PSYC 2740 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Fluid And Crystallized Intelligence, Mental Scale, Mental Age
9 Dec 2016
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Document Summary
There is no singular definition because theorists have different ideas about attributes that should make up intelligence. The psychometric (or testing) approach defines intelligence as a trait or set of traits that allows some people to think and to solve problems more effectively than others. Alfred binet"s singular component approach: developed the first successful intelligence test. Originally meant to id dull children in need of remedial instruction. Tasks measured skill they thought were necessary for classroom learning. Organized into mental age: intellectual development that reflects the level of age-graded problems a child is able to solve. Researchers who used factor analysis and had a multicomponent view of intelligence argue that intelligence is not a singular trait. Therefore mental age alone is not an adequate measure. Factor analysis: statistical procedure for iding clusters of tests or test items that are highly correlated with one another and unrelated to other test items: each factor represents a distinct mental ability.
