1. Intelligence and Psychological Testing
Chapter 9
Intelligence and Psychological Testing

2. Key Concepts in Psychological Testing

3. Psychological Test- standardized measure of a sample of a person’s behavior
Measure individual differences
Responses represent a “sample” of your behavior (not necessarily representative)
Test scores should be interpreted cautiously

4. Principal Types of tests
Mental Ability Tests
Intelligence Tests -measure general mental aptitude
Aptitude tests measure potential more than knowledge, but they break mental ability into separate components
Aptitude Tests – assess specific types of mental abilities
Assess verbal reasoning, numerical ability, language usage, etc
Achievement Tests –gauge a person’s mastery and knowledge of various subjects

5. Principal Types of tests
Personality Tests
Personality Tests- measure various aspects of personality, including motives, interests, values, and attitudes

6. Standardization and Norms
Standardization- refers to the uniform procedures used in the administration and scoring of a test
Everyone gets the same questions, time limits, instructions, etc
Test Norms- information about where a score on a psychological test ranks in relation to other scores on that test
They tell you how you score relative to other people (average/above average)
Percentile score – indicates the percentage of people who score at or below the score one has obtained
Ex. Reading Score OGTA
Standardization Group/Norm Group- large sample of people who are representative of the broader population

7. Reliability
repeated measurements should yield reasonably similar results
Tire gauge, stop watches
Reliability- measurement consistency of a test (or of other kinds of measurement techniques)
Psychological tests are not always perfectly reliable
Test-retest reliability
Correlation Coefficient is a numerical index of the degree of relationship between two variables

8. Reliability coefficient
Joe
Sofia
Josie
Andy
Clara
Katie
Matt
Katie
Matt
Josie
Andy
Clara
Joe
Sofia

9. Validity
Validity –refers to the ability of a test to measure what it was designed to measure
Refers to the accuracy or usefulness of the inferences or decisions based on a test (valid for one, invalid for another)
Content Validity- refers to the degree to which the content of a test is representative of the domain its supposed to cover
Psych tests covers psych not American History
Criterion-Related Validity- estimated by correlating subject’s scores on a test with their scores on a test with their scores on an independent criterion (another measure) of the trait assessed by the test
Pilot aptitude test-compare with a pilot training assessments
Construct Validity- the extent to which evidence shows that a test measures a particular hypothetical construct
Patterns of correlation .

10. Reliability vs Validity

11. Reliability & Validity podcasts
personality-test/

12. The Evolution of Intelligence Testing

13. Galton & Binet
Sir Francis Galton- 1800’s, bright people have excellent sensory acuity, coined “nature vs nuture”
Alfred Binet- first test of general mental ability (loaded with items that required abstract reasoning rather than sensory skills)
Scores were expressed in terms of “mental age” or “mental level”
Mental Age-indicated that he or she displayed the mental ability typical of a child of that chronological (actual) age

14. Terman and the Stanford-Binet
Lewis Terman and colleagues at Stanford revised the test and incorporated the “intelligence quotient”
“Intelligence Quotient” (IQ)- is a child’s mental age divided by chronological age, multiplied by 100
Allowed for comparing children of different ages
Made an articulate case for the potential educational benefits of testing
IQ= Mental Age x 100
Chronological Age

15. Wechsler
Measurement for adults – Weshsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)
Less focused on the verbal ability, many items that require nonverbal reasoning
Separate scores for Verbal IQ, performance/Nonverbal IQ and full scale IQ
Scoring system based on the normal distribution

16. Basic Questions about intelligence testing

17. What kinds of questions?
Diverse- furnish information, recognize vocabulary, figure out patterns, demonstrate basic memory, manipulate words, numbers, and images through abstract reasoning

18. Modern IQ scores
Normal Distribution – symmetric, bell-shaped curve that represents the pattern in which many characteristics are dispersed in the population
Deviation IQ scores – locate subjects precisely within the normal distribution using the standard deviation as the unity of measurement

19. Intelligence tests are intended to measure intellectual potential- but people’s backgrounds are different and make things difficult to devise items that are completely unaffected by differences in knowledge
Apply common knowledge
IQ tests measure a blend of potential and knowledge

20. Adequate Reliability? Adequate validity?
Most IQ tests report commendable reliability estimated (correlations usually range into the .90s
They sample behavior (motivations for the test can sometimes produce misleading results)
Valid in the sense of testing for success in academic work (not social competence, practical problem solving, creativity, mechanical ingenuity, or artistic talent)
1) verbal intelligence 2) practical intelligence 3) social intelligence

21. Vocational Success? IQ tests in other cultures?
People who score higher on IQ tests are more likely than those who score low to end up in high-status jobs
Specifics vary upon job performance
Not really! Western IQ tests do not translate well into the language and cognitive frameworks of many non-western cultures

22. Extremes of Intelligence-Retardation
Mental retardation- refers to subaverage general mental ability accompanied by deficiencies in adaptive skills, originating before age 18
Communication, self-care, social interaction, home-living, community use, and health/safety
IQ score below
General deficits so the categorization is not solely based on the basis of individuals’ test ability
Levels of Retardation
2-3% of the school-age population is diagnosed as mentally retarded (mild, moderate, severe, or profound)
Most are mild cases and not easily distinguished from the rest of the population, 2/3 manages to shed the label when they leave school

23. Extremes of intelligence-giftedness
Psychological Adjustment depends on level of giftedness
High IQ vs Eminent (intersection of high intelligence, high creativity, and high motivation

24. Heredity and the environment

25. Evidence for hereditary influence
Twin Studies- compare identical and fraternal twins
Identical twins are similar in intelligence, fraternal is much lower
Adoption Studies
More similarity between biological relations than adopted
Heritability Estimates
Heritability ration- estimate of the proportion of trait variability in a population that is determined by variations in genetic inheritance (intelligence is 80% heredity and 20% environment)

26. Evidence for environmental influence
Adoption studies- foster parents shape environment
Environmental Deprivation Studies-poor environments will experience a gradual decline in Iqs
Generational Changes: The Flynn Effect- average IQ is rising steadily over the years

27. Nature and NUrture
Reaction range- refers to the genetically determined limits on IQ (and other traits)

28. Cultural Differences in iq scores
Group differences: minority groups in US are slightly lower than the average
Socioeconmic disadvantage
Stereotype vulnerability disadvantage
Cultural bias on IQ tests

29. New directions in the assessment and study of intelligence
Jensen- reaction time and inspection time
Brain Size & IQ
Intelligence and longevity

30. Cognitive processes Triarchic Theory of Human Intelligence
Contextual subtheory- intelligence is a culturally defined concept
Experiential subtheory- relationships between experience and intelligence (deal with new and old things)
Componential subtheory- metacomponents, performance components, and knowledge-acquisition components
Analytical intelligence, creative intelligence, and practical intelligence

31. Expanding the concept of intelligence
Howard Gardner and Multiple intelligences
Emotional intelligence- the ability to perceive and express emotion, assimilate emotion in thought, understand and reason with emotion

32. Period 1 FRQ- Answer on the bottom of your Gradecam sheet (if I can’t read it I won’t grade it)
You are a psychologist creating a personality test to help determine how aggressive someone is. Your supervisor asks for you to explain how your test is valid. Explain how your test will have content validity, construct validity, and criterion-related validity.

33. Period 5 FRQ- Answer on the bottom of your Gradecam sheet (if I can’t read it I won’t grade it)

34. Period 6 FRQ- Answer on the bottom of your Gradecam sheet (if I can’t read it I won’t grade it)