Question 1

You are worried that as your grandfather grows older, he may lose some of his intellectual abilities. This is particularly true since he was in an accident that destroyed some of the connectivity in his brain's white matter. What type of intelligence loss should you be MOST concerned about?

Accepted Answer

Fluid intelligence, which involves the ability to solve new problems, use logic in new situations, and identify patterns, is more likely to decline with age and brain damage affecting white matter connectivity, compared to crystallized intelligence which is based on accumulated knowledge and experiences.

Question 2

You have designed a new intelligence test and want to make sure that it is a good test. So, you have a group of students take the test and then you look to see if all of the individual items are highly correlated. You are testing for

Accepted Answer

Internal consistency refers to the degree to which all items on a test measure the same construct or concept, which is assessed by examining the correlations between different items on the test.

Question 3

The company you work for has started to give potential hires an achievement test. What are they screening for?

Accepted Answer

Achievement tests are designed to assess a person's knowledge and skills in a specific area, which aligns with screening for their amount of knowledge about the field.

Question 4

You are worried that as your grandparents grow older, they may lose some of their intellectual abilities. While this may happen, research indicates that you should be LEAST concerned about loss of

Accepted Answer

Crystallized intelligence, which involves the use of learned knowledge and experience, tends to remain stable or even improve with age, unlike other forms of intelligence which may decline.

Question 5

You have designed a new intelligence test and want to make sure that it is a good test. So, you have a group of people take the test in September and then the same group takes the test in December. You want to see if the scores are similar. You are testing for

Accepted Answer

You are testing for reliability, specifically test-retest reliability, which assesses the consistency of a measure from one time to another.

Question 6

You have designed a new intelligence test and want to make sure that it is a good test. You can assess and correct a number of problems, but you will never be able to achieve perfect

Accepted Answer

Construct validity is difficult to achieve perfectly because it involves ensuring that the test truly measures the theoretical construct it is intended to measure, which is inherently complex and abstract.

Question 7

You have designed a new intelligence test and want to make sure that it is a good test. So, you have a group of students take the test and then have a number of their professors rate them as high or low in intelligence. You want to see if the scores are similar. You are testing for

Accepted Answer

Criterion-related validity is being tested as you are comparing the test scores with an external criterion, which is the professors' ratings of the students' intelligence.

Question 8

Let's say that you give a number of students a test of math ability, a test of reading comprehension, and a test of verbal fluency. You run a factor analysis and note that all three tests seem to be highly positively correlated with each other. Which of the following theories of intelligence would this support?

Accepted Answer

Spearman's g factor theory of intelligence posits that there is a general intelligence (g) that underlies performance across a variety of cognitive tasks. The high positive correlation among different tests of cognitive ability supports the idea of a single, underlying general intelligence factor.

Question 9

Let's say that you give a number of students a test of math ability, a test of reading comprehension, and a test of verbal fluency. You run a factor analysis and note that all three tests seem to be only slightly positively correlated with each other. Which of the following theories of intelligence would this support?

Accepted Answer

Thurstone's primary mental abilities theory suggests that intelligence is composed of several distinct abilities that are relatively independent of each other, which aligns with the observation of only slight positive correlations among the tests.

Question 10

The company you work for wants to test potential new employees for their degree of prior knowledge in the field. Which of the following types of test would you recommend to them?

Accepted Answer

Achievement tests are designed to assess what a person has learned or accomplished in a specific area, making them suitable for evaluating potential employees' knowledge in a field.

Question 11

You have designed a new intelligence test and want to make sure that it is a good test. So, you have a group of students take the test and then have a number of observers score the tests. You want to see if the scores of the observers are similar. You are testing for

Accepted Answer

Interjudge reliability refers to the level of agreement or consistency between different observers or judges assessing the same phenomenon. In this scenario, you are checking if different observers score the tests similarly, which directly relates to interjudge reliability.

Question 12

Jan is 80 years old and has a mental age of 20. What is Jan's IQ?

Accepted Answer

Stern's formula is not applicable to individuals over the age of 80.

Question 13

You have designed a new intelligence test and want to make sure that it is a good test. So, you look over the scales and realize that you have forgotten to test for an important dimension of intelligence. If you do not correct this, your test will have low

Accepted Answer

Content validity refers to the extent to which a test measures all aspects of the concept it intends to measure. If an important dimension of intelligence is missing, the test lacks content validity.

Question 14

Which of the following tests would you expect to correlate the highest with a standard IQ test such as the WAIS?

Accepted Answer

Aptitude tests are designed to measure a person's potential to develop skills or acquire knowledge. They are similar in nature to IQ tests, which assess general intellectual ability, including reasoning, problem-solving, and understanding complex ideas. Both types of tests aim to evaluate cognitive capabilities, making an aptitude test the most likely to correlate highly with a standard IQ test like the WAIS (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale).

Question 15

You are worried that as your grandmother grows older, she may lose some of her intellectual abilities. This is particularly true since she was in an accident that damaged some of the grey matter in her frontal and parietal lobes. What type of intelligence loss should you be MOST concerned about?

Accepted Answer

The answer of You are worried that as your grandmother...

Question 16

The medical examiner noticed on autopsy that a particular patient has a larger than normal amount of connectivity in his white matter. All things being equal, we would expect that this person

Accepted Answer

Increased white matter connectivity is often associated with improved cognitive processing and neural efficiency, which are critical for fluid intelligence. Fluid intelligence involves the capacity to think logically and solve problems in novel situations, independent of acquired knowledge, and is supported by the brain's ability to adapt and reorganize itself.

Question 17

The medical examiner noticed on autopsy that a particular patient has a larger than normal amount of grey matter in her frontal and parietal lobes. All things being equal, we would expect that this person

Accepted Answer

The answer of The medical examiner noticed on autopsy that...

Question 18

You are worried that as your grandparents grow older, they may lose some of their intellectual abilities. While this may happen, research indicates that you should be MOST concerned about loss of

Accepted Answer

Fluid intelligence, which encompasses the ability to solve new problems, use logic in new situations, and identify patterns, tends to decline with age. This contrasts with crystallized intelligence, which is based on accumulated knowledge and experience and often remains stable or even improves with age.

Question 19

The company you work for has started to give potential hires an aptitude test. What are they screening for?

Accepted Answer

Aptitude tests are designed to assess a person's ability to learn or perform tasks, often measuring their potential to go beyond prior learning and apply skills in new situations.

Question 20

The company you work for wants to test potential new employees for their ability to go beyond prior learning and demonstrate future potential. Which of the following types of test would you recommend to them?

Accepted Answer

Aptitude tests are designed to measure a person's potential to develop skills or acquire knowledge in the future, making them suitable for assessing future potential in new employees.

Quiz 10: Intelligence