AP Psych Module 2.8a-d AND FINAL SEMESTER 1
How could the Flynn effect discusses earlier in this unit help us understand why cross-sectional research regarding intelligence may be misleading.
The observed rise in IQ scores over time may correlate with smarter vs less smart generations based on levels of education, large/small family size, and wealth disparities.
Hal scored an 89 on an intelligence test when he was 16. Now, at age 56, he is interested in knowing what his score would be as an adult. The score he is most likely to earn on the new test would be
92
Trinna and Suzanne are identical twins who were the same length at birth. They were adopted by different families at birth and then reconnected in their early thirties. Trinna is two inches shorter and was a severely selective eater as a child. A researcher was conducting an investigation about twins seperated at birth. What research method and explanation best fit this scenario?
A case study, because both heredity and environment are important in determining length and height.
List some common characteristics of someone with savant syndrome.
A condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill such as computation or drawing. Some can compute complicated calculations instantly but not care for themselves.
What is mental age?
A measure of intelligence test performance devised by Binet; the level of performance typically associated with children of a certain chronological age. Thus, a child who does as well as an average 8-year-old is said to have a mental age of 8.
What is the relationship between SAT scores and IQ scores? What type of study was conducted to collect this data?
A scatterplot shows the close correlation that has existed between intelligence test scores and verbal and quantitative SAT scores.
How can a test be reliable, yet invalid?
A test could produce the same result each time, but it may not actually be measuring the thing it is designed to measure.
What was Charles Spearman's belief about intelligence?
According to Spearman and others, we have one general intelligence that lies at the heart of all of our intelligent behavior, from sailing the seas to sailing through school.
Contrast achievement tests and aptitude tests. How do these relate to what IQ tests intend to measure?
Achievement tests are intended to reflect what you have learned. The AP exam will measure what you learned in this class. Aptitude tests are intended to predict what you will be able to learn. A college entrance exam, which is designed to predict your ability to do college or university work, is an aptitude test.
Which of the following is true of the mental similarities between adoptive children and their adoptive parents over time?
Adoptive children become less similar to their adoptive parents over time
Summarize Robert Sternberg's triarchic theory of intelligence: Analytical intelligence
Analytical (academic problem solving) intelligence is assessed by intelligence tests, which present well-defined problems having a single right answer
Discuss the relationshop between aptitude and achievement tests.
Aptitude also supports achievement: People who learn quickly are also better at retaining information.
Which of the following statements is FALSE based on what you have learned in this unit?
As people age, their vocabulary knowledge decreases.
What components did Binet emphasize in his assessment of intelligence?
Binet began by assuming that all children follow the same course of intellectual development but that some develop more rapidly.
Compare and contrast Binet's and Terman's ideas on the importance of test results?
Binet made no assumptions concerning why a particular child was slow, average, or precocious. Unlike Galton, Binet personally leaned towards an environmental explanation.
Which of the following statements provides the most logical and objective conclusion regarding gender and mental abilities?
Boys are more likely to be represented among those scoring extremely low and those scoring extremely high on tests of mental abilities.
Dimitri and Dominic are identical twins who were seperated at birth and raised by different families. When they found each other through DNA tracking, they were suprised to see how different they were. Which research method would a psychologist most likely use to document their behavioral differences?
Correlation
Summarize Robert Sternberg's triarchic theory of intelligence: Creative intelligence
Creative intelligence is demonstrated in innovative smarts: the ability to adapt to new situations and generate novel ideas.
Discuss how cross-sectional studies led to the belief that the "decline of mental stability with age is part of the general aging process". How did longitudinal studies help to refute this claim?
Cross-sectional studies had shown that older adults gave fewer correct answers on IQ tests than did younger adults. With longitudinal tests, they discovered that intelligence remained stable. On some tests, scores even increased, due partly to experience with the tests.
Describe standardization
Defining uniform testing procedures and meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested group
Which of the following scenarios is the best example of natural selection?
During a drought, the foliage in a region turns brown. More brownish moths than whitish moths from a particular breed survive predation and produce more offspring. Subsequent generations of moths have a higher percentage of brownish moths than the generation before
Based on psychological research, what are some benefits of emotional intelligence?
Emotionally intelligent people are both socially aware and self aware. They avoid being hi-jacked by overwhelming depression, anxiety, and anger. They can read other's emotional cues and manage conflicts, delay gratification in pursuit of long-range rewards.
Researchers measured changes in neural firing in the frontal lobes for ten rats that were exposed to stimulants. The researchers used an MRI that indicates brain activity with colors. Normal brain activity is indicated by greens and yellows. High brain activity is indicated by reds and oranges. Low brain activity is indicated by grays and blues. All the rat's brains showed normal activity prior to being exposed to the stimulant. What type of study was being conducted by the researcher?
Experiment
A researcher studied rats to determine the effectiveness of a new drug on acetylcholine receptor sites. First, the rats were trained to find a reward at the end of a maze. Next, the rats were randomly assigned to two groups. One group of rats were injected with the new acetylcholine-like drug. The second group of rats were injected with a saline solution. Finally, researchers measured how many mistakes the rats made as they navigated the maze. Which of the following research methods was used by the researchers?
Experimental
According to the results of your study, which type of intelligence declines with age?
Fluid intelligence
What types of intelligence are most impacted by age?
Fluid intelligence (Gf) - our ability to reason speedily and abstractly, as when solving novel logic problems- may decrease with age.
Contrast fluid intelligence with crystallized intelligence.
Fluid intelligence involves our ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease with age, especially during late adulthood. Crystallized intelligence is our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age. Our Gf and Gc often work togehter, as when we solve problems by drawing on our accumulated knowledge. The idea of a single intelligence factor has recieved support from hundreads of intelligence studies not only for G, but also for more specific abilities, with Gf and Gc bridging the gap between them.
Over the past 100 years, intelligence test performance has increased. This is known as the:
Flynn effect.
Explain how Francis Galton attempted to measure intelligence
Galton founded eugenics - the discriminatory 19th- and 20th-century movement that proposed measuring human traits and encouraging only those deemed "fit" to reproduce. When his cousin Charles Darwin proposed that nature selects successful traits through the survival of the fittest, Galton wondered if it might be possible to measure "natural ability".
What is g?
General intelligence, which underlies all mental abilities, and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test
Which of the following best represents the relationship between crystallized intelligence and age?
Grandpa Milt is better than his grandson Artie at crossword puzzles and trivia games.
Explain how LL Thurnstone's and later researchers' studies on intelligence both refuted and supported Spearman's work
He granted that people often have special, outstanding abilities. But he noted that those who score high in one area such as verbal intelligence, typically score higher than average in other areas, such as spatial or reasoning ability. One of Spearman's early critics was LL Thurnstone. He gave 56 different tests to people and mathematically identified seven clusters of primary mental abilities. Thurnstone did not rank people on a single scale of general aptitude. But when other investigators studied these profiles, they detected a persistent tendency- there was still some evidence of a g factor.
How did Lewis Terman revise Binet's original test? What was the new name?
He tried the Paris-developed questions and age norms with California kids. Adapting some of Binet's original items, adding others, and establishing new age norms, Terman extended the upper end of the test range from age 12 to "superior adults". He also renamed it: the Stanford-Binet.
Choose which variable is described in the following statement: "Fifty to 80 percent of the variation in intelligence test scores in a group can be explained by genetic variation".
Heritability
Define heritability. Explain the estimates of heritability of intelligence.
Heritability is the portion of variability among individuals in a group that we can attribute to genes. Genetic intelligence explains between 50 and 80 percent of the observed variation among people. We can never say what percentage of an individual's intelligence (or personality) is inherited. Heritability refers to why people in a group differ from one another- to how much their differences are attributable to their differing genes.
Discuss Howard Gardner's contribution to the discussion of intelligence. How does this build on the earlier work of Cattell?
Howard Gardner has identified eight relatively independent intelligences. He also proposes a possible ninth intelligence- exisistential intelligence.
Discuss the role of time and culture in describing the application of intelligence.
In Cameron's equatorial forest, intelligence may reflect understanding the medicinal qualities of local plants. In a North American high school, it may reflect mastering difficult concepts in calculus or chemistry.
What is intelligence?
Intelligence is the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge and adapt new situations.
What can we learn from longitudinal studies on intelligence?
Intelligence may remain stable, and on some tests it even increases with age.
Dr. Yolay wants to conduct a study on how the demographic characteristics of a test administrator impact the performance on an intelligence test among a group of 8-year-old girls. After the girls draw either the number 1 or the number 2 from a hat, she assigns the girls to either (1) take the test with a man as the test administrator or (2) take the test with a woman as the test administrator. In this scenario, what is the dependent variable?
Intelligence test performance
Why is the normal curve important to standardized testing?
It allows for the easy interpretation and comparison of test scores by providing a predictable distribution of results, where the majority of scores cluster around the mean, making it possible to understand where a person stands relative to others who took the same test.
How does g predict general life outcomes?
It predicts performance on various complex tasks and in various jobs. Likewise, extremely high cognitive ability scores predict exceptional achievements.
What are the limitations to using either longitudinal or cross-sectional design to gather information on intelligence?
Longitudinal methods may result in samples, that include only participants who survive to the end of these studies because they are the healthiest and brightest people.
What can we learn from the cross-sectional studies on intelligence?
Mental ability may decline with age, although this is comparing two different eras.
The figure shows the myelin sheath, a semipermeable membrane that provides support and helps speed up the action potential in neurons. What condition occurs when the immune system causes the deterioration of the myelin sheath?
Multiple sclerosis
A small sample of living neural tissue is being studied under a powerful microscope. The researcher notices that some of the neural cells have connections to capillaries and seem to nourish and support the other neural cells. What type of research is being conducted?
Naturalistic observation
Kara thinks she sees a spider on the floor of her bathroom. She is extremely afraid of spiders. Upon further inspection, though, she realizes the "spider" is only a ball of hair. Which of the following nervous systems would be responsible for calming her down after she realizes the ball of hair is not a spider?
Parasympathetic nervous system
Which branch of the autonomic nervous system is described by the functions listed in Part B of the table?
Parasympathetic nervous system
Which of the following best supports the conclusion that race is more of a social construct than a biological category?
People of varying ancestry may categorize themselves as having the same race.
Summarize Robert Sternberg's triarchic theory of intelligence: Practical intelligence
Practical intelligence is required for everyday tasks that may be poorly defined and may have multiple solutions.
Dr. Yolay wants to conduct a study on how the demographic characteristics of a test administrator impact the performance on an intelligence test among a group of 8-year-old girls. After the girls draw either the number 1 or the number 2 from a hat, she assigns the girls to either (1) take the test with a man as the test administrator or (2) take the test with a woman as the test administrator. Dr. Yolay determined that the gender of the test administrator caused the performance of the girls to differ. What technique did Dr. Yolay employ to be able to make this assertion?
Random assignment
How do Gardner's critics view his work? How has this evolved into a discussion of learning styles and what has research found regarding teaching to student's preferred learning style?
Research casts doubt on the idea of boosting comprehension in this way through learning styles. Studies indicate that identifying and teaching to a student's supposed learning style does not produce better student outcomes.
What is the difference between cross-sectional and longitudinal design in research?
Researchers using the cross-sectional method study different age groups at one time. Researchers using the longitudinal method study and restudy the same group at different times in their life span.
Discuss the research support for the presence of g.
Several distinct abilities tend to cluster together, and to correlate enough to define a general intelligence factor. Distinct brain networks enable distinct abilities with g explained by their coordinated activity.
What are four (there are 15) domains of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)?
Similarities: reasoning the commonality of two objects or concepts ("in what way are wool and cotton alike") Vocabulary: naming pictured objects, or defining words ("what is a guitar") Block design: visual abstract processing ("using the four blocks, make one just like this") Letter-number sequencing: (on hearing a series of numbers and letters, repeating the numbers in ascending order, and then the letters in alphabetical order)
When you describe someone as "smart", to what characteristics are you generally referring? How well do these fit the description provided in the text?
Someone who excels at school and booksmarts, various academic subjects. Intelligence is much broader than what the average person would define it as.
Define factor analysis. In what way did both Thurstone and Spearman use factor analysis, in the development of their theories>
Spearman's (1904) belief stemmed in part from his work with factor analysis: a statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items (called factors) on a test; used to identify different dimesions of performance that underlie a person's total score.
What is grit? How does it work with intelligence to predict success?
Success is a combination of talent and grit: (passion and perseverance in the pursuit of long term goals). Highly successful people also tend to be conscientious and persistently energetic.
Kara thinks she sees a spider on the floor of her bathroom. She is extremely afraid of spiders. Which of the following nervous systems would be responsible for her fearful reaction to the spider?
Sympathetic nervous system
Tamara's coach reminds the team not to eat for several hours before the basketball game because the digestive process will be slowed down due to the intense activity. Which of the following aspects of the peripheral nervous system is directly responsible for slowing down digestive processes during the game?
Sympathetic nervous system
How could/did Terman's beliefs about intelligence lead to stereotyping and discrimination?
Terman assumed that intelligence tests revealed a mental capacity present from birth. He supported Galton's eugenics- assuming that some ethnic groups were naturally more intelligent than others.
Dr. Xiao wants his personality test to predict future behaviors similarly for all test takers. What should Dr. Xiao examine?
Test bias
Describe the three types of validity.
Tests that tap into the pertinent behavior, or criterion, have content validity. Tests that measure a certain concept have construct validity. But we expect intelligence tests to have predictive validity: they should predict future performance and to some extent they do.
Discuss the influence of Cattell and Horn in intelligence theory development?
The Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) Theory is the theory that our intelligence is based on g as well as specific abilities, bridged by Gf and Gc. It identified more specific abilities, such as reading and writing ability, memory capacity, and processing speed.
How do you calculate IQ using William Stern's formula? What is one problem with it?
The IQ was simply a person's mental age divided by chronological age, multiplied by 100. This original IQ formula worked fairly well for children but not for adults.
Researchers measured changes in neural firing in the frontal lobes for ten rats that were exposed to stimulants. The researchers used an MRI that indicates brain activity with colors. Normal brain activity is indicated by greens and yellows. High brain activity is indicated by reds and oranges. Low brain activity is indicated by grays and blues. All the rat's brains showed normal activity prior to being exposed to the stimulant. Which of the following is a prediction that could be made about the activity of the rats' brains when exposed to the stimulant?
The MRI should show more oranges and reds when exposed to the stimulant.
Explain how the ACT and the SAT can have questionable predictive validity.
The SAT has been less successful in predicting first-year college grades.
How reliable are intelligence tests based on past research? What is the correlation coefficient? Based on this coefficient, what conclusions can be drawn between the WAIS and WISC?
The WISC and WAIS are very reliable. Individuals who score high on one test generally also score high on the other, allowing for meaningful comparisons between the two scales when assessing cognitive abilities across different age groups.
Researchers measured changes in neural firing in the frontal lobes for ten rats that were exposed to stimulants. The researchers used an MRI that indicates brain activity with colors. Normal brain activity is indicated by greens and yellows. High brain activity is indicated by reds and oranges. Low brain activity is indicated by grays and blues. All the rat's brains showed normal activity prior to being exposed to the stimulant. What is the operational definition of neural activity in the rats?
The color presented in the MRI images.
Explain the research findings on the links between the age of intelligence test administration and intelligence measured later in life.
The correlation between the two sets of scores- after nearly 70 years of varied life experiences- was striking.
What is reliability and why is it so important? What are two methods researchers use to measure reliability?
The extent to which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test on alternative forms of the test, or on retesting.
Dr. Yolay wants to conduct a study on how the demographic characteristics of a test administrator impact the performance on an intelligence test among a group of 8-year-old girls. After the girls draw either the number 1 or the number 2 from a hat, she assigns the girls to either (1) take the test with a man as the test administrator or (2) take the test with a woman as the test administrator. Based on past research discussed in this unit, what logical and objective result might you expect from this research?
The girls in group 2 perform better, on average, compared to the girls in group 1.
Explain how the text addresses the regional areas that have seen a reversal in IQ scores rather than the Flynn Effect.
The higher twentieth-century birthrates among those with lower scores would shift human intelligence scores downward.
The graph depicts which of the following?
The process of neural transmission
Which psychological principle is represented in the area highlighted in the graph?
The refractory period of the neural transmission process
Define the Flynn Effect. Why does this happen?
The rise in intelligence test performance over time and across cultures. Countries that have shown the greatest growth in IQ scores over time have also experienced more economic growth. Explain how the test addresses the regional areas that have seen a reversal in IQ scores rather than the Flynn Effect. Greater educational opportunities, smaller families, and rising living standards, such as better health care all contribute to the Flynn effect.
The physiological changes in the table most clearly represent activation of which of the following
The sympathetic nervous system
There is a greater correlation between the IQ scores of identical twins raised together than for fraternal twins raised together. What conclusion can be drawn from this finding?
There is a genetic effect on intelligence
How do Sternberg and Gardner agree? How do they disagree?
They agree that multiple abilities can contribute to life success, and differing varieties of giftedness bring both spice to life and challenges for education. Trained to appreciate such variety, many teachers have applied multiple intelligence theories in their classrooms. But Sternberg's triarchic theory proposes three- not eight or nine- reliably measured intelligences.
List and describe four components of emotional intelligence: Using emotions
to facilitate adaptive or creative thinking
Getting a headache from not having a morning coffee after substantial daily coffee consumption for several months is most likely due to which of the following concepts?
withdrawal
What are the three psychometric properties that are necessary for a good test?
To be widely accepted, a psychological test must have the psychometric properties of being standardized, reliable, and valid.
Explain the misuses and abuses of IQ testing in our culture.
To some psychologists, the IQ results indicated the inferiority of people not sharing their Anglo-Saxon heritage. Such findings led to laws and practices that severely restricted immigration, as well as employment and educational opportunities, for those who were not of Norther or Western European descent. Abuses of the early intelligence tests serve to remind us that science can be value-laden.
What is the difference between validity and reliability?
Validity is the extent to which a test or experiment measures or predict what it is supposed to. High reliability does not ensure a test's validity.
List several tasks and skills that older people perform better than younger individuals?
We gain vocabulary and knowledge as we age, and crystallized intelligence, our accumulated knowledge, can increase in old age. Older adults social reasoning skills increase and decisions become less distorted.
What can the results of the Deary (2008) study help us better understand about intelligence over the lifespan?
When Ian Deary and his colleagues retested 80-year-old Scotts using an intelligence test they had taken as 11-year-olds, their scores across seven decades correlated to 0.66.
Why do correlations between aptitude tests and academic performance tend to decrease when trying to predict grad school performance?
When we validate a measure using a wide range of scores but then use it with a restricted range of scores, it loses much of its predictive validity.
How has the use and calculation of IQ scores changed since Stern's formula was used?
With Terman's help, the U.S. government developed new tests to evaluate both newly arriving immigrants and World War I army recruits- the world's first mass administration of an intelligence test.
Based on its effects on the central nervous system, alcohol can be classified as which of the following concepts?
a depressant
Your 25-year-old friend asks you whether her intelligence will decline when she is age 85. You tell her that her logical reasoning ability is likely to:
decrease
Johnny often hits his brother even though his brother does not do anything to antagonize him. Johnny's aggression is most likely due to a combination of which of the following factors?
his genetic makeup, the environment he grew up in, and the fact that aggression can be evolutionarily adaptive
List and describe four components of emotional intelligence: Managing emotions
knowing how to express them in varied situations and how to handle other's emotions
Ruth and Debbie are identical twins who were raised by the same family. Vince and Frankie are identical twins who were seperated at birth and raised by different families. According to research on the heritability of personality traits, Ruth's and Debbie's personalities are statistically
likely to be as similar and dissimilar to one another as are Vince's and Frankie's personalities
List and describe four components of emotional intelligence: Understanding emotions
predicting them and how they may change and blend
List and describe four components of emotional intelligence: Percieving emotions
recognizing them in faces, music, and stories, and identifying our own emotions
The drugs that block the reabsorption of neurotransmitters in the synapse during neural transmission are best identified as which of the following concepts?
reuptake inhibitors
Mark and Matt are twins. A psychologist studies Mark and Matt from birth until their 25th birthday. The psychologist gathers data about their likes and dislikes, extracurricular activities, school success, and doctor visits. The psychologist is interested in the interaction of nature and nurture on their development. Which of the following research methods is the psychologist using to study Mark and Matt?
Case Study
Which of the following identifies the part of the nervous system the arrows are pointing toward?
Central
In what ways is high intelligence linked to health and longevity?
Children and adults who are more intelligent tend to live healthier and longer lives. High-scoring adolescents, 50 years later, even feel younger than their age.
