How do we acquire language?

·        B.F. Skinner

§         Reinforcement

§         Punishment

·        Noam Chomsky

§         Language is too “generative” (you can express language in many ways)

§         Innate (We already have the ability to speak when born)

§         “Language Acquisition Device” (Hajmai learned Japanese and then American)

 

Intelligence

·        What is?

·        Many different views

·        Two approaches (what is intelligence?)

§         Psychometric

§         Cognitive (more recent)

·        Psychometric

§         Use statistics – factor analysis

§         Give a bunch of items (questions, test items)

§         Identify which items are correlated

§         Identify clusters (groups of questions/test items that are similar)

·        Cognitive Approach

§         “How do we solve problem?”

§         Instead of “How well can we solve problem” (did well on a test, so test to see how studied, and habits that allowed you to perform well.)

Big Question

·        How many abilities make up intelligence

Big Answer

·        No one knows

Charles Spearman (traditional view)

·        One of first with factor analysis

·        Conducted a factor analysis

·        A single task correlates with all the others

·        One factor – “g” (general)

·        But, we are not good at everything

·        In fact, correlation is not perfect

·        Need another concept – “s” (specific)

Raymond Cattell

·        Accepted Spearman’s idea

·        But, “g” has two components

§         Crystallized – ability to use learned skill and knowledge in solving problems

§         Fluid – ability to learn or invent ne strategies

Look at..

·        Savant syndrome

·        Have remarkable specific ability

Robert Sternberg

·        Agrees that we have multiple abilities

·        Intelligence is based on the interaction among three components

So…

·        No agreement

Then…

·        How to measure intelligence?

·        One popular approach

§         Binet tradition

Alfred Binet

·        Asked to identify children who need to be in special education classes

·        With Simon

·        Administered many questions

·        Grouped them into different age groups

·        Idea – Identify “mental age”

IQ (Intelligence Quotient)

·        Lewis Terman

Mental age

---------------                    x 100   = IQ

Chronological age

·        We don’t use this any more

But…

·        We are measuring something we don’t know

Good Test

1.      Standardization

§         Administer and interpret the same way every time

§         So, 120 points – Good or bad?

§         Relative to what? (highest score, what out of)

§         Need “norms”

§         Need a large enough representative sample to develop

2.      Objectivity (No problem determining results true/false a/b)

3.      Utility (can’t use some test because they are meaningless)

4.      Reliability

§         Scores must be consistent across testing

5.      Validity

§         Test must measure what it is supposed to measure

Good Tests

·        Many

·        Stanford – Binet (oldest)

·        WAIS and WISC

§         Verbal and Performance tests

·        Raven’s progressive matrices test

§         Culture reduced test

·        SAT and ACT

Heredity or Environment?

·        Identical twins raised together 1st Identical twins raised apart 2nd Fraternal Twins raised together 3rd Fraternal Twins raised apart 4th Siblings raised together 5th ect…

Many are Convinced that…

·        Both heredity and environment are important