SPR L4 Intelligence and Cognitive Impairment

Question 1

Learning Outcomes

Answer 1

Aim: To explore how general cognitive skills are defined and assessed.

Learning Outcomes

• Explain what is meant by intelligence.
• Describe how intelligence is measured.
• Explain how IQ scores are interpreted and the significance of absolute cut-offs in the provision of social care.
• Discuss factors that influence IQ scores.
• Explain what is meant by specific and general learning disability.

Question 2

What is intelligence?

1. What is general mental ability?
2. What do statistic theories do?
3. What do Pedagogical Theories do?

Answer 2

1. to learn and apply knowledge to manipulate your environment, as well as the ability to reason and have abstract thought. Adaptability to a new environment or to changes in the current environment.
2. Use ‘Factor Analysis’ to examine correlations between different tasks and groups them into clusters
3. Focus on talents

Question 3

A Brief History of Intelligence Theories

Give an overview

Answer 3

• 1920s - Spearman’s ‘g’
• 1930-40s – Thurstone’s primary mental abilities
• Cattell 1970s – Fluid V Crystallised Intelligence
• Carroll (1993) – Three Strata Theory

Question 4

Outline Carroll’s Structure?

Answer 4

• Fluid Intelligence (2F)
• Crystallised Intelligence (2C)
• General Memory (2Y)
• Broad Visual Perception (2V)
• Broad Auditory Perception (2U)
• Broad Retrieval Ability (2R)
• Broad Cognitive Speediness (2S)
• Processing Speed (2T).

Question 5

Wechsler IQ

​What are the main categories to consider?

Answer 5

• Verbal Comprehension
• Working Memory Index
• Perceptual Organisation Index
  
  • ​Picture completion
  • Matrices
• Processing Speed Index (PSI)

Question 6

Wechsler IQ

What are the components of…

1. VCI - Verbal Comprehension Index
2. WMI - Working Memory Index
3. POI - Perceptual Organiation Index
4. PSI - Processing Speed index

Answer 6

1. Information (Where does a beaver live?), Comprehension (Why do we pay taxes?), Similarities (in what way are a dog and a lion similar?) Vocabulary (What does fortitude mean?)
2. See picture
3. Block Design (Replicate patterns), Picture Completion (Spot incomplete visual information), Matrix Reasoning (Identify and complete patterns) - Common Test: Raven’s Matrices)
   
   1. All IQ tests include what are known as ‘Matrix Reasoning’ problems (adapted from Raven’s Progressive Matrices).

Puzzles begin simple and become progressively more difficult. Incorrect performance results in test cessation. Speed V Power administration.

Question 7

Outline the different types of intelligences (Gardner)

Answer 7

Question 8

IQ Scores: what do they mean?

1. What is assumed?
2. What is the mean IQ?
3. What is the standard deviation?

Answer 8

1. Normal Distribution Assumed
2. Mean IQ = 100
3. 15

Question 9

IQ Scores

Lewis Terman (1916) developed the original notion of IQ and proposed this scale for classifying IQ scores:

What score is

1. Genius or near genius
2. Very superior intelligence
3. Superior intelligence
4. Normal or average intelligence
5. Dullness
6. Borderline deficiency
7. Definite feeble-mindedness

Answer 9

1. Over 140
2. 120 - 140
3. 110 - 119
4. 90 - 109
5. 80 - 89
6. 70 - 79
7. Under 70

Question 10

Evaluating IQ Tests

1. How can we evaluate reliability?
2. How can we evaluate the validity?

Answer 10

1. do we get the same answer if we measure it twice?
2. Construct: does the test measure what we want it to measure? How does it match our definition?Predictive: what is it predictive of? Is it useful? How is it useful?

Question 11

Do IQ Scores Measure Innate Ability?

1. What is the strongest evidence that IQ scores DO measure innate ability?
2. What is a mahor limitation?

Answer 11

1. Twin studies; 70% according to identical twins reared apart.
2. However, this is at a group level and is not applicable to the individual

Query: how good is the evidence in column 2? Is this actually the ideal experiment?

Question 12

IQ – Some Controversies

Outline some issues

Answer 12

Just because IQ may have a strong inherited component does not mean that genes explain group differences.

Question 13

Consensus position of Psychologists in last 20 years

​for general perusal

Answer 13

1. Intelligence exists as a very general mental capability involving ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly and learn from experience. The brain processes involved are only just being understood. [Cf. Gardener’s MI Theory]
2. Intelligence can be measured, and IQ tests measure it well, if we define intelligence that way. Nonverbal tests can be used where language skills are weak.
3. IQ tests are no longer culturally biased, [but we know that ‘culture-fair’ tests predict less].
4. IQ is more strongly related than any other measurable human trait to educational, occupational, economic, and social outcomes. Whatever it is that IQ tests measure, it is very important.

Query: SES. Does IQ measure modern western middle class view of what intelligence is? Do relationships strengthen when we use IQ tests as gate-keepers?

5. Genetics plays a bigger role than environment in intelligence, but environment has a strong effect: at a group level.
6. Individuals are not born with an unchangeable IQ, but it gradually stabilizes during childhood and changes little thereafter.

Question 14

Cognitive Epidemiology

1. Longitudinal studies have found childhood IQ can be a predictor of…?
2. Outline several theories

Answer 14

1. Mortality, Morbidity (e.g. CHD), Psychiatric Disorders, Treatment Compliance
2. IQ mediates healthy behaviours

IQ mediates SES and environment

IQ as a ‘general fitness’ factor

Question 15

Extremes of Mental Ability

Low IQ & General Cognitive Impairment

1. What is generally considered as the benchmark for “general learning disability”, and what is this?
2. Outline the 4 levels of severity of general learning disability

Answer 15

1. An IQ under 70 a condition of limited mental ability in that it produces difficulty in adapting to the demands of life.
2. 50-70 - Mild (85%), 35-50 - Moderate (10%) 20-35 - Severe (4%), < 20 - Profound (1%)

Question 16

Mild General Disability

What does this mean?

Answer 16

• Perform certain mental operations more slowly.
• Not good at using particular mental strategies that may be important in learning and problem solving.
• Know fewer facts about the world.
• Deficits in metacognition and metamemory.
• RCPsych Factsheet on General Learning Disability: http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/expertadvice/youthinfo/parentscarers/disorders/generallearningdisability.aspx

Question 17

Specific Learning Disability

What are the indicators of this?

Answer 17

• School failure.
• Hates doing homework.
• Slow in written tasks.
• Weak in dictation.
• Frequent errors in reading and writing. Frequent association with emotional and behavioural problems (e.g. inattentive and overactive behaviour, conduct disorder)

Question 18

Summary

for general perusal

Answer 18

• Only a tiny percentage of people are gifted with regards to IQ and considered to be in the ‘genius category’.
• High IQ is a good predictor of economic and academic success but not extremes of success or what we would consider ‘creativity’.
• General Cognitive Impairment is IQ<70.
• Diagnosis is not based only on IQ scores, but must also take into consideration a person’s adaptive functioning.
• People with specific learning disabilities have IQs in the normal range but IQ can be lowered if disability is not addressed adequately/considered when testing.

Question 19

Reading

2 chapters

Answer 19

Intelligence:

–Summarise what intelligence tests measure.

–Explain what an IQ score of 65 means (i) statistically and (ii) practically.

–Describe some of the reasons for racial group differences in IQ .

–Why might we find no group differences in IQ between men and women?

–How is intelligence related to health?

–What evidence exists that IQ can change over time?

–What evidence exists to support the contrary view?

Learning Disability

–How have changes in healthcare altered the prevalence and demographic profile of people with a general learning disability?

–List causes of general learning disability.

–What secondary problems can people with a general learning disability experience?

–List the principles that underlie service delivery to people with a learning disability.