BRIEF CHAPTER OUTLINE
Intelligence
Defining Intelligence
Theories of Intelligence
Intelligence as One General Ability
Intelligence as Multiple Abilities
Psychology in the Real World:
Bringing Multiple Intelligences to School
Measures of Intelligence
Breaking New Ground: Changing Intelligence Tests
Reliability and Validity of IQ Tests
Are IQ Tests Biased?
Extremes of Intelligence
Mental Retardation
Giftedness
Prodigies
Savants
The Nature
and Nurture of Human Intelligence
Group Differences in Intelligence Scores
Race-Ethnicity and Intelligence
Gender and Intelligence
Non-Western Views of Intelligence
Problem Solving
Types of Problems
Solution Strategies
Obstacles to Solutions
Creativity
What Is Creativity?
Stages of Creative Problem Solving
Genius, Intelligence, and Creativity
Creativity and the Brain
Creative Insight and the Right Hemisphere
Creativity and Balanced Activity Between the Hemispheres
Cognitive Processes in Creative Thinking
The Creative Personality
Making Connections in Intelligence, Problem Solving, and Creativity: Whiz Kids in Science
Chapter Review
EXTENDED CHAPTER OUTLINE
INTELLIGENCE
·
Much research starts with questions like: Is
intelligence due to nature or nurture? Is intelligence a single general skill
or many different skills? What does it mean when we say someone is intelligent?
·
Psychologists agree that there are three capacities
that shape how smart people are, and they constitute the central topics of this
chapter: intelligence, problem solving, and creativity.
·
Many people consider intelligence the primary trait
that sets humans apart from other animals.
·
Although some apes can solve simple problems, the
human capacity for abstract reasoning is unparalleled in the animal kingdom.
Defining Intelligence
Theories of Intelligence
Intelligence as One General Ability
Intelligence as Multiple Abilities
· Crystallized intelligence: Knowledge that we have gained from experience and learning, education, and practice. This involves book smarts and cultural knowledge.
· Carroll extended this model, arguing that intelligence actually consists of three levels, arranged in a hierarchy. At the top of the hierarchy is general intelligence, at the middle is broad intelligence, and at the bottom is narrow intelligence.
· General intelligence: very similar to Spearman’s concept of “g.”
· Broad intelligence: abilities such as crystallized and fluid intelligence, as well as memory, learning, and processing speed.
· Narrow intelligence consists of nearly 70 distinct abilities, such as speed of reasoning and general sequential reasoning for fluid intelligence and reading, spelling, and language comprehension for crystallized intelligence.
· Because this model includes Cattell and Horn’s crystallized and fluid intelligences, it has become known as the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) model of intelligence.
1. analytic intelligence: involves judging, evaluating, or
comparing and contrasting information, as on an IQ test.
2. creative intelligence: involves solving novel problems and coming
up with novel and useful ideas for solving them.
3. practical intelligence: the ability to solve problems of everyday
life efficiently.
·
Scholars are
rather strongly divided, however, over
·
Educators,
however, like
1. Different students learn in different
ways.
2. Some students who have demonstrated
ability in some areas fail academic subjects and do poorly on traditional
intelligence tests.
Psychology in the Real World: Bringing Multiple
Intelligences to School
·
An educational principle based on MI theory is that
children should have some freedom to choose activities on their own. If they
ignore certain kinds of activities, their teachers provide encouragement and
“bridges” to try the neglected activities.
·
Entire schools have
been designed to put into practice the development of all of
·
Students in these
schools still must take the local school district’s standardized tests; the
students do at least as well as students from other schools. Also, most of the
schools reported direct effects of the MI approach on decreasing disciplinary
problems and increasing parent participation, and the performance of students
with learning disabilities improved markedly when they attended MI schools.
·
Terman, an American psychologist, translated the test
for American students and coined the term IQ
for “intelligence quotient.” Because Terman taught at
·
In the 1930s, David Wechsler created new intelligence
tests in response to the need for a test that measured adult intelligence.
Wechsler’s test became known as the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scales (WAIS). Later he
developed a test for children, the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children (WISC). At
present, these two tests are the ones that are most frequently administered in
the
Breaking
New Ground: Changing Intelligence Tests
·
See “Breaking New Ground” section for detailed explanation.
Reliability and Validity of IQ Tests
1. that the tests really measure intelligence and not something else, and
2. that IQ scores can predict real-world outcomes.
1. Construct validity: Does a test measures the term or construct it claims to measure.
2. Predictive validity: Does the construct predict real-world outcomes?
Are
IQ Tests Biased?
What is a Bias?
·
Cultural test bias hypothesis: the notion that group
differences in IQ scores are caused by different cultural and educational
backgrounds, not by real differences in intelligence.
·
Scientists, however, distinguish between test bias and test fairness.
·
Test bias: whether a test predicts outcomes equally well for
different groups. A test is biased if it is a more valid measure for one group than for
another. Researchers have found, however, very little evidence for the
existence of this kind of bias in IQ tests.
·
Intelligence tests are developed using norms that reflect the makeup of
the general population. Just because different groups score differently on a given
test does not automatically mean that it is biased. If the test is equally
valid for different groups and they still score differently on it, the test is
not biased. It may be unfair, but it’s not biased.
Extremes
of Intelligence
· IQ follows a normal distribution – that is, a bell-shaped distribution with a mean and a standard deviation. Intelligence varies in a very predictable way, which is most easily seen in the frequency of different IQ scores in the population. When one plots the scores on a graph, one sees a very clear bell curve, with most people falling in the middle and a few people at the high and low ends of the curve. This shape is referred to as a bell curve because it is shaped like a bell.
· 68% of test-takers will score between 85 and 115 – that is, within one standard deviation of the mean.
· 99.7% will score between 55 and 145.
· It is at the two ends of the curve, or distribution, that we find “extremes of intelligence” – specifically, mental retardation and giftedness.
Mental Retardation
· Mental retardation: individual must show significant limitations in intellectual functioning as well as in everyday adaptive behavior, and these deficits must start before age 18.
· Adaptive behavior: how well a person adjusts to and copes with everyday life.
· Down syndrome: a form of mental retardation; a disorder that results from a condition known as Trisomy-21, in which a person has three rather than two number 21 chromosomes. Down syndrome occurs in one in 730 births, but the odds become one in 300 for a 35-year-old mother and one in 30 for a 45-year-old mother.
Giftedness
· In most schools, children are admitted to gifted programs if they score 130-140 or above on a standardized IQ test like the WISC or Stanford-Binet. Extreme giftedness takes various forms, two of which are prodigies and savants.
· Prodigy: a young person who is extremely gifted and precocious in one area, such as math, music, art, or chess, and is at least average in intelligence.
· CONNECTION: Daniel Tammet used mnemonic devices, a memory tool, to help him remember pi (the circumference of any circle divided by its diameter). How do mnemonic devices aid memory? (See Chapter 7.)
The Nature and Nurture of Human Intelligence
Nature-Nurture Pointer: The concept of reaction range describes how
biology and environment work together to produce a person’s overall level of
intelligence.
Nature-Nurture Pointer: What happens in the womb can permanently
affect a person’s measured intelligence.
Group Differences in
Intelligence Scores
Race-Ethnicity and Intelligence.
Nature-Nurture
Pointer: The human brain can be changed both physically (in size) and in
its ability to solve problems by neglect and abuse. Early intervention to
counteract neglect increases intelligence.
Gender and Intelligence
Non-Western Views of
Intelligence
·
Sternberg and his
colleagues have examined practical intelligence in cultures where academic
intelligence is not valued as highly as it is in Western cultures. Children in
PROBLEM SOLVING
Types of Problems
· Convergent thinking problems: These have known solutions, which can be reached by narrowing down a set of possible answers.
· Divergent thinking problems: There are many possible solutions, some of which work better than others.
Solution Strategies
· Algorithms: formulas that guarantee correct solutions to particular problems.
·
· Thinking outside the box: requires that you break free of self-imposed conceptual constraints and think about a problem differently in order to solve it.
Obstacles
to Solutions
· Fixation: the inability to break out of a particular mindset in order to think about a problem from a fresh perspective.
· Mental sets are a kind of fixation. A mental set provides solutions to problems but can also stand in the way of new ideas and novel solutions.
·
Functional fixedness: the tendency to be blind to
unusual uses of common everyday things or procedures.
CREATIVITY
· Creative thinking is related to, yet distinct from, both intelligence and problem solving.
What
Is Creativity?
1. preparation: discovering and defining the problem and then attempting to solve it.
2. incubation: putting the problem aside for a while and working on something else.
3. insight: the
4. verification-elaboration: the solution, even if it has the feel of certainty, still needs to be confirmed.
Genius, Intelligence, and Creativity
· Genius, by this definition, and creativity are closely related. As it turns out, however, the relationship between intelligence and creativity is not as simple as it seems. Considerable research has focused on the relationship between intelligence and creativity and found that IQ and creativity are not very strongly related.
Creativity and the Brain
· Research has revealed two consistent findings: insights occur in the right hemisphere rather than the left, and creative people solving creative problems show more balanced activity between their right and left frontal lobes.
Creative Insight and the Right Hemisphere
·
Remote
associates word problem: display three words at one time to the participant,
who must then come up with a single word that could be used with all three of
the words. Research shows that people often solve these kinds of problems with
· Brain imaging studies have found that sudden insights consistently activated the right hemisphere more than the left and that patients with damage to the frontal region of their right hemisphere are less able to solve problems requiring insight than people without damage to their right hemisphere.
· CONNECTION: People who have had their corpus callosum severed cannot say what they see if the information is presented to their left visual field but can verbally label it if it is presented to their right visual field. Why? (See Chapter 3.)
Creativity and Balanced Activity Between the Hemispheres
· When solving problems, creative people have more balanced brain activity between the hemispheres than less creative people. Research indicates that more left than right frontal lobe activity is seen in less creative participants. Highly creative individuals show a balance in right and left frontal lobe activity.
·
Psychologists who
study the cognitive aspects of creative thought have focused on visual
thinking, fluency, flexibility, and originality.
·
ideational
fluency:
the ability to produce many ideas.
Highly creative people usually come up with more ideas for a given problem than
less creative people do.
·
flexibility of
thought:
the ability to generate many
different categories of ideas and think of other responses besides the obvious
one.
·
originality: thinking of
unusual and novel ideas.
·
Creative thinking
occurs when a person combines all of the cognitive processes at once.
The Creative Personality
· One important trait is openness to experience. That is the tendency to enjoy and seek out new experiences, new foods, new places, and new ideas. Highly creative people have this quality, which is not surprising given that creativity involves novel thoughts and behavior.
· CONNECTION: Is there a connection between mental illness and creativity? The incidence of mental illness is higher in artists, writers, painters, and poets than in the normal population. The same is not true for creative scientists. (See Chapter 15.)
Making Connections in Intelligence, Problem
Solving, and Creativity:
Whiz Kids in Science
KEY TERMS
adaptive behavior: adjustment to and coping with everyday life.
algorithms: formulas that guarantee correct solutions to particular problems.
broad intelligence: one of Carroll’s three levels of intelligence; includes abilities such as crystallized and fluid intelligence, as well as memory, learning, and processing speed.
construct validity: the degree to which a test measures the concept it claims to measure, such as intelligence.
convergent thinking problems: problems that have known solutions and require analytic thinking and the use of learned strategies and knowledge to come up with the correct answer.
creativity: characteristic of a person whose thought and/or behavior is both novel-original and useful-adaptive.
crystallized intelligence: the kind of knowledge that one gains from experience and learning, education, and practice.
cultural test bias hypothesis: the notion that group differences in IQ scores are caused by different cultural and educational backgrounds, not by real differences in intelligence.
divergent thinking problems: problems that have no known
solutions and that require thinking of new approaches (thinking outside of the
box) to solve them.
Down syndrome: a disorder that results from a condition known as trisomy-21, in which a person has three rather than two number 21 chromosomes. Like retardation in general, it may be characterized by a degree of disability, ranging from mild to profound.
fixation: the inability to break out of a particular mind-set in order to think about a problem from a fresh perspective.
flexibility of thought: characteristic of creativity: ability to come up with many different categories of ideas and think of other responses besides the obvious one.
fluid intelligence: raw mental ability, pattern recognition, and abstract reasoning that can be applied to a problem one has never confronted before.
functional fixedness: mind-set in which one is blind to unusual uses of common everyday things or
procedures.
general intelligence: one of Carroll’s three levels of intelligence; very similar to Spearman’s concept of “g.”
genius: high intelligence combined with creative accomplishments that have a tremendous impact on a given field.
g-factor theory: Charles Spearman’s theory that intelligence is a single general (g) factor made up of specific components.
ideational fluency: characteristic of creative thought that involves the ability to produce many ideas.
intelligence: a set of cognitive skills that include abstract thinking, reasoning, problem solving, and the ability to acquire knowledge.
mental age: the equivalent chronological age a child
has reached based on his or her performance on an IQ test.
mental retardation: significant limitations in intellectual functioning as well as in everyday adaptive behavior, which start before age 18.
mental set: a tendency to continue to use problem-solving strategies that have worked in the past, even if better solutions are available.
multiple-factor theory of intelligence: idea that intelligence consists of distinct dimensions and is not just a single factor.
narrow intelligence: one of Carroll’s three levels of intelligence; includes nearly 70 distinct abilities.
originality: characteristic of creative thought: ability to come up with unusual and novel ideas.
predictive validity: the degree to which intelligence test scores are positively related to real-world outcomes, such as school achievement or job success, and thus have predictive value.
prodigy: a young person who is extremely gifted and precocious in one area and at least average in intelligence.
reaction range: the
genetically determined range within which a given trait may fall; its exact
value depends on the quality of the individual’s environment.
reliability: consistency of a measurement, such
as an intelligence test.
savant syndrome: a very rare condition in which people with serious mental handicaps show isolated areas of ability or brilliance.
successful intelligence:
according to Robert Sternberg, the “use of an integrated set of abilities
needed to attain success in life, however an individual defines it, within his
or her sociocultural context.”
test bias: characteristic of a test that determines whether it predicts outcomes equally well for different groups.
test fairness: characteristic of a test that reflects values, philosophical differences, and the ways in which test results are applied to different groups
thinking outside the box: approach to problem solving that requires one to break free of self-imposed conceptual constraints and think about a problem differently in order to solve it.
triarchic theory of intelligence: Robert Sternberg’s theory that three interrelated but distinct
abilities make up successful intelligence: analytic, creative, and practical
skill.
validity: the degree to which a test
accurately measures what it purports to measure, such as intelligence, and not
something else; and the degree to which it predicts real-world outcomes.
MAKING
THE CONNECTIONS
Modern
Intelligence Tests Based on Psychological Theory
CONNECTION: How does working memory operate? (See Chapter 7.)
o Discussion: You may want to point out that Sternberg’s theory is an information-processing approach. It incorporates speed of processing and automaticity; automatic thinking is faster than slow, purposeful thought.
Giftedness
CONNECTION: Daniel Tammet used mnemonic devices, a memory tool, to help him remember pi (the circumference of any circle divided by its diameter). How do mnemonic devices aid memory? (See Chapter 7.)
o Discussion: Students are fascinated with mnemonic devices. Show the clip on mnemonic strategies at: http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0073382760/student_view0/videos.html. Ask students to share what devices they have used in the past and for what class.
Obstacles to Solutions
CONNECTION: Heuristics are mental short cuts or methods we use in making decisions and judgments. Looking for yogurt in the dairy aisle in an unfamiliar supermarket rather than walking up and down every aisle to find it is an example of a heuristic. (See Chapter 9.)
Creative Insight and the Right Hemisphere
CONNECTION: People who have had their corpus callosum severed cannot say what they see if the information is presented to their left visual field but can verbally label it if it is presented to their right visual field. Why? (See Chapter 3.)
Discussion: This is a great time
to discuss Gazzaniga’s work on split brain and the problems folks have solving
problems. You may want to show a clip of Gazzaniga with his patient talking
about split brain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMLzP1VCANo.
Here is a clip of Gazzaniga discussing his early research: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lmfxQ-HK7Y.
Another video on split brain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZnyQewsB_Y.
The Creative
Personality
CONNECTION: Is there a connection between mental illness and creativity? The incidence of mental illness is higher in artists, writers, painters, and poets than in the normal population. The same is not true for creative scientists. (See Chapter 15.)
Making Connections in Intelligence, Problem
Solving, and Creativity: Whiz Kids
in Science
· Science fairs provide a means for students to express their interest and passion in science and also serve as an outlet for creativity. Especially creative teens who participate in science fairs may become finalists in the prestigious Intel Science Talent Search.
· It is safe to say that finalists in this competition are among the top high school science students in the nation. Indeed, six finalists have gone on to win Nobel Prizes, and many others have had illustrious careers in science, math, and medicine. Many finalists, for example, score in the top 1 or 2% in the quantitative portion of the SAT, and approximately 25% of the finalists score perfect scores on the SAT overall! We also know from research on gifted students who become top scientists that they tend to achieve high scores on tests of quantitative reasoning and spatial ability.
· Becoming an STS finalist requires both fluid and crystallized intelligence. Solving scientific problems that have not been solved in the past requires training in basic principles of science and math and the ability to communicate ideas and results clearly. In addition, talented young scientists must be able to break out of traditional ways of thinking and solve problems in original ways.
· Becoming a finalist in the STS competition takes more than a high level of intelligence. It requires an aptitude for solving difficult problems creatively. This involves figuring out what to do when confronted with a novel task and devising a solution that is both original and useful. Intelligent and creative problem solving is a key characteristic of STS finalists.
NATURE-NURTURE
POINTERS
The Nature and Nurture of Human Intelligence
Nature-Nurture Pointer: The concept of reaction range describes how
biology and environment work together to produce a person’s overall level of
intelligence.
Nature-Nurture Pointer: What happens in the womb can permanently
affect a person’s measured intelligence.
Group Differences in
Intelligence Scores
Race and Intelligence.
Nature-Nurture
Pointer: The human brain can be changed both physically (in size) and in
its ability to solve problems by neglect and abuse. Early intervention to
counteract neglect increases intelligence.
Breaking
New Ground: Changing Tests of Intelligence
·
Because IQ tests were first created in the early part
of the 20th century for practical reasons, these tests were not
based on a clear understanding of the nature of human intelligence. In the
1980s, however, there was a shift in the way intelligence tests were developed.
Intelligence as a Single
Quality
· For the first 50 years in which IQ tests were used, they were based on the assumption that intelligence is a single quality. IQ test makers ignored most new theories of how the brain worked or developed. They also ignored much of Piaget’s work on cognitive development and how kids don’t think like adults – even smart ones.
Modern Intelligence Tests
Based on Psychological Theory
· The first shift was the “Kaufman shift,” anchored in theories in psychology and neuroscience about how the brain worked and developed. Their test, known as the Kaufman-Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC), has become one of the more widely used IQ tests.
· John Carroll applied the Cattell-Horn theory to the IQ test and developed a measure that looked at both fluid and crystallized intelligences.
The Aftermath of the Shift in Intelligence Tests
· The newest versions of the Weschlers, the WAIS-III and the WISC-IV, include scores on four factors: Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Reasoning, Working Memory, and Processing Speed.
· Discussion: You may want to point out these are still fairly g-based tests. Sternberg and Cattell would both argue that information processing and perceptual skills are all intertwined. That is, scores for verbal comprehension on a timed test will be higher in folks who have great processing speed.
· CONNECTION: How does working memory operate? (See Chapter 7.)
·
Discussion: You may want to talk with students about how they feel about
standardized testing in general, as well as how they feel about taking portions
of IQ tests. This is also a good time to remind them that regardless of the
theories, IQ tests
should really only be used to do what they were designed for, which is to predict
school performance.
INNOVATIVE INSTRUCTION
Additional Discussion Topics
Generally, students like the idea of S theories but many bristle at the possible outcome of MI theories. You may want to use the bodily kinetic in your discussion, as that is one of the most controversial aspects of the theory. Yes, it involves spatial cognition, but is that intelligence? Should schools be gearing curriculum based to the few rather than the many? Also, should colleges start on this path?
Activities
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiFxCIERwoU&feature=related
Part2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK2f1q0SUDk&feature=related
Suggested Films
1. Howard Gardner talking about MI: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7803142962405524835&q=Howard+Gardner&total=68&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=3
2.
A short clip with
3.
This is a 2-part clip students will
love! It’s
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiFxCIERwoU&feature=related
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK2f1q0SUDk&feature=related
4.
A CNBC clip of
5.
An interview with Stephen Murdoch on why
the traditional approach dismisses
6. An example of a nonverbal IQ test: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sThCoWH03HU&feature=related
7. Daniel Goleman talking about emotional and social intelligence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZskNGdP_zM&feature=related
8. A 1-hour interview with Daniel Goleman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hoo_dIOP8k&feature=related
9. Charles Murray, co-author of The Bell Curve, on “Booknotes”: 6 part series:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQaXCcLgDuc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbCIGBU9H-M&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4UJtlcnfY4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZK1Ac1l-eE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EzGDJ-Bpbg&feature=related
10. “DNA and the Brain” – an interview with James Watson:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6ZfrXHgiVY
11. Rain Man, released in 1988. This is a movie that shows Dustin Hoffman as a savant.
Suggested Websites
1. Very thorough! A great overview of all the theories: http://www.personalityresearch.org/intelligence.html
2. A good overview of the historical and current controversies on intelligence: http://www.indiana.edu/~intell/
3. An article on the controversy in intelligence tests: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/the-controversy-of-intelligence-theories-397044.html
4. An overview of intelligence theories: http://psychology.about.com/od/cognitivepsychology/p/intelligence.htm
5. An overview of Sternberg’s triarchic theory: http://tip.psychology.org/stern.html
6. Wall Street Journal article on The
7. A brief discussion on the integrated theory of intelligence: http://www.supraconsciousnessnetwork.org/
8. A article on savants: http://rarediseases.about.com/cs/neurodisorders/a/052502.htm
Suggested
Bouchard, T. J. (1998). Genetic and environmental influences on adult intelligence and special mental abilities. Human Biology, 70, 257-279.
Duncan, J., Rüdiger, J. S., Kolodny, J., Bor, D., Herzog, H., Ahmed,
A., Newell, F. N., & Emslie, H. (2000). A neural basis for general
intelligence. Science, 289, 457-460.
Galton, F. (1865). Hereditary talent and character. Macmillan’s Magazine, 23, 157-166, 318-327.
Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of M
Geary, D.C. (1996). Sexual
selection and sex differences in mathematical abilities. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 19,
229-284.
Jensen, A. R. (1999). The g factor: The science of mental ability.
Psycholoqy, 10(023).
McClearn, G. E., Johansson, B., Berg, S.,
Pedersen, N. L., Ahern, F., Petrill, S. A., & Plomin, R. (1997).
Substantial genetic influence on cognitive abilities in twins 80 or more years
old. Science, 276, 1560-1563.
Neisser, U., Boodoo, G., Bouchard, T. J.,
Jr., Boykin, A. W., Brody, N., Ceci, S. J., Halpern, D. F., Loehlin, J. C.,
Perloff, R., Sternberg, R. J., & Urbina, S. (1996). Intelligence: Knowns
and unknowns. American Psychologist, 51,
77-101.
Plomin, R. & Daniels, D. (1987). Why are
children in the same family so different from one another? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 10, 1-60.
Spearman, C. (1904). “General intelligence,”
objectively determined and measured. American
Journal of Psychology 15, 201-293.
Sternberg, R. J. (Ed.) (1999). Handbook
of creativity.
Sternberg, R. J. & Wagner, R. K. (1993). The g-ocentric view of
intelligence and job performance is wrong. Current
Directions in Psychological Science, 2, 1-4.
Sternberg, R.J. (1977). Intelligence,
Information Processing, and Analogical Reasoning.