Learning Objectives

Following the completion of this chapter, students will be able to:

1. Define intelligent behavior and explain the elements of intelligent behavior that experts in western cultures agree upon.
2. Explain the principles of the psychometric approach including descriptions of standardized norms, mental age, intelligence quotient (IQ), and deviation IQ.
3. Describe the components of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III (WAIS-III).
4. Explain how cross-cultural differences lead to contrasted evaluations of intelligent behavior, to cultural bias in testing, and to difficulties in designing culture-free tests of intelligence.
5. List and describe the physical and psychological factors that influence older adults' test performance.
6. Describe the strengths and weakness of psychometric tests.
7. Compare and contrast the unitary and multidimensional views of intelligence. Explain how factor analysis, Sternberg's triarchic theory, and Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences exemplify each of these views.
8. Define fluid and crystallized intelligence and describe the classic aging patterns demonstrated by adults according to John L. Horn, Raymond B. Cattell, and K. Warner Schaie.
9. List and describe the components of Baltes' dual-process mode of adult intellectual functioning.
10. Describe the traditional and current understanding of age differences and age changes in intelligence including gender, cultural, and cohort-based findings.
11. Explain the extent to which age-related change in intelligence may be improved by education and training during the middle and later years.
12. Define creativity and explain four steps of the creative process outlined by numerous investigators.
13. List and describe the methodological approaches used to study creativity in adulthood.
14. List and describe variables associated with creativity in relation to divergent thinking, creative achievement, and laboratory research.
15. Explain characteristic age-related changes in creativity.