APTITUDEMeasure ability and potential
ACHIEVEMENTMeasure what you have learned
TYPES OF TESTS
• Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon were hired by the French government to identify children who would not benefit from a traditional school setting and those who would benefit from special education
• It was only meant to be used for class placement
Binet thought that as we age, we become more sophisticated in the ways we know about the world and so 6‐year‐old would answer questions differently than 8 year oldsAs a result, children were assigned a mental age (what a person of a particular age should know)Hoped they could use a test to help children, not label them
Lewis Terman used Binet’s research to construct the modern day IQ test called the Stanford‐Binet TestIQ=Mental age/Chronological age X 100
An 8‐year‐old has a mental age of 10… WHAT IS HER IQ?A 12‐year‐old has a mental age of 9… WHAT IS HIS IQ?A boy has the mental age of 10 and an IQ of 200… HOW OLD IS HE?
STANFORD‐BINET TEST
David Wechsler developed another set of age‐based intelligence tests. A more common way to give IQ tests… does not use the formula but uses the same scoring systemMore helpful for determining the extremes of intelligence
WECHSLER TESTS
ON THE SPECTRUM…When test takes fall below the mean score of 70 on IQ testMILD 50‐70MODERATE 35‐50SEVERE 20‐35PROFOUND UNDER 20GENIUSScore of above 140 on IQ test
EXTREMES ON IQ TESTS
The test must be pretested to a representative sample of people and form a normal distribution or bell curve
STANDARDIZATION
The extent which a test yields consistent results over timeSpilt halves or test–retest method
TEST RELIABILITY
The extent to which a test measures what it is supposed to measureCONTENT VALIDITYDoes the test sample a behavior of interest?PREDICTIVE VALIDITY Does the test predict future behavior?
TEST VALIDITY
Nature/Nurture controversy… to what extent is intelligence hereditary and what is learnedNATUREDown SyndromeNURTUREFetal Alcohol Syndrome (environmental)
HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT
STUDIES OF TWINSIdentical twins have similar scores on intelligence tests. Intelligence scores of adoptees are more like those of their biological parents than their adopted parents. Brain scans of twins reveal similar brain volume and anatomy.
HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT
SIBLINGSSiblings raised together are more similar in IQ than siblings raised apartChildren from deprived homes then moved into middle/upper class foster homes tend to increase IQ.School attendance results in increased IQ scores. In fact, scores tend to steadily increase. James Flynn observed that we start doing better on tests called the FLYNN EFFECT
HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT
THE FLYNN EFFECTHEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT
BIOLOGY AND INTELLIGENCEStanford psychologist Carol Dweck believes that intelligence is perceived to be biologically set
Depends on one’s outlook/behavior
DOES INTELLIGENCE CHANGE OVER TIME?
By age 4, a child’s IQ can predict adolescent IQ scores
After age 7, IQ scores stabilize and the consistency of the scores increase with the age of the child.