Intelligence - Lecture notes, lectures 3 - 4 PDF

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PSY 102: Introduction to Psychology: INTELLIGENCE & WISDOM, Reading: Chapter 7 OUTLINE  Everyday Problem Solving (Qualitative Adults’ Thinking)  Intelligence o What is intelligence? o Psychometric Intelligence and aging (Quantitative differences)  Wisdom and aging Are Intelligent People Foolish Sometimes? Everyday problem solving  Problem-solving in adulthood (Figure on the positive and negative side of problem solving in adulthood)  Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development o Sensory motor (0-2) o Preoperational (2-7) o Concrete operational (7-11) o Formal operational (12+ years)  Postformal Thought: Beyond Piaget o Formal operations: Immature polarized thinking (structured problems, black and white, absolute, rigid) o Postformal thinking: Mature adult thinking (social dilemmas, shades of gray, relative, flexible)  Postformal Thought in Social Dilemmas  Development of Postformal Thought o Absolutist thinking (only 1 right answer, informed by personal experience) o Relativistic thinking (“everything is relative”) o Dialectical thinking (synchronizing multiple viewpoints into a single workable solution) Intelligence  What Is Intelligence?  Intelligence o Intelligence: the capacity to act purposefully, to think rationally and to deal effectively with environment (Wechsler, 1939)

 Let’s Ask The Public o Judgments by laypeople and experts (Berg & Sternberg, 1992):  Problem-solving ability  Verbal ability  Social competence o Does it depend on age?  No: Motivation, effort, reading  Yes: Planning, open-mindedness (30s); responsible, wise (50s-70s)  One or Many (Single vs. Multiple)? o Charles E. Spearman (1904): a "general intelligence" ( g) o Louis L. Thurstone (1938): 7 primary mental abilities o Raymond Cattell & John Horn (1966): Fluid (Gf) and Crystalized (Gc) o Paul Baltes et al. (1993): Mechanics and Pragmatics o Howard Gardner (1983): Multiple intelligences o Robert Sternberg (1997): Triarchic theory  Alternative Views of Intelligence: Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences o Verbal-Linguistic (word smart) o Logic-mathematical (logic smart) o Visual-spatial (picture smart) o Musical-rhythmic (music smart) o Bodily-kinesthetic (body smart) o Interpersonal (people smart) o Intrapersonal (self smart) o Naturalistic (nature smart)  Alternative Views of Intelligence: Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory o Componential Intelligence (Analytic aspect): How efficiently people process information o Experiential Intelligence (Insightful aspect): Ability to formulate new ideas, to combine seemingly Unrelated facts or information

o Contextual Intelligence (Practical aspect): How well people adapt to environment (“street smarts”)

 Psychometric Approach o Psychometrics: focuses on performance on various tests of intellectual abilities and how these performances are interrelated (quantitative: Intelligence as combination of quantifiable abilities)  Scales on the WAIS-IV  Psychometric Approach: How Does It Work? o Give many people different tests o Factor analysis (correlations among tests): Primary mental abilities o Factor analysis (correlations among factors): secondary mental abilities

 Psychometric Approach: Structure of Intelligence  How do primary mental abilities change across adulthood? o Seattle Longitudinal Study (SLS; Schaie et al., 1956 - ) o Sequential research design o >5000 participants, 8 testing cycles (every 7 years between 1956-2005)  Seattle Longitudinal Study (SLS; Schaie et al., 1956 - )  Major findings: o Few people show across-the-board decline on all abilities o Most abilities do not show significant decline until age 60, only small losses until 70s. o Verbal meaning declines last (70s or 80s) but more steeply. o Peak ages: 50s for inductive reasoning and spatial orientation; 60s for verbal ability and memory.  Secondary Mental Abilities: Fluid vs. Crystallized Intelligence o Fluid Intelligence (Gf): abilities that make you a flexible and adaptive thinker in processing novel information o Crystallized Intelligence (Gc): ability to apply knowledge you have acquired through life experience and education  Gf and Gc Change Across Lifespan?  The Dual-process Model: Mechanics vs. Pragmatics (Baltes et al., 1993) o Mechanics (basic information processing): the basic, physiologically determined functions of the brain (similar to Gf) o Pragmatics (Cultural knowledge): accumulated knowledge and skills (similar to Gc)

 Plasticity in Fluid Intelligence? Can we improve or modify performance on fluid intelligence tests through cognitive training?  Factors that affect the aging of intelligence o Smoking: Cigarette smokers show greater IQ declines o Obesity: Among men, obesity predicts lower IQ scores o Lifestyle: People with more active engagement show less of an intelligence decline  Training of Reasoning (ADEPT)  Training intelligence: The ACTIVE study  Testing the limits: o Reaction time experiment o Feedback was given on performance o Both speed and accuracy improved  Can Fluid Intelligence Be Trained? Good news o Using it will surely sharp it.

o Self-guided training = tutor-guided training o The benefits of training over 5-6 weeks are equivalent to the amount of decline expected with aging over 7 to 14 years (Ball et al., 2002). o Benefits can last up to 7 years (Willis & Nesselroade, 1990)  Can Fluid Intelligence Be Trained? Limitations o Training effects are often ability-specific (i.e., little far transfer) o Booster sessions may be required to maintain training effects o Limit of plasticity is reduced with age. The psychology of wisdom  Wisdom: Poll: On average, do you think older people are wiser than younger people?  What is Wisdom? “the processes of intelligence, creativity, and wisdom are the same, what differs is their use” (Sternberg, 1990)

 Wisdom in Psychology:  Empirical Definition: Intelligence/Expert knowledge. (Baltes, 1993): a form of expert knowledge in the pragmatics of life.  Responses to hypothetical dilemmas (Smith & Baltes, 1990).  Baltes’s 5 Criteria of Wisdom o Factual Knowledge (general and specific knowledge about life matters; scope and depth); o Procedural knowledge (Skills: strategies of decision making, life interpretation, and advice giving)

o Life-span contextualism : Knowledge in CONTEXTS of life and societal change (Consider possible contexts of life)

o Knowledge which considers RELATIVISM of values and goals (Consider variation in values and priorities)

o Knowledge which considers UNCERTAINTIES of life (Inherent uncertainty of life and effective strategies).

 Balte’s Main Findings in Wisdom o Fairly Rare (5% as wise responses) o No age difference in wisdom across adulthood. o More wisdom showed in the decisions about their own age stage of life. Wisdom is one area in which older people can hold their own—or better  Older and Wiser? o Not necessarily. o Age itself is not a predictor of wisdom o Predictors of wisdom are: Intelligence; Relevant experience (e.g., in school, in relationships, at work); Cognitive style (e.g., tolerance of ambiguity); Creativity

o Intelligence, creativity, and wisdom may become more and more integrated with age (Simonton, 1990)  SUMMARY...