Introduction to Course and Intelligence.pptx

intelligence

1. Introduction to Course and Intelligence HUDK 5023: Cognitive Development

2. General Information Professor: Dr Lauren Young Email: [email protected] Office Location: GDH 470 Office Hours: Tuesday 2:50-3:50pm; Thursday 11:30-12:30; on Zoom by appointment Course Assistant: Ishaq Chowdhury, [email protected] This course provides a look at the emergence of human mental abilities in infants, children, and beyond, particularly with regard to aspects of the surroundings environment. Readings are posted online

3. Expectations Attend the lectures and do the readings! You are responsible for catching up on material you missed during an absence. Turn in assignments on time (penalty is 10% off per day) TURN IN HARD COPIES FOR ALL ASSIGNMENTS ! Laptop/tablets for class relevant activities only. Please put phones away. Speak up!

4. Assessments Project Track 10% Class Participation (attendance and discussion participation) 30% Midterm 30% Final 30% Child Cognition Comparison Project. Writing Track 10% Class Participation (attendance and discussion participation) 30% Midterm 30% Final 30% average grade on 3 short writing assignments to be described in more detail later. You will formalize your decision about which “grading track” you’re on when you submit (or not) the first paper on its due date (February 21 th ). After that point, you’re committed(!) to one track or the other. No changes allowed thereafter.

5. Cognitive Development and Knowledge

6. Cognitive Development The study of how children come to be able to think and learn. Includes perceptive abilities, social understanding, and the ability to participate in symbolic knowledge, much of which underlies what we learn in school. Two views of the mind: One large flexible system that adapts via experience to be able to handle all possible life experiences (think cognitive psychology and neural networks) Many smaller special purpose mechanisms which are shaped by evolution to perform a specific function

7. Core Knowledge Spelke, E. S., & Kinzler, K. D. (2007). Core knowledge. Developmental science , 10 (1), 89-96. “Humans are endowed with a small number of separable systems of core knowledge.” These serve as the foundation for acquired skills and knowledge. Object representation Agents and goal-directed actions Number Spatial * Social partners and group members

8. Intelligence

9. What is intelligence?

10. Definition [Intelligence] . . . involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly and learn from experience. It is not merely book learning, a narrow academic skill, or test-taking smarts. Rather it reflects a broader and deeper capability for comprehending our surroundings—“catching on,” “making sense” of things, or “figuring out” what to do. (p. 13) Gottfredson, L. S. (1997). Mainstream science on intelligence: An editorial with 52 signatories, history, and bibliography. Intelligence, 24(1), 13–23.

11. g “General intelligence factor” people who do well on one kind of ability test also tend to do well on others One of the tests held up by authors as being a test of pure intelligence (a way to measure g) is the Raven’s Progressive Matrices Arthur Jensen: https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/arthur-jensen

12. IQ Test Development Originated from a desire to identify children “as quantifiable resources, more or less worthy of future investment” Development of the Binet test (Stanford-Binet) was to work backwards from the performance of groups of typically developing and atypically developing children on sets of questions to assign a “mental age” Questions were items like memory for facts, defining common words, verbal and arithmetic reasoning , sentence construction There is variance when we measure groups - where does it come from?

13. IQ Heritable, yes, but not an essential inborn quality; heritability does not mean unmodifiable (18 point increase from 1948 -2002) While it may never be 0, it is much lower among children in poverty, and adoption out of poverty is associated with 12-18 point increase Racial IQ differe nces don’t offer suppor t to the heritability argument because the measured IQ can reflect social issues, and the interaction of genes and environment- all of which can be amplified over time (Flynn, 2003) There is currently no reason at all to think that any significant portion of the IQ differences among socially defined racial groups is genetic in origin. Flynn, J. R. (2003). Movies about intelligence: The limitations of g. Current Directions in Psychological Science , 12 (3), 95-99. Turkheimer, E., Harden, K. P., & Nisbett, R. E. (2017). Charles Murray is once again peddling junk science about race and IQ. Vox .

14. IQ tests, the items of which are designed by members of a rather narrow social class, will tend to test for the acquisition of a rather particular set of cultural tools: in effect, to test, or screen, for individuals’ psychological proximity to that set per se, regardless of intellectual complexity or superiority as such Richardson, K. (2002). What IQ tests test. Theory & Psychology , 12 (3), 283-314.

15. “Culture is…the technologies of the intellect…” Different classes and groups will utilize different “cultural tools” of society to different extents Parents will be differentially prepared to use those tools which will be passed down to children This includes specific forms of language (how questions/answers are shaped) Thus there is no such thing as a culture-free test Richardson, K. (2002). What IQ tests test. Theory & Psychology , 12 (3), 283-314.

16. IQ Tests IQ tests can allow for tracking over time and of interventions They are predictive of some outcomes… why might that be? Sternberg advocates for a view of IQ that encompasses analytic, practical and creative skills - more predictive than the analytical only measurements One view is the IQ tells us about ability, which can be considered to be a form of developing expertise What types of expertise are needed to do when on an IQ test? Why might scores between two testers differ?