Dynamics of Intelligence

5 Key excerpts on "Dynamics of Intelligence"

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  eBook - ePub

  Dynamic Assessment, Intelligence and Measurement

  • Raegan Murphy(Author)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  This chapter introduces the idea behind assessment administered in a dynamic manner and how this approach differs from mainstream assessment. It surveys the fundamentals of this approach in psychological assessment and presents an historical perspective on its development throughout the twentieth century. The reader will also find an overview of the field of intelligence. Thanks to the plethora of many exceptional books on intelligence, this chapter does not seek to be comprehensive in its coverage but, unlike other intelligence texts, integrates the ideas of dynamic assessment with core issues within the domain of intelligence.

  Contextualization

  Dynamic assessment is a manner of assessing individuals in a fluid, process-oriented and flexible way and has much to offer the field of intellectual assessment due to its unique stance on measurement. The origins of dynamic assessment are in areas of research in which practitioners were originally given mandates to assess prospective learners within specific cultural contexts. Concepts, ideals and notions associated with this type of assessment were often translated into quantifiable measurements in order to satisfy the reigning paradigm of testing. More often than not, dynamic assessment ideals did not filter through to later versions and modifications of tests, and the goal of many early intelligence tests was to categorize individuals based on their performance within the testing situation. Partly owing to industrialization and expansion, testing groups of individuals was deemed more expedient than individual assessment, thus allowing more people to be tested within a shorter timespan.

  Unfair discrimination and the biased use of many intelligence tests gradually led to dissatisfaction with these static and product-bound instruments and, in an attempt to find a suitable form of assessment, dynamic assessment has offered partial solutions to the problem-riddled field of intelligence assessment. The origins of dynamic assessment are widespread geographically, disparate in terms of initial reasons for its use and culturally diverse in the contexts within which it works. How have the origin and development of dynamic assessment compared to mainstream intelligence research in terms of theoretical contribution, practical enhancement of current tests, reduction of bias and generalizability? Does dynamic assessment lack a coherent and sound theoretical base? As with most theories in the realm of science as it is practised in the social and natural milieus, tenuous foundations and fuzzy concepts hamper the progress of ideas and theories. What are the theory and framework behind dynamic assessment? Ironically, one aspect of dynamic assessment research for which consensus has been reached is that there is as yet no single framework in which this form of assessment can be adequately placed.

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  eBook - PDF

  Handbook of Intelligence

  • Robert J. Sternberg(Author)
  • 2000(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  However, as should be clear from the review, any measurement of intel- lectual performance draws on abilities and processes and is assessed within a context that has particular constraints and opportunities. Thus, we could re- frame any of the research reviewed on any partic- ular aspect of intelligence (e.g., abilities) and recast it as involving the other aspects of intelligence. For instance, research that examines age-related differ- ences in measures of fluid intelligence has typically been framed as demonstrating age-related decline in basic-level abilities for which prior education and ac- culturation are of relatively little advantage. How- ever, within the view of intelligence taken within this chapter, these age differences may be under- stood as showing age-related differences in process- ing resources expressed within an environment (the typical testing situation) that is less familiar to older adults than to young adults and that contains cer- tain demands (e.g., highly speeded responses in an environment that is asocial). Too often work that is focused on a specific component of intelligence (e.g., context) neglects how other aspects of intelli- gent functioning may be involved (abilities or pro- cesses). A more complete, albeit complex, view of intelligence would emerge if research were oriented toward understanding all three of these aspects of intelligent performance (i.e., abilities, processes, and contexts) across adult development. The view of intelligence advanced in this chap- ter as the mental abilities and processes that an in- dividual uses to fit optimally with his or her context suggests, however, another avenue for research that focuses specifically on the process of adaptation.

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  eBook - ePub

  Personality and Individual Differences

  • Bere Mahoney(Author)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Learning Matters

    (Publisher)

  structure and determinants of enduring psychological characteristics as perceived by the individual and those around them . These enduring characteristics are collections of behaviours, feelings and thoughts that systematically typify how individuals and groups of individuals appear to be similar or different . These psychological phenomena also have consequences for how individuals react and therefore regulate themselves across a range of life domains , and the relationship between these person and situation variables is complex and reciprocal .

  We would expect any definition of intelligence to at least contain these features. As with personality, we will examine a number of explicit academic definitions of intelligence, starting with a definition from Binet (1905) , a name synonymous with the notion of intelligence testing.

  But here we must come to an understanding of what meaning to give to that word so vague and so comprehensive, ‘the intelligence.’ Nearly all the phenomena with which psychology concerns itself are phenomena of intelligence; sensation, perception, are intellectual mani-festations as much as reasoning. Should we therefore bring into our examination the measure of sensation after the manner of the psycho-physicists? Should we put to the test all of his psychological processes? A slight reflection has shown us that this would indeed be wasted time.

  It seems to us that in intelligence there is a fundamental faculty, the alteration or the lack of which, is of the utmost importance for practical life. This faculty is judgment, otherwise called good sense, practical sense, initiative, the faculty of adapting one’s self to circumstances. To judge well, to comprehend well, to reason well, these are the essential activities of intelligence.

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  eBook - ePub

  Complete Psychology

  • Graham Davey, Christopher Sterling, Andy Field, Chris Sterling, Ian Albery, Chris Sterling, Ian Albery(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  These are: analytic intelligence (academic-based problem solving of problems with a single right answer which are assessable through intelligence tests), creative intelligence (reacting to and producing novel ideas) and practical intelligence (required for day-to-day tasks that are often ill defined or have a number of potential solutions). Sternberg's theory, like that of Gardner extends the concept of intelligence beyond traditional academic definitions and reflects the use of intellect in everyday life (see Focus points 30.4 and 30.5). Summary Psychometric and cognitive-contextual perspectives therefore seek to understand intelligence in terms of underlying hypothetical constructs, whether these constructs are psychometric factors (e.g. mathematical ability), cognitive processes (e.g. memory retrieval) or are constructs defined by environmental context (e.g. survival and adaptation). These two perspectives also investigate the question of whether intelligence is a single construct or is a combination of specific intellectual abilities. Important debate also revolves around the question of whether the definition of intelligence should be flexible. Different cultures should have different definitions of what intellectual ability is and intelligence should be determined to some extent by the environment in which it is being used (and for what purpose). There is one further issue driving psychological research into intelligence

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  The Handbook of Life-Span Development, Volume 1

  Cognition, Biology, and Methods

  • Richard M. Lerner, Willis F. Overton, Richard M. Lerner, Willis F. Overton(Authors)
  • 2010(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  CHAPTER 8

  Fluid Cognitive Abilities and General Intelligence

  A Life-Span Neuroscience Perspective

    CLANCY BLAIR

         

  This chapter examines the development of intelligence from the perspectives of life-span developmental psychology and developmental neuroscience. It contrasts the developmental approach to the study of intelligence with the psychometric approach and addresses a broad distinction in both approaches between fluid and crystallized aspects of mental ability. A variety of evidence is reviewed suggesting that this distinction is central to understanding intelligence both behaviorally and at the neurobiological level. Although the psychometric tradition continues to emphasize a single general factor in the study of intelligence, analyses of longitudinal data in the developmental approach indicate distinct trajectories for fluid and crystallized aspects of intelligence, and present no evidence of a single underlying factor that can explain change over time in various domains of intelligence. As well, in the neuroimaging literature, studies attempting to identify the neural basis for intelligence using various brain imaging methodologies demonstrate that distinct brain areas are associated with fluid and crystallized abilities, and as yet have been unable to identify a single unitary neural substrate for general intelligence. In conclusion, available evidence from the developmental and neuroimaging literatures points to the role of experience in shaping the behavioral and biological expression of intelligence in both its fluid and crystallized forms.

  FLUID COGNITIVE ABILITIES AND GENERAL INTELLIGENCE

  The study of mental ability has been a central theme in psychology since the founding of the discipline. In many ways, the interests and concerns of inquiry into mental abilities provided a platform on which some of the defining questions and research methods of the emerging science of psychology were built at the turn of the 20th century. For both practical and basic science reasons, interest in the definition and measurement of mental abilities was strong at this time. Practical in that with the advent of industrialization came an increase in the formal schooling of young children and concerns about the ability of children to succeed in elementary education. Basic in that advances in measurement and theory led to questions concerning the extent to which parameters could be established for specific physical, physiological, and psychological characteristics that could be used to explain individual differences in mental abilities. These basic and practical concerns, and the empirical approaches they generated remain strong today.

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