Invitation to Psychology

242 Chapter 7 Thinking and Intelligence

You are about to learn...

•    both sides of the debate about whether a single

thing called “intelligence” actually exists.

•    how the original purpose of intelligence testing

changed when IQ tests came to the United

States.

•    the difficulties of designing intelligence tests

that are free of cultural influence.

Measuring Intelligence:

the psychometric

approach LO 7.11

Intelligent people disagree on just what intel-

ligence is. Some equate it with the ability to

reason abstractly, others with the ability to learn

and profit from experience in daily life. Some

emphasize the ability to think rationally, others

the ability to act purposefully. These qualities are

all probably part of what most people mean by

intelligence, but theorists weigh them differently.

intelligence An
inferred characteristic
of an individual, usually
defined as the ability to
profit from experience,
acquire knowledge, think
abstractly, act purpose-
fully, or adapt to changes
in the environment.

Explore the Concept What Is Intelligence?

at MyPsychLab

The traditional approach to intelligence

relies on psychometrics, the measurement of men-

tal abilities, traits, and processes. It focuses on

how well people perform on standardized aptitude

tests, which are designed to measure the ability

to acquire skills and knowledge. A typical intel-

ligence test asks you to do several things: provide

a specific bit of information, notice similarities

between objects, solve arithmetic problems, define

words, fill in the missing parts of incomplete pic-

tures, arrange pictures in a logical order, arrange

blocks to resemble a design, assemble puzzles, use

a coding scheme, or judge what behavior would

be appropriate in a given situation. A statistical

method called factor analysis helps to identify clus-

ters of correlated items that seem to be measuring

some common ability, or factor (see Chapter 2).

More than a century of research has con-

vinced most psychometric psychologists that a

general ability, or g factor, underlies the various

abilities and talents measured by intelligence tests

(Gottfredson, 2002; Jensen, 1998; Lubinski, 2004;

psychometrics The
measurement of men-
tal abilities, traits, and
processes.

factor analysis A statis-
tical method for analyz-
ing the intercorrelations
among various measures
or test scores; clusters
of measures or scores
that are highly correlated
are assumed to measure
the same underlying
trait, ability, or aptitude
(factor).

g factor A general intel-
lectual ability assumed
by many theorists to
underlie specific mental
abilities and talents.

Recite & Review

Recite: Make a rational decision now to say aloud what you know about the affect heuristic, the

availability heuristic, the framing effect, the fairness bias, the hindsight bias, the confirmation bias,

mental sets, cognitive dissonance reduction, postdecision dissonance, and the justification of effort.

Review: In hindsight, you might feel you knew this material already, but read it again to be sure

you do.

Now take this Quick Quiz:

1. In 2001, an unknown person sent anthrax through the United States post office, causing the
   deaths of five people. Many people became afraid to open their mail, although the risk for any
   given individual was extremely small. What heuristics help to explain this reaction?


2. True or false: Research on the Ultimatum Game shows that people always act out of rational
   self-interest.


3. Stu meets a young woman at the student cafeteria. They hit it off and eventually get married.
   Says Stu, “I knew when I woke up that morning that something special was about to happen.”
   What cognitive bias is affecting his thinking, charmingly romantic though it is?


4. In a classic experiment on cognitive dissonance, students did some boring, repetitive tasks
   and then had to tell another student, who was waiting to participate in the study, that the work
   was interesting and fun (Festinger & Carlsmith, 1959). Half the students were offered $20 for
   telling this lie and the others only $1. Based on what you have learned about cognitive disso-
   nance reduction, which students do you think decided later that the tasks had been fun after
   all? Why?
   Answers:

Study and Review at MyPsychLab

The students who got only $1 were more likely to say 4. the hindsight bias3. false2. the affect and availability heuristics1.

that the task had been fun. They were in a state of dissonance because “The task was as dull as dishwater” is dissonant with “I

said I enjoyed it—and for a mere dollar, at that.” Those who got $20 could rationalize that the large sum (which really was large

in the 1950s) justified the lie.