1. Intelligence Intro
Who is the most intelligent person that you know (alive, dead, historical, etc)?
Identify some characteristics of people that you consider to be “intelligent.”
Identify some characteristics of people that you consider to be “unintelligent.”

2. Intelligence is . . . . 1. Finish the following statement:
2. How do we measure someone’s intelligence?

3. Tuesday, January 2 Finish the following statement:
Intelligence is ____________.
2. Who is the most intelligent person that you know (alive, dead, historical, etc)?
3. identify some characteristics of people that you consider to be “intelligent.”
Today’s Topic:
Theories of Intelligence
Upcoming Dates:
Tonight’s HW
Last set of Terms
Read pages
Test construction
Developmental and Intelligence Test:
Friday, 1/5

4. Intelligence
AP Psych
Myers – Ch. 11

5. Who is the most intelligent?
Gregg Cox (speaks 64 languages)
Halle Barry (Academy Award winning actress)
Bill Gates (I think you know this guy)
Steve Lu (5 year old with 194 IQ test score)
Midori (Violin prodigy)
Rank these people based on your idea of intelligence

6. 200 year old question: How can we define and measure intelligence?
What is Intelligence?
200 year old question: How can we define and measure intelligence?

7. Intelligence Wars
Do we have an inborn mental capacity? Can it be quantified with a number?
Intelligence – mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations.
Socially constructed by a culture
“school smarts”

8. Intelligence Theories
There are several popular definitions/theories that we will discuss today:
The Two-Factor Theory
Thurstone’s Primary Mental Abilities
The Multiple-Intelligence Theory
The Triarchic Theory

9. Spearman’s General Intelligence or g
A basic intelligence predicts our abilities in varied academic areas
General intelligence (g) – a general intelligence factor that underlies all of our abilities
Factor analysis - A statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items (called factors) on a test
Mental abilities tend to form clusters
People tend to show about the same level of competence in all abilities in a certain cluster
CRITICS - Human abilities are too diverse to be encapsulated by a single general factor

10. Thurstone’s Primary Mental Abilities
A single g score is not as informative as scores for seven primary mental abilities
7 intelligence factors: word fluency, verbal comprehension, spatial ability, perceptual speed, numerical ability, inductive reasoning, and memory
CRITICS – 7 factors show tendency to cluster, suggesting an underlying g score.

11. Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences
Intelligence is more than just verbal and mathematical skills as other abilities are equally important.
8 intelligences
CRITICS - Should all abilities be considered intelligences? Shouldn’t some of them just be talents instead?

12. Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence
3 areas that can be tested reliably
CRITICS - These three factors are related and can have an underlying g factor. Also, additional testing is needed to determine whether these facets can reliably predict success.

13. Other Intelligences
Social intelligence - the know-how involved in comprehending social situations and managing oneself successfully
Emotional intelligence - the ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions.

14. Creativity The ability to produce novel and valuable ideas
Exceptionally creative people do not score higher on intelligence tests than their noncreative peers.
Convergent thinking vs. divergent thinking
5 components
Expertise
Imaginative thinking skills
A venturesome personality
Intrinsic motivation
A creative environment

15. True of False?
Frontal lobe is most active when answering questions found on most intelligence tests
True – although some areas of the brain can be larger to demonstrate intelligence in other ways (Einstein’s Parietal lobe)
A bigger brain = more intelligence
Not necessarily
Some studies have found a correlation between brain size and intelligence scores.
More educated people have more connections between neurons (more synapses) than less educated people.
The neurological approach (using perceptual speed and processing speed) to understanding intelligence has replaced the g factor of intelligence
???? – studies on processing and perceptual speed are on-going

16. True or False? Page
Frontal lobe is most active when answering questions found on most intelligence tests
True – although some areas of the brain can be larger to demonstrate intelligence in other ways (Einstein’s Parietal lobe)
Does A bigger brain = more intelligence
The neurological approach to understanding intelligence has replaced the g factor of intelligence

17. Big Brains = Big Smarts?
Some studies have found a correlation between brain size and intelligence scores.
More educated, therefore defined intelligent, people have more connections between neurons (more synapses) than less educated people.
Chicken or the egg?

18. Brain Function and Intelligence
Frontal lobe is active for tasks such as typical intelligence test questions.
Perceptual speed
Positive correlation of intelligence score and speed at which perceptual information is taken in.
Neurological speed
EEG studies show that people who score higher on intelligence tests can register stimuli quicker and with more complexity than others.

19. Warm-up
Bigger brains don’t always mean smarter brains. What have they found more of in educated people’s brains?
Who was the pioneer of intelligence testing at the beginning of the 1900s?
What was his original purpose of intelligence testing in the early 1900s?