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Summary PYC1501 Intelligence Notes
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- University Of South Africa (Unisa)
PYC1501 summary on intelligence.
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PYC1501 IntelligenceIntelligence; concept and measurement of
Intelligence= the ability to act purposefully, to think rationally and to deal effectively with the environment.
^ reflects memory, the ability to reason and solve problems and the capacity to learn and to adapt to the environment.
^ also refers to the ability to perform complex tasks and the speed at which tasks can be performed.
^ is measured using psychological tests which provide standardised measures (predetermined norms which indicate
how well a person scores relative to others) of a person's behaviour.
Mental age- can be indicated on intelligence test results.
^ eg; Dineo is 12 years old. She can perform all the tasks designed for 12 years old and younger. She can also
perform half of the tasks for a 12 year old and a quarter of the tasks for a 14 year old. Therefore we can work out her
MA as 12 + 0.6 + 0.3 = 12 years and 9 months.
Intelligence quotients (IQ)
^ in order to estimate a child’s intelligence we need to know their CA (chronological age) as well as their MA (mental
age), we then say; MA / CA x 100 = IG.
^ this test only taps some aspects of intelligence so can never be a total reflection or a person’s intellectual ability so
we therefore refer to this as measured intelligence.
^ remains constant throughout adulthood and starts to decline during old age or when faced with illness, anxiety,
language difficulties etc.
Intelligence; theories of
Biological intelligence
^ Sir Francis Galton concluded that success runs in families because intelligence is passed from generation to
generation through genetic inheritance. He thought that the contents of the mind were baed on sensations and that
people differed in terms of their sensory, perceptual and motor processes. He tried to assess mental ability by
measuring simple sensory processes (reaction time or sensitivity to sounds). It was later determined that sensory
processes were not related to other criteria of mental ability.
^ he coined the phrase ‘nature (inherited component of intelligence) vs nurture (effects of the environment)’
^ there is strong evidence of a relation between biological measures and performance on intelligence tests. The
reason for this is thought to be that speed of info processing is an integral part of general intelligence.
Intelligence as one general factor (g) or multiple factors
^ Charles Spearman theory;
- strong relation between performances on different intellectual tasks= “general intelligence” or “general intellectual
ability” abbreviated as “g”.
- other factors play a role in specific abilities or tasks= specific factors abbreviated as “s-factors”.
- he suggested a multiple factor theory of intelligence and identified seven factors that he thought represented
primary mental abilities; Verbal comprehension, general reasoning, word fluency, memory, number ability, spatial
ability, perceptual speed.
^ Thurston theory;
- acknowledged that the primary mental abilities were related to a general factor based on “g”.
^ Guildford theory;
- rejected the idea of one general factor of intelligence
- believed intellectual activity has three components; operations are the ways that the brain deals with tasks content
refers to the different forms of mental representation, products are the results of operations.
Multiple intelligences= an approach that defines intelligence in terms of mental skills or abilities.
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