PSYC 111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Factor Analysis, Problem Solving, Inductive Reasoning

• School: Binghamton University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 111
• Professor: Lanora Duell

Document Summary

It"s a (cid:395)uality, unlike othe(cid:396) (cid:395)uantifia(cid:271)le (cid:272)ha(cid:396)a(cid:272)te(cid:396)isti(cid:272)s we possess, su(cid:272)h as height/weight. Dependent on culture on what is useful at that time. Continuous to be a source of controversy. Most psychologists now define intelligence as the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations. Psychologists agree that people have specific abilities, such as verbal and mathematical attributes. Debate: general intelligence (g) factor (proposed by charles spearman) Thurstone attempted to measure intelligence via 56 different tests. Then, mathematically (via factor analysis) identified 7 clusters of primary mental abilities. Despite the 7 clusters of mental abilities, a trend appeared. A tendency for those who excel in one of the clusters to score well on others. Therefore, still some evidence of a g factor. Abilities tend to correlate with other abilities. Satoshi kanazawa argues that general intelligence helps people solve novel (aka new/unfamiliar) problems, while more common problems require a different sort of intelligence.