Theories of intelligence: Triarchic Theory, Slides of Psychology of Intelligence

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Theories of Intelligence

What is Intelligence?

 How would you know that someone

is intelligent? List the characteristics

or behaviours that you associate with

intelligence.

Definitions (continued)

 Wechsler (1939)

• the aggregate or global capacity of the individual to act purposefully, to think rationally, and to deal effectively with the environment  Sternberg (1985)
• the mental capacity to automatize information processing and to emit contextually appropriate behaviour in response to novelty; intelligence also includes metacomponents, performance components, and knowledge-acquisition components  Gardner (1986)
• the ability or skill to solve problems or to fashion products which are valued within one or more cultural settings

Cultural Differences in Views of Intelligence

 China (Yang & Sternberg, 1997)

• Emphasis on benevolence & doing what is right
• Importance of humility, freedom from conventional standards of judgment, knowledge of oneself

Lay vs. Expert Conceptions of Intelligence

 Sternberg et al. (1981)  Contacted people

• In a train station
• Entering a supermarket
• Studying in a university library  Asked them to list behaviours characteristic of an intelligent person  then took this list and had both lay- persons & psychologists rate the importance of each of the behaviours in describing the “ideally intelligent” person

Results

Galton & the Brass Instruments Era of Psychology

 “the only information that reaches us

concerning outward events appears

to pass through the avenues of our

senses; and the more perceptive the

senses are of difference, the larger is

the field upon which our judgment

and intelligence can act” (Galton,

Spearman & the “ g ” factor

 Proposed that intelligence consisted

of 2 kinds of factors: a single

“general” factor, g , and numerous

specific factors ( s1, s2, s3, etc.)

 g factor was the most important; s

factors were very specific to

particular tests

Thurstone (continued)

 problem – primary mental abilities correlated with one another  Vernon, more recently, said g was the single factor at the top of a hierarchy that included two major group factors:

• verbal-educational
• practical-mechanical-spatial-physical
• under these were the primary mental abilities  Recent research provides some support for the factor idea of intelligence; if there were just one g factor, then all the different abilities Thurstone said were separate should decline at the same rate; this doesn’t happen; things like verbal comprehension, word fluency, inductive reasoning, decline much more slowly than space and number abilities

Cattell: Fluid & Crystallized Intelligence

 Also used factor analysis, discovered

2 major factors:

Fluid Intelligence: Non-verbal & culture-free form of intelligence Related to a person’s inherent capacity to learn & solve problems Used in adapting to new situations

Crystallized Intelligence: What one has already learned through the investment of fluid intelligence in cultural settings Highly culturally dependent Used for tasks which require learned or habitual response

Biological Theories

 Average Evoked Potential (AEP), assessed by noting the patter of brain waves that occurs in the quarter second or so after a light is flashed in a subjects eyes  is presumably a measure of electrical activity of the brain  certain measures of brain wave activity correlate as high as .77 with published IQ scores  other measures of brain activity (e.g., glucose metabolic rates, measured by PET scans) show less brain activity for intelligent people than less intelligent people

Triarchic Theory

Sternberg

• Analytic – ability to judge, evaluate, compare, contrast
• Creative – ability to invent, discover, imagine
• Practical – ability to apply knowledge to practice

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences

• Linguistic – sensitivity to language, grasp new meanings easily
• Musical – sensitivity to speech and tone
• Logical-Mathematical – abstract reasoning & manipulation of symbols
• Spatial – relations among objects, re-create visual images
• Bodily-kinesthetic – represent ideas in movement
• Personal – sensitivity and understanding of self and others feelings
• Social – sensitivity to motives, feelings, and behaviors of others