Name of Institution

Module V: Intelligence

-Shreosi Mondal
 INTELLIGENCE Name of Institution

• Nature and Definition

• Concept of IQ
• Theories of Intelligence:
– Spearman
– Thurston
– Guilford
– Sternberg
– Gardner
 DEFINITION Name of Institution

Intelligence has been defined in many ways: higher level abilities (such as abstract reasoning, mental
representation, problem solving, and decision making), the ability to learn, emotional knowledge,
creativity, and adaptation to meet the demands of the environment effectively.
• “The capacity to inhibit an instinctive adjustment, the capacity to redefine the inhibited
instinctive adjustment in the light of imaginally experienced trial and error, and the capacity to
realise the modified instinctive adjustment in overt behavior to the advantage of the individual as
a social animal.” L. L. Thurstone
• “Performing an operation on a specific type of content to produce a particular product.” J. P.
Guilford
• “The mental abilities necessary for adaptation to, as well as shaping and selection of, any
environmental context.” Robert Sternberg
• “An intelligence is the ability to solve problems, or to create products, that are valued within one
or more cultural settings.” H. Gardner
• “It seems to us that in intelligence there is a fundamental faculty, the alteration or the lack of
which, is of the utmost importance for practical life. This faculty is judgement, otherwise called
good sense, practical sense, initiative, the faculty of adapting ones self to circumstances.” A.
Binet
• “A global concept that involves an individual’s ability to act purposefully, think rationally, and
deal effectively with the environment.” D. Wechsler
 CONCEPT OF IQ Name of Institution

HISTORY OF MEASURING INTELLIGENCE LEADING TO CONCEPT OF IQ?

• In 1904, when psychology was just emerging as an independent field, members of

the Paris school board approached Alfred Binet with an interesting request: Could
he develop an objective method for identifying the children who, in the language of
that era, were described as being mentally retarded, so that they could be given
special education? Binet was already at work on related topics, so he agreed,
enlisting the aid of his colleague, Theodore Simon. In designing this test Binet and
Simon were guided by the belief that the items used should be ones children could
answer without special training or study. They felt that this was important because
the test should measure the ability to handle intellectual tasks—not specific
knowledge acquired in school. To attain this goal, Binet and Simon decided to use
items of two basic types: ones so new or unusual that none of the children would
have prior exposure to them, and ones so familiar that almost all youngsters would
have encountered them in the past. Children were asked to perform the following
tasks: Follow simple commands or imitate simple gestures; name objects shown in
pictures; repeat a sentence of fifteen words; tell how two common objects are
different; complete sentences begun by the examiner.
 CONCEPT OF IQ Name of Institution

HISTORY OF MEASURING INTELLIGENCE LEADING TO CONCEPT OF IQ?

• The first version of Binet and Simon’s test was published in 1905 and contained
thirty items. Much to the two authors’ pleasure, it was quite effective: With it,
schools could readily identify children in need of special help. Encouraged by this
success, Binet and Simon broadened the scope of their test to measure variations in
intelligence among all children. The revised version, published in 1908, grouped
items by age, with six items at each level from three to thirteen years. Items were
placed at a particular age level if about 75 percent of children of that age could pass
them correctly. Binet’s tests were soon revised and adapted for use in many
countries. In the United States, Lewis Terman, a psychologist at Stanford
University, developed the Stanford–Binet test—a test that was soon put to use in
many different settings. Over the years the Stanford–Binet has been revised several
times. One of the features of the Stanford–Binet that contributed to its popularity
was the fact that it yielded a single score assumed to reflect an individual’s level of
intelligence—the now famous (some would say infamous) IQ..
 CONCEPT OF IQ Name of Institution

• Originally, the letters IQ stood for intelligence quotient, and a “quotient” is

precisely what the scores represented.
• To obtain an IQ score, an examiner divided a student’s mental age by his or her
chronological age, then multiplied this number by 100. For this computation,
mental age was based on the number of items a person passed correctly on the test:
Test takers received two months’ credit of “mental age” for each item passed.
• If an individual’s mental and chronological ages were equal, an IQ of 100 was
obtained; this was considered to be an average score. IQs above 100 indicated that
a person’s intellectual age was greater than her or his chronological age—in other
words, that the individual was more intelligent than typical students of the same
age. In contrast, numbers below 100 indicated that the individual was less
intelligent than her or his peers.
• The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) is an IQ test designed to
measure intelligence and cognitive ability in adults and older adolescents. The
original WAIS (Form I) was published in February 1955 by David Wechsler, as a
revision of the Wechsler–Bellevue Intelligence Scale, released in 1939. [ It is
currently in its fourth edition (WAIS-IV) released in 2008 by Pearson, and is the
most widely used IQ test, for both adults and older adolescents, in the world.
 IQ TESTING Name of Institution

Binet-Simon Scale
• During the early 1900s, the French government enlisted the help of psychologist
Alfred Binet to understand which children were going to be slower learners and
thus require more assistance in the classroom (Binet et al., 1912).
• As a result, he and his colleague, Theodore Simon, began to develop a specific set
of questions that focused on areas such as memory and problem-solving skills.
• They tested these questions on groups of students aged three to twelve to help
standardize the measure (Binet et al., 1912). Binet realized that some children were
able to answer advanced questions that their older peers were able to answer.
• As a result, he created the concept of a mental age, or how well an individual
performs intellectually relative to the average performance at that age (Cherry,
2020).
• Ultimately, Binet finalized the scale, known as the Binet-Simon scale, that became
the basis for the intelligence tests still used today.
• The Binet-Simon scale of 1905 comprised 30 items designed to measure judgment,
comprehension, and reasoning which Binet deemed the key characteristics of
intelligence.
 IQ TESTING Name of Institution

Binet-Simon Scale
• During the early 1900s, the French government enlisted the help of psychologist
Alfred Binet to understand which children were going to be slower learners and
thus require more assistance in the classroom (Binet et al., 1912).
• As a result, he and his colleague, Theodore Simon, began to develop a specific set
of questions that focused on areas such as memory and problem-solving skills.
• They tested these questions on groups of students aged three to twelve to help
standardize the measure (Binet et al., 1912). Binet realized that some children were
able to answer advanced questions that their older peers were able to answer.
• As a result, he created the concept of a mental age, or how well an individual
performs intellectually relative to the average performance at that age (Cherry,
2020).
• Ultimately, Binet finalized the scale, known as the Binet-Simon scale, that became
the basis for the intelligence tests still used today.
• The Binet-Simon scale of 1905 comprised 30 items designed to measure judgment,
comprehension, and reasoning which Binet deemed the key characteristics of
intelligence.
 IQ TESTING Name of Institution

Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale

• When the Binet-Simon scale made its way over to the United States, Stanford
psychologist Lewis Terman adapted the test for American students, and published
the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale in 1916 (Cherry, 2020).
• The Stanford-Binet Scale is a contemporary assessment which measures
intelligence according to five features of cognitive ability, including fluid
reasoning, knowledge, quantitative reasoning, visual-spatial processing and
working memory. Both verbal and nonverbal responses are measured.
• This test used a single number, referred to as the intelligence quotient (IQ) to
indicate an individual’s score.
• The average score for the test is 100, and any score from 90 to 109 is considered to
be in the average intelligence range. Score from 110 to 119 are considered to be
High Average. Superior scores range from 120 to 129 and anything over 130 is
considered Very Superior.
• To calculate IQ, the student’s mental age is divided by his or her actual (or
chronological) age, and this result is multiplied by 100. If your mental age is equal
to your chronological age, you will have an IQ of 100, or average. If, however,
your mental age is, say, 12, but your chronological age is only 10, you will have an
above-average IQ of 120.
 IQ TESTING Name of Institution
• The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for WISC SAMPLE QUESTION
Children (WISC), developed by David Wechsler, is an
IQ test designed to measure intelligence and cognitive
ability in children between the ages of 6 and 16. It is
currently in its fourth edition (WISC-V) released in
2014 by Pearson.
• The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), is an
IQ test designed to measure cognitive ability in adults
and older adolescents, including verbal comprehension,
perceptual reasoning, working memory, and processing
speed.
• The latest version of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-IV) was standardized on
2,200 healthy people between the ages of 16 and 90 years (Brooks et al., 2011).
• The standardization of a test involves giving it to a large number of people at different ages in
order to compute the average score on the test at each age level
• The overall IQ score combines the test takers’ performance in all four categories (Cherry, 2020).
And rather than calculating this number based on mental and chronological age, the WAIS
compares the individual’s score to the average score at that level, as calculated by the
standardization process.
 Name of Institution

THEORIES OF INTELLIGENCE
•
SPEARMAN Name of Institution
Charles Spearman, an English psychologist, established the two-factor theory of intelligence back
in 1904 (Spearman, 1904). To arrive at this theory, Spearman used a technique known as factor
analysis. Factor analysis is a procedure through which the correlation of related variables are
evaluated to find an underlying factor that explains this correlation.
• In the case of intelligence, Spearman noticed that those who did well in one area of intelligence
tests (for example, mathematics), also did well in other areas. In other words, there was a strong
correlation between performing well in math and music, and Spearman then attributed this
relationship to a central factor, that of general intelligence (g).
• Spearman concluded that there is a single g-factor which represents an individual’s general
intelligence across multiple abilities, and that a second factor, s, refers to an individual’s specific
ability in one particular area
• General intelligence, also known as g factor, refers to a general mental ability that, according to
Spearman, underlies multiple specific skills, including verbal, spatial, numerical and mechanical.
 THURSTON Name of Institution
• Thurston (1938) challenged the concept of a g-factor. After analyzing data from 56 different tests of
mental abilities, he identified a number of primary mental abilities that comprise intelligence, as
opposed to one general factor.
• Although Thurston did not reject Spearman’s idea of general intelligence altogether, he instead
theorized that intelligence consists of both general ability and a number of specific abilities, paving
the way for future research that examined the different forms of intelligence.
MENTAL ABILITY DESCRIPTION
Word Fluency Ability to use words quickly and fluency in performing such tasks as rhyming,
solving anagrams, and doing crossword puzzles.
Verbal Comprehension Ability to understand the meaning of words, concepts, and ideas.
Numerical Ability Ability to use numbers to quickly computer answers to problems.
Spatial Visualization Ability to visualize and manipulate patters and forms in space.
Perceptual Speed Ability to grasp perceptual details quickly and accurately and to determine
similarities and differences between stimuli.
Memory Ability to recall information such as lists or words, mathematical formulas,
and definitions.
Inductive Reasoning Ability to derive general rules and principles from presented information.
•
GUILFORD Name of Institution
Joy Paul Guilford was an American psychologist best remembered for
his psychometric study of human intelligence, including the distinction
between convergent and divergent production.
Operations dimension: SI includes six operations or general intellectual processes:
– Cognition - The ability to understand, comprehend, discover, and become aware of information
– Memory recording & retention - The ability to encode information and to recall information
– Divergent production - The ability to generate multiple solutions to a problem (creativity)
– Convergent production - The ability to deduce a single solution to a problem; rule-following or
problem-solving
– Evaluation - The ability to judge whether or not information is accurate, consistent, or valid
Content dimension: Concrete, real world information, tangible objects, things in the
environment –
– Visual: information perceived through sight
– Auditory: information perceived through hearing, and C. kinesthetic: information perceived
through one's own physical actions
– Symbolic - Information perceived as symbols or signs that stand for something else, e.g., Arabic
numerals, the letters of an alphabet, or musical and scientific notations
– Semantic - Concerned with verbal meaning and ideas - Generally considered to be abstract in
nature.
– Behavioral - Information perceived as acts of people
 GUILFORD Name of Institution

Product dimension As the name suggests, this dimension contains results of applying
particular operations to specific contents. The SI model includes six products in increasing
complexity:
– Units - Single items of knowledge
– Classes - Sets of units sharing common attributes
– Relations - Units linked as opposites or in associations, sequences, or analogies
– Systems - Multiple relations interrelated to comprise structures or networks
– Transformations - Changes, perspectives, conversions, or mutations to knowledge
– Implications - Predictions, inferences, consequences, or anticipations of knowledge
 STERNBERG Name of Institution

TRIARCHIC THEORY OF INTELLIGENCE

Just two years later, in 1985, Robert Sternberg proposed a three-category theory of
intelligence, integrating components that were lacking in Gardner’s theory. This theory
is based on the definition of intelligence as the ability to achieve success based on your
personal standards and your sociocultural context. According to the triarchic theory,
intelligence has three aspects: analytical, creative, and practical (Sternberg, 1985).
• Analytical intelligence, also referred to as componential intelligence, refers to
intelligence that is applied to analyze or evaluate problems and arrive at solutions.
This is what a traditional IQ test measure.
• Creative intelligence is the ability to go beyond what is given to create novel and
interesting ideas. This type of intelligence involves imagination, innovation and
problem-solving.
• Practical intelligence is the ability that individuals use to solve problems faced in
daily life, when a person finds the best fit between themselves and the demands of
the environment. Adapting to the demands environment involves either utilizing
knowledge gained from experience to purposefully change oneself to suit the
environment (adaptation), changing the environment to suit oneself (shaping), or
finding a new environment in which to work (selection).
 GARDNER Name of Institution

• American psychologist Howard Gardner built off the idea that there are multiple
forms of intelligence.
• He proposed that there is no single intelligence, but rather distinct, independent
multiple intelligences exist, each representing unique skills and talents relevant to a
certain category.
• Gardner (1983, 1987) initially proposed seven multiple intelligences: linguistic,
logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, and
intrapersonal, and he has since added naturalist intelligence.
• Gardner holds that most activities (such as dancing) will involve a combination of
these multiple intelligences (such as spatial and bodily-kinesthetic intelligences). He
also suggests that these multiple intelligences can help us understand concepts beyond
intelligence, such as creativity and leadership.
• And although this theory has widely captured the attention of the psychology
community and greater public, it does have its faults.
• There have been few empirical studies that actually test this theory, and this theory
does not account for other types of intelligence beyond the ones Gardner lists
(Sternberg, 2003).
GARDNER Name of Institution