Intelligence Development - GRE Subject Test: Psychology

Animism, or the belief that objects are alive and have personalities, is a common childhood belief, which was extensively studied by Jean Piaget. Piaget attributed animism to a failure of the child to distinguish its own interior world from its exterior world.

Gardner's "logical-mathematical" intelligence, the correct response, refers to the ability to analyze problems, solve mathematical equations, detect patterns, and think logically. Multiple theories of intelligence have been developed within the field of Intelligence Development. Howard Gardner is one of these theorists. He provides a seven-faceted model of intelligence that includes the types listed in the response choices. "Linguistic" is incorrect as it refers to the individual’s command of language. "Spatial" is incorrect because it refers to the individual’s ability to manipulate and work with physical objects. "Interpersonal" is also incorrect because it captures one’s ability to successfully navigate social interactions and relationships.

Bloom's Taxonomy contains six cognitive levels that a student progresses through as intellectual capacities increase. Here, they are listed in ascending order of complexity: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Bloom and his followers posited that by assessing a student's level of intellectual capacity, educators could best meet and test their students' learning development.

Bloom's Taxonomy contains six cognitive levels that a student progresses through as intellectual capacities increase. Here, they are listed in ascending order of complexity: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. According to Bloom, the level of "synthesis" is being exercised when the student is peicing together elments or parts to form a whole.

The Flynn Effect can be described as the significant statistical research finding that intelligence, as measured by standardized tests, has increased across time in first world nations. That is, the average scores on intelligence tests have been climbing over the last several decades. For example, where the average score on a standardized intelligence test in the 1950's was 100, examinees today would score on average closer to 105. This has required a restandardization of normative data and has led researchers to investigate the phenomenon.

Thurstone concentrated on only three areas of intelligence, which he called Primary Mental Abilities. His three Primary Mental Abilities are comparable to three of the four indices of the Weschler intelligence scales which have become the gold standard of intelligence testing; however, "working memory," which is measured by the Weschler set of tests, is not considered by Thurstone.

Similar to Thurstone's Primary Mental Abilities, the Stanford-Binet intelligence test focuses on three and not four (as with the Weschler scales) primary areas of intelligence. The Stanford-Binet, however, includes working memory in place of perceptual speed whereas Thurstone includes perceptual speed to the exclusion of working memory. As such, "perceptual speed" is not an index of intelligence measured by the Stanford-Binet.

Bloom's Taxonomy contains six cognitive levels that a student progresses through as intellectual capacities increase. Here, they are listed in ascending order of complexity: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Bloom and his followers posited that by assessing a student's level of intellectual capacity, educators could best meet and test their students' learning development. In Bloom's 6-tiered model, "evaluation" is at the peak and refers to the ability to render informed judgements by effectively comparing and discriminating among ideas.

Spearman's theory of intelligence development is famous for its "g" factor, that is a general underlying intelligence that accounts for mental performance. This should not be confused with "s" factors which do not refer to Spearman's factors. Rather, "s" factors refer to specific intellectual abilities which build on the underlying "g" factor. The other theorists listed as possibilities all considered intelligence to be comprised of multiple facets with no single underlying factor.

It was Louis Thurstone who contributed to our understanding of intelligence development with his theory of Primary Mental Abilities. These Primary Mental Abilities included spatial and verbal Abilities as well as perceptual speed. Spearman is remembered for promoting an underlying general ("g") factor of intelligence. Binet devised a model of intelligence that included three primary facets, but his focus was on crystallized and fluid sources of knowledge as well as short-term memory. Sternburg also promoted a three-part model of intelligence, but his components were componential, experiential, and contexutal sources of intelligence.

Bloom's Taxonomy contains six cognitive levels that a student progresses through as intellectual capacities increase. Here, they are listed in ascending order of complexity: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. In Bloom's Taxonomy, "analysis" is a higher level skill which requires the ability of the learner to deconstruct information into its various parts in such a way that the relationship and order between those parts can be clearly expressed. "Application" is a lower level ability, while the other two selections ("synthesis" and "evaluation") supercede analysis in complexity.

Inspired by technological innovations with computers, Robert Sternberg proposed his information processing theory of intelligence wherein our intellectual ability was proposed to be comprised of three different components: Metacomponents, performance components and knowledge-acquisition components. Using computer analogies, these components work together as processors and memory stores capable of carrying out mental tasks. On the other hand, Gardner focused on types of intelligence and not on the way intelligence was processed. Binet's approach was similar in this regard. As for Goleman, he focused on emotion and an individual's ability to manage his own emotions as well as respond effectively to the emotions of others.

Daniel Goleman's contributed to the field of intelligence development in a major way by drawing attention to the importance of emotions as a marker of sucess in personal and interpersonal functioning. He posited that those with high levels of emotional intelligence were just as likely to acheive the goals and marks of sucess as those with standard indicators of high intelligence (i.e., strong performance on fluid, crystallized, perceptual, and working memory tasks). Binet and Wechsler were proponents of the standard indicators of intelligence just referred to in the previous sentence. Gardner had a broader concept of intelligence that included intrapersonal and interpersonal aspects which are comparable to Goleman's model; however, Gardner's model did not focus wholly and exclusively on emotion the way Goleman's did.

According to Vygotsky, guidance, tutoring, and modeling are necessary to help children demonstrate the abilities and skills that exist in their zone of proximal development. For example, a student struggling with writing skills is able to write at a certain level on her own, and with the guidance of a tutor can improve her skills. In this example, the discrepancy between the child's two writing levels constitutes the zone of proximal development.

It has been observed that as humans age some abilities decline while others improve. Researches have noted that over time crystallized intelligence tends to remain stable—or even increase.

Bobby is unable to demonstrate conservation, or the understanding that quantity does not change just because appearance does. This concept develops during the concrete operational stage of development. The preoperational stage is characterized by the inability to conserve, egocentrism, animism, pretend play, and use of symbols; therefore, Bobby is in the preoperational stage. Note that while the question describes conservation, this is not the name of one of Piaget's stages.

Jean Piaget introduced the four stages of cognitive development: Sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. Piaget was most concerned with the cognitive development of children that included abilities such as conservation and abstract thought. Erikson studied psychosocial development across the entire lifespan, Freud studied psychosexual development from birth to adolescence; and Thomas along with his colleague Stella Chess studied temperament, a precursor to personality.

Assimilation and accommodation both have to do with schemas and cognitive development. Assimilation is a process through which new information is incorporated into an existing schema. Accommodation occurs when an individual's schema is altered to fit new information. Therefore, in this case, the child has accommodated their existing schema to fit new information (that there are other names besides "cat" for furry four legged creatures). Sublimation is a defense mechanism coined by Freud and centration is the tendency for children to focus on one aspect of a problem even when two or more aspects may be relevant.

Gardner's "logical-mathematical" intelligence, the correct response, refers to the ability to analyze problems, solve mathematical equations, detect patterns, and think logically. Multiple theories of intelligence have been developed within the field of Intelligence Development. Howard Gardner is one of these theorists. He provides a seven-faceted model of intelligence that includes the types listed in the response choices. "Linguistic" is incorrect as it refers to the individual’s command of language. "Spatial" is incorrect because it refers to the individual’s ability to manipulate and work with physical objects. "Interpersonal" is also incorrect because it captures one’s ability to successfully navigate social interactions and relationships.