Mental Abilities
Terms
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- Factor Analysis
- A statstical technique to identify the dimensions (specific abilities) needed to account for the intercorrelations among variables (scales)
- Information Processing Correlates of "g"
- 1. Reaction time in elementary cognitive tasks 2. working memory capacity
- Dizygotic Twins
- Full siblings that happen to be born at the same time; they share 50% of genes in common just like normal siblings
- Performance Scales
- Digit symbol, picture completion, block design, picture arrangement, and object assembly
- Picture Completion
- Tests visual alertness and visual memory using pictures with missing parts
- Comprehension Scale
- Tests practical info and ability to evaluate past experience
- Similarities Scale
- Measures abstract thinking by asking how certain objects or concepts are similar
- h2=0.00
- all differences between people are due to differences in the environment
- Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)
- The most widely used intelligence test in botht he United States & the world; composed of verbal scales & performance scales. (assumes you have been raised in the culture of the test)
- Monozygotic Twins
- share 100% of genes in common, so differences between them must be due to the environment (highest correlation when reared together)
- h2=0.70
- 70% of the differences between people are due to differences in genes
- Binet's Assumptions
- 1. Intelligence is composed of many different types of abilities 2. intelligence increases with age acrros childhood and adolescence
- Average mental ability
- equal to 100 mental age = chronological age
- Reliability
- IQ scores are highly stable across time
- Object Assembly
- Tests ability to deal with part-whole relationships by assembling puzzle pieces to form an object.
- Heritability (h2)
- Value between 1 and 0 explaining why people differ from each other
- Verbal Scales
- Information, comprehension, arithmetic, similarities, vocabulary
- Digit Symbol
- Tests speed of learning new associations using a timed coding task
- h2=0.50
- 50% of the differences between people are due to differences in genes
- Above average mental ability
- greater than 100 mental age > chronological age
- Vocabulary Scale
- Tests knowledge of common words
- h2=1.00
- all differences between people are due to differences in genes
- Block Design
- Tests ability to perceive and analyze visual patterns by reproducing a pictured designed with blocks
- Arithmetic Scale
- Verbal Problems testing arithmetic reasoning
- Validity
- IQ scores predict academic achievement
- Fluid Intelligence
- Ability to perceive relationships among stimulus patterns, draw inferences from them, and comprehend their implications
- "g"
- performance on cognitive tests are always positively correlated--suggests that all mental tests are influenced by "g"
- Picture Arrangement
- Tests understanding of visual-spatial relationships by arranging "comic strip" pictures to tell a story
- Mental Age
- Your performance compared to the average age that matches that performance.
- Information Processing Correlates of "g"
- 1. Reaction time in elementary cognitive tasks 2. working memory capacity
- Biology Correlates of "g"
- 1. Brain glucose metabolism 2. Speed of neural & Synaptic transmission 3. brain size
- less than 100
- mental age < chronological age
- Crystallized Intelligence
- Ability closely tied to knowledge represented in vocabulary, math, and social reasoning (ability to accumulate knowledge about things, such as building vocabulary over a lifetime)
- Information Scale
- questions tap a general range of info