CHAPTER 7: COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT II

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES INCOGNITIVE ABILITIES

• Psychologists argued whether test score is an accurate measurement for intelligence

• Intelligence is a set of ability defined in various ways by different psychologists but generally agreed to include the ability to reason abstractly, the ability to profit from experience, and the ability to adapt to varying environmental contexts

Measuring Intellectual Power

• Intelligence Test • First found in 1905 by Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon • Purpose → Identify children who might have difficulty in school • E.g. Could a child describe the difference between a wood and a

glass?• Stanford-Binet is the best known U.S intelligence test. It was

written by Lewis Terman and his associates at Stanford University and based on the first test by Binet and Simon

• Intelligence quotient (IQ) is originally defined in terms of a child’s mental age and chronological age, IQ is now computed by comparing a child’s performance with that of other children of the same chronological age

The First IQ Test

• Mental age is the term used by Binet and Simon and Terman in the early calculation of IQ scores to refer to the age level of IQ test items a child could successfully answer

• E.g. A child who is 5 but can solve a question that is for age 6 • IQ score = mental age / chronological age x 100 (old method) • Now, IQ score calculation is based on a direct comparison of a

child performance with the average performance of a larger group of children with the same age

• Secular trend in IQ score is the historical shift upward in scores on cognitive ability

• Studies showed that children today can solve more difficult problems compared to the same age children 60 years ago

The First IQ Test

• Three test most frequently used today by psychologist are the Standford-Binet V, WPPSI-III, and WISC-IV

• WPPSI-III is the third revision of the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (age 2.5 to 7)

• WISC-IV is the most recent revision of the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for the Children, a well known IQ test developed in the U.S that includes both Verbal and performance subtest (age 6-16)

• WISC-IV is most often used to diagnose children’s learning problems• Verbal comprehension index is tests on the WISC-IV that tap verbal

skills such as knowledge of vocabulary and general information• The nonverbal tests consist in the WISC-IV includes perceptual

reasoning index, processing speed index and working memory index• WISC-IV provides a comprehensive full IQ score

Modern IQ Tests

• Infant TestsBayley Scales of Infant Development is the best known and

most widely used test of infant intelligenceMeasures primary sensory and motor skills (e.g. touching and

reaching objects) E.g. putting cubes into a container (9 month old)

• Achievement TestsTest designed to assess a child’s learning of specific material

taught in school, such as math, vocabulary, and grammar IQ test evaluate a person’s intelligence and achievement test

evaluates a person ability to learn

Modern IQ Tests

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=modern+IQ+Tests&nfpr=0

Video #1

Bayley Scale of Infant Development

• Psychologists use the term reliability to refer to the stability of a test score

• Research showed that infant’s test scores are often inconsistent

• At about age 3, children began to get more consistent IQ test score

• The general rule of thumb is that the older the child, the more stable the IQ score becomes

Stability of Test Scores

• Validity measures whether a test is measuring what it is designed to measure

• Does IQ test predict school performance?Studies showed that IQ test has a strong reflection on a child’s

school performance but no direct connectionsChildren with higher IQ scores trend to get better grade

• Such finding has led a number of theorist to argue that intelligence adds to the child’s resilience

• Poor children with higher IQ scores are more likely to develop and move away from poverty

• Emotional intelligence, a theoretical approach that represents a new way of thinking about children’s understanding of their own and other’s emotions. (chapter 12)

WHAT IQ SCORE PREDICTS

• Intelligence or IQ of a child is inborn • But intelligence is not fixed at birth, the environment and people

around the baby can affect a child’s mental development

• Evidence for the importance of Heredity Identical twins are more like one another in IQ scores than are

fraternal twinsThe IQ of adopted children are better predicted from the IQs

of their natural parents than from adopted parents

Explaining IndividualDifference in IQ Scores

• Evidence showed that the IQ scores of adopted children is clearly influenced by the environment they grow up in

• If a lower class child is adopted by a middle class parent, the child’s IQ scores is generally 10 to 15 points higher than those who stayed with birth mothers

• The children reared in upper-class homes had IQ scores that were about 11 points higher than those of children reared in lower class families, regardless of social class or education of birth parents

Evidence for the ImportanceOf Environment

Social class of Adoptive Parents High Low

Social Class of High Biological Parents Low

119.6 107.5 103.6 92.4

• Social Class DifferenceEvery society is divided into social strata of some kinds An individual’s social status or social class is typically defined

or measured in terms of three dimensions: education, income and occupation

Dozens of researches showed that children from lower class families have relatively lower IQ scores

The average IQ score of children rises as the family’s social class rises and as the mother’s education rises (Figure 7.2)

Cumulative deficit is any difference between groups in IQ or achievement test that becomes larger over time

The longer a child lives in proverty, the more negative effect on IQ test scores and other measures of cognitive functioning

Evidence for the ImportanceOf Environment

• Specific Family Characteristics and IQ Scores Parents of children who have higher IQ scores tend to do several

things: o They provide an interesting and complex physical environment for

their children (includes play materials that are appropriate for child’s age and development level)

o They are emotional responsive to and involved with their children o They talk with their children using language that is diverse,

descriptive, and accurateo They use zone of proximal development when interact with their

childreno They avoid over restrictiveness, or control, instead fiving their children

room to explore and make mistakes

Evidence for the ImportanceOf Environment

• Differences in Environments within Families It is different being the oldest child in a family to the youngest child of a

family On average, the more children in a family, the lower the IQ scores of the

children (Figure 7.3) On average, first born children have the highest IQ scores, with average

score declining steadily down the birth order (Figure 7.3) Children who are born very close together also have slightly lower IQ

scores on average than do those born further apart (Figure 7.3) The oldest child interact with adult (parents) when he was born, and

second or third child interacts with both parents and other children in the household which will affect their thinking process (Robert Zajonc)

Evidence for the ImportanceOf Environment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5QtWHySKK4

Video #2

• Does special education, day-care, and school affect a child’s IQ? • Attunement → a permanent gain over the level of performance

the child would have shown without the added enrichment• On average, children enrolled in Head Start or other enrich

preschool programs show a gain of 10 IQ points during the year of the Head Start experience compared to similar children without such experience

• Studies also showed that children in enrich preschool programs are less likely to fail school or place under special education programs

• In summary, children in special program had the highest scores, followed by those who had had some kind of day-care experience, with those reared entirely at home having the lowest

School Experience and Special Interventions

• Reaction range is the term used by some psychologist for the range of possible outcomes for some variable, given basic genetic patterning

• In the case of IQ scores, the reaction range is estimated at 20 to 25 points

• That is, given a specific genetic heritage, a child’s actual IQ test performance may vary by as much as 20 to 25 points depending on the environment the child grows up in

• The argument is that the lower end of any given child’s reaction range is likely to be manifested only if the child is reared in an environment that falls below the critical threshold

Interactions of Heredity And Environment

• Asian and Asian American students typically test 3 to 6 points higher on IQ tests and do consistently better on achievement tests than do Caucasian children

• African American children consistently score lower than Caucasian children on standard measure of intelligence

• Some scientist argue that IQ test differences must reflect some genetic differences between races

• Studies also showed that Asian family emphasis more on academic achievement, which can explain why Asian student tend to do good on IQ tests

• In dynamic assessment, children are informed about the purpose of an intelligence test and are given a chance to practice with each kind of problem-solving task on the test prior to actually being tested

Racial Differences

• Awareness of different emphases is the key to study variation in IQ scores cross cultures

• Psychologists pointed out that the study of cross culture IQ differences is pointless because different culture emphases different strength

• Cross national comparisons of intellectual skills focus more on math and science rather than IQ scores

• Teachers in Asian nations take a different approach in teaching than do teachers in North America

• Computational fluency is the degree to which an individual can automatically produce solutions to simple calculation problems

Cross-Cultural Differences

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lfr2rTW3UMk&feature=related

VIDEO #3

• Girls are better at verbal tasks and boys are better at numerical problems

• Researchers showed that boys and girls are good at different tasks, but those aspects should not greatly affect their IQ score

• For examples, boys tend to be better in math and engineering, but that does not mean no girls is qualified for the jobs

• Specifically, boys show greater coherence in brain function in areas of the brain devoted to spatial tasks, while girls display more organized functioning in part of the brain where language and social information are processed

SEX DIFFERENCE

• Using IQ tests to define and explain individual and group differences in intelligence is called the psychometric approach

• Developmentalists believe that psychologist have placed too much emphasis on defining intelligence in correlation between IQ scores and achievement tests

• Several alternative approaches to defining and measuring intelligence have been proposed in recent years

Alternative Views of Intelligence

• Speeding of Information ProcessingDifference in processing speed may also underline individual

difference in IQ scoresParticipants with faster reaction times or speed of

performance on a variety of simple tasks also have higher average IQ scores on standard tests

Some studies have even directly linked central nervous system functioning and to IQ

INFORMATION PROCESSINGTHEORY

• Other Links between IQ and Information ProcessingComparing the information processing strategies used by

children with normal intelligence with those used by retarded children

E.g. Looking for a hidden object (the two group did not in search strategies and skills)

• Evaluating the Information-Processing ApproachLooking at things such as inborn intelligencePractice makes perfect Memory of the child

INFORMATION PROCESSINGTHEORY

• Triarchic theory of intelligence is a theory advanced by Robert Sternberg, proposing the existence of three types of intelligence: analytical, creative and practical

• Analytical intelligence one of three types of intelligence in Sternberg’s triarchic theory of intelligence; the types of intelligence typically measured on IQ tests, including the ability to plan, remember facts, and organizing information

• Creative intelligence is the second types of intelligence described by Stermberg in his triarchic theory of intelligence; including insightfulness and the ability to see new relationships among events or experiences

• Practical intelligence is the third intelligence in Sternberg’s triarchic theory of intelligence; often called “street smart”, this types of intelligence include skill in applying information to the real world or solving practical problems

Sternberg’s Triarchic TheoryTheory of Intelligence

• Multiple intelligence is eight types of intelligence proposed by Howard Gardner

• The Eight Types include: Linguistic → good readers, speakers and who can learn language easily Logical/mathematical → learn math and generate logical solutions to

various kinds of problems Spatial → painting and sculpture Bodily kinesthetic → profession athletes Musical → singer and song writer Intrapersonal → good at identifying one’s own strength Naturalistic → recognize patterns in nature

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence

THANK YOU

• Do you think IQ test is a good method of measuring one’s intelligence? If so, in what way?

Discussion #1

• To what extend do you think family and the environment around an individual affects his/her intelligence?

Discussion #2

• We don’t necessarily need high IQ scores to be successful in the future. (e.g. the president of the United States) Agree or Disagree? Why?

Discussion #3

• Do you think it is a good idea to force elementary school children into learning and achieve a high IQ score in the future? (China and U.S school system)

Discussion #4