LECTURE 6
INTELLIGENCE
6.1 Introduction
In this lecture, we are going to discuss the concept of intelligence. We will examine the
meaning of the term, some of the methods devised to assess it and intellectual differences
among individuals.
6.2 Learning Outcomes
At the end of this lecture, you should be able to:
• Define intelligence and state various components of intelligence.
• Explain the various uses of intelligence tests.
• Explain how intelligence is assessed.
• Discuss the implications of intelligence on leaning.
6.3 Definition of Intelligence
What is Intelligence? Intelligence has been one of the most difficult concepts to define
in psychology. Different psychologists have defined the term intelligence differently.
Davis (1983:434) defines intelligence as “the ability to learn quickly, solve problems,
understand complex and abstract issues, and generally behave in reasonable, rational
and purposeful manner”. Huffman et al. (1995:245) defines it as the cognitive abilities
employed in acquiring, remembering and using knowledge of one’s culture to solve
everyday problems and to readily adapt to and function in both a changing and stable
environment. According to Wechsler (1975), intelligence refers to the global and
aggregate capacity of an individual to think rationally, to act purposefully and to deal
effectively with his/her environment.
Although these three definitions are more comprehensive than others, a look at what
psychologists thought to be the components of intelligence will give us a better understanding
of what it is. For a long time, psychologists could not agree on what abilities an intelligence
test should measure.
Learning Activity:
Explain some of the characteristics of intelligent people.
Give a simplified definition of intelligence in your own words.
Spearman (1927) proposed that intelligence is composed of a single factor or a general
cognitive ability that enables people to reason, solve problems and do well in all areas that
require cognition (Huffman et al., 1995). He called this general ability the g factor. Thurstone
(1938) proposed that intelligence is composed of seven distinct primary mental abilities
(PMA) that he believed were independent of each other. They included:
• verbal comprehension/ability
• world fluency
• numerical
• perceptual speed
• memory
• spatial (to do with space) ability
• reasoning.
Later Paul Guilford (1967) identified as many as 120 intellectual abilities.
Raymond Cattell proposed that intelligence consists of two components, namely crystallized
and fluid intelligence. Crystallized intelligence refers to the knowledge and experience a
person accumulates during his life and is assessed by tests of vocabulary and information
(Mwamwenda, 1995). This kind of intelligence increases with age, but may decline during old
age. Fluid intelligence, which is innate, includes a person’s ability to reason, discriminate and
engage in abstract thinking. It is genetic and consists of our capacity for learning new
knowledge and solving problems.
In 1983, Howard Gardner proposed the theory of multiple intelligence. He postulated that
intelligence consists of the following abilities:
• abilities in language.
• visual and spatial thinking.
• musical.
• body kinesthetic skills (e.g., dancing and athletic abilities).
• Intrapersonal skills (e.g., self-knowledge)
• interpersonal skills or social competence (leadership and social abilities including the
ability to show interest in others and to interact effectively with them).
Learning Activity:
Summarize all the abilities of intelligence as identified by various scholars. Give more
abilities that are not listed in this lecture.
He felt that some people tend to excel in some areas of intelligence than in others. Therefore,
intelligence testing should consist of assessing a person’s strengths in different areas rather
than coming up with a single IQ score (Gardner, 1986).
Perhaps now you understand why psychologists have had difficulties in defining the term
intelligence. Different psychologists had different views on what it is. Although many views
on the components of intelligence existed, many contemporary psychologists believe that
intelligence is composed of many different abilities but not one general ability. In view of this,
our school system should provide learning environments tailored to students’ unique strengths
and learning styles. For example, schools for performing arts, science, technology and so on.
6.4 Measuring Intelligence
Intelligence tests are used to measure a person’s level of intelligence. These tests provide a
mental age (MA) which when divided by a person’s chronological age (CA) and then
multiplied by 100 gives an intelligent quotient (IQ) measure (i.e., a score or an index of
intelligence). Thus, to determine/calculate a persons’ intelligence quotient, mental age is
divided by his chronological age and then the ratio is multiplied by 100 to eliminate decimals.
Chronological age is one’s actual age in years or his/her physical age. Mental age is a type
of score expressing mental development in terms of the age level at which a child is
performing. For example, if a 10-year-old boy does as well on an intelligence test as the
average child of 12 years, his mental age is 12. In this example, the boy’s IQ would be
calculated as follows:
IQ = MA x 100 = 12 x 100 = 1.2 X 100 = 120
CA 10
If MA equals CA, IQ will be 100 points, that is, the IQ for an average person. A person
below average will have an IQ score of less than 100 points while a person above
average will have an IQ score of above 100 points.
Like many other psychological traits, intelligence seems to be normally distributed in the
population in such a way that most people make scores in the middle range while only a few
people make very high or very low scores. Thus, the average IQ of a randomly selected group
of people on most tests would be about 100. This produces a bell-shaped distribution, a curve
which statisticians call a normal curve (see figure 6).
Figure 1: Mental classification
Approximately 2.2% of the population score 70. Only about 2.2% of population score over 130
and about 50% of the whole population score between 90-100. At the extremes of intelligence
are the mentally gifted and mentally retarded.
Learning Activity:
Using the normal curve, give an estimate of your IQ. Give reasons for your estimated IQ.
Table 22: Classification on the basis of IQ
IQ Score Description
130 – 145 Gifted
120 – 129 Superior
110 – 119 Bright normal
85 – 109 Average
70 - 84 Borderline
55 - 69 Mildly mentally retarded
40 - 54 Moderately mentally retarded
25 - 39 Severely mentally retarded
0 - 25 Profoundly mentally retarded
As you can see from table 22, individuals who score less than 70 are considered to be mentally
retarded. Some of the causes of mental retardation include:
• Down’s syndrome that involves an extra chromosome 21 in the body’s cells. The person
will have three rather than a pair of the 21st chromosome.
• Extreme environmental deprivation in the early years of life.
• Genetic inheritance.
• Prenatal environmental factors during pregnancy such as malnutrition, drugs, chemicals
and radiation.
• Birth injury.
However, in many cases there may be no known cause for the mental retardation.
IQ tests
There are many different kinds of IQ tests and each approaches the measurement of intelligence
from a different perspective. Let us have a look at some of the IQ tests that have been used.
The revised Stanford – Binet Test
This test is administered individually and measures mental age for the ages 1 – 14 years. It is
among the best known and most widely used measure of intelligence. It consists of a wide
variety of different subtests graded in difficulty so as to correspond to various age levels. It
measures four separate areas: verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, abstract/visual
reasoning and short-term memory.
Examples of questions asked of 6-year-olds are; “A bird flies; a fish ", "An inch is
short; a mile is ".
The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children
The Wechsler intelligence scale for children (WISC – R where R stands for revised in 1974)
can be administered individually (one test taker one test giver) to children between 6 and 16
years of age. It consists of 12 subtests divided into two parts, verbal tests and performance
tests. The six verbal subtest measure information, comprehension, arithmetic, similarities,
vocabulary and digit span. The six performance subtests comprise picture completion, picture
arrangement, block design, object assembly, coding and mazes. Digit span and mazes are not
used to measure normal children (Mwamwenda, 1995).
The Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT)
This is a group test of intelligence. Group tests are usually paper-and-pencil or computer
administered tests that can be given to a large group at one time. The CogAT yields verbal,
quantitative and non-verbal scores.
Otis-Lennon School Ability Test
This is another example of a paper-and-pencil test. It is used to assess school related ability.
This test measures vocabulary, reasoning and numeric ability.
The Army Alpha Test
This is one of the oldest paper-and-pencil tests to be administered, to inductees in the U.S.A.
army during World War I. It measured cognitive abilities such as mathematical reasoning,
analogies and critical judgment. Other group tests include the California Test of Mental
Maturity, the School and College Ability Test and the Differential Aptitude Test.
Some of these tests and other traditional intelligence tests have been criticized as being
culturally biased or unfair to individuals from ethnic and social groups outside the white
middle class population. As a result of this, black Americans were said to be less intelligent
than the whites. In other cases, children were placed in classes for the mentally retarded on the
basis of testing conducted in a language other than their native one (Lefrancois, 1997).
Such biases led to an attempt to devise culture-free or culture-fair intelligence tests
(measures that do not disadvantage certain groups). These tests avoid questions that depend
on a particular cultural background. This is because heredity and cultural environment are
believed to contribute towards one’s measured intelligence. Thus, performance in a particular
intelligence test may depend on the culture one has been raised in.
6.5 Uses of IQ Tests
Learning Activity:
Can your academic performance be close representation of your IQ? Explain why.
Although IQ tests are not widely used in Kenya, they have a variety of uses. IQ tests can be
used for the following purposes:
• to predict academic achievement.
• to hire and promote employees.
• to predict career success.
• to identify children with special needs such as the mentally gifted and retarded.
• to diagnose learners with learning difficulties or problems. The symptoms of such
difficulties include frustrations, anxiety, emotional disturbances, underachievement and
disruptive behaviour.
• to assign pupils to special programmes and institutions, for example, admitting students
into certain programmes in the university. Teacher recruits can be screened and placed in
different areas on the basis of their intelligence.
• assessment of maturational and developmental factors so as to predict success at elementary
school level, for example, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children.
• to determine whether individuals are functioning up to their intellectual levels.
The various uses in which IQ tests have been previously put into show that they can be used to
supplement our national examinations in decision making about learners. They can also be
used effectively in various professions such as identification of Teacher recruits especially in
selection, placement and in making decisions on training
6.6 Summary
• Theorists have differed in their definition of intelligence. Among other definitions, Davis (1983) defines
it as “the ability to learn quickly, solve problems, understand complex and abstract issues and generally
behave in a reasonable, rational and purposeful manner”.
• intelligence consists of the cognitive abilities employed in acquiring, remembering and using knowledge of
one’s culture to solve everyday problems and readily adapt to and function in both changing and stable
environment (Huffman et al., 1995).
• psychologists have differed on the components of intelligence. Some felt that it is composed of few abilities
whereas others proposed many abilities.
• IQ tests may not measure overall intelligence; rather, most of them are designed to measure verbal and
quantitative abilities needed for school success.
• people with IQs of 70 and below are identified as mentally retarded while people with IQs of 130 and above
are identified as gifted.
• Causes of mental retardation include genetic and environmental factors. For some cases of mental retardation
there may be no known cause.
• IQ tests can be used to: predict academic success, assign learners to special tasks and
recruit and make placement decisions.
? Self-Assessment Questions
1. Define intelligence and explain why psychologists found it difficult to define the
concept of intelligence.
2. List some of the components of intelligence that psychologists thought an intelligence
test should capture.
3. Giving an example, explain how intelligence is assessed.
4. What is a “culture free” or “culture fair” test of intelligence?
5. What causes mental retardation?
6. Discuss the various uses you would recommend for intelligence tests if they were to be
introduced and extensively used in the Kenyan education system.
7. Differentiate between fluid and crystallized intelligence.
8. Discuss evidence for both genetic and environmental influences on intelligence.
