Intelligence
It is the global ability to solve problems, to reason and to acquire knowledge and to think and reason effectively, that manifest itself in all sorts of ways ,such as memorizing a long poem ,solving a maze problem ,or writing a complicated computer program.The various component skills of intelligence are seen as essentially independent, and each individual has area of strength and weakness
Problem solving;
People can systematically use inductive and deductive reasoning to solve problems through four stages;1-understanding or framing the problem; it is the key step toward a successful solution if it was poor it will lead to ineffective solutions, if framing was proper, the solution will be effective.
2-generating potential solutions; is to determine which procedure will be considered and to rule out any solution that does not fit the evidences.
3-testing the solution; is to evaluate the possible alternatives
4-evaluate the results; after soling the problem people should consider assessing their solutions and results.
Solving problems reflect the intellectual ability of the human but there are other aspect of intelligence that has not been identified only by problem-solving behaviors, this fact attract the attention of many scientists to measure the intellectual abilities of people,Galton (1869)authored a book about intelligence which focused on the nature of genius and considered it as inherited mental constitution . The followings are the developmental stages of intelligence;
6months 2 years old 10 year old
Recognition of verbal ability verbal ability
People and objects
Motor coordination learning ability problem solving
Alertness awareness of people, environment
Verbalization curiosity creativity
Intelligence tests;
These are psychological tests that reflect the concept of intelligence, it may not be a precise way to detect intellectual ability but it is a helpful method to assess the potential in non intrusive manner.
First trial to assess intelligence was by many psychologists, at 1890 James Mckean Cattel devised a series of fifty psychological tests that assessed a persons ability to sense physical stimuli or perform different motor actions called it metal test, can be considered the first scoring system
Wechsler 1901 only scoring to test for psychophysical skills
The first formal intelligence test was created in 1905 by Alfred Binet and Simon in Paris to identify children who could not profit from the regular curriculum in the public schools because of lower mental ability, They designed a test that assessed children ability logically .Psychometric to reason verbally, solve simple problems, and think models of intelligence are based on testing of large groups of individuals to quantify difference in abilities, the basic assumption is that some people will perform better than others and that those who perform below some average or normative level are less intelligent.
Alfred Binet who was a French psychologist commissioned by French ministry of public education to develop the modern intelligence test and spread internationally, the educational authorities at that time cared about children who can not be benefited from ordinary schooling so that not to waste money and efforts one educating them in ordinary schooling and separate them from children who have normal intellectual abilities. After many standardized scored interviews Binet reached to the concept of (mental age), this concept was subsequently expanded by the German psychologist William Stern to provide a relative score for intellectual attainment for people of different chronological ages, called Stern intelligence quotient I.Q which was originally based on the ratio of mental age to chronological age ,
IQ = Mental age/ chronological age x 100
Thus a child who was performing his or her own age level would have an IQ of 100,the child of mental age of 10 and chronological age of 8 would have an IQ of 10/8 x 100=125,while a 12 years old with mental age of 16would also have an IQ of 125,so the two children would be comparable in intelligence even though their ages differed ,nowadays psychologists believe that increases in mental age begins to slow down after 16 years of age ,a second problem with this quotient is that some intellectual skills show an actual decline at advanced age rather than the growth assumed by the mental age ,however the average IQ is to remain at 100,the traditional midpoint of the intelligence range ,it is based on a person performance in relation to the scores of a large sample of other people.
The Stanford-Binet and Wechsler Scales had been revised and modified to an adult version to widen the scope rather than measuring children's intelligence only ,in 1939,the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale(WAIS) appeared followed by Wechsler Intelligence Scale for children (WISC)1955,today the (WAIS-111)and (WISC-111)are the most widely used individually administered intelligence tests in western countries. The Wechsler scales consist of a series of subtests that fall into two classes; verbal tests and performance tests; a psychologist can therefore plot a profile of the scores on each of the subtests to assess a person's pattern of intellectual strength and weakness. A verbal IQ based on the sum of the verbal subscales ,a performance IQ based on the performance subscales and a full-scale IQ based on all of the scales, it is useful to examine differences between the verbal IQ and the Performance IQ.A newer version of the Stanford-Binet test was published in 1986 is also designed to measure more specific mental function, it consist of 15 subtests designed to measure four areas of intellectual functioning ; verbal reasoning ,abstract ,visual reasoning ,quantitative reasoning and short term memory to serve the test as a whole.
Spearman theory
Charless Spearman (1923) stated that intelligence consists of 2 parts ,g,; a general intelligence factor that he equated with mental energy and ,s, ; a specific knowledge and abilities such as verbal reasoning or spatial problem solving that were evident only in specific task, he pioneered the use of factor analysis by observing school grades, he developed a statistical technique called factor analysis that lead to his theory of an underlying general intellectual skill Intelligence quotient ;I.Q referee to scores in standardized intelligence test widely used. The average mean score on most tests is 100 standard deviation has a value of 15 which means that most individuals differ from the mean score of 100 by 15 points or less the normal distribution of scores can also be partitioned into standard deviation units
99%of population fall within three standard deviations above or below the mean child develop score above 130 ; gifted
Below 70 ; mentally retarded. Most IQ tests are designed for use with children of school age. Normal distribution curve IQ below 70 are of subnormal intelligence.>2 standard deviations below the mean of population. Severely and modestly handicapped individuals termed pathological group in contrast to sub cultural groups who are commonly mild mentally retarded and a mixture of genetic and environmental reasons
Diagnostic criteria ;intelligence tests IQ may not be constant ,does not test the educability ,it test the person capacity to solve a problem in relation to people of the same age the performance of the child with that of standardized example of his peers. Ratio of mental age to chronological age multiply by 100Single score alone is not enough to assess the intelligence, the child s co operation, emotional upsets, physical illness, emotional or social deprivation do influence the quality of the test results, IQ testing and social competence may be repeated to indicate consistency
Prevalence of mental retardation;
2% of population has IQ less than 70 with a larger population of limited intelligence who do not come to clinical encounter or prone to challenging situation
Relation between over crowd ness, poverty, low education of the parent had been claimed to interfere with the results of IQ tests.
Assessment of the intelligence tests;
In order to get the required benefit from any psychometric test, it has to meet three key measurement concepts; reliability, validity, and standardization.
Reliability ;refers to consistency of measurement and consistency can take several forms the most important indicator is consistency over time like that intelligence is stable at every measurement (test retest reliability)and it is assessed by administering the measure to the same group of participants on two separate occasions and correlating the two sets of scores, after the age of 7 scores show considerable stability even over many years, correlations between IQ at age if 9 and age of 40are in 70-80 range indicating a high degree of stability. Another form of reliability is the internal consistency which has to do with consistency of measurement within the test itself. If a test is is internally consistent ,all of the items within a test are measuring the same thing, for example the items on the vocabulary subtest of the Wechsler test all correlate highly with one another.
Validity; refers to how well a test actually measures what it is designed to measure, as in case of reliability, there are several types of validity; the first is construct validity means that is the test is measuring intelligence or something else, second is the content validity which refers to whether the items on a test measure all the knowledge or skills that are assumed to comprise the construct of interest ,the third is the predictive validity which means that the results of IQ test should be useful in predicting associated factors related to IQ such as school performance. Correlation of IQ with school grades are in the 60 range for high school students and in the 30 -50 range for college students, in general people who score well on the tests tend to do well academically.
Standardization and norms; this has two facets,the first has to do with creating a well controlled or standardized environment for administering the intelligence test so that other uncontrolled factors will not influence scores ,the second facet is important in providing a meaningful score, it involve collection of norms, or test results derived from a large sample that represents particular age segments of the population. These normative scores provide a basis for interpreting a given individual's score. Normal distribution curve means that when norms are collected for mental skills, the scores usually form a bell shaped curve, with most scores clustering around the center of the curve. On intelligence tests, the center of the distribution for each age group from childhood to late adulthood is assigned an IQ score of 100 (figure8-1).
Nature of intelligence;
Current knowledge about the nature of intelligence suggest presence of two type of mental ability ,the general intelligence as Spearman and other psychologists investigated and the specific mental abilities ,hence general intelligence has been divided by Cattell and Horn(1985) into two types;
1-Crystillazed intelligence; is the ability to apply previously acquired knowledge to current problems, vocabulary and information tests are good measures of crystallized intelligence. it depends on the ability to retrieve information.
2-Fluid intelligence; it is the ability to deal with the novel problem-solving situations for which personal experience does not provide a solution, it involves inductive reasoning and creative problem-solving skills,it requires the abilities to reason abstractly ,think logically, and manage information in working (short term)so that a new problems can be solved in the mind ,the long term memory contribute strongly to crystallized intelligence and working memory to fluid intelligence. The progress in life lead to move more to the crystallized intelligence, performance on test of fluid intelligence begins to decline as people enter late adulthood (figure 8-2).
Emotional intelligence; it involves the abilities to read other's emotions accurately, to respond to them appropriately, to motivate oneself, to be aware of ones own emotions in consideration to regulation and self control.
researches about intelligence focused on electrophysiological studies of brain responses to visual and auditory stimuli which found to have some correlation with the degree of high IQ, also it was evidenced from the studies about brain metabolism,PET scans of people's brains taken while they engage in problem-solving task have shown lower levels of glucose consumption in people of high intelligence ,suggesting that their brains are working more efficiently and expending less energy.
Factors effecting intelligence;
Intelligence is highly influenced by genes; this fact was proved by twins studies and adoption studies as the case in so many psychological issues, monozygotic twins ,the correlation between the test scores of identical (monozygotic)twins would be 100,while non identical brothers and sisters share only half their genes, therefore the correlation between the test scores of fraternal twins and other siblings should be lower, also the correlation between a parent's test scores and children's scores should be approximate if not similar. Identical twins who were separated from birth and adopted by different foster families showed approximate test scores in the IQ tests ,keeping in mind the different environmental stimulations given to them ,however environment of the child has a great influence on elevating the tests scores by enriching the child's education and stimulate his/her brain by available materials. This effect is important to verify in order to avoid racial discrimination as cultural and environmental and genetic factors interact together in a complicated manner, in general a child who is reared in a dull non stimulating environment where parents could not offer educational opportunities such as poor or no schooling ,non educated neighborhood, overcrowded home, will be at disadvantage of reaching a high scores and sometimes called (cultural dullness ),the same debate I about the gender difference between the intelligence of men and women, the end result is that there are consistent differences in the average intelligence test scores of members of different racial and national group. Men and women also differ in their abilities to perform certain types of intelligence tasks ,this difference is not in the general intelligence but in the pattern of cognitive skills that men and women exhibit, men on average tend to perform better in spatial tasks ,in target-directed skills and slightly better in mathematical reasoning ,while women on average ,perform better on tests of perceptual speed, verbal fluency ,mathematical calculation and precise manual tasks requiring fine motor coordination, keeping in mind ,that men and women also vary considerably among themselves in all these skills. Biological explanations have increasingly focused on the effects of hormones on the developing brain which begins shortly after conception.
Extremes of intelligence;
There are individuals at both ends of the intelligence distribution who have exceptional mental abilities, those at the lower end called mentally retarded and those at the upper end called intellectually gifted.
Mental retardation;
Cessation of or incomplete intellectual development during childhood accompanied by impairment of social functioning, a child is compared with norms of his age
Diagnostic criteria ;intelligence tests IQ may not be constant ,does not test the educability ,it test the person capacity to solve a problem in relation to people of the same age the performance of the child with that of standardized example of his peers. Ratio of mental age to chronological age multiply by 100
Single score alone is not enough to assess the intelligence, the child s co operation, emotional upsets, physical illness ,emotional or social deprivation do influence the quality of the test results Most IQ tests are designed for use with children of school age. Normal distribution curve IQ below 70 are of subnormal intelligence.>2 standard deviations below the mean of population
Severely and modestly handicapped individuals termed pathological group in contrast to sub cultural groups who are commonly mild mentally retarded and a mixture of genetic and environmental reasons May be shortly after birth when cases are usually sever and associated with physical defects such as hydrocephaly , Microcephaly, brain injury due to birth trauma, prolonged hypoxia, or recognizable characteristics such as down syndrome which is more common is to recognize the retardation later in childhood when there is delay in their children milestone
-sitting up
-walking and talking
Sensory defect such as deafness or poor vision may handicap the child learning ability
-nutritional deficiencies or chronic illness
-emotional deprivation can affect learning capacities
-over or under expectation of the parents may gave distorted history about the child real accomplishment
In milder cases observation started at school entry due to the child deficient capacity to meet the educational requirement in addition there are other factors to be taken into consideration which are;
1- Family history of MR and the parent's educational and intellectual levels
2-pregnancy and labor; exclude drug intake, infections, radiation,
3-social and physical accomplishments
4-child capacity to cope with formal learning
Psychological assessment should be applied together with Physical and neurological examination
IQ testing and social competence may be repeated to indicate consistency
Prevalence of mental retardation is about 2% of population have IQ less than 70 with a larger population of limited intelligence who do not come to clinical encounter or prone to challenging situation
0.05% of population-------------profound IQ 20severs to moderate 0.5% of population----IQ 35 to 50
Mild 1.5% of population ------------------------IQ below 70
Profound to sever ; dependent on other, need total help, lives in institutes Profound to sever; not able to communicate, or very limited comminications.1-5%of MR cases ,need help with daily living, may be incontinent to urine and stool, physically disabled ,neurological deficit include p locomotors=ataxia ,plasticity ,chorio athetioid movements
Moderate mental retardation ; forms 20%of the cases ,often capable of some kind of independency regarding daily living ,eating ,washing ,toilet with supervision ,able to communicate adequately, in cases of sever and moderate mental retardation usually associated with organic brain lesions.
Mild mental retardation ; 50-70 75% of cases often not diagnosed as retarded may need help in daily living only when there is a problem arise ,marry and have a regular job. Mental retardation more common in males, rural areas are found to have more subculture groups ,tend to be held within their community rather than exposed to health services, more prone to infections during infancy.
Management needs medical, social and community care, in brief it has to focus on the followings;
1-education
2-day centers
3-residential care
4-hostels
5-hospital care
The intellectually gifted ;gifted children often need special educational opportunities ,they may become bored in regular classrooms and may become socially unadjusted, and even drop out of school if they are not sufficiently challenged ,an extensive study has been conducted by Lewis Terman and his colleagues on 1500 children who scored 150 on IQ test ,the research team followed them till adulthood and these children continued to exhibit high levels of adjustment throughout their adolescence and adult years, they were high achievers academically and successful in their marriages and social relationships and even enjoyed good physical health .
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