Chapter 10. Intelligence and Language
Chapter Resources
Dinesh Ramoo
Key Takeaways
Key Takeaways
- Intelligence is the ability to think, to learn from experience, to solve problems, and to adapt to new situations. Intelligence is important because it has an impact on many human behaviours.
- Psychologists believe that there is a construct, known as general intelligence (g), that accounts for the overall differences in intelligence among people.
- There is also evidence for specific intelligences (s), which are measures of specific skills in narrow domains, including creativity and practical intelligence.
- The intelligence quotient (IQ) is a measure of intelligence that is adjusted for age. The Wechsler Adult lntelligence Scale (WAIS) is the most widely used IQ test for adults.
- Brain volume, speed of neural transmission, and working memory capacity are related to IQ.
- Between 40% and 80% of the variability in IQ is due to genetics, meaning that overall genetics plays a bigger role than environment does in creating IQ differences among individuals.
- Intelligence is improved by education and may be hindered by environmental factors such as poverty.
- Emotional intelligence refers to the ability to identify, assess, manage, and control one’s emotions. People who are better able to regulate their behaviours and emotions are also more successful in their personal and social encounters.
- Intellectual disability is a generalised disorder for people who have an IQ below 70, who have experienced deficits since childhood, and who have trouble with basic life skills, such as dressing and feeding themselves and communicating with others. One cause of intellectual disability is Down syndrome.
- Men and women have almost identical intelligence, but men have more variability in their IQ scores than women do.
- The observed average differences in intelligence between racial and ethnic groups is controversial.
- Intelligence is a controversial topic in Psychology. The field of eugenics spread misinformation about intelligence and race/ethnicity and gender, which has contributed to the long-lasting oppression of BIPOC people.
- Definitions of intelligence vary across cultures. In the West, intelligence is conceptualised as a complex characteristic of cognition.
- Various theories have been developed to explain what intelligence is and how it works. Sternberg generated his Triarchic theory of intelligence, whereas Gardner suggests that intelligence is comprised of many factors. Still others focus on the importance of emotional intelligence.
- The situation in which one takes a test may create stereotype threat, whereby performance decrements are caused by the knowledge of cultural stereotypes.
- Language involves both the ability to comprehend spoken and written words and to speak and write. Some languages are sign languages, in which the communication is expressed by movements of the hands.
- Phonemes are the elementary sounds of our language, morphemes are the smallest units of meaningful language, syntax is the grammatical rules that control how words are put together, and contextual information is the elements of communication that help us understand its meaning.
- Gossip is a large part of how language is used.
- Infants are able to discriminate amongst all sounds but lose this ability after the first year and become adult-like in sound perception.
- Children acquire language in a predictable sequence.
- One explanation of language development is that it occurs through principles of learning, including association, reinforcement, and the observation of others.
- Noam Chomsky argues that human brains contain a language acquisition module that includes a universal grammar that underlies all human language. Chomsky differentiates between the deep structure and the surface structure of an idea.
- Broca’s area is responsible for language production, wheareas Wernicke’s area is responsible for language comprehension.
- Although other animals communicate and may be able to express ideas, only the human brain is complex enough to create real language.
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Chapter Attribution
“Intelligence and Language” by Dinesh Ramoo is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence. It was adapted and remixed from “Chapter 9. Intelligence and Language” in Psychology – 1st Canadian Edition by Sally Walters, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence, and “Chapter 8. Higher order cognition: Language and Intelligence” in Introduction to Psychology (A critical approach) edited by Jill Grose-Fifer, which is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 licence.
About the Author: Dinesh Ramoo
College of New Caledonia
I am a heterosexual, cisgendered male who is a first generation immigrant in Canada. I was born in Sri Lanka into a South Indian immigrant family and lived in the UK where I completed my higher education. My research has focused on communities that have traditionally been overlooked within the field of cognitive psychology. I have worked with Hindi stroke patients with aphasia in India as well as with minority communities in Canada, UK, Sri Lanka and Turkey. I have explored Indigenous knowledge for treating neurological disorders and have worked with Indigenous communities to increase awareness about dementia. This work has involved travelling to Indigenous communities in Northern BC and talking with Elders and community leaders. I was born into a Hindu family and am now an atheist.