| Term | Definition |
|---|
| intelligence | mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations. |
| factor analysis | a statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items (called factors) on a test; used to identify different dimensions of performance that underlie one's total score. |
| general intelligence | a general intelligence factor that according to Spearman and others underlies specific mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test. |
| savant syndrome | a condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill, such as in computation or drawing. |
| emotional intelligence | the ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions. |
| creativity | the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas. |
| intelligence test | a method for assessing an individual's mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores. |
| mental age | a measure of intelligence test performance devised by Binet; the chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance. Thus, a child who does as well as the average 8-year-old is said to have a mental age of 8. |
| Stanford-Binet | the widely used American revision (by Terman at Stanford University) of Binet's original intelligence test. |
| intelligence quotient | defined originally as the ratio of mental age (ma) to chronological age (ca) multiplied by 100 (thus, IQ = ma/ca × 100). On contemporary intelligence tests, the average performance for a given age is assigned a score of 100. |
| aptitude test | a test designed to predict a person's future performance; aptitude is the capacity to learn. |
| achievement test | a test designed to assess what a person has learned. |
| Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale | the WAIS is the most widely used intelligence test; contains verbal and performance (nonverbal) subtests. |
| standardization | defining meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested standardization group. |
| normal curve | the symmetrical bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many physical and psychological attributes. Most scores fall near the average, and fewer and fewer scores lie near the extremes. |
| reliability | the extent to which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test, on alternate forms of the test, or on retesting. |
| validity | the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to. (See also content validity and predictive validity.) |
| content validity | the extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest (such as a driving test that samples driving tasks). |
| criterion | the behavior (such as future college grades) that a test (such as the SAT) is designed to predict; thus, the measure used in defining whether the test has predictive validity. |
| predictive validity | the success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict; it is assessed by computing the correlation between test scores and the criterion behavior. (Also called criterion-related validity.) |
| mental retardation | a condition of limited mental ability, indicated by an intelligence score of 70 or below and difficulty in adapting to the demands of life; varies from mild to profound. |
| Down syndrome | a condition of retardation and associated physical disorders caused by an extra chromosome in one's genetic makeup. |
| stereotype threat | a self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype. |
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