Instructors:
Raffaella Rumiati
Amount of frontal teaching:
~16 hours
ECTS:
4
Cognitive and non-cognitive factors influencing academic and life outcomes, and normal and pathological aging and the role of intelligence
Raffaella I. Rumiati, SISSA office 341, rumiati@sissa.it, https://insula.sissa.it
The course will take place in room 139
Lecture 1. Introduction to Intelligence
- Early definitions of intelligence: single factor vs multiple factors
- Construct validity and construct reliability
- Scientific definitions of intelligence (Francis Galton, James McKeen Cattell, Alfred Binet, Henry Goddard, Lewis Terman, Robert Yerkes)
- The origin of the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) tests
- The early tests: Binet and Simon’s scales, Stanford-Binet scale, the Alpha and Beta tests
Lecture 2. Testing intelligence
- Use and misuse of IQ
- Main IQ tests
- The Wechsler tests: WAIS and WISC
- Raven’s Matrices
- Comparing Raven and Wechsler
Lecture 3. General Intelligence
- Crystallized (Gc), spatial (Gv) and fluid (Gf) abilities
- General intelligence (g): Spearman’s two-factor theory
- Factor analytic approach
- Thurstone’s primary mental ability
- Guttman’s radix model
- Gs or speed and efficiency of information processing
Lecture 4. Rise and fall of intelligence?
- The Flynn effect: General features
- Differences in the Flynn effect between verbal and non-verbal tests
- The stability, development and decline of IQ
- Cross-sectional studies and longitudinal studies
Lecture 5. Multiple intelligences
- Criteria to identify these particular intelligences
- Intelligences, talents and skills?
- Independence
- Against Gardner’s theory
- Signs of intelligence
- Modularity and localization of function
- Social intelligence
- Emotional intelligence
Lecture 6. Brain & Intelligence
- Brain size
- Correlation between head size and IQ
- Brain size with MR and CT-Scans
- Neuroanatomical Correlates of Intelligence
- Global, regional and local findings of tissue-based intelligence correlates
- Cortical thickness & cortical convolution
- A distributed brain network for human intelligence
- A neural basis for general intelligence
Lecture 7. Intelligence and neuropsychological deficits
- Brief introduction to neuropsychology
- Dysexectutive Syndrome
- Frontal patients’ deficits
- Tests used (Stroop test, Winsconsin Card Sorting Test)
- Fractioning of frontal functions
- IQ and frontal lobe
- Other neuropsychological syndromes with frontal deficits
Lecture 8. Cognitive capitalism: Factors that can influence intelligence
- Human capital
- Educational attainment
- Socio economic effect (SE)
- Family background (FB)
- Social Class
- Sex
- Group differences
Lecture 9. Cognitive and non-cognitive skills
- Large scale achievement tests
- Personality: Big Five
- Other non-cognitive skills
Lecture 10. Heritability
- Education and genetics
- Intelligence and genetics
- Exceptional accomplishment & expertise
Lecture 11. Cognitive and brain reserve
- Normal and pathological ageing
- Individual differences in tumor patients
Final test