Chapter 8

Intelligence and Creativity

Modified: 2025-07-03 10:51 AM CDST

I. Understanding Intelligence and Creativity (p. 239)

• A. The Psychometric Approach or Testing Approach
• B. Extremes of Intelligence
• C. Focus on measurement of intelligence (defined as set of traits that characterize individual)
• D. Goal is to identify and measure these traits
• E. Spearman theory—two-factor theory (g and s)
  • 1. Intelligence includes general mental ability (g) that contributes to performance on many different tasks
  • 2. Intelligence includes special (s) abilities specific to a task
  • 3. By adolescence, processes underlying (g) may become automated
• F. Horn and Cattell’s theory—fluid versus crystallized intelligence
  • 1. Fluid intelligence—use of mind to actively solve problems
  • 2. Verbal analogies, relations among geometric figures
  • 3. Skills not taught and relatively free of cultural influence
  • 4. Crystallized intelligence—use of knowledge acquired through experience (e.g., school, life experience) like general information, word comprehension, numeric abilities)
  • 5. Fluid involves using mind in new and flexible way; crystallized involves using what one has already learned
• G. Emerging consensus on intelligence
  • 1. A “top” general ability factor that influences performance on wide variety of cognitive tasks
  • 2. A few broad dimensions that are distinguishable on factor analyses (e.g., fluid, crystallized intelligence)
  • 3. On the “bottom,” specific skills (e.g., spatial discrimination) that impact performance on specific task
  • 4. Binet and Simon commissioned in 1904 by French government to devise a test to identify “dull” children in need of special education
  • 5. Battery of tests measuring skills believed to be critical for classroom learning (e.g., attention, memory)
  • 6. Test generated a mental age—level of age-graded problems that a child is able to solve (e.g., a 6-year-old child who solves problems at 5-year-old level has a mental age of 5)
  • 7. Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale—adaptation of Binet’s test that was developed by Lewis Terman at Stanford University for use with American children
  • 8. Terman developed a method of calculating an intelligence quotient (IQ)—calculated by dividing mental age (MA) by chronological age (CA) and multiplying by 100 (IQ = MA/CA × 100)
  • 9. IQ score of 100 indicates average level of intelligence.
  • 10.Eight-year-old child with mental age of 10 has an IQ of 125.
  • 11.Stanford-Binet now in fifth edition
  • 12.performance of a large, representative sampled
  • 13.David Wechsler developed the Wechsler Scales.
    Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI) for children between ages 3 and 8
  • 14.Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV) for schoolchildren ages 6 to 16
  • 15.Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WIAS-IV) use with adults
  • 16.Test yields a verbal IQ (based on factors like vocabulary), a performance IQ (based on nonverbal skills like puzzle assembly), and full-scale IQ (combination of verbal and performance)
  • 17.Scores on both Sanford-Binet and Wechsler Scales form a normal distribution—bell-shaped spread around average score of 100.
  • 18.Scores around average are most common; very high and low scores are rarer.
  • 19.Two-thirds of people have IQ scores between 85 and 115 (correspond to a spread of one standard deviation above and below the average).
  • 20.Fewer than 3% score above 130 (sometimes used as a criteria for giftedness) or below 70 (sometimes used as a criteria for intellectual disability)
  • 21.Emphasis on intelligence tests that summarize intellect into a single IQ score
  • 22.Critics: psychometric tests do not fully describe what it means to be intelligent
• H. The Extremes of Intelligence
  • 1. Intellectual disability: Have significantly below-average intellectual functioning (score of 70 or below on an IQ test)
  • 2. Gifted: Have an IQ score of 130 or higher or they show special abilities in areas valued by society
• I. Theories of Multiple Intelligences
  • 1. Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences
  • 2. Rejects single IQ model in favor of at least eight distinct kinds of intelligences
  • 3. Many of the types of intelligence are not found on standard intelligence tests.
  • 4. Linguistic—language skills
  • 5. Logical-mathematical—abstract thinking
  • 6. Musical—sensitivity to sound patterns
  • 7. Spatial—object perception
  • 8. Bodily-kinesthetic—body movement skills
  • 9. Interpersonal—social skills
  • 10.Intrapersonal—understanding one’s own feeling
  • 11.Naturalistic—world of plants and animals
  • 12.Does not claim that this is the definitive list of intelligence
  • 13.Savant syndrome—extraordinary talent in an intellectually disabled person
  • 14.Leslie Lemke: blind, intellectually disabled cerebral palsy, but can perfectly imitate music on piano even if he only hears it once
  • 15.Savants cannot be explained by theories emphasizing a “g” (general intelligence) factor
  • 16.Each type of intelligence may have a unique developmental course.
  • 17.Musical and athletic intelligence revealed in childhood
  • 18.Logical-mathematical intelligence revealed in later life
  • 19.Distinct intelligences linked to distinctive brain structures
• J. Sternberg's Triarchic Theory and Successful Intelligence
  • 1. Triarchic Theory—emphasis on three aspects of intellectual behavior (practical/contextual, creative/experiential, analytic)
  • 2. Practical component—intelligence defined by sociocultural context in which it is displayed (e.g., people who have adapted well to environment have “street smarts”)
  • 3. Intelligent behavior varies by context (e.g., numerical abilities less important now that calculators and computers more widely available).
  • 4. Definition of intelligence in childhood different from definition in adulthood
  • 5. Definition of intelligent behavior depends on sociocultural context in which it is displayed.
  • 6. Creative component—impact of experience (e.g., what is intelligent the first time a task is encountered may not be intelligent after extensive experience with the task)
  • 7. Response to novelty requires active, conscious information processing.
  • 8. Sternberg suggests that novel tasks best measure of intelligence
  • 9. Automatization—increased efficiency with practice (familiarity effect)
  • 10.Little “programs in the mind” for performing common actives efficiently and unthinkingly
  • 11.Must know how familiar an individual is with a task before assessing a behavior
  • 12.Cultural bias in intelligence testing—familiarity of items varies by culture
  • 13.Analytic component—information-processing skills assessed by traditional intelligence tests
  • 14.People high on this component can plan what to do, monitor progress, filter irrelevant information, and compare new information to existing knowledge.
  • 15.Sternberg focus is on how people produce intelligent answers.
  • 16.Must consider the processes used to arrive at an answer
  • 17.Must consider context in which action is performed
  • 18.Must consider analytic strategies used
  • 19.Theory of successful intelligence—intelligence is the extent to which an individual succeeds in life, according to his or her own definition of success within his or her sociocultural context (not just doing well in school)
  • 20.Individuals with successful intelligence are strong in practical, creative, and analytical areas.
  • 21.Intelligent people optimize strengths and minimize weaknesses.
  • 22.Intelligent people select or modify environments to fit them.
  • 23.Today’s widely used tests of intelligence do not reflect Sternberg’s sophisticated view of intelligence.
• K. Creativity
  • 1. Creative thinking is distinct from, and not well correlated with, IQ scores and grades.
  • 2. IQ tests measure convergent thinking—variety of solutions when there is no one correct answer
  • 3. Creativity tests assess convergent thinking—finding a variety of solutions
  • 4. Responses on divergent tasks analyzed along three dimensions
  • 5. Originality or uniqueness
  • 6. Flexibility or number of different categories expressed
  • 7. Ideation fluency—sheer number of different ideas one can generate
  • 8. Confluence—coming together of several factors to form a new product
  • 9. Sternberg argues that creativity is a confluence of factors.
  • 10.Knowledge of the field in which creativity may emerge
  • 11.A thinking style open to new ways of thinking
  • 12.Personality characteristics that include calculated risk-taking and willingness to pursue and overcome obstacles
• L. Motivation
  • 1. Environment that is supportive of creative ideas
  • 2. Sometimes having more of one component can compensate for having less of another
  • 3. High motivation to create new ideas may overcome environment that does not support this activity.
  • 4. Minimum of intelligence probably required for creativity but in those with higher IQ, there is little relationship between intelligence and creativity

II. The Infant (p. 249)

• A. Bayley Scales
  • 1. None of the standard intelligence tests can be used with children younger than 3 because of the required verbal and attention skills.
  • 2. Bailey Scales of Infant Development (1 to 42 months)
  • 3. Most widely used scale of developmental milestones (has three parts/scales)
  • 4. Motor scale (e.g., grasping)
  • 5. Mental scale (e.g., searching for hidden object)
  • 6. Behavioral record scale (e.g., emotional regulation)
  • 7. Developmental quotient (DQ)—performance compared to norms based on performance of a large group of infants of the same age
• B. Infant Intelligence as a Predictor of Later Intelligence
  • 1. Low correlation between DQ scores and later IQ scores
  • 2. Explanations for this lack of relationship
  • 3. Tests tap qualitatively different domains
  • 4. Infant intelligence based on universal maturation
  • 5. Infants “straying from path” are on temporary deviation.
  • 6. Some relationship between measures of infant attention and later IQ; predictors include:
  • 7. Speed of habituation
  • 8. Preference for novelty
  • 9. Reaction time
  • 10.“Smart” infant is a speedy processor, gets quickly bored by the same old thing, seeks novel experiences, and soaks up information rapidly.

III. The Child (p. 250)

• A. The Stability of IQ Scores during Childhood?
  • 1. IQ scores are fairly stable starting at about age 4.
  • 2. High short-term predictability
  • 3. Correlations reflect groups of children, not individuals
  • 4. Within group, stability but individual variation
  • 5. In one study, one-third of participants showed changes of 30 points
  • 6. IQ scores influenced by nonintellectual factors (e.g., motivation, testing procedures)
• B. Causes of Gain and Loss
  • 1. Fluctuation in individual IQ score greatest if child in unstable environment
  • 2. Cumulative-deficit hypothesis—IQ scores of children from impoverished environments decrease as negative effects accumulate
  • 3. Effects worse if living in poverty with low intellectually functioning parents
• C. The Emergence of Creativity
  • 1. Developmental course of creativity
  • 2. Preschool children display high levels of divergent thinking
  • 3. Fourth-grade slump in creativity
  • 4. Levels of divergent thinking rise after age 12
  • 5. Actual peaks and valleys not as large as originally reported
  • 6. What a creative child is like
  • 7. Creative children have more humor, originality, playfulness than high-IQ children
  • 8. More success oriented
  • 9. Tend to engage in more fantasy or pretend play
  • 10.Parents tend to be tolerant of unconventional ideas.
  • 11.Creativity influenced by different factors than IQ
  • 12.Genetic factors do not appear to impact creativity
  • 13.Creative children appear to value nonconformity and independence.
  • 14.Some research suggested that childhood adversity (e.g., distant parents) is driving force behind creativity but not true for all individuals.
  • 15.Factors that impact creativity quite distinct from the cognitive abilities measured on IQ tests

IV. The Adolescent (p. 253)

• A. Continuity between Childhood and Adulthood
  • 1. Rapid intellectual growth in early adolescence, then levels off
  • 2. Piaget’s formal operations stage
  • 3. Brain development may provide needed speed and working-memory capacity.
  • 4. Brain development may underlie variety of cognitive advances.
  • 5. Increasing stability of individual differences during the teen years
• B. Flynn Effect
  • 1. Flynn effect—during the 20th century, IQ scores in many countries increased
  • 2. United States, 3 to 4 IQ point increase per decade
  • 3. Adults born in 1980 will soon score 6 to 8 points higher than those born in 1960
  • 4. Full-scale IQ scores increased 18 points in last 50 years.
  • 5. Subscales as much as a 24-point increase
  • 6. Improved nutrition and living conditions important
  • 7. Children have been more the focus of their parents.
  • 8. Children more educated
• C. IQ and School Achievement
  • 1. Original purpose of IQ was to estimate how well children would do in school.
  • 2. General intellectual ability is one of the best predictors of academic achievement.
  • 3. Adolescents with high IQ scores less likely to drop out of college
  • 4. IQ scores predict high school grades but not college grades.
  • 5. Overall IQ is good predictor of academic achievement.
  • 6. IQ scores do not reflect habits, motivations, and interests.
• D. Fostering Creativity
  • 1. Timing of creativity dependent on culture and pressure to conform
  • 2. Creativity impacted by type of task
  • 3. Creative thinking stable from fourth to ninth grade, but creative feelings (e.g., curiosity, imagination) increase significantly in adolescence
  • 4. Multiple factors involved in fostering creativity
  • 5. On the nature side, talent and motivation both important
  • 6. Internal motivation and thirst for challenge are crucial.
  • 7. Willingness to take risks important
  • 8. Key is to be in environment that recognizes, values, and nurtures creativity.
  • 9. Building a knowledge base necessary but not sufficient
  • 10.Some parents may be too pushy (e.g., movie Shine)
  • 11.Do tests of creativity predict actual creative accomplishments?
  • 12.While there is some evidence, mistake to expect tests of creativity to predict creativity with much accuracy
  • 13.Creativity expressed in different ways at different points in the lifespan
  • 14.Tests of creativity require assessment of specific talents and distinct skills.

V. The Adult (p. 255)

• A. IQ and Occupational Success
  • 1. Some occupations require more intellectual ability than others (more complexity).
  • 2. General intelligence is significantly related to both income and occupational prestige.
  • 3. Gap between those with higher and lower intelligences increases with time.
  • 4. Prestige or status of occupation is not as important as the complexity of the work.
  • 5. IQs vary considerably with every occupation.
  • 6. Performance on the job also related to IQ
  • 7. Intellectually capable adults do their jobs better.
  • 8. Those with greater intellectual ability tend to earn more money.
• B. IQ and Health
  • 1. People who score higher on intelligence tests tend to live healthier and longer lives.
  • 2. Less likely to have lung cancer and cardiovascular or coronary disease
  • 3. Common explanation is that the connection between IQ and health involves socioeconomic status.
  • 4. When you control for socioeconomic status, still a connection between intelligence and health
  • 5. Monitoring health may require same skills as doing well on intelligence tests.
  • 6. Better monitoring may lead to successful management of disorder.
  • 7. Intelligent people with diabetes learn more about the disorder.
• C. Changes in IQ with Age
  • 1. Individual IQ scores remain relatively stable from pre-adolescence until well into old age.
  • 2. Depends on type of research design
  • 3. Cross-sectional design—decline in later life, but verbal IQ is essentially unchanged until late in life (Kaufman, 2001)
  • 4. Longitudinal design—some abilities decline in later life (Kaufman, 2001); verbal IQ stable, performance peak 20–24
  • 5. Sequential design (Schaie)
  • 6. Different cohorts tested at different times
  • 7. When a person is born has great impact on intellect (cohort effect)
  • 8. Different generations may have special edge in different areas.
  • 9. Young cohorts outscore older cohorts on most tests.
  • 10.Older cohorts outscore younger cohorts on tests of numeric abilities.
  • 11.Scores of verbal meaning increased until 1952 but have dropped in recent cohorts
  • 12.Fluid (skills to solve novel problems) shows decline.
  • 13.Crystallized (general knowledge) shows increase.

Do you know what the the name of the capital of Burkina Faso is? (Ouagadougou)
Do you remember that you knew it at one time? (In other words, did you ever know it? Can you recall it?)
If you did remember that is crystallized intelligence. (Something you learned and could recall.)

• 14.Performance on speeded tests declines more.
• 15.Speed loss may be related to slowing of central nervous system.
• 16.Declines in intellectual abilities generally minor until late 60s or 70s
• 17.Declines are not universal.
• 18.Range of differences in intellectual functioning of older adults extremely large
• 19.Predictors of decline
• 20.Poor health
• 21.Chronic illness and diseases related to intellectual decline
• 22.Terminal drop—rapid loss of IQ within a few years of death
• 23.Unstimulating lifestyle
• 24.Disengagement has negative impact on intellect.
• 25.Married couples can provide intellectual stimulation for each other.
• 26.Over the years, IQ scores of partners become more similar (lower-functioning partner rises to higher).
• 27.“Use it or lose it!”—more you use intellect, the less the loss
• D. Potential for Wisdom
  • 1. Erikson: older adults gain wisdom facing death and meaning of life
  • 2. Term “wise” seldom used to describe children or young adults
  • 3. Wisdom—expert knowledge in fundamental aspects of life
  • 4. Sternberg’s aspects of a wise person describe someone who can combine successful intelligence with creativity to solve problems
  • 5. Staudinger, Smith, and Baltes study of well-educated women found that:
  • 6. Wisdom is rare
  • 7. Wisdom related more to expertise (large knowledge base) than age
  • 8. Age does not predict wisdom
  • 9. Older adults who have had life experiences that sharpen insight into the human condition are more likely to display wisdom.
  • 10.Immediate social context influences degree to which wisdom is expressed.
  • 11.Wiser solutions generated when adults have the opportunity to discuss problems with someone whose judgment they value and when they reflect after the discussions
  • 12.Wisdom best thought of as combination of intelligence, personality, and cognitive style factors
• E. Creative Endeavors
  • 1. Creative production usually greatest from 20s to early 40s in most fields and then gradually declines
  • 2. Actual peak times of creativity vary by field.
  • 3. Creative productivity of scholarship in the humanities continues well into old age.
  • 4. Creative productivity in the arts often peaks in 30s and 40s.
  • 5. Creative productivity in the sciences peaks in the 40s and declines thereafter.
  • 6. Many creators produce outstanding works in old age (e.g., Michelangelo).
  • 7. Creative achievement requires both enthusiasm and experience (most likely to occur in people in their 30s and 40s).
  • 8. Simonton suggests creativity requires both ideation and elaboration.
  • 9. Ideation—generating creative ideas
  • 10.Elaboration—executing ideas to real problems
  • 11.Older people may use up stock-pile of potential ideas.
  • 12.Elderly adults do not differ from younger adults in originality of ideas, just generate fewer ideas.

VI. Factors that Influence IQ Scores over the Life Span (p. 262)

• A. Heredity and Environments
  • 1. Pioneers of the IQ testing movement believe that differences exist simply because some people inherit better genes (hereditarians position).
  • 2. Identical twin IQ scores more similar than fraternal IQ scores.
  • 3. Adopted children’s IQ (once they reach adolescence) more similar to biological parents than adoptive parent.
  • 4. As much as half of variation in IQ score attributed to genetic differences
  • 5. Even if the genetic influence is strong, no trait is set in stone.
  • 6. Genes may set upper and lower limits of behavioral expression.
  • 7. Environmental influences on intelligence
  • 8. Environmental risk factors (e.g., unemployed head of household, family with four or more children, father absent from home) predict lower IQ scores.
  • 9. Home Observation of Measurement of the Environment (HOME) inventory developed by Caldwell and Bradley to assess various aspects of environment
  • 10.Parental stimulation and responsiveness is critical.
  • 11.Amount of stimulation parents provide not as important as whether that stimulation is responsive to child’s behavior
  • 12.More intelligent parents tend to provide more stimulating environment for their children.
  • 13.Parents with greater intellect more likely to provide stimulating environments and to pass along gene related to higher intelligence
  • 14.Maternal IQ is correlated with child’s IQ at age 3 years.
  • 15.Father’s IQ less reliable predictor
  • 16.Intellectual development best when motivated, intellectually capable child receives intellectual nourishment from responsive parents
• B. Culture
  • 1. Studies finding ethnic differences in IQ spark controversy
  • 2. Some studies show differences shrinking, others see similar historic gap (e.g., Asian and European-American students score higher than African-American, Native-American, and Hispanic-American children).
  • 3. Different subcultural groups sometimes show distinctive profiles of mental abilities.
  • 4. Must remember that differences involve group averages
  • 5. Cannot predict individual IQ merely on basis of racial or ethnic identity
  • 6. Racial and ethnic difference in IQ scores may involve biased test.
  • 7. Culture bias—possible bias in test questions
  • 8. Questions may be more appropriate for middle-class children.
  • 9. Level of cultural exposure may negatively impact IQ scores.
  • 10.Culture-fair IQ tests included familiar and unfamiliar items from all ethnic or social groups.
  • 11.Stereotype threat—fear that one will be judged by the qualities associated with negative stereotypes (often racial or ethnic in nature)
  • 12.A meta-analysis found that a 40-point difference on the SAT between majority and non-majority students may be the result of stereotype threat.
  • 13.Positive stereotypes about a group can increase performance for members of that group (including racial minorities and women).
  • 14.Effects of stereotype threat may be reduced by providing students with a mentor.

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