Psychology Chapter 9

Sternberg has identified three types of intelligence: practical, creative, and ____.

analytical

What is necessary before a new test can be considered a standardized test?

determination of the norms

One reason the Flynn effect is difficult to explain is because

it has been so widespread we cannot compare where it occurs to where it has not.

Someone scoring more than two standard deviations below the mean on an IQ test would be classified as

mentally retarded.

One advantage of the Wechsler intelligence tests, such as the WAIS-III and WISC-IV, is that they

provide separate scores representing a number of separate abilities.

Sinistrella believes that the standard IQ tests are biased against left-handed people. Which of the following would support her charge?

Left-handers with a score of 100 do better in school than do right-handers with the same score.

What does it mean to say that a test has been standardized?

Psychologists have established rules for administering the test and interpreting its scores.

Why is it necessarily the case that the mean IQ for boys is the same as that for girls?

The authors of the test balanced out two types of questions to make the means the same for boys and girls.

A group of children are selected because they scored extremely high (over 145) on an IQ test. Psychologists test their performance again 4 years later only to find that most of them scored a bit lower the second time than the first time. Which of the following is the most likely (and the most parsimonious) explanation?

The drop represents a random fluctuation in data based on a test with less than perfect reliability.

A group of infants are identified as having low IQs, although it is admitted that infant IQ scores have low reliability. Five years later, most of these children have higher IQs than before. What is the most reasonable and most parsimonious conclusion?

The increase is due to random fluctuations in unreliable data.

Which of the following would be evidence that an IQ test is biased against women?

Women with a particular IQ score get better grades in school than men with the same score.

An item on an IQ test is suspected of being biased against women. Which of the following would be the strongest evidence of such bias?

Women with low IQ scores are just as likely as women with high IQ scores to answer the item correctly.

Of the following pairs of twins, which pair will probably resemble each other the most with regard to their IQ scores?

a pair of identical twins who mistakenly thought they were fraternal

A group of 2-year-old infants are selected for a special program because their IQ scores are very low. Five years later, most of them have improved. One possible explanation is that the special program produced great benefits. Another explanation is that

the low scores had nowhere to go but up.

To determine whether or not an IQ test is biased against some minority group, we need to determine

whether the minority group members do better in school than the test scores predict.

To measure the predictive validity of a new test, we should determine whether or not

the scores on the test predict some behavior of interest.

Francis Galton, a British scholar, was the first to argue

that a tendency toward high intelligence is hereditary.

What is meant by fluid intelligence?

the ability to reason, use knowledge, and gain more information

At this point in time, what is the most convincing explanation for the Flynn effect?

the genetic explanation, heterosis

The controversial book that implied that genetic influences help explain ethnic differences in IQ scores was titled

"The Bell Curve."

The reliability values for the WISC-IV, the Stanford-Binet, and similar tests are approximately ____.

.96

A new IQ test, the Florida Revised Analysis of Unusual Dispositions, determines your IQ score by dividing your Social Security number by your ZIP code and then taking the square root. The reliability of this test is probably about ____ .

1

The Knowledge And Latent Abilities Test determines your IQ score by dividing your height in centimeters by the last two digits of your social security number and then multiplying by 100. This test probably has a reliability close to ____.

1.0

A new IQ test, the Standard Topical Universal Psychological Inventory of Differences (S.T.U.P.I.D.) has a mean score of 100 and a reliability of zero. We retest 30 people who scored 140 the first time they took the test. On the retest, what is the probable mean score for this group of people?

100

The average score at each age on an IQ test such as the Stanford-Binet is

100

The Wechsler and the Stanford-Binet tests were both devised to have a mean score around ____ and a standard deviation around ____.

100...15

What percentage of people would we expect to score more than two standard deviations above the mean on an IQ test?

2%

What percentage of people would we expect to score more than two standard deviations below the mean on an IQ test?

2%

Which of the following (if demonstrated to be true) would constitute the strongest evidence that IQ tests are biased against African-Americans?

African-American children with an IQ score of 105 generally get higher grades in school than do European-American children with that same score.

What sex differences (if any) are found on the scores of IQ tests?

Boys and girls get about equal scores.

How can researchers determine whether or not an IQ test is biased against a certain group of people?

Determine whether members of the group perform better in school than their test scores predict.

Suppose someone charges that the driver's license exam is "biased" against people with poor eyesight. To evaluate that claim, what evidence would be most important?

Does the exam accurately predict driving performances of people with poor vision?

The British scholar who was the first to argue that a tendency toward high intelligence is hereditary was

Francis Galton.

A new personality test claims to measure how much two people love each other. How could you measure the reliability of the test?

Have couples take the test repeatedly and see whether they keep getting the same score.

Which of the following is most consistent with Spearman's theory of intelligence?

Intelligence consists of a general ability plus some specific abilities.

What was so controversial about the book "The Bell Curve"?

It implied (without directly stating) that genetic influences help explain ethnic differences in IQ scores.

Are the commonly used IQ tests biased against African-American people, in the technical sense of the word "bias"? And what is the evidence?

No, the tests are not biased against African-Americans. African-Americans with a particular IQ score perform about the same in school and on other tasks as do European-Americans with the same IQ score.

Which of the following was an attempt to devise an IQ test that makes minimal use of language and is more fair to people with various cultural and language backgrounds?

Raven's Progressive Matrices

Which of these tests (if any) calls for the least amount of knowledge for facts?

Raven's Progressive Matrices

Why is it impossible for a test to have low reliability and high validity?

Scores that fluctuate randomly cannot predict any other performance.

The researcher who introduced the idea of the "g" factor in intelligence was

Spearman

Suppose someone demonstrated that there are several kinds of intellectual abilities that correlate poorly or negatively with one another. That demonstration would be evidence against

Spearman's "g" factor.

Under which of these circumstances would it be important for a psychologist to use Raven's Progressive Matrices (or a similar test) instead of, say, the WAIS-III or WISC-IV?

The person being tested has just recently begun to learn English.

What does it mean to say that a test is biased against members of a particular group?

The test scores underestimate the performance of that group on other tasks.

If a child has separate scores on Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Reasoning, Working Memory Index, and Processing Speed, she must have taken which test?

WISC-IV

If we know that a test has high reliability, what (if anything) can we expect to find about its predictive validity?

We have no way to guess its predictive validity.

Which of the following has been proposed as the underlying skill that could account for g?

all of the above have been proposed to account for g

In analyzing the cognitive processes of intelligence, Sternberg identified the components of encoding information, drawing inferences, mapping relationships, and applying the knowledge. After developing a test to measure these specific processes he discovered

all the measures correlated with each other (evidence for g).

What does "psychometric" mean?

based on measurements of individual differences

Both reliability and validity are measured by

correlation coefficients.

If a psychologist wanted to determine whether Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences is correct, as opposed to Spearman's theory of the "g" factor, what type of information would the psychologist probably collect?

correlations between people's performances on many unrelated types of intelligent abilities

If a psychologist wanted to test Spearman's concept of a "g" factor in intelligence, what kind of data should the psychologist collect?

correlations between performances on various intellectual tasks

An IQ test measures

current performance.

Stereotype threat research has illustrated a significant ____, simply by asking participants to indicate their race prior to the test.

decrease in Black students' performances

To determine whether an IQ test is "biased" against members of some group, the key information is whether or not the members of that group, on average

do better in school than their test scores predict.

A test that has low predictive validity produces scores that

do not correlate strongly with performance on some other task

By developing tests of creative and practical intelligence, Sternberg is attempting to develop intelligence tests that are better predictors of ____ than standard IQ tests.

everyday intelligence

An item on the Stanford-Binet IQ test designated as "age 8"

is answered correctly by 60-90% of 8-year-olds.

When mathematician Alan Turing solved a problem with his bicycle chain, he applied his general problem-solving ability to the specific problem he was having with his bike. Turing's solution is an example of ____ intelligence, as opposed to the ____ intelligence an average bicycle mechanic would use to fix the bike.

fluid...crystallized

Someone scoring more than two standard deviations above the mean on an IQ test would be classified as

gifted

An advantage of Raven's Progressive Matrices is that it

is fairer to people who do not speak English.

A new test determines your score by dividing your telephone number into your social security number, and then multiplying by 100. This test probably has

high reliability and low validity.

If people of different generations took the same IQ test, standardized long ago and not restandardized, today's young adults would score, on the average,

higher than their parents or grandparents.

The validity of a test is a measure of

how well it predicts some kind of performance.

Which of the following would NOT necessarily indicate that a particular IQ test was biased?

if one group scored lower than another group, on the average

In contrast to the Stanford-Binet and Wechsler IQ tests (WAIS and WISC), the advantage of the Raven's Progressive Matrices test is that it

is equally fair to people who speak different languages.

The main evidence for the existence of a "g" factor in intelligence is the fact that

intelligence tests have several parts, and people who do well on one part generally do well on other parts also.

The WAIS-III is a test of ____ developed for ____.

intelligence; adults

One advantage of the Wechsler IQ test is that ____. One advantage of the Raven's Progressive Matrices test is that ____.

it provides scores for several separate abilities...it does not require knowledge of any particular language

Every few years psychologists restandardize IQ tests to maintain a constant mean and distribution. If they had not done so, what would have happened to the mean IQ score of the population?

it would have increased steadily over the decades

If a test has high content validity, then

its questions fairly represent the material the test is supposed to cover.

Descriptions of the frequencies at which particular scores in an IQ test occur are called

norms

Irving has answered 92 questions correctly on a newly devised IQ test. To decide whether this score is above average or below average, psychologists must determine the ____ of the test.

norms

To say that someone is in the 70th percentile on a test means that she

scored higher than 70% of the norm group.

Raven's Progressive Matrices are especially appropriate for testing the intelligence of

people who do not speak English.

Spearman inferred the existence of a "g" factor in intelligence because of his evidence that, on the average,

people who do well on a test of one ability also do well on tests of other abilities.

A 30-year-old adult who has an IQ of 130 on the Stanford-Binet

performed better than most other adults.

Sternberg has developed a newer distinction among types of intelligence: analytical, creative, and ____.

practical

The original purpose of IQ tests, and still their primary function, is to

predict performance in school.

Of the following, which would be a good example of "fluid" intelligence?

quickly solving a new kind of problem

The reliability of a psychological test is practically the same thing as its

repeatability

To decide whether or not any individual item on a test is biased against men or women, psychologists would need to determine whether

some item that is among the easiest for one group is among the most difficult for the other.

The difference between fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence has to do with

speed of learning versus amount already learned on some topic.

Telling or reminding people, "your group usually doesn't do well on this kind of test" tends to impair most people's performance. This phenomenon is known as

stereotype threat.

Why do critics complain about questions on IQ tests that ask for factual information?

such items measure knowledge, not necessarily ability

In order to be diagnosed as mentally retarded, a person would have to score at least ____ standard deviation(s) below the mean score on an IQ test.

two

Psychologist Dinah Moe asks each individual to take several tests of specialized intellectual abilities, such as arithmetic, mechanical ability, logical reasoning, and spatial reasoning. Then she measures the correlation between performance on one test and performance on another test. What is she probably trying to determine?

whether or not Spearman's concept of a "g" factor is correct

The disagreement between Spearman (who proposed the "g" factor) and Raymond Cattell had to do with

whether the "g" factor has just one major component or two.