) number of observations; reliability
B) reliability; face validity
C) measurement error; reliability
D) stability; reliability

Question 14

A researcher interested in developmental differences in reading ability tests three groups of participants (5, 10, and 15 years old). All participants are given a test of reading comprehension after reading a fictional passage and scores are compared between groups. This is called a _______ design.

A) cross-sectional
B) longitudinal
C) time lag
D) cross-sequential

Question 15

Quasi-experimental designs are particularly susceptible to bias due to measurement error because

A) there are no control variables.
B) participants are not randomly assigned to groups.
C) the experimental and control groups are not matched prior to the introduction of the independent variable.
D) the dependent variable measure is not the same for the two groups of participants.

Question 16

The Turing test's definition of intelligence has been criticized

A) because it is not operational.
B) for its lack of validity.
C) for its lack of reliability.
D) because it does not facilitate communication.

Question 17

If an IQ test is correlated with future academic success, the test has

A) subjective validity
B) predictive validity
C) test-retest reliability
D) split-half reliability

Question 18

Which of the following is a true independent variable?

A) intelligence
B) nationality
C) age
D) study time

Question 19

Subject variables

A) cannot be experimentally manipulated.
B) can be experimentally manipulated.
C) are never studied in correlational designs.
D) are not included in quasi-experimental designs.

Question 20

Operational definitions

A) aid communication and understanding.
B) are best if they are very ambiguous.
C) are no longer used.
D) pertain only to learning and memory research.

Question 21

The empirical approach to intelligence is primarily concerned with predicting school performance.

Question 22

In an empirical approach to the measure of intelligence

A) test items are selected on the basis of their correlations with measures of success in school.
B) test items are selected on the basis of theoretical models of intelligence.
C) test items are selected on the basis of laboratory research on memory and thinking.
D) test items are selected on the basis of the recommendations of school teachers.

Question 23

A positive feature of the Turing test is that evaluation of machine intelligence involves

A) an interrogator.
B) a multi-factor approach.
C) an experimental approach.
D) all of the above

Question 24

Imagine that researchers have determined that exposure to a particular household chemical has an adverse effect on the cognitive development and later school performance of children. This would be evidence in support of

A) the role of environmental factors in intellectual development.
B) the role of genetic factors in intellectual development.
C) the role of cultural factors in intellectual development.
D) the low reliability of measures of intelligence.

Question 25

The most common design used in developmental research is the cross-sectional design, in which people of different ages are tested.

Question 26

The ____________ is a hypothetical experiment that was devised to assess whether a machine can think.

A) Stanford-Binet test
B) Wechsler test
C) Turing test
D) criterion test

Question 27

One problem in using a cross-sectional design in developmental research is that

A) sample attrition is likely to occur.
B) there may be a cohort effect.
C) there may be carryover effects.
D) there may be a history effect.

Question 28

One strength of intelligence tests is that they

A) measure one's ability to adapt to new environments.
B) predict academic performance.
C) have universal validity.
D) all of these

Question 29

The weak AI approach has generated far more controversy than the strong AI approach.

Question 30

Which of the following is true?

A) When regression to the mean occurs, the scores of the entire sample tend to become more similar over time.
B) When regression to the mean occurs, participants who score at the extremes of the distribution tend to become less extreme when tested a second time.
C) When regression to the mean occurs, participants whose scores are close to the mean tend to receive lower scores when tested a second time.
D) When regression to the mean occurs, participants whose scores are close to the mean tend to receive higher scores when tested a second time.

Question 31

When individual differences such as intelligence and height are examined in experiments, they are called

A) control variables.
B) cohort effects.
C) regression artifacts.
D) subject variables.

Question 32

The Turing test provides __________ for artificial intelligence.

A) an operational definition
B) a hypothetical construct
C) a model
D) a theory

Question 33

The Turing test defines intelligence in such a way that machines could not possess intelligence.

Question 34

The ability to form mental images was believed by _____ to be a component of intelligence.

A) Binet
B) Wechsler
C) Galton
D) Pavlov

Question 35

Measurement error refers to

A) the results of mistakes made by the examiner during the testing procedure.
B) the mistakes made by the person taking a test.
C) random variability in scores that is outside the control of the researcher.
D) the variability in scores resulting from the manipulation of an independent variable.

Question 36

Another term for predictive validity is

A) reliability.
B) face validity.
C) regression to the mean.
D) criterion validity.

Question 37

If a test is found to have poor test-retest reliability

A) using this test as a measure of performance in a repeated measures design is not advisable.
B) participants tested on successive occasions will not receive the same scores on the test.
C) sources of the change in participants' scores on the test cannot be determined.
D) all of these

Question 38

The nurture view of individual differences in intelligence

A) emphasizes the role of genetic factors.
B) emphasizes the role of experiential factors.
C) was the view held by Sir Francis Galton.
D) has been largely discredited by contemporary research.

Question 39

A theory of multiple intelligences was developed by

A) Gardner.
B) Searle.
C) Turing.
D) Wrong.

Question 40

The original purpose of intelligence tests was to

A) predict school performance.
B) test a theory of human intelligence.
C) predict achievement over the life of an individual.
D) measure the differences in intelligence between groups of people

Question 41

The assumption that intelligence remains stable over short periods of time allows us to assess the reliability of intelligence tests.

Question 42

Analytical approaches to intelligence have met with greater success in predicting school performance than have empirical approaches.

Question 43

The split-half technique of assessing reliability involves repeated administrations of the same test.

Question 44

Thus far, the empirical approach to intelligence has yielded better predictors of future scholastic performance than has the analytical approach.

Question 45

The imitation game is called the Turing test.

Question 46

In a cross-sectional research designs, the same participants are repeatedly tested over the course of several years.

Question 47

Intelligence may be operationally defined in terms of school performance.

Question 48

IQ scores are obtained using the following equation: (Mental Age/Chronological Age) x 100

Question 49

Longitudinal and cross-sectional studies may produce different results due to the fact that age may be confounded with other factors in cross-sectional designs.

Question 50

Regression artifacts are less of a problem when participant populations differ than when participants are randomly assigned to groups.

Question 51

One way to avoid specific practice effects when assessing the reliability of a test is to use parallel forms of the test.

Question 52

Regression artifacts are due to experimental manipulations.

Question 53

In a longitudinal design, results may be produced by historical events occurring during the course of the study.

Question 54

If a test is reliable then we know that it measures what it was intended to measure.

Question 55

An important factor to be controlled in studies of intelligence is specific learning that could affect test performance.

Question 56

Test-retest reliability involves the administration of one test to two different groups of participants.

Question 57

Longitudinal studies have shown that childhood IQ scores may be used to predict adult IQ scores.

Question 58

Analytical approaches to scientific investigation are guided by theory.

Question 59

The evaluation of machine intelligence by means of the Turing test involves a correlational approach.

Question 60

Researchers prefer the empirical approach to intelligence because it offers understanding in addition to predictive power.

Question 61

What is reliability? Describe three ways in which the reliability of a measure may be assessed.

Question 62

Explain the differences among longitudinal, cross- sectional, and time-lag research designs. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

Question 63

The triarchic theory of intelligence emphasizes information processing, creativity, and the ability to adapt to new situations.

Question 64

It is not possible to manipulate the motivational goals of a research participant.

Question 65

Motivational factors have been found to influence intellectual performance.

Question 66

In longitudinal studies, age can be confounded with societal events that are unique to the time of test.

Question 67

Distinguish between the analytical and empirical approaches to scientific investigation. Is one approach preferable to the other?

Question 68

Outline three definitions of intelligence. Describe one strength and one weakness of each definition.

Question 69

Searle argued against the possibility of strong AT. Describe his rationale and a hypothetical experiment that supports his argument.

Question 70

Analytical and empirical approaches to studying intelligence are best viewed as complementary rather than antagonistic.

Question 71

Briefly describe problems associated with the use of intelligence as a subject variable. How might these problems be avoided?

Question 72

Examining cognitive differences between males and females is quasi-experimental.

Question 73

The Turing test is not the same as the Chinese room.

Question 74

The prenatal nutritive environment has never been shown to influence subsequent cognitive development.

Question 75

Genetics and the environment interact during intellectual development.

Question 76

Describe an experimental approach to study how the motivational goals of a person influence his or her intellectual performance. Do you think that all other things being equal, a child who is motivated will score higher on intelligence tests as an adult?

Question 77

According to the nature theory, individual differences in intelligence can be traced to environmental factors.

Question 78

Do you believe intelligence can be defined and measured? Why do you think that there is so much disagreement among psychologists as to what constitutes intelligence?

Question 79

The fact that prenatal environment can influence a person's intelligence demonstrates that the environment plays an important role in intellectual development.

Question 80

What is statistical regression to the mean? Describe an example. Why is regression to the mean a problem for some areas of research?