Question

Provide a brief overview of at least two theories of intelligence related to the content of your elementary school children to help their parents, understand what intelligence testing accomplishes?

Discuss methods of measuring intellectual functioning?

Discuss how the concept of intelligence is different from academic achievement?

Answer 1

Intelligence Tests are administered to measure the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) of an individual. Intelligence Tests were first introduced to diagnose slow learners or children with mental retardation.

Determining how well an intelligence test works also depends on the kind of test chosen to be administered on a population. There are different kind of tests; Individual tests, group tests, verbal tests which is a pencil and paper test wherein a person is instructed in written language, which obviously means that the test taker must be literate, performance tests, are tests which does not include language, it can be administered to literate, illiterate, speech defectives, non-language tests, are most suited for differently abled and subnormals.

Most intelligence tests are a combination of memory, verbal associations, spatial reasoning, learning, thinking, problem-solving and etcetera. The population that the test is administered upon is important to consider as Cognitive intelligence is dependent on an individual's education, upbringing, culture, social classes and races.

It is important to choose the right test on the right population for the intelligence test to work well.

There are different types of intelligence. Different theories of intelligence emphasize on multiple intelligence. However, Raymond Cattell developed a theory of intelligence in which he emphasized on two types of intelligence; fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence. Fluid intelligence refers to the ability to solve problems, applying logic to new situations. For instance, you learn a new formula in Math, you are given a few different kinds of problems, you use logic and reasoning to solve the problems accordingly. Crystallized intelligence on the other hand refers to the knowledge and information that has been acquired and stored over time. For instance, your vocabulary increases only with age. A child's vocabulary at the age of 10 is limited in comparison to a child who is 18.

Intelligence has little to do with academic achievement. There are individuals who may be nil at academics but would do wonders in their job due to emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence refers to the ability of an individual to be empathetic towards others.