Assessing Intelligence. AP Psychology Chapter 11: Intelligence Ms. Elkin Fall 2014

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1 Assessing Intelligence AP Psychology Chapter 11: Intelligence Ms. Elkin Fall 2014

2 Alfred Binet Created first intelligence assessment at turn of the 20 th Century A result of new French education policy requiring all children to attend school Binet and colleague were successful: Test accurately predicted how well students would handle school work Test included reasoning and problem solving questions Test based on the concept of mental age: the chronological age that is typical at a given level of performance (based on French education)

3 Alfred Binet Binet did not attempt to determine whether student scores reflected innate ability or life experience. Binet s purpose was to help students be successful in school Binet designed the test to assess a child s performance at a given level, not to actually assign them to a category of intelligence. Personally he believed that intelligence was more nurture than nature

4 Lewis Terman Terman made changes to the original Binet test, redesigned it, and claimed that it accurately assessed inherited intelligence. He called it the Stanford-Binet He also expanded the spectrum of ages and levels to make it applicable to everyone, not just school-age children. Terman s motivation for creating and using the Stanford-Binet test was to evaluate and encourage only the smart and fit to reproduce (eugenics)

5 Lewis Terman & the US Government Terman and the US Government worked together to create an intelligence assessment for: Immigrants WWI army recruits The test assessed: Knowledge of Anglo-Saxon cultural heritage Knowledge of American culture

6 Intelligence vs. Cultural Intelligence Terman assumed his test measured intelligence, when in fact it simply measured an individual s knowledge of a culture. Unfortunately, this impacted immigration laws in 1924 For decades many critics have accused designers of the verbal SAT of cultural bias toward the white and wealthy. The object of the question was to find the pair of terms that have the relationship most similar to the relationship between "runner" and "marathon". The correct answer was "oarsman" and "regatta". The choice of the correct answer presupposed students' familiarity with crew, a sport popular with the wealthy Fifty-three percent (53%) of white students correctly answered the question, while only 22% of black students also scored correctly. the black-white gap is larger in culture-loaded questions like this one than in questions that appear to be culturally neutral

7 IQ & Reification Working from Binet s mental age concept, William Stern created the IQ (Intelligence Quotient) formula: IQ = mental age/chronological age x 100 This was fairly accurate with kids, but not adults Today s intelligence tests score mental ability as an individual s performance as compared to the performance of others the same age. Avoid reifying your intelligence! Reification is seeing intelligence (or any other abstract concept) as a concrete fixed trait that one possesses. Intelligence is not a thing that actually exists in the world, it is an ever-changing concept that is always being redefined and reassessed based on the popular theory of the day.

8 Modern Tests: Aptitude vs. Achievement Aptitude Tests: Predict your ability to learn a new skill Future performance Ex: SATs, task in an interview Achievement Tests: Reflect what you have learned Current performance Ex: Driver s License test, AP Psych chapter tests and quizzes

9 Test Construction To be widely accepted and used (like the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-WAIS), a test must be: Standardized Reliable Valid

10 Standardization Determine population of test takers Find representative sample of population Variety of ages, racial, social and cultural backgrounds, educational experiences, etc. Representative scores provide baseline Baseline determines levels of achievement or aptitude When test is then given, scores are compared to baseline and meaning can be derived.

11 Standardization & the Bell Curve Standardization has been achieved when scores fall into a normal bell curve.

12 Reliability A good test must have consistent scores Necessary to retest individuals to see if they have similar scores each time they take the test The higher the correlation between the test and retest scores, the higher the reliability

13 Validity Does the test measure what it claims it does? Content validity: Important for achievement tests the test actually tests the behavior or knowledge it claims to assess Predictive validity: Important for aptitude tests The test can actually predict the behavior or ability that it claims

14 NOW FOR YOUR ASSIGNMENT

AP PSYCH Unit 11.2 Assessing Intelligence

AP PSYCH Unit 11.2 Assessing Intelligence Review - What is Intelligence? Mental quality involving skill at information processing, learning from experience, problem solving, and adapting to new or changing