Deck 29: Introduction to Intelligence

Question 1

Most experts view intelligence as a person's

A) ability to perform well on intelligence tests.
B) innate mental capacity.
C) ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and adapt to new situations.
D) diverse skills acquired throughout life.

Answer 1

ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and adapt to new situations.

Question 2

When Phoebe strongly disagrees with her sister's opinion, she effectively controls her own anger and responds with empathy to her sister's frustration regarding their dispute. Her behavior best illustrates

A) factor analysis.
B) analytic intelligence.
C) divergent thinking.
D) emotional intelligence.

Answer 2

emotional intelligence.

Question 3

University students who focus on the interest and challenge of their schoolwork rather than on simply meeting deadlines and securing good grades are especially likely to demonstrate

A) emotional intelligence.
B) creativity.
C) savant syndrome.
D) convergent thinking.

Answer 3

creativity.

Question 4

In recent years, researchers are more likely than before to consider intelligence as

A) a single entity.
B) primarily determined by heredity.
C) entirely the product of learning.
D) made up of several abilities.

Question 5

Experts would most likely agree that intelligence is a(n)

A) inborn ability to perform well on standard intelligence tests.
B) mental ability to learn from experience.
C) general trait that underlies success on nearly any task.
D) multiple array of completely independent adaptive traits.

Question 6

Psychologists use ________ to assess individuals' mental aptitudes and compare them with those of others.

A) factor analysis
B) reliability coefficients
C) intelligence tests
D) the g factor

Question 7

When highly skilled people are performing a task, their brains

A) retrieve information from memory more quickly.
B) register simple stimuli more quickly.
C) use less energy to solve problems.
D) do all of these things.

Question 8

When Andy becomes upset about getting a poor grade, he typically fails to realize that he feels scared. This lack of self-insight best illustrates an inadequate level of

A) the g factor.
B) intrinsic motivation.
C) factor analysis.
D) emotional intelligence.

Question 9

Which of the following best describes the relationship between creativity and intelligence?

A) Creativity appears to depend on the ability to think imaginatively and has little if any relationship to intelligence.
B) Creativity is best understood as a certain kind of intelligence.
C) The more intelligent a person is, the greater his or her creativity.
D) A certain level of intelligence is necessary but not sufficient for creativity.

Question 10

To learn whether intelligence is related to information-processing speed, researchers have tested participants to determine how long it takes them to

A) copy the letters of the alphabet.
B) calculate intelligence quotients.
C) count from 1 to 10.
D) perceive briefly present visual images.

Question 11

Although diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and hardly able to speak coherently, 18-year-old Andrew can produce intricate and detailed drawings of scenes he has viewed only once. Andrew illustrates a condition known as

A) g factor.
B) Down syndrome.
C) emotional intelligence.
D) savant syndrome.

Question 12

The psychologist who has proposed that intelligence is composed of analytic, creative, and practical aspects is

A) Charles Spearman.
B) Howard Gardner.
C) Robert Sternberg.
D) Sandra Scarr.

Question 13

The concept of a g factor implies that intelligence

A) is a single overall ability.
B) is several specific abilities.
C) cannot be defined or measured.
D) is a socially constructed concept.

Question 14

The existence of ________ reinforces the generally accepted notion that intelligence is a multidimensional quality.

A) adaptive skills
B) the g factor
C) general intelligence
D) savant syndrome

Question 15

Who would have been most enthusiastic about the value of a single intelligence test score as an index of an individual's mental capacities?

A) L. L. Thurstone
B) Charles Spearman
C) Howard Gardner
D) Robert Sternberg

Question 16

Superior performance on an intelligence test is most likely to be indicative of

A) Sternberg's concept of analytical intelligence.
B) Gardner's concept of athletic intelligence.
C) Thurstone's concept of social intelligence.
D) Salovey and Mayer's concept of emotional intelligence.

Question 17

Which procedure is used to identify different dimensions of performance that underlie people's intelligence scores?

A) inspection time task
B) fMRI
C) genetic estimates
D) factor analysis

Question 18

Spearman's g factor refers to

A) the genetic contribution to intelligence.
B) a general intelligence that underlies successful performance on a wide variety of tasks.
C) a highly developed skill or talent possessed by a person with an otherwise limited mental ability.
D) the ability to understand and regulate emotions.

Question 19

Managers who want to foster creativity in the workplace should try to increase the ________ of their employees.

A) convergent thinking
B) factor analysis
C) intrinsic motivation
D) emotional intelligence

Question 20

The characteristics of savant syndrome most directly suggest that intelligence is

A) a diverse set of distinct abilities.
B) largely unpredictable and unmeasurable.
C) a culturally constructed concept.
D) dependent upon the speed of cognitive processing.

Question 21

People with savant syndrome are best described as those who demonstrate

A) high levels of emotional intelligence.
B) difficulty remembering past experiences.
C) an exceptional specific skill.
D) a lack of numerical ability.

Question 22

Howard Gardner identified a total of ________ intelligences.

A) three
B) five
C) eight
D) twelve

Question 23

Which of the following persons best illustrates Sternberg's concept of practical intelligence?

A) Jamal, a student who quickly recognizes the correct answers to multiple-choice test questions
B) Gareth, a graduate student who generates many creative ideas
C) Shelley, a newspaper reporter who has established a large network of information sources
D) Cindy, a young mother who prefers cleaning her house to supervising her children

Question 24

Compared with traditional college entrance exams, assessments that include tests of Sternberg's three intelligences reveal ________ ethnic group differences in intelligence and ________ accurate prediction of American students' first-year grades.

A) increased; less
B) reduced; less
C) increased; more
D) reduced; more

Question 25

Generating multiple possible answers to a problem illustrates

A) analytical intelligence.
B) divergent thinking.
C) perceptual speed.
D) factor analysis.

Question 26

To assess whether intelligence is a single trait or a collection of several distinct abilities, psychologists have made extensive use of

A) the normal curve.
B) the Flynn effect.
C) standardization.
D) factor analysis.

Question 27

Robert Sternberg distinguished among analytical, practical, and ________ intelligence.

A) intrapersonal
B) creative
C) spatial
D) musical

Question 28

In 8 to 10 seconds, the late memory whiz Kim Peek could read and remember the contents of a book page. Yet, he had little capacity for understanding abstract concepts. Kim's mental capacities best illustrate

A) autism spectrum disorder.
B) Down syndrome.
C) emotional intelligence.
D) savant syndrome.

Question 29

By demonstrating both intelligence and grit, highly successful people demonstrate the importance of both ability and

A) creativity.
B) problem solving.
C) motivation.
D) aptitude.

Question 30

The most creative scientists are those who

A) investigate issues about which they have very little previous knowledge.
B) are intrinsically motivated to solve problems.
C) have little tolerance for ambiguity.
D) demonstrate low levels of practical intelligence.

Question 31

L. L. Thurstone identified seven clusters of primary mental abilities, including word fluency, memory, and inductive reasoning. He claimed that word fluency

A) underlies all of our intelligent behaviors.
B) is the most difficult mental ability to assess reliably.
C) involves a different dimension of intelligence from that of reasoning.
D) is not actually a form of intelligence.

Question 32

The ability to produce novel and valuable ideas is called

A) convergent thinking.
B) savant syndrome.
C) factor analysis.
D) creativity.

Question 33

Compared with Gardner, Sternberg has identified ______ independent dimensions of intelligence and his forms of intelligence have been ______ reliably measured.

A) more; more
B) fewer; less
C) more; less
D) fewer; more

Question 34

Satoshi Kanazawa claims that people's scores on the general intelligence factor are most highly correlated with their ability to solve ________ problems.

A) emotional
B) sexual
C) social
D) novel

Question 35

Twenty-five-year-old Alexandra has an intellectual disability and can neither read nor write. However, after hearing lengthy, unfamiliar, and complex musical selections just once, she can reproduce them precisely on the piano. It is likely that Alexandra is

A) gifted with a superior level of Spearman's g factor.
B) demonstrating a high level of emotional intelligence.
C) above average in her capacity for divergent thinking.
D) someone with savant syndrome.

Question 36

Intrinsic motivation is thought to be an important component of

A) creativity.
B) emotional intelligence.
C) savant syndrome.
D) the g factor.

Question 37

Injury to the left ________ lobe damages the convergent thinking required for successful performance on intelligence tests.

A) frontal
B) parietal
C) occipital
D) temporal

Question 38

Factor analysis is a statistical procedure that can be used to

A) derive IQ scores by comparing mental age with chronological age.
B) develop test norms from a standardization sample.
C) identify clusters of closely related test items.
D) provide a numerical estimate of heritability.

Question 39

Howard Gardner is most likely to agree that the concept of intelligence includes

A) minimizing one's negative emotions.
B) spatially analyzing visual input.
C) intrinsic motivation.
D) behaving morally.

Question 40

Those who define intelligence as academic aptitude are most likely to criticize

A) Spearman's concept of general intelligence.
B) Thurstone's concept of inductive reasoning.
C) Gardner's concept of multiple intelligences.
D) Sternberg's concept of analytical intelligence.

Question 41

Efficient communication between brain centers requires ample white matter containing

A) neural cell bodies.
B) dendrites
C) sensory neurons.
D) axons.

Question 42

Studies suggest that there is a positive correlation between intelligence and the brain's

A) rate of glucose consumption.
B) production of endorphins.
C) ability to quickly perceive a simple visual stimulus.
D) ability to process language in the right rather than the left hemisphere.

Question 43

The concept of emotional intelligence is most likely to be criticized for

A) lacking definitional clarity.
B) being indistinguishable from analytical intelligence.
C) being difficult to measure reliably.
D) extending the definition of intelligence to an overly broad range of skills.

Question 44

Precocious 12- to 14-year-old college students with unusually high levels of verbal intelligence are most likely to

A) retrieve information from memory at an unusually rapid speed.
B) perform at only an average level on tests of mathematical aptitude.
C) experience less loneliness and achieve happier marriages than the average college student.
D) demonstrate unusually high levels of the practical managerial intelligence common to successful business executives.

Question 45

Brain size (adjusted for body size) is ________ correlated with intelligence. The speed of taking in perceptual information is ________ correlated with intelligence.

A) positively; negatively
B) negatively; positively
C) positively; positively
D) negatively; negatively

Question 46

When Professor McGuire asks her students to answer questions in class, she can quickly tell from their facial expressions whether they are happy to participate. Professor McGuire's perceptual skill best illustrates

A) analytical intelligence.
B) divergent thinking.
C) emotional intelligence.
D) factor analysis.

Question 47

Although Nicole scored well above average on an academic aptitude test, she frequently loses her temper and needlessly antagonizes even her best friends. Her behavior best illustrates a low level of

A) convergent thinking.
B) the g factor.
C) analytical thinking.
D) emotional intelligence.

Question 48

Brain scans indicate that smart people

A) have more gray matter but less white matter than the average person.
B) require less energy to solve problems than the average person.
C) demonstrate no greater fluid intelligence than the average person.
D) have smaller parietal lobes than the average person.

Question 49

An important aspect of social intelligence is called

A) the g factor.
B) analytical intelligence.
C) hybrid vigor.
D) emotional intelligence.

Question 50

Allowing time for complex ideas to incubate outside of conscious awareness is most likely to promote

A) extrinsic motivation.
B) hybrid vigor.
C) factor analysis.
D) creativity.

Question 51

The lower region of the ________ lobe is a center for processing mathematical and spatial information.

A) frontal
B) parietal
C) occipital
D) temporal

Question 52

Associations between intelligence and brain size are most notable in specific areas within the

A) frontal and temporal lobes.
B) parietal and occipital lobes.
C) frontal and parietal lobes.
D) temporal and occipital lobes.

Question 53

The ability to delay immediate pleasures in pursuit of long-range rewards is most clearly a characteristic of

A) emotional intelligence.
B) convergent thinking.
C) savant syndrome.
D) divergent thinking.

Question 54

Although Susan is a brilliant pianist and highly acclaimed ballet dancer, her high school intelligence test scores were only average. What does Susan's experience suggest regarding the nature of intelligence.