• Intelligence: ability to learn, remember information, recognize concepts and
their relations, and to apply information to behaviour in an adaptive way. Its
definition depends on cultural judgements.
• Studying intelligence has 3 major approaches:
o Differential approach: creating tests to measure differences in how
people solve problems;
o Developmental approach: based on the way children learn to think
about the world; and the
o Information Processing Approach: focuses the types of skills people
use to solve problems.
Theories of Intelligence
• Spearman’s Two-Factor Theory: intelligence determined by 2 factors
o g factor: general factor, common to all intellectual tasks. “Three
qualitative principles of cognition”: apprehension of experience,
education of relations, and education of correlates.
o s factor: specific to a particular task.
o Empirical evidence for this theory comes from correlations between
tests of particular intellectual abilities. Factor analysis is a statistical
procedure identifying common factors among groups of tests. Each
common factor would be a specific ability.
o Factor loadings: how strong one test is related to a particular factor.
• Factor analysis can only bring to light intellectual abilities which the basic
tests are able to measure.
• Thunderstone extracted seven factors of intelligence, which were then found
to include a second-order factor similar to Spearman’s general intelligence.
• Cattell performed a second-order factor analysis on Spearman’s work and two
o Fluid intelligence (f ): culture-free tasks, seeing relations and patterns.
o Crystallized intelligence (c ): acquired information from a culture,
learned in school.
o If left to the same experience, one with more g dfvelops more g . c
Crystallized intelligence depends on fluid intelligence to be acquired.
• Information-Processing Approach Theory of Intelligence: Sternberg`s
Triarchic (rule of three) Theory of intelligence. Managing individual`s
combination of strengths and weaknesses lead to success in life.
o Three parts together comprise Sternberg’s “Successful intelligence”:
ability to analyze and manage personal strengths and weaknesses.
o 1) Analytical intelligence: mental mechanisms used to execute tasks.
Meta-components: deciding a strategy for solving the problem;
Performance components: processes used to solve it; and
Knowledge acquisition components: used to gain knowledge
and integrating it which what they already know. o 2) Creative intelligence: dealing effectively with novel situations and
applying previous knowledge. Automating problem solving. Sternberg
said that fluid intelligence is used when tasks demand new
approaches, otherwise crystallized is used to automate the solution.
o 3) Practical intelligence: reflect our behaviours that were subject to
natural selection, three forms:
Adaptation: how to plug oneself into an environment to best
develop useful skills;
Selection: ability to find one’s own niche in the environment
(Eg: finding a career they find uniquely interesting); and
Shaping: changing the environment to find a niche (Eg: starting
their own business).
• Supporting evidence of different factors of intelligence: damage to frontal
lobes does not lower IQ, but it impairs the ability to plan and live normally.
• Neuropsychological Theories of Intelligence: Gardner’s theory that
intelligences are potentials that may be activated in an individual to the
extent which their culture values the expression of these potentials.
Evidence is that different areas of brain damage affect different abilities.
Eight of Gardner’s intelligences:
o Verbal-linguistic intelligence
o Logical-mathematical intelligence
o Visual-spatial intelligence
o Naturalist intelligence: similar to Sternberg’s adaptation practical
o The rest of them have not been recognized by psychology as distinct.
• Gardner’s theory recognizes the view of intelligence held by non-Western
• Unschooled people are unable to solve syllogisms (logical constructions with
a major and minor premise, the premises are assumed true and the
conclusion is evaluated on the basis of the premises). They approach
problems different, Eg: based on personal experience.
• Galton: intellectual abilities are heritable.
• Binet-Simon Scale: intelligence test that was the precursor of the Stanford-
o Norms: data concerning comparison groups, allows individuals to be
assessed relative to his or her pears.
o Mental age: level of intellectual development that can be expected
from an average child of particular age.
• Stanford-Binet Scale: intelligence test, various tasks grouped according to
mental age, provides a standard measure of IQ. • Intelligence Quotient (IQ): a single measure of general intelligence, mental
age (test scores) divided by chronological age (actual, calendar age) times
100. This is the same as the “ratio IQ”.
• Deviation IQ: modern way of calculating IQ. Compares an individual’s test
scores with those of other’s of the same age.
• Wechsler’s tests:
o Wechsler’s Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS): contains tests divided into
categories of verbal and performance. Wechsler’s Intelligence Scale
for Children (WISC) was developed for children from the WAIS.
• Reliability of intelligence tests is how often the same person achieves the
same score on the test.
• Validity of intelligence tests is assessed by the correlation of test scores and
the criterion (another measure of the variable being assessed, for example,
• IQ correlates strongly with school performance, about .50.
• It is difficult to formulate bias-free tests of IQ. Different backgrounds and
cultures are exposed to different vocabularies and different emphasises are
placed on different skills. Score differences may be cultural, not intellectual.
• Self-fulfilling prophecy phenomena: one’s expectations about what will
happen lead them to act so that the expectations come true. Parent’s
knowing a child has a low IQ score may affect his or her development.
• IQ tests help detect specific learning needs in otherwise bright children.
• Mental retardation: below-normal mental development caused by injury or
abnormal development. There are 4 degrees:
o Profound mental retardation: most severe, IQ below 20. Require total
o Severe mental retardation: IQ from 20-34, almost always need total
o Moderate mental retardation: IQ from 35 to 54, can live semi-
o Mild mental retardation: IQ from 55 to 70, able to live independently
and maintain employment.
The Roles of Heredity and Environment
• Heritability: a statistical measure, expresses how much variability of a
particular trait in a particular population is a result of genetic differences. It
measures relative contributions and differences in genes and differences in
the environment to the overall variability.
o If there are no differences in a trait, there is no heritability. Not the
same as genetic influence.
o Heritability refers to a population, not individuals.
o Heritability depends on the amount of variability of genetic factors in a
population. Mixed communities of Western societies therefore have
higher heritability measures. o The relative importance of environmental factors depends on the
degree of EV (environmental variability). Same idea as above, but
o Heritability is affected by the extent which genetic inheritance and the
environment interact, Eg: calm classrooms paired with only excitable
children and stimulating classrooms paired with only calm children
would produce low variability.
• Hebb’s two components of the term “intelligence”:
o Intelligence A: biological potential for intellectual development.
o Intelligence B: what is measured on IQ tests, biological component
couple with the environment.
• During development, neurons must establish proper connections. It is
possible for the human organism to be affected by environmental factors
even before they are born.
• Harmful prenatal environment factors include physical trauma and toxins (Eg:
o Fetal alcohol syndrome: smaller infants, facial abnormalities, mental
o Down Syndrome: genetic disorder, not hereditary (improper
chromosome division occurs).
• Types of factors that influence potential intelligence:
o Conception: genetic endowment of the person.
o Prenatal development: Good nutrition, normal pregnancy without
trauma or toxins.
o Birth: anoxia (lack of oxygen) or head trauma can lower potential
o Infancy: good nutrition, stimulating environment for full cognitive
o Later life: increased chance of dementia or multiple infarcts where
there is loss of neurons.
Results of Heritability Studies
• Correlation between parent and child is the same regardless of upbringing.
Genetic similarity is important for the correlation between IQ scores.
• Heritability increases with age, people choose their own environments when
they are independent.
• Specific abilities (Eg: vocabulary) are related to environment.
• Race tells us very little about intelligence. American blacks usually tend
lower-quality schools than whites. We are measuring performance with
tests, not a person’s inherited intellectual ability.
• Thinking is a private event, not all of it involves language. We can think in
shapes and images. • We do not consider objects or events independently, we categorize them. A
concept is a category of entities that share common attributes.
o Formal concept: category of objects defined by listing common
characteristics, like dictionary definitions. Used by experts in
particular fields. Boundaries are precise.
o Collins and Quillian: strings of related words elicited faster responses.
However, our brain isn’t very hierarchical and tidy. “A collie is an
animal” elicited a faster response than “A collie is a mammal”, even
though “A collie is a mammal” is more relevant hierarchically.
o Natural concepts: category of objects based on a person’s
perceptions, based on exemplars (memory of examples of entities that
are used as a basis for classifying them). Used by ordinary people.
Boundaries are fuzzy and not all members are good examples (saying
a penguin is a bird is not as good as saying a swallow is a bird).
Basic-level concept: makes important distinctions between
different categories (chair and apple, for example). Most often
thought about, good for cognitive economy (easiest to think
about, least resources used).
Superordinate concept: collections of basic-level concepts,
(furniture and fruit, for example).
Subordinate concept: refers to types within a basic-level
category (Eg: Macintosh apple, lawn chair).
• Concepts can represent things more complex than exemplars or collections
of attributes. Can include relations among elements.
• Concepts are the raw material of thinking.
• Deductive reasoning: infer specific truths from general principles. Used in
syllogisms (described above).
o Mental models: people do not apply formal rules of logic to solve
deductive reasoning problems. They Instead they use mental models:
constructions based on physical reality used to solve problems of
o Highly correlated with spatial ability, not verbal ability (hence, the
above). People with parietal lobe damage have difficulty answering
o Selection tasks (a type of complex problem) are easier to understand if
physical things (such as beer and teenagers) are used instead of
abstract things (such as numbers and letters).
o “Pragmatic reasoning schemas”: a set of mental rules used when
dealing with issues of causality, permission, and obligation. Proposed
by Cheng and Holyoak.
o Being able to convert abstract problems to tangible mental models is
an important aspect of intelligent thinking. Inductive Reasoning
• Inductive reasoning: just the opposite of deductive reasoning, inferring
general principles or rules from specific facts.
• One trial is not enough to recognize a concept or rule. Without special
training, people do not follow scientific thinking and do not seek a control
group. This is called ‘ignoring the base rate’.
• Confirmation bias: seeking evidence that confirms a hypothesis rather than
seeking to disconfirm it, a logical error. We tend to not try to disconfirm our
• A problem is a state of affairs with a goal, but we do not understand
completely how to attain it (Holyoak).
• Spatial metaphors characterize the problem-solving problem. There is an
‘initial state’ (where you are now) and it is different from the ‘goal state’
(where you want to be). There are various ‘operators’ (actions that can be
taken) available to move states. ‘Problem space’ comprises all the possible
states that can be achieved if all possible operators are applied. The
‘solution’ is the sequence of operators (path) that moves you from the initial
state to the goal state.
• Algorithm: procedure consisting of a series of steps that solve a specific type
• Heuristics: general rules that guide decision making. Tell us which strategy
• Means-end analysis: a heuristic that can apply to any problem: looking to
reduce differences between the current state and the goal state, and
adjusting as the current state changes. At all times in the problem-solving
process, we are looking to reduce the distance.
o Good solution: smallest number of actions, minimizing associated
o ‘Planning’ involves trying out actions in our heads, experts are better
at planning because they know many of the consequences of many
actions. We must know consequences of actions in order to plan.
Chapter 12: Lifespan Development
• Lifespan development psychology: studies the changes that occur over the
course of a lifespan.
• Prenatal period: Nine months between conception and birth.
• Zygote stage: first stage of prenatal development, single new cell divides
• Embryonic stage: two weeks-8 weeks after conception. Embryo can react
reflexively to stimulation. During this period teratogens (agents that can
cause birth defects) can affect the fetus. o Sexual development occurs during this stage. The gonads will develop
into either ovaries or testes depending on an XX or XY chromosome
o Androgens: primary class of sex hormones in males, most important
androgen is testosterone. Female sex organs develop naturally and do
not need to be stimulated, but male sex organs are stimulated by
• Fetal stage: third and final period of prenatal development, seven months,
begins with appearance of bone cells and ends at birth. Fetus may show
kicking movements. Can survive if born prematurely during this stage.
• Threats to normal prenatal development:
o Malnourished mother, affect’s fetus’ nervous system and intellectual
deficits may result.
o Certain antibiotics (tetracycline) can product defects.
o Cigarette smoking reduces oxygen to the fetus and results in
miscarriage or low-birth weight babies.
o Cocaine produces dramatic effects: some babies may be born
addicted. Makes attachment between mother and baby difficult.
o Alcohol is a well-studied teratogen mentioned in Ch. 11.
Physical and Perceptual Development in Infancy and Childhood
• At birth, most movements are reflexes: rooting (turning head towards a light
touch on the check), sucking, and swallowing.
• Maturation: change in behaviour or physical growth due to the aging
process, not experience.
• Motor skill development requires practice and maturation of the nervous and
• Newborn’s senses function to a certain extent. Newborns indicate taste
through facial expressions. Show a preference for the odour of their own
mother’s breast. They can recognize their mother’s voice early on.
• Visual perceptive abilities of infants are studied with an eye-tracking device.
A one-month old baby does not look inside figures, it only scans around it.
Two month olds will investigate the interiors of figures.
• Six-month-olds would not venture onto a visual cliff, indicating that they are
able to judge depths. Retinal disparity is one clue for depth perception (the
difference in how an image falls onto each eye’s retina). This is called
stereopsis as the brain fuses the slightly different images together.
Stereopsis will not develop it unless they have experienced viewing objects
with both eyes early in life.
• Critical period: a period of time in development during which a certain
experience must occur for normal development to occur.
Cognitive Development in Childhood
• Most effective kinds of learning occur when an infant’s behaviour has
tangible effects. o Watson and Ramey: one group of babies were initially given access to
a switch that controlled an overhanging mobile. They learned to
control it with head movements. Another group was only given control
after they had spent some time with the mobile, they did not learn to
control it. Losing control usually produces facial expressions of anger.
• Infants raised in cribs, physically isolated, had limited opportunities to