Deck 10: Section 1: Intelligence

Question 1

How do intelligence test correlations between people with different family relationships help us sort out the contributions of heredity and environment in determining intelligence?

Answer 1

The answer should indicate that greater genetic similarity is associated with higher correlations in IQ, suggesting that intelligence is partly inherited. For example, the IQ correlation between identical twins (whose genetic overlap is 100 percent) reared together is higher than that of fraternal twins (who have 50 percent genetic overlap) reared together. In fact, the IQ correlation between identical twins separated at birth and raised in different homes is higher than that of fraternal twins raised together. In addition to these data, siblings who are biologically related have more similar IQ scores than nonbiological siblings. Finally, the IQ correlation between parents and their biological children is greater than the IQ correlation between parents and their adopted children. These data clearly show that genetics plays a large role in influencing intelligence. The environment also affects intelligence levels. For all of the groups mentioned above, the IQ correlation is higher if the pairs live in the same household relative to living in different households. Moreover, the IQ correlation between nonbiological siblings raised together is higher than that of biological siblings raised apart.

Question 2

Compare and contrast a ratio IQ and a deviation IQ. For what age group is each of these IQ scores typically computed?

Answer 2

The answer should indicate that ratio IQ is a statistic obtained by dividing a person's mental age by the person's physical age and then multiplying the quotient by 100. A deviation IQ is a statistic obtained by dividing a person's test score by the average test score of people in the same age group and then multiplying the quotient by 100. Modern researchers compute the ratio IQ for children and the deviation IQ for adults.

Question 3

Compare and contrast Spearman's and Thurstone's views of intelligence.

Answer 3

The answer should include the following information: (1) Spearman believed that if there is a single ability called intelligence that enables people to perform a variety of intelligent behaviors, then people who have the ability should do well in just about everything, and those who lack it should do well at nothing. He developed this belief by measuring how well school-age children could discriminate small differences in color, auditory pitch, and weight; then he correlated these measures with the children's grades. He combined the results into a two-factor theory of intelligence that suggested that every task requires a combination of a general ability (g) and skills that are specific to the task (s); (2) The two-factor theory of intelligence can be illustrated in someone with exceptional musical ability. According to Spearman, this exceptional ability is the combination of a high level of general ability (g) combined with knowledge and ability specific to music (s). Because g is high, Spearman would predict that the person probably will do well in other areas, such as verbal comprehension and the ability to solve mathematical problems. The person may not perform exceptionally in these areas, however, because the specific skills relative to those tasks may not have been mastered; (3) Louis Thurstone disagreed with Spearman's views. He noticed that although scores on most tests were positively correlated, scores on verbal tests were more highly correlated with scores on other verbal tests than they were with scores on perceptual tests. Thurstone took this to mean that there was no such thing as g and that there were instead a few stable and independent mental abilities, which he called primary mental abilities. These were neither general like g nor specific like s. Thurstone's primary mental abilities included word fluency, verbal comprehension, numerical abililty, spatial visualization, associative memory, perceptual speed, and reasoning. According to Thurstone's model, it is quite possible for someone to be both a great writer and inept at solving simple algebraic problems, because these tasks involve different primary mental abilities.

Question 4

Describe some situational factors that influence how individuals perform on intelligence tests.

Question 5

Describe the heritability coefficient. What factors can influence the size of this statistic?

Question 6

Using the terms absolute and relative intelligence, discuss how intelligence changes over the course of an individual's lifetime. Then, describe generational differences in absolute intelligence scores.

Question 7

Provide several biological and cultural reasons why children raised in high-SES homes have, on average, higher intelligence scores than children raised in low-SES homes.

Question 8

Discuss how the modern three-level hierarchy of mental abilities incorporates views from both Spearman and Thurstone.

Question 9

Why is it incorrect to state that standardized intelligence tests measure intelligence? What do intelligence tests actually measure?

Question 10

Discuss Sternberg's view of intelligence, and which type is considered the better predictor of job performance.

Question 11

Which social, cultural, and other environmental factors help explain some of the racial differences in intelligence test scores?

Question 12

A group of middle-school children are discussing their scores on an IQ test. The children conclude that the test just measures "book smarts" and doesn't really mean anything. How might you respond to these children?

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