Chapter 8 Textbook notes

Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale

a test for determining a person's intelligence quotient, or IQ

Speed of habituation and recovery to novel visual stimuli is among the best available infant predictors of

IQ from early childhood into early adulthood

The French Ministry of Education asked Alfred Binet to create a method to determine which students:

would not profit from typical school instruction.

If IQ = QT, then Q is the midpoint of IT.

Definition of Midpoint

Theory of Multiple Intelligences (Gardner)

Language, logic & math, visual & spatial, music, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalist, existential

fluid intelligence

depends more heavily on basic information-processing skills-ability to detect relationships among visual stimuli, speed of analyzing information, and capacity of working memory. Fluid intelligence, which is assumed to be influenced more by conditions in the brain and less by culture, often works with crystallized intelligence to support effective reasoning, abstraction, and problem solving.

Gardner believes that reason, logic, and knowledge are

different aspects of intelligence

crystallized intelligence

refers to those aspects of intellectual ability, such as vocabulary and general knowledged that reflect accumulated learning. Crystallized intelligence tends to increase with age.——abilities acquired because they are valued by the individual's culture. On intelligence tests, vocabulary, general information, and arithmetic problems are examples of items that emphasize crystallized intelligence.

Gardner believes that

each intelligence has a unique biological basis and a distinct course of development, and different expert, or "end-state," performances

In thousands of studies, correlations between IQ and achievement test scores typically fall between

50-60

Spearman, an early intelligence researcher, observed that scores on many different kinds of intelligence tests were correlated. He determined that one general concept, "g," could account for these correlations by using the statistical approach known as ________________.

factor analysis

According to Raymond Cattell, the "g" factor in intelligence has two major components:

fluid and crystallized

According to Raymond Cattell's theory of intelligence, ___________ involves how fast you learn new things.

fluid intelligence

Aptitude tests are to ________ as achievement tests are to ________.

future performance; current competence

Factor analysis is a statistical procedure that can be used to

identify clusters of closely related test items

general intelligence (g factor)

if someone does well on one area, they are likely to do well on another (Charles Spearman)

Creativity

the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas; original yet appropriate——something that others have not thought of but that is useful in some way

If IQ scores are normally distributed with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15, what percentage of the population has IQs between 85 and 130? a. 34.13 b. 68.26 c. 81.85 d. 95.44

81.85

If IQ scores are normally distributed, having a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15, approximately what percentage of people have IQ scores somewhere between 70 and 130?

95

nonshared environmental influences

The nongenetic influences in individuals' lives that make them different from people they live with.

Spearman inferred the existence of a general intelligence g factor from:

The positive intercorrelations for tests of different intellectual skills

Intelligence tests are "biased" in the sense that

performance differences among test-takers reflect their divergent cultural experiences.

Factor analysis has been used to identify the most basic

personality traits

Aptitude tests are designed to measure:

potential for learning; future performance

Aptitude tests are specifically designed to

predict ability to learn a new skill

Although intelligence tests are controversial, they are useful in assessing

prediction of academic success

Spearman defined intelligence as comprised of

General intelligence and specific intelligence

IQ is assumed to be normally distributed with a mean IQ of 100 and a typical standard deviation of about

15

Gardner argued that _____________ provide support for his concept of multiple intelligences. a. blind persons b. autistic savants c. schizophrenia patients d. twin studies

Autistic savants

Researchers have carried out hundreds of studies aimed at explaining individual, ethnic, and SES differences in mental abilities. The evidence is of three broad types: (1) investigations addressing the importance of heredity, (2) those that look at whether IQ scores are biased measures of the abilities of low-SES and minority children, and (3) those that examine the influence of children's home environments on their mental test performance

Behavioral geneticists examine the relative contributions of heredity and environment to complex traits by conducting KINSHIP STUDIES, which compare the characteristics of family members. Let's look closely at what they have discovered about IQ

DNA analyses reveal wide genetic variation WITHIN races (identified by physical features, such as skin color) and minimal genetic variation BETWEEN them. Members of ethnic groups that have been the focus of the IQ nature-nurture controversy are far more similar in cultural values, experiences, and opportunities than in genetic makeup. Nevertheless, many people incorrectly assume that genetic, racial differences underlie ethnic group differences in psychological traits. Yet racial labels themselves are often arbitrary. In the United States, "black" designates people with dark skin. In Brazil and Peru, where "black" refers to hair texture, eye color, and stature, many African Americans would be called "white" Asians and the !Kung of Botswana, Africa could be regarded as one race because they have similarly shaped eyes. Alternatively, Asians, Native Americans, and Swedes might be grouped together because of their similarly shaped teeth.

Differences in racial designations over time and across nations underscore their unclear boundaries. On the U.S Census form, ten racial categories appeared in 1930, only five in 1990, and six in 2000, with respondents permitted to check more than one race——all six, if they chose! On the 2010 form, racial categories expanded to 15, and once again respondents were allowed to mark as many as appropriate, and they also could write in specific races not listed. Many racial designations encompass enormous cultural, linguistic, and biological diversity: "Black" includes, for example, people from Africa, Haiti, and Jamaica; "Hispanic" includes people from Argentina, Costa Rica, Cuba, Guatemala, and Spain. In research as in census surveys, people self-identify, expressing their cultural heritage and sense of group belonging. Finally, in countries as culturally diverse as the United States, ethnic mixing is extensive. Consider this Hawaiian native's description for his ethnicity: "I'm Asian on my birth certificate and the census form, but I'm really multiracial l. My mother's parents were Japanese, my father's mother was Filipino, and my father's father was Irish." As one scholar of race relations summed up, "Classification of human beings into races is in the end a futile exercise. And perpetuating the belief that some ethnic groups are genetically inferior in IQ promotes an ever-spread to danger: unfair allocation of resources, making an unfounded assumption seem true.

According to Raymond Cattell, what is the major difference between crystallized intelligence and fluid intelligence? A) Crystallized intelligence refers to problem-solving abilities, while fluid intelligence is the ability to absorb and retain information. B) Crystallized intelligence is the ability to absorb and retain information, while fluid intelligence refers to problem-solving abilities. C) Crystallized intelligence is the ability to be analytical, while fluid intelligence is the ability to read and write. D) Crystallized intelligence is the ability to read and write, while fluid intelligence is the ability to be analytical. E) Crystallized intelligence is the ability to absorb information, while fluid intelligence is the ability to analyze the information.

E

Gardner agrees with what element of existentialism?

Existence precedes essence

Many researchers argue that IQ scores are affected by specific information acquired as part of majority-culture upbringing. Consistent with this view, low-SES African-American preschoolers often miss vocabulary words on mental tests that have alternative meanings in their cultural community——for example, interpreting the word FRAME to mean "physique" or wrapping as "rapping," referring to the style of music. Knowledge affects ability to reason effectively. When researchers assessed black and white community college students' familiarity with vocabulary taken from items on an intelligence test, the whites had considerably more knowledge. But the black students were just as capable as the white students at learning new words, either from dictionary definitions or from their use in sentences. When verbal comprehension, similarities, and analogies test items depended on words and concepts that the white students knew better, the whites scored higher than the blacks. But when the same types of items involved words and concepts they the two groups knew equally well, the two groups did not differ. Prior knowledge, not reasoning ability, fully explained ethnic differences in performance.

Even nonverbal test items, such as spatial reasoning, depend on learning opportunities. For example, using small blocks to duplicate designs and playing video games requiring fast responding and mental rotation of visual images increase success in spatial test items. Low-income minority children, who often grow up in more "people-oriented" than "object-oriented" homes, may lack opportunities to use games and objects that promote certain intellectual skills. Furthermore, the sheer amount of time a child spends in school predicts IQ. When children of the same age who are in different grades are compared, those who have been in school longer score higher on intelligence tests. Similarly, the earlier young people leave school, the greater their loss of IQ points. Taken together, these findings indicate that children's exposure to the knowledge and ways of thinking valued in classrooms has a sizable impact on their intelligence test performance.

investment theory of creativity

Sternberg and Lubart's theory, in which an individual's investment in novel projects depends on diverse cognitive, personality, motivational, and environmental resources, each of which must be present to catalyze creativity.

Interpersonal

ability to detect and respond appropriately to the moods, temperaments, motivations, and intentions of others (Therapist, salesperson)

Naturalist

ability to recognize and classify all varieties of animals, minerals, and plants (Biologist)

IQ is a moderately good predictor of school achievement, but ________ is/are an even better predictor.

previously earned grades

Componential analyses

look for relationships between aspects of information processing and test scores

IQ is measured by

mental age divided by chronological age multiplied by 100

shared environmental influences

non-genetic influences that make individuals living in the same family similar to each other

IQ is most closely associated with what trait of the Big Five?

openness

Thurstone's primary mental abilities

our intelligence may be broken down into seven factors: word fluency, verbal comprehension, spatial ability, perceptual speed, numerical ability, inductive reasoning, and memory

In the 1960s, as part of the "War on Poverty" in the United States, many intervention programs for economically disadvantaged preschoolers were initiated. Their goal was to offset the declines in IQ and achievement common among low-SES schoolchildren by addressing learning problems early, before formal schooling begins. The most extensive of these federal programs, Project Head Start, began in 1965. A typical Head Start center provides children with a year or two of preschool, along with nutritional and health services. Parent involvement is central to the Head Start philosophy. Parents serve on policy councils, contribute to program planning, work directly with children in classrooms, attend special programs on parenting and child development, and receive services directed at their own emotional, social, and vocational needs. Currently, Head Start serves about 904,000 children and their families across the nation. More than two decades of research have established the long-term benefits of early intervention. The most extensive of these studies combined data from seven interventions implemented by universities or research foundations. Results showed that poverty-stricken children who attended programs scored higher in IQ and achievement than controls during the first two to three years of elementary school. After that, differences declined. But on real-life measures of school adjustment, children and adolescents who had received intervention remained ahead. They were less likely to be placed in special education or retained in grade, and a greater number graduated from high school. They also showed lasting benefits in attitudes and motivation: They were more likely to give achievement-related reasons (such as school or job accomplishments) for being proud of themselves. A separate report on one program, the High/ Scope Perry Preschool Project, revealed benefits lasting well into adulthood. More than 100 African-American 3- and 4-year-olds were randomly assigned either to a cognitively enriching two-year preschool program or to no intervention. During weekly visits to the homes of the intervention group, teachers showed parents how to teach and read to their children. Besides improved school adjustment, preschool intervention was associated with increased employment and reduced pregnancy and delinquency rates in adolescence. At age 27, those who had attended preschool were more likely to have graduated from high school, to have enrolled in college, to have higher earnings, be married, and own their own home——and less likely to have ever been diagnosed as mentally impaired or to be on welfare or involved with the criminal justice system. The most recent follow-up, at age 40, revealed that the intervention group sustained its advantage on all measures of life success, including education, income, family life, and law-abiding behavior. Do the effects on school adjustment of these well-designed and well-delivered interventions generalize to Head Start and other community-based preschool interventions? Gains are similar, though not as strong. Head Start preschoolers, who are more economically disadvantaged than children in other programs, have more severe learning and behavior problems. And quality of services in Head Start——-though better than in most preschool education programs serving low-SES children——often does not equal that of model university-based programs. But interventions of documented high quality are associated with diverse, long-lasting favorable outcomes, including higher rates oh high school graduation and college enrollment and lower rates of adolescent drug use and delinquency.

A consistent finding is that gains in IQ and achievement test scores from attending Head Start and other interventions quickly dissolve. In the Head Start Impact Study, a nationally representative sample of 5000 Head Start-eligible 3- and 4-year-olds was randomly assigned to one year of Head Start or to a control group that could attend other types of preschool programs. By year's end, Head Start 3-year-olds had gained relative to controls in vocabulary, emergent literacy, and math skills; 4-years-olds in vocabulary, emergent literacy, and color identification. Head Start 3-year-olds also benefitted socially, displaying declines in overactivity and withdrawn behavior. But except for language skills, academic test-score advantages were no longer evident by the end of first grade. What explains these disappointing outcomes? Head Start children typically enter inferior public schools in poverty-stricken neighborhoods, which undermine the benefits of preschool education. But in The Chicago Child-Parent Centers——-a program emphasizing literacy intervention and parent involvement that began at age 3 and continued through third grade——gains in academic achievement were still evident in junior high school. Furthermore, when high-quality intervention starts in infancy and extends through early childhood, children display cognitive and academic achievement advantages throughout childhood and adolescence. The Carolina Abecedarian Project illustrates these positive outcomes. In the 1970s, more than 100 infants from poverty-stricken families, ranging in age from 3 weeks to 3 months, were randomly assigned to either a treatment group or a control group. Treatment infants were enrolled in full-time, year-round child care through the preschool years. There they received stimulation aimed at promoting motor, cognitive, language, and social skills and, after age 3, literacy and math concepts. All children received nutrition and health services; the primary difference between treatment and controls was the intensive child-care experience. By 12 months of age, the IQs of the two groups diverged. Treatment children sustained their lead until last tested——-at age 21. In addition, throughout their years of schooling, treatment youths achieved considerably higher scores than controls in reading and math. These gains translated into more years of schooling completed, higher rates of college enrollment and employment in skilled jobs, and lower rates of drug use and adolescent parenthood. Recognition of the greater power of intervening as early as possible led the U.S. Congress to provide limited funding for services directed at infants and toddlers who already have serious developmental problems or who are at risk for problems because of poverty. Early Head Start, begin in 1995, currently has 700 sites serving 63,000 low-income families. It offers an array of coordinated services——-child care, educational experiences for infants and toddlers, parenting education, family social support, and health care——delivered through a center-based, home-based, or mixed approach, depending on community needs. A recent evaluation, conducted when children reached age 3, showed that intervention led to warmer, more stimulating parenting, a reduction in harsh discipline, gains in cognitive and language development, and lessening of child aggression. The strongest effects occurred at sites mixing center and home-visiting services——a combination that may intensify educational and family services. Even when intervention is delayed until age 3 or 4, the improved school adjustment that results from attending a one-or two-year Head Start program is impressive l. The comprehensiveness of Head Start——-provision of health, nutrition, education, and family social services———along with its emphasis on parent involvement may be responsible. The more involved parents are in Head Start, the better their child-rearing practices and the more stimulating their home learning environments. These factors are positively related to preschoolers' independence and task persistence in the classroom and to their year-end academic, language, and social skills:

hierarchical model of intelligence

A model of intelligence in which specific abilities ("s") play an important role but are all at least somewhat related to one another and to a global, overall, general intelligence ("g")

Flynn effect

A worldwide increase in IQ scores over the last several decades, at a rate of about 3 points per decade

Spatial

Ability to perceive the visual-spatial world accurately, to perform transformations on those perceptions, and to re-create aspects of visual experience in the absence of relevant stimuli (Sculptor, navigator)

Despite the limitations of the heritability estimate, Jensen relied on it to support the argument that ethnic and SES differences in IQ have a strong genetic basis. This line of reasoning is widely regarded as inappropriate. Heritability estimates computed WITHIN black and white populations, though similar, provide no direct evidence on what accounts for between-group differences. Also, in Chapter 3 we saw that the heritability of IQ is HIGHER under advantaged than disadvantaged (lower-SES) rearing conditions. Factors associated with low income and poverty, including weak or absent prenatal care, family stress, low-quality schools, and lack of community supports for effective child rearing, prevent children from attaining their genetic potential.

According to geneticist Richard Lewontin (1976, 1995), using within-group heritabilities to account for between-group differences is like comparing different seeds in different soil. Imagine planting a handful of flower seeds in a pot of soil generously enriched with fertilizer and another handful in a pot with very little fertilizer. The plants in each pot vary in height, but those in the first pot grow much taller than those in the second. WITHIN EACH GROUP, individual differences in plant height are largely due to heredity because the growth environments of all plants were about the same. But the average difference in height BETWEEN THE TWO GROUPS is probably environmental because the second group got far less fertilizer. To verify this conclusion, we could design a study in which we expose the second group to seeds to a full supply of fertilizer and see if they reach an average height that equals that of the first group. Then we would have powerful evidence that environment is responsible for the group difference. As we turn now to adoption research, we will see that researchers have conducted natural experiments of this kind.

The Texas adoption project and other similar investigations confirm that BOTH environment and heredity contribute to IQ. In fact, children adopted in the early years attain IQs that, on average, match the scores of their adoptive parents' biological children and the scores of nonadopted peers in their schools and communities. These outcomes suggest a sizable role for environment in explaining SES variations in mental test scores. At the same time, adoption studies repeatedly reveal stronger correlations between the IQ scores of biological relatives than those of adoptive relatives—-clear evidence for a genetic contribution.

Adoption research also sheds light on the black-white IQ gap. In two studies, African-American children adopted into economically well-off white homes during the first year of life scores high in intelligence tests, attaining mean IQs of 110 and 117 by middle childhood——20 to 30 points higher than the typical scores of children growing up in low-income black communities. In one investigation, the IQs of black adoptees declines in adolescence, perhaps because of the challenges faced by minority teenagers in forming an ethnic identity that blends birth and adoptive backgrounds. When this process is filled with emotional turmoil, it can dampen motivation on tests and in school. Still, the black adoptees remained above the IQ average for low-SES African Americans. The IQ gains of black children "reared in the culture of the tests and schools" are consistent with a wealth of evidence that poverty severely depresses the scores of many ethnic minority children. Dramatic gains in IQ from one generation to the next further support the conclusion that, given new experiences and opportunities, members of oppressed groups can move far beyond their current test performance.

Regardless of SES, daughters of employed mothers

Are more achievement-oriented

three-stratum theory of intelligence

Carroll's hierarchical model of intelligence with g at the top of the hierarchy, eight broad abilities at the second level, or stratum, and narrower domains of each second-stratum ability at the third stratum

Texas Adoption Project

Children of both low-IQ and high-IQ biological mothers scored above average in IQ, but those of the high-IQ mothers did better.

Recent theories agree that many elements must converge for creativity to occur. One influential multifaceted approach is Robert Sternberg and Todd Lubart's (1991, 1996) INVESTMENT THEORY OF CREATIVITY. According to Sternberg and Lubart, pursuing a novel project (one not being tackled by others) increases the chances of arriving at a creative, highly valued product. But whether a person invests in novelty——initiates an original project and brings it to fruition——depends on that person's cognitive, personality, motivational, and environmental resources. Each must be present to catalyze creativity, although strength in one (such as perseverance) can compensate for weakness in another (an environment that is lukewarm toward novel ideas). Contrary to popular belief, creativity is neither determined at birth nor the prized possession of an elite few. Many people can develop it to varying degrees, and it is likely to reach greater heights when nurtured from an early age. Let's look at the components of creativity and how to strengthen them in children. Creative work brings together a variety of high-level cognitive skills. It requires PROBLEM FINDING——detecting a gap in current knowledge, a need for a new product, or a deficiency in existing procedures. Once a problem is found, the ability to define it———to move it from a vague to a clearly specified state—— becomes important. In both children and adults, the more effort devoted to defining the problem, the more original the final product.

Divergent thinking is essential for generating novel solutions to problems. But the successful creator must also choose the best responses, setting aside fruitless options. Therefore, creativity involves ALTERNATING between divergent and convergent thinking. In narrowing the range of possibilities, creative individuals rely on insight processes——combining and restructuring elements in sudden but useful ways. For example, the use of analogies and metaphors to identify unique connections is common among people who have made outstanding creative contributions. At an early age, children engage in this kind of thinking. Furthermore, EVALUATING COMPETING IDEAS to select the most promising is vital. School-age children's evaluative ability can be enhanced by instructions to critically assess. Finally, extensive Knowledge is necessary to make a creative contribution to any field. Without it, people cannot recognize or understand new ideas. Consider this cognitive ingredient, and you will see why high creativity is usually manifested as TALENT——outstanding performance in one or a few related fields. Case studies reveal that excellence in such endeavors as creative writing, mathematics, science, music, visual arts, athletics, and leadership have roots in specialized interests and skills that appear in childhood. And research supports the 10-YEAR-RULE in development of master-level creativity——a decade between initial exposure to a field and sufficient expertise to produce a creative work. Furthermore, IQ and creativity correlate only modestly, typically around .20 to .40. Beyond an above-average general intelligence, other factors are necessary for creative giftedness.

Does Gardner theory remind you of the CORE KNOWLEDGE PERSPECTIVE, discussed in chapter 6? Indeed he accepts the existence of innately specified, core domains of thought, present at birth or emerging early in life. Then, as children respond to the demands of their culture, they transform those intelligences to fit the activities they are called on to perform. Gardner's theory has stimulated innovations in education extending from kindergarten through college in many countries. Applications typically provide students with many opportunities to construct knowledge through hands-on projects that foster diverse intelligences, in classroom communities that highly value individual differences in abilities. Gardner's work has been especially helpful in efforts to understand and nurture children's special talents. Critics of Gardner's theory, however, question the independence of his intelligences. They point out that the unusual skills of people with savant syndrome are mechanical and inflexible because those skills are not aided by other abilities. In contrast, excellence in most fields requires a combination of intelligences. A talented musician, for example, uses logico-mathematical intelligence to interpret the score, linguistic intelligence to respond to teaching, spatial intelligence to orient to the keyboard, interpersonal intelligence to react to the audience, and intrapersonal intelligence to play expressively. Furthermore, some exceptionally gifted individuals have abilities that are broad rather than limited to a particular domain.

Finally, current mental tests do tap several of Gardner's intelligences (linguistic, logic-mathematical, and spatial), and evidence for g suggests that they have at least some features in common. Nevertheless, Gardner calls attention to several intelligences not tapped by intelligence tests. For example, his interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences include a set of capacities for dealing with people and understanding oneself

If IQ scores were unrelated to long-term life success, psychologists and educators would probably be less concerned with them. But research indicates that childhood IQ predicts adult occupational attainment just about well as it correlates with academic achievement. By second grade, children with the highest IQs are more likely, as adults, to enter prestigious professions, such as engineering, law, medicine, and science. Again, the relationship between IQ and occupational attainment is far from perfect. Factors related to family background, such as parental encouragement, modeling of career success, and connections in the world of work, also predict occupational choice and attainment. Furthermore, one reason that IQ is associated with occupational status is that IQ-like tests (the SAT and ACT) affect access to higher education. Educational attainment is a stronger predictor than IQ of occupational success and income. Another prominent factor in occupational achievement is personality. Examining seven longitudinal studies spanning one to four decades, researchers found that, after childhood IQ and parents' educational and occupational attainment were controlled, such traits as childhood emotional stability, conscientiousness, and sociability positively predicted career success, whereas belligerence and negative emotionality forecast unfavorable career outcomes, including job instability, reduced occupational prestige, and lower income.

Finally, once a person enters an occupation, PRACTICAL INTELLIGENCE——-mental abilities apparent in the real world but not in testing situations——-predicts on-the-job performance as well as, and sometimes better than, IQ. Yet mental test performance and practical intelligence require distinctly different capacities. Whereas test items are formulated by others, provide complete information, are often detached from real life, and have only one solution, practical problems are not clearly defined, are embedded in everyday experiences, and generally have several appropriate solutions, each with strengths and limitations. Practical intelligence is evident in the assembly-line worker who discovers the fewest moves needed to complete a product or the business manager who increases productivity by making her subordinates feel valued. Unlike IQ, practical intelligence does not vary with ethnicity. And the two types of intelligence are unrelated and make independent contributions to job success. In sum, occupational outcomes are a complex function of traditionally measures intelligence, education, family influences, motivation, and practical know-how. Current evidence indicates that IQ, though influential, is not more important than these other factors

Ethnic minorities families often foster unique language skills that do not match the expectations of most classrooms and testing situations. Shirley Brice Heath (1990), an anthropologist who spent many hours observing in low-SES black homes in a southeastern U.S. city, found that African-American adults rarely asked their children the types of knowledge-training questions typical of middle-SES white families ("What color is it?" "What's this story?"), which resemble the questioning style of tests and classrooms. Instead, the black parents asked only "real" questions, ones that they themselves could not answer. Often these were analogy questions ("What's that like?") or story-starter questions ("Did you hear Sally this morning?") that called for elaborate responses about personal experiences and had no "right answer." These experiences led the black children to develop complex verbal skills at home, such as storytelling and exchanging quick-witted remarks. But their language emphasized emotional and social concerns rather than facts about the world. Not surprisingly, when the black children started school, many were unfamiliar with and confused by the "objective" questions they encountered on tests and in classrooms. Also, African-American children often take a unique approach to storytelling that reflects a culturally specific form of narrative. Instead of the TOPIC-FOCUSED style of most school-age children, who describe an experience from beginning to end, they use a TOPIC-ASSOCIATING STYLE, in which they blend several similar experiences. One 9-year-old, for example, related having a tooth pulled, them described seeing her sister's tooth being pulled, next told how she had removed one of her baby teeth, and concluded, "I'm a pulling' teeth expert.........call me, and I'll be over" Despite its complexity, many teachers criticize this culturally distinctive narrative form as "disorganized," and it is not included in verbal test items. Rather, mental tests typically ask children to rearrange events in consecutive order.

Furthermore, many ethnic minority parents without extensive schooling prefer a COLLABORATIVE STYLE of COMMUNICATION when completing tasks with children. They work together in a coordinated, fluid way, each focused on the same aspect of the same problem. This pattern of adult-child engagement has been observed in Native American, Canadian Inuit, Hispanic, and Guatemalan Mayan cultures. With increasing education, parents establish a hierarchical style of communication, like that of classrooms and tests. The parent directs each child to carry out an aspect of the task, and children work independently. This sharp discontinuity between home and school communication practices may contribute to low-SES minority children's lower IQ and school performance. Indeed, intelligence testing is an extreme of this directive approach. Tasks are presented in only one way, and test-takers get no feedback. When an adult refuses to reveal whether the child is on the right track, minority children may react with "disruptive apprehension "———giving any answer that comes to mind and rejecting the testing situation as personally irrelevant. In one study, Australian Aboriginal 7- to 14-year-olds—-who scored far below their Australian European agemates on a typical, paper-and-pencil math skills test——showed dramatic performance gains when given a computerized, interactive version. The computerized test provided immediate feedback about the accuracy of answers and, after an incorrect response, allowed the child to invoke a brief, narrated lesson on how to solve the item. Providing feedback and prompting children to look at missed problems in new ways resulted in more "culture-fair" assessment of their math competencies.

Specific Intelligence

In Spearman's theory, a mental ability that is unique to a task

In searching for the roots of socioeconomic disparities, researchers have compared the IQ scores of SES and ethnic groups because certain ethnicities (for example, African American and Hispanic) are heavily represented at lower SES levels and others (for example, Caucasian and Asian American) at middle and upper SES levels. These findings are responsible for the IQ nature-nurture debate. If group differences in IQ exist, then either heredity varies with SES and ethnicity, or certain groups have fewer opportunities to acquire the skills needed for successful test performance. American black children and adolescents score, on average, 10 to 12 IQ points below American white children. Although the difference has been shrinking over the past several decades, a substantial gap——present by age 3——remains. Hispanic children fall midway between black and white children, and Asian Americans score slightly higher that their white counterparts——-about 3 points. The gap between middle- and low-SES children——-about 9 points——-accounts for some of the ethnic differences in IQ, but not all. When black children and white children are matched on parental education and income, the black——white IQ gap is reduced by a third to a half. Of course, IQ varies greatly WITHIN each ethnic and SES group. For example, the IQ distributions of blacks and whites overlap substantially. About 20 percent of blacks score above the white mean, and the same percentage of whites score below the black mean. In fact, ethnicity and SES account for only about one-fourth of the total variation in IQ. Nevertheless, these group differences are large enough and of serious enough consequence that they cannot be ignored.

In the 1970s, the IQ nature-nurture controversy escalated after psychologist Arthur Jensen (1969) published a controversial monograph entitled, "How Much Can We Boost IQ and Scholastic Achievement?" Jensen's answer was "not much." He claimed——-and still maintains——-that heredity is largely responsible for individual, ethnic, and SES differences in IQ. Jensen's work sparked an outpouring of research studies and responses, including ethical challenges reflecting deep concern that his conclusions would fuel social prejudices. Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray rekindled the controversy with The Bell Curve (1994). Like Jensen, they argued that heredity contributes substantially to individual and SES differences in IQ, and they implied that heredity plays a sizable role in the black—white IQ gap. As with Jensen's monograph, Herrnstein and Murray's book was praised by some researchers and deplored by others, who underscored its damaging social consequences.

Developmental quotients (DQs)

Infant test scores do not tap the same dimensions of intelligence measured at older ages.

Among children with similar cultural and educational backgrounds, crystallized and fluid intelligence are highly correlated and difficult to distinguish in factor analyses, probably because children high in fluid intelligence acquire information more easily. But in children differing greatly in cultural and educational experiences, the two abilities show little relationship; children with the same fluid capacity may perform quite differently on crystallized tasks. As these findings suggest, Cattell's theory has important implications for the issue of CULTURAL BIAS in intelligence testing. Tests aimed at reducing culturally specific content usually emphasize fluid over crystallized items

Many researchers believe that factors on intelligence tests have limited usefulness unless we can identify the cognitive processes responsible for those factors. Once we discover exactly what separates individuals who can solve certain mental test items from those who cannot, we will know more about why a particular child does well or poorly and what skills must be strengthened to improve performance.

Certain personality characteristics foster the cognitive components of creativity, ensuring that they are applied to best advantage: Innovative style of thinking. Creative individuals not only see things in new ways but also enjoy doing so. They prefer loosely structured activities involving innovative problem finding rather than already defined tasks. Perseverance and tolerance of ambiguity. Working toward creative goals brings periods when pieces of the problem do not fit together——prompting many children and adults to give up or pursue the first (but not the best) solution. Creativity requires patience and persistence in the face of obstacles. Willingness to take risks. Creativity requires a willingness to deviate from the crowd, to undertake challenges when outcomes are uncertain. The courage of one's convictions. Because their ideas are novel, creators may at times doubt them, especially when criticized by skeptical teachers or peers. People who think creatively often encounter resistance, ranging from puzzlement to hostility. Creative endeavors require independence of judgment and high self-esteem

Motivation for creativity must be TASK-FOCUSED rather than GOAL-FOCUSED. Task-focusing motivators, such as the desire to meet a high standard, energize work and keep attention on the problem. Goal-focusing motivators, in contrast, often impair performance by diverting attention from the task to extrinsic rewards such as grades and prizes. In one study, 7- to 11-year-old girls worked on collages, some competing for prizes and others expecting that the prizes would be raffled off. The products of those in the first group were much less creative. Extrinsic rewards are not always detrimental to creativity. Teaching children how to engage in divergent thinking on a task and rewarding them for original responses increases the frequency of those responses. And an occasional reward for a creative product can underscore the social value of creativity and encourage children to embark on innovative projects. But when rewards are overemphasized, children focus only on these goals, and creativity suffers

Although not all experts agree, many acknowledge that IQ scores can underestimate the intelligence of children from ethnic minority groups. A special concern exists about incorrectly labeling minority children as slow learners and assigning them to remedial classes, which are far less stimulating than regular school experiences. Because of this danger, test scores need to be combined with assessments of children's adaptive behavior——their ability to cope with the demands of their everyday environments. The child who does poorly on an IQ test yet plays a complex game on the playground or figures out how to rewire a broken TV is unlikely to be mentally deficient. In addition, culturally relevant testing procedures enhance minority children's performance. In an approach called DYNAMIC ASSESSMENT, an innovation consistent with Vygotsky's zone of proximal development, the adult introduces purposeful teaching into the testing situation to find out what the child can attain with social support. Dynamic assessment often follows a pretext-intervene-retest procedure. While intervening, the adult seeks the teaching style best suited to the child and communicates strategies that the child can apply in new situations.

Research shows that "static" assessments, such as IQ scores, frequently underestimate how well children do on test items after receiving adult assistance. Children's receptivity to teaching and their capacity to transfer what they have learned to novel problems add considerably to the prediction of future performance. In one study, Ethiopian 6- and 7-year-soles who had recently immigrated to Israel scored well below their Israeli-born agemates on spatial reasoning tasks. The Ethiopian children had little experience with this type of thinking. After several dynamic assessment sessions in which the adult suggested effective strategies l, the Ethiopian children's scores rose sharply, nearly equaling those of Israeli-born children. They also transferred their learning to new test items. Dynamic assessment is time-consuming and requires extensive knowledge of minority children's cultural values and practices. As yet the approach has not been more effective than traditional tests in predicting academic achievement. Better correspondence may emerge in classrooms where teaching interactions resemble the dynamic testing approach——-namely, individualized assistance on tasks carefully selected to help the child move beyond her current level of development. But rather than adapting testing to support high-quality classroom learning experiences, U.S education is placing greater emphasis on traditional test scores. To upgrade the academic achievement of poorly performing students, a high-stakes testing movement has arisen, making progress through the school system contingent on test performance. The stepped-up emphasis on passing standardized tests has narrowed the focus of instruction in many classrooms to test preparation, and it may widen SES and ethnic group differences in educational attainment. In view of its many problems, should intelligence testing in schools be suspended? Most experts reject this solution. Without testing, important educational decisions would be based only on subjective impressions, perhaps increasing discriminatory placement of minority children. Intelligence tests are useful when interpreted carefully by psychologists and educators who are sensitive to cultural influences on test performance. And despite their limitations, IQ scores continue to be valid measures of school learning potential for the majority of Western children.

Logic-mathematical

Sensitivity to, and capacity to detect, logical or numerical patterns; ability to handle long chains of logical reasoning (Mathematician)

American psychologist Louis Thurstone (1938) questioned the importance of g. His factor analysis of college students' scores on more than 50 intelligence tests indicated that separate, unrelated factors exist. Declaring the supremacy of these factors, Thurstone called them PRIMARY MENTAL ABILITIES

Spearman and Thurstone eventually resolved their differences, each acknowledging findings that supported the other's perspective. Current theorists and test designers, combining both approaches, propose HIERARCHICAL MODELS of mental abilities. At the highest level is g, assumed to be present to some degree in all separate factors. These factors, in turn, are measured by SUBTESTS, groups of related items. Subtest scores provide information about a child's strengths and weaknesses. They also can be combined into a total score representing general intelligence. Contemporary theorists have extended factor-analytic research. The two most influential are R.B. Cattell and John Carroll, each of whom offers a unique, multifaceted perspective on intelligence.

British psychologist Charles Spearman (1927) was the first influential factor analyst. He found that all test items he examined correlated with one another. As a result, he proposed that a common underlying GENERAL INTELLIGENCE, called g, influenced each of them. At the same time, noticing that the test items were not perfectly correlated, Spearman concluded that they varied in the extent to which g contributed to them and suggested that each item, or a set of similar items, also measured a SPECIFIC INTELLIGENCE unique to the task

Spearman downplayed the significance of specific intelligences, regarding g as central and supreme. Because test items that involved forming relationships and applying general principles clustered together especially strongly——and also were the best predictors of cognitive performance outside the testing situation———he inferred that g represents abstract reasoning capacity

Regardless of SES, newly arrived immigrant parents from Asia and Latin America emphasize the importance of intellectual success, and their children do remarkably well in school. Parental support for achievement is greater in higher-SES families in which both parent and child IQs are higher, making it difficult to isolate the impact of family beliefs on children's performance. Is IQ responsible for immigrant families' high valuing of intellectual endeavors and their children's superior academic performance? Probably not; recent arrivals are unlikely to be more intelligent than American-born children whose parents arrived a decade or two earlier. Rather, immigrant parents' belief that education is the surest way to improve life chances seems to play a profound role. Parental beliefs are also linked to academic performance among nonimmigrant children. In a study of more than 1300 U.S. Caucasian- and African-American families with school-age children, parental expectations for educational attainment predicted parents' involvement in their children's school activities, supervision of homework, and——two years later——children's reading and math achievement. Similarly, an investigation of Asian-American, Hispanic, and Caucasian-American families revealed that within each group, the more education parents expected their fourth and fifth graders to attain, the higher the children's school grades. Parental expectations were not merely responsive to their child's prior achievements. Rather, regardless of children's grades the previous year, parental beliefs predicted school performance. Think back to James's father's conviction that academic success could transform James's life path, described in the opening to this chapter. Warm, appropriately demanding child rearing, cognitively stimulating parent-child activities, and parents' school involvement seem to be the major means through which parents convey such beliefs to their children.

The experiences of children growing up in the same family, while similar in some ways, differ in others. Parents may favor one child or assign children special roles——for example, one expected to achieve in school, a second to get along with others. Each child also experiences sibling relationships differently. Kinship research suggests that nonshared environmental factors are more powerful than shared influences on IQ. Turn back to Figure 8.6 on page 335. Notice the relatively low IQ correlations between unrelated siblings living together——a direction estimate of the effect of shared environment. Recall, also, that in adolescence the IQ resemblance between fraternal twins declines. This trend, which also characterized nontwin siblings, is particularly marked for unrelated siblings, whose IQs at adolescence are no longer correlated. These findings indicate that the impact of the shared environment on IQ is greatest in childhood. Thereafte, it gives way to nonshared influences, as young people spend more time outside the home, encounter experiences unlike those of their siblings, and seek environments consistent with their genetic makeup. Nevertheless, few studies have examined nonshared environmental influences on IQ. The most extensively studied factors are sibling birth order and spacing. For years, researchers thought that earlier birth order and wider spacing might grant children more parental attention and stimulation and, therefore, result in higher IQs. But recent evidence indicates that birth order and spacing are unrelated to IQ. Why is this so? Parents' differential treatment of siblings appears to be far more responsive to children's personalities, interests, and behaviors than to these family-structure variables. Finally, some researchers believe that the most potent nonshared environmental influences are unpredictable, unique events——an inspiring English teacher, a summer at a special camp, or perhaps a period of intense rivalry. To understand the role of these nonshared factors in mental development, we need intensive case studies of children growing up in the same family

Excellent early intervention is highly cost effective when compared with the cost of providing special education, treating criminal behavior, and supporting unemployed adults. Economists estimate a lifetime return to society of $300,000 to $500,000 on an investment of about $17,000 per preschool child——a potential total savings of many billions of dollars of every poverty-stricken preschooler in the United States were enrolled. What factors contributed to the enduring impact of such outstanding programs as the High/Scope Perry Preschool Project, the Chicago Child-Parent Centers, and the Carolina Abecedarian Project? According to one analysis, they shared the following critical features Starting early. The Abecedarian Program began in the first months of life, the High/Scope Perry Preschool Project and the Chicago Child-Parent Centers as early as age 3. Employing well-educated, well-compensated teachers. Most teachers in the three programs had at least a bachelor's degree in education, and they were paid competitively with public school teachers——factors resulting in low staff turnover and stability in teacher-child relationships. Maintaining generous teacher-child ratios and small class sizes. In the Abecedarian Program, the teacher-infant ratio was 1 to 3, the teacher-toddler ratio 1 to 4. Preschool ratios in the three programs ranged from 1 to 5 to 1 to 8. Offering intensive intervention. Each program included many hours of classroom contact with children in the early years——in the High/Scope Perry Preschool Project and Chicago Child-Parent Centers, full days for up to two school years; in the Abecedarian Project, full days, year-round, for five years. Emphasizing parent involvement, education, and support. The High/Scope Perry Preschool Project and the Chicago Child-Parent Centers made concerted efforts to involve parents in their children's learning. Focusing on the whole child. The three programs promoted all aspects of children's development——not just academic skills. They recognized that a child is ill, hungry, weak in social skills, or suffering from emotional or behavior problems is unable to learn at his or her best.

To achieve lasting favorable results, designers of today's early intervention programs must include these key ingredients. Also, the number of children served must be greatly expanded. Unfortunately, because of limited funding, only 60 percent of poverty-stricken 3- and 4-year-olds attend some type of preschool program, with Head Start serving just half of these children. And many preschoolers whose parents' income just surpasses the Head Start income eligibility requirements also receive no intervention. A few supplementary programs——such as Jumpstart, described at the beginning of this chapter——-have responded to this shortage by delivering educational intervention to children in child-care centers, as well as strengthening intervention in Head Start and other preschool classrooms. Evaluations indicate that 3- to 5-year-olds who experience Jumpstart show greater year-end gains in language, literacy, task persistence, and social skills than non-Jumpstart children in the same Head Start or other early childhood settings.

Using improved factor-analytic methods, John Caroll (1993, 2005) reanalyzed relationships among items in hundreds of studies. His findings yielded a THREE-STRATUM THEORY OF INTELLIGENCE that elaborates the models proposed by Spearman, Thurstone, and Catell. Carroll represented the structure of intelligence as having three tiers. As Figure 8.1 shows, g presides at the top. In the second tier are an array of BROAD ABILITIES, which Carroll considered the basic biological components of intelligence; they are arranged from left to right in terms of decreasing relationship with g. In the third tier are NARROW ABILITIES———specific behaviors through which people display the second-tier factors. Carroll's model is the most comprehensive factor-analytic classification of mental abilities to date. As we will see in the next section, it provides a useful framework for researchers seeking to understand mental-test performance in cognitive-processing terms. It also reminds us of the great diversity of intellectual factors. Currently, no test measures all of Carroll's factors

To overcome the limitations of factor-analysis, investigators combine psychometric and information-processing approaches. They conduct COMPONENTIAL ANALYSES of children's test scores, looking for relationships between aspects (or components) of information processing and children's intelligence test performance. Processing speed, measured in terms of reaction time on diverse cognitive tasks, is moderately related to general intelligence and to gains in mental test performance over time. Individuals whose central nervous systems function more efficiently, permitting them to take in and manipulate information quickly, appear to have an edge in intellectual skills. In support of this interpretation, fast, strong ERPs (EEG brain waves in response to stimulation) predict both speedy cognitive processing and higher mental test scores. Also, fMRI research reveals that the metabolic rate of the cerebral cortex is lower for high-scoring individuals, suggesting that they require less mental energy for thinking. But other factors, including flexible attention, memory, and reasoning strategies, are as important as basic processing efficiency in predicting IQ, and they explain some of the relationship between response speed and good test performance. Indeed, measures of working-Memory capacity correlate well with mental test scores——especially fluid measures——in both school-age children and adults. Children who apply strategies effectively acquire more knowledge and can retrieve it rapidly——-advantages that carry over to test performance. Similarly, recall from Chapter 7 that working-Memory resources depend in part on effective inhibition——keeping irrelevant information from intruding on the task at hand. Inhibition and sustained and selective attention are among a wide array of attentional skills that are good predictors of IQ. As these findings illustrate, identifying relationships between cognitive processing and mental test scores brings us closer to isolating the cognitive skills that contribute to high intelligence. But the componential approach has one major shortcoming: It regards intelligence as entirely due to causes within the child. In previous chapters, we have seen how cultural and situational factors also affect children's thinking. Robert Sternberg has expanded the componential approach into a comprehensive theory that views intelligence as a product of inner and outer forces.

So far, we have considered IQ stability in terms of how well children maintain their relative standing among agemates. Stability can also be viewed in ABSOLUTE terms——by examining each child's profile of IQ scores over repeated testings. Longitudinal research reveals that the majority of children show substantial IQ fluctuations during childhood and adolescence—-typically 10 to 20 points, and sometimes much more. Children who change the most tend to have orderly profiles, with scores either increasing or decreasing with age. Examining personality traits and life experiences associated with these profiles reveals that gainers tended to be more independent and competitive about doing well in school. Also, their parents were more likely to use warm, rational discipline and encourage them to succeed. In contrast, decliners often has parents who used either very severe or very lax discipline and who offered little intellectual stimulation

When children who live in poverty are selected for special study, many show mental-test score declines. According to the ENVIRONMENTAL CUMULATIVE DEFICIT HYPOTHESIS, the negative effects of underprivileged rearing conditions increase the longer children remain in those conditions. As a result, early cognitive deficits lead to more deficits, which become harder to overcome. In support of this idea, many studies show that children from economically disadvantaged families fall further and further behind their agemates in both IQ and achievement as they get older, and children who suffer from more stressors (such as parental divorce, job loss, illness, or deaths in the family) experience greater declines. In sum, many children show substantial changes in the absolute value of IQ that are the combined result of personal characteristics, child-tearing practices, and living conditions. Nevertheless, once IQ becomes reasonably stable in a correlational sense, it predicts a variety of important outcomes.

Correlations for children and their adoptive parents are statistically significant and positive.

Which of the following results of correlational studies implies that environment contributes to the determination of IQ?

In Chapter 3, we introduced the heritability estimate. To review briefly, researchers correlate the IQs of family members who vary in the extent to which they share genes. Then, using a complicated statistical procedure to compare the correlations, they arrive at an index of heritability, ranging from 0 to 1, which indicates the proportion of variation in a specific population due to genetic factors

Worldwide summary of IQ correlations between twins and other relatives. The correlations show that the greater the genetic similarity between family members, the more similar their IQ scores. But the same correlations also show that greater environmental similarity yields more similar IQ scores

Early Head Start

a U.S. federal program that provides infants and toddlers who have serious developmental problems or are at risk for problems because of poverty with coordinated early intervention services, including child care, educational experiences, parenting education, family social support, and health care.

Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME)

a checklist for gathering information about the quality of children's home lives through observation and parental interview. Evidence on HOME confirms the findings of decades of research——-that stimulation provided by parents is moderately linked to mental development. Regardless of SES and ethnicity, an organized, stimulating physical setting and parental encouragement, involvement, and affection repeatedly predict better language and IQ scores in toddlerhood and early childhood. In a study in which researchers controlled for both SES and home environmental quality, the black-white disparity in preschoolers' IQ diminished to just a few points. The extent to which parents talk to infants and toddlers contributes strongly to early language progress, which, in turn, predicts intelligence and academic achievement in elementary school. Recall from Chapter 7 that knowledge of the sound structure of language (phonological awareness), vocabulary and grammatical development, and wide-ranging general knowledge are vital for learning to read. The HOME-IQ relationship declines in middle childhood, perhaps because older children spend increasing amounts of time in school and other out-of-home settings. Nevertheless, two middle-childhood HOME scales are especially strong predictors of academic achievement: provision for active stimulation (for example, encouraging hobbies and organizational memberships) and family participation in developmentally stimulating experiences (visiting friends, attending theater performances) Yet we must interpret these correlational findings cautiously. In all the studies, children were reared by their biological parents, with whom they share not just a common environment but also a common heredity. Parents who are genetically more intelligent may provide better experiences as well as give birth to genetically brighter children, who evoke more stimulation from their parents. Research supports this hypothesis, which refers to GENETIC-ENVIRONMENTAL CORRELATION. The HOME-IQ correlation is stronger for biological than for adopted children, suggesting that parent-child genetic similarity elevated the relationship. But heredity does not account for the entire association between home environment and mental test scores. Family living conditions———both HOME scores and resources in the surrounding neighborhood———continue to predict children's IQ beyond the contribution of parental IQ and education. These findings highlight the vital importance of environmental quality

socioeconomic status (SES)

a measure of social class that is based on income, education, and occupation

Standford-Binet Intelligence Scale, Fifth Edition

a test for determining a person's intelligence quotient, or IQ, for individuals from age 2 to adulthood. This latest edition measures general intelligence and five intellectual factors: fluid reasoning, quantitative reasoning, knowledge, visual-spatial processing, and working memory.

Project Head Start

a typical head start center provides children with a year or two of preschool, along with nutritional and health services. parent involvement is central to the head start philosophy.

analytical intelligence: consists of the information-processing components that underlie all intelligent acts: applying strategies, acquiring task-relevant and metacognitive knowledge, and engaging in self-regulation. But on mental tests, processing skills are used in only a few of their potential ways, resulting in far too narrow a view of intelligent behavior. As we have seen, children in tribal and village societies do not necessarily perform well on measures of "school" knowledge but thrive when processing information in out-of-school situations that most Westerners would find highly challenging.

ability to analyze, judge, evaluate, compare, and contrast

creative intelligence: In any context, success depends not only on processing familiar information but also on generating useful solutions to new problems. People who are CREATIVE think more skillfully than others when faced with novelty. Given a new task, they apply their information-processing skills in exceptionally effective ways, rapidly making those skills automatic so that working memory is freed for more complex aspects of the situation. Consequently, they quickly move to high-level performance. Although all of us are capable of some creativity, only a few individuals excel at generating novel solutions.

ability to create, design, invent, originate, and imagine

Intrapersonal

ability to discriminate complex inner feelings and to use them to guide one's own behavior; knowledge of one's own strengths, weaknesses, desires, and intelligences (Person with detailed, accurate self-knowledge)

Musical

ability to produce and appreciate pitch, rhythm (or melody), and aesthetic quality of the forms of musical expressiveness (Instrumentalist, composer)

Bodily-kinesthetic

ability to use the body skillfully for expressive as well as goal-directed purposes; ability to handle objects skillfully (Dancer, athlete)

Achievement tests

aim to assess actual knowledge and skill attainment

Dynamic assessment

an innovation consistent with Vygotsky's zone of proximal development, an adult introduces purposeful teaching into the testing situation to find out what the child can attain with social support

Sternberg's Triarchic Theory of successful intelligence

analytical intelligence, or information-processing skills; creative intelligence, the capacity to solve novel problems; and practical intelligence, application of intellectual skills in everyday situations. Intelligent behavior involves balancing all three intelligences to achieve success in life, according to one's personal goals and the requirements of one's cultural community

Practical Intelligence (Sternberg): Finally, intelligence is a PRACTICAL, goal-oriented activity aimed at adapting to, shaping, or selecting environments. Intelligent people skillfully adapt their thinking to fit with both their desires and the demands of their everyday worlds. When they cannot adapt to a situation, they try to shape, or change, it to meet their needs. If they cannot shape it, they SELECT new contexts that better match their skills, values, or goals. Practical intelligence reminds us that intelligent behavior is never culture-free. Children with certain life histories do well at the behaviors required for success on intelligence tests and adapt easily to the testing conditions and tasks. Others with different backgrounds, may misinterpret or reject the testing context. Yet such children often display sophisticated abilities in daily life——for example, telling stories, engaging in complex artistic activities, or interacting skillfully with other people. To examine the validity of the triarchic theory, Sternberg and his collaborators gave thousands of children and adolescents in Finland, Spain, Russia, and the United States test items that tap analytical, creative, and practical skills. Factor analyses repeatedly indicated that the three intelligences are relatively distinct. The triarchic theory emphasizes the complexity of intelligent behavior and the limitations of current intelligence tests in assessing that complexity. For example, out-of school, practical forms of intelligence are vital for life success and help explain why cultures vary widely in the behaviors they regard as intelligent. When researchers asked ethnically diverse parents to describe an intelligent first grader, Caucasian Americans mentioned cognitive traits. In contrast, ethnic minorities (Cambodian, Filipino, Vietnamese, and Mexican immigrants) saw noncognitive capacities——-motivation, self-management, and social skills——as particularly important. According to Sternberg, mental tests can easily underestimate, and even overlook, the intellectual strengths of some children, especially ethnic minorities.

application of intellectual skills in everyday situations

Many gifted children and adolescents

are socially isolated, partly because their highly driven, non informing, and independent styles leave them out of step with peers and partly because they enjoy solitude, which is necessary to develop their talents. Still, gifted children desire gratifying peer relationships, and some——more often girls than boys—-try to become better-liked by hiding their abilities. Compared with their ordinary agemates, gifted youths, especially girls, report more emotional and social difficulties, including low-self-esteem

Adoption studies seek to understand genetic influences on personality. They do this mainly by

evaluating whether adopted children's personalities more closely resemble those of their adoptive parents or their biological parents

DNA analyses show that the _____ of many dissimilar organisms show similarities at the molecular level

genes

Gardner believes that each intelligence

has a unique neurological basis

Talent

outstanding performance in a specific field

Linguistic

sensitivity to the sounds, rhythms, and meaning of words and the functions of language (Poet, journalist)

Psychometric approach

the basis for the wide variety of intelligence tests available for assessing children's mental abilities. Unlike Piagetian, Vygotskian, and information-processing views, which focus on the process of thinking, the psychometric perspective is PRODUCT-ORIENTED, largely concerned with outcomes and results——how many and what kinds of questions children of different ages answer correctly.

In a study in which laypeople and experts were asked to jot down a list of behaviors that they regarded as typical of highly intelligent people, both groups viewed intelligence as made up of which of the following three attributes?

verbal ability, problem solving, and social competence