Intelligence: A Very Short Introduction

Ian J. Deary, Oxford University Press 2001
  1. To see 'g' or not to see 'g'
  2. Ageing and intelligence: senility or sagacity
  3. Brainy?
  4. 'They f--- you up, your mum and dad
  5. The (b)right man for the job
  6. The lands of rising IQ
  7. Eleven Twelve (not-so) angry men (and women)
Notable people: psychologist Charles Spearman, psychologist John Carroll, Howard Gardner, Timothy Salthouse, Lee Willerman, Nancy Andreasen, Tony Vernon, Ted Nettlebeck, Stephen Pettrill, Alfred Binet and Theophile Simon, John and Ronda Hunter and Frank Schmidt, political scientist James Flynn, Hans Eysenck and Leon Hamin, psychology professor at Emory university Ulric Neisser, Thomas Bouchard and John Loehlin, Stephen Ceci, Nathan Brody, Robert Sternberg, Gwyneth Boodoo, A. Wade Boykin, Diane Halpern, Robert Perloff,

Terms:
Correlation - numerical float coefficient of 0 to 1 of how close one things tends to relate to another. Strong(>0.5), moderate(0.2-0.3), weak(<0.2)
Working memory - ability to both hold information and manipulate it at the same time.
WAIS-III - Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, version III (tests skills: Verbal comprehension{vocabulary, similarities, comprehension, information}, perceptual organisation{picture completion, picture arrangement, block design, matrix reasoning}, working memory{letter-number sequencing, digit span, arithmetic}, processing speed{symbol search, digit symbol coding})
Three stratum mode - of human cognitive ability; using large amounts of data, correlations were discovered and not invented(like WAIS-III). Hierarchy for general intelligence(Broad visual perception, broad auditory perception, broad retrieval ability, broad cognitive speediness, processing speed general memory and learning, crystallized intelligence, fluid intelligence)
Intelligence is a general mental capacity to reason, plan, solve, think abstractly, comprehend complexity, learn quickly, and from experience. To reflect broadness with a deeper capability for comprehensions of our environment and surroundings.
Inductive reasoning - seeing a pattern then generalizing.
Deductive reasoning - using facts to discover other facts.
Fluid intelligence - ability to solve new problems, discover patterns, use logic.
Crystallized intelligence - ability to use existing knowledge and experience.
ERP(event related potential) -  direct result of a specific sensory, cognitive, or motor event.
Iconic memory - fast decaying visual sensory memory(light on then off in dark room).
Choice reaction time - test alertness and motor speed with choices greater than one.
Simple reaction time - alertness and motor speed test with only one option.
Flynn Effect - IQ is rising from one generation to the next, either due to artefacts from testing, or due to genetic changes(see Personal Note 1) Also note of group differences, changes in population.

Briefs:
People who are good in one specialization, are good at the surrounding skills too.
We can then use data from the test to see the relation of sub-skills, then the relation of skill sets, then the relation of intelligence. We abstract away the tasks to see neural connection strengths and weaknesses of the brain processes(not brain parts) at that point in time.
The mental tasks exist in a hierarchy, which attribute values from parent to child nodes for said tasks
Howard Gardner talks about multiple intelligence that allow for unrelated traits.
Intelligence importance scale: abstract thinking/reasoning 99.3%, problem solving 97.7, capacity to acquire knowledge 96%
Memory importance scale: intelligence 80.5%, mental speed 71.7%, general knowledge 62.4%, creativity 59.6%
It is strongly correlated that people who do well on intelligence testing will do better as they age.
Logical relations(inductive reasoning) of abstract shapes declines with age, while vocabulary and numeracy remain.
Contributing factors to positive mental health at older ages: no cardiovascular/chronic disease, favourable environment with high social class, complex and intellectually stimulating environment, flexible personality style in midlife, living with spouse with high mental ability, maintaining fast brain processing speed, satisfied with life in middle age.
Age causes the slowing of speed of mental processing, diminishing general factor and its associated abilities.
As people live longer, there are more detailed questions to be asking about ageing and memory.
Modest correlation between brain size and intelligence, but we must find out why.
People with higher intelligence have faster, more complex and differently shaped electrical responses.
Difficulty in measuring single acts effects, because it is be masked by other brain activity(noise).
To single out activity, condition a repetitive response and infrequently trigger the needed unique response, then to find the constant signal of the unique responses, average all of the unique responses. All else will flat line. (Not so confident with my explanation see page 51)
More intelligent people can "sample" the world faster, making distinctions that go too quickly of others(sample may be the wrong word, I would expect the sample rate to be the same, but how fast the brain is able to process the information, because we can assume that each persons hardware is the same, but rather how effectively the software is able to process the information is the differentiation).
A counter argument would be that intelligent people are more motivated or relaxed or quicker to learn any task. Or that they are able to rely on a strategy for doing the inspection time test better. We want to find if performance is a cause of intelligence, or a consequence of intelligence differences.
People with higher intelligence, have on average shorter and less variable reaction times, although it it complex and can be affected by other things that can affect performance on intelligence tests.
Further analyzed by decomposing the selection task, into decision time and movement time.
The problem with comparing speeds to intelligence is that every test is using a different measurement, and most of the tests don't relate well to each other.
People in the same family tend to be more alike in their intelligence but that doesn't point out from where: environment, genes, nutrition, books, schooling, encouragement, health care...
Only some of humans intelligence differences have their origins in their genes, the influence of genes on intelligence grows stronger as humans grow older from 20-40% in infancy, and 60+% as we age into our 70+.
Adopted children who have never lived with their birth family will grow more similar in intelligence to their birth mother, with little effect of the environment and foster mothers intelligence as they age.
The more mentally complex the job is the more successfully the mental test score will predict the success on the job.

Personal Notes:
  1. I think although stated it wasn't genetic that it is. Environment has a small part to play but as we get older our brain/intelligence is more like our genetic parents, thus through evolution the better genes are surviving.

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