Social Psychology

Remembering

12 & Forgetting
MODULE

Photo Credit: © AP Images/Image Source
A. Organization of Memories 262 H. Application: Eyewitness Testimony 274
B. Forgetting Curves 264 Summary Test 276
C. Reasons for Forgetting 265 Critical Thinking 278
D. Biological Bases of Memory 268 Can Bad Memories Be Erased?
Concept Review 270 Links to Learning 279
E. Mnemonics: Memorization Methods 271
F. Cultural Diversity:
272 PowerStudy 4.5™
Aborigines Versus White Australians 273 Complete Module
G. Research Focus: Memory Accuracy

260

Introduction

Watching a Crime Recall Versus Recognition
It was about nine at night when you You probably found the first three questions harder
How much entered the campus building, climbed Which because they involve recall.

can you one flight of stairs, and began walking is easier? Recall involves retrieving previously learned informa-

remember? down the long hallway. You had just tion without the aid of or with very few external cues.

finished your psychology paper and were For example, in questions 1–3, you were asked to recall colors or
going to slip it under the instructor’s door. objects without having any choices. Students must use recall to
Everything happened very quickly. answer fill-in-the-blank or essay questions.
From about the middle of the dimly lit hallway, a You probably thought the last three questions were easier
man with reddish hair and wearing a brown leather because they involve recognition.
jacket jumped out from behind a half-open door Recognition involves identifying previously learned information

and ran at you. Instinctively, you threw out your with the help of external cues.

hands and tried to ward off the oncoming threat. In questions 4–6, you have only to recognize whether the
With a quick motion, the man grabbed your blue information provided is correct. Students use recognition to
shoulder bag and pushed you down. At that instant, decide which of the choices is correct on multiple-choice tests.
your eyes met. He pointed at you with a menacing Since multiple-choice tests involve recognition, they are gener-
gesture and said, “Don’t move or make a sound.” ally considered easier than fill-in-the-blank and essay ques-
Figure/Text Credit: Adapted from “Nearly 2,000 Witnesses Can Be Wrong,” by R. Buckout, 1980, Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 16, 307–310. en he checked the hallway, stepped around you, 1,800 people identified tions, which involve recall. Later in this module, we’ll discuss
the wrong mugger. why recall is more difficult than recognition.
and was gone (adapted from Buckout, 1980).
A 12-second filmed sequence with a storyline similar to this
one was shown on television. In the TV film, the assailant’s Eyewitness Testimony
face was on the screen for several seconds. Next, the viewers Question 6 asks about a very curious result.
were asked to watch a lineup of six men and then to call the Which face Although the assailant’s face was on the television
TV station and identify which was the assailant. Of the more
than 2,000 viewers who called in, only 200 identified the cor- did you see? screen for several seconds, 90% of the viewers
rect man; 1,800 selected the wrong one (Buckout, 1980). identified the wrong person in a six-man lineup.
(For example, from the six faces below, can you identify the correct
Without looking back, try to answer the following questions mugger? Answer below.) How can you clearly see someone’s face and
(answers at bottom): not remember it? e answer to this question comes from studies on

1. What color was the mugger’s jacket? how eyewitness memories can be affected by suggestions, misleading
2. What color and type was the student’s bag? questions, and false information. Although we generally assume that
3. Besides the bag, what else was the student carrying? eyewitness testimony is the most accurate kind of evidence, you’ll see
that this is not always true. We’ll discuss accuracy and problems of eye-
4. e mugger’s exact words were “Don’t make a sound.” witness testimony at the end of this module. (Mugger had reddish hair.)
True or false?
What’s Coming
5. When thrown down, the student yelled out “Stop!”
True or false? We’ll discuss how you organize thousands of events, faces, and facts
and file this information in long-term memory. We’ll explain the most
6. Of the 2,000 viewers who called in, 1,800 identified the common reasons for forgetting, the biological bases for memory, meth-
correct assailant. True or false? ods to improve memory, the accuracy of memory, and the accuracy of
eyewitness testimony.
Answers: 1. brown; 2. blue, shoulder bag; 3. psychology
paper; 4. false; 5. false; 6. false We’ll begin with a huge problem that you face every day: How do
you file away and organize your many, many thousands of memories?

I N T R O D U C T I O N 261

A. Organization of Memories

Filing and Organizing 87,967 Memories make up a gigantic interconnected network of files for
storing and retrieving information.
How do One of the great puzzles of memory is
you store how you file and store zillions of things Network theory may become clearer if you imag-
over your lifetime. Suppose this past ine that the mental files, or nodes, are like thousands
memories? month you stored 91 faces, 6,340 con- of cities on a map and the connections or associations
cepts, 258 songs, 192 names, 97 defini- between them are like roads. Just as you follow differ-
tions, 80,987 personal events, 1 dog, and 1 cat. How did you ent roads to go from city to city, you follow different
store these 87,967 memories so that you can search and associative pathways to go from idea to idea. Stor-
retrieve one particular item from long-term memory? ing new events, faces, and thousands of other things
ere are several theories for how we file and organize would be similar to erecting new buildings in the cit-
memories; we’ll discuss one of the more popular theories, ies and also building new roads between the cities (B.
which is called network theory (J. L. McClelland, 2005). Schwartz & Reisberg, 1991). Here’s how one cognitive
Network theory says that we store related ideas in separate Network theory says psychologist, Donald Norman, used network theory
we store memories to explain how he retrieved a particular memory.
categories, or files, called nodes. As we make associations among by filing them into

information, we create links among thousands of nodes, which categories.

Network Theory of Memory Organization

Where do Just as you might follow a road map 78 Vista associations that he created when he filed, or
(right figure) to reach a particular stored, information in long-term memory. As
the roads city, cognitive psychologist Norman Carlsbad San Marcos Escondido he follows his associations, or mental roads, he
lead? followed a cognitive map to remem- La Costa travels the cognitive network from node to
Encinitas 78 node or memory to memory in search of a par-
Cardiff Rancho ticular name (Norman, 1982). Please begin
PeñasquitoBsernardo reading at node 1 and continue to node 6.
ber the name of a particular store Solana Beach
in San Diego. Although the mental roads that Norman Del Mar Rancho 84
Santa Fe Poway

takes may seem strange, these roads represent personal

1 Norman’s 3 The smoke detec- 5 The department Figure/Text Credit: Memory figure based on Learning and Memory, by D. A. Norman, 1982. W. H. Freeman & Company.

train of thought tors had associations store had associations
began with his with batteries, which with many items that
remembering a are needed to power he bought, including
party he had the detectors. trays for his slides.
attended earlier
at a friend’s 6 As Norman
house.
thought of buying
2 The house had 4 The batteries had slide trays, he
remembered the
associations with associations with a store’s name,
smoke detectors certain store in San “Nordstrom.”
on the ceilings of Diego where Norman
the rooms. bought batteries and
other items.

Norman mentally followed a cognitive map, starting with node 1 and following nodes 2, 3, 4, 5, to the name of a store at node 6.

Searching for a Memory Associations. Norman links the nodes, or categories of ideas,
We’ve all shared Norman’s problem of knowing we know something together by making associations or mental roads between new
but having difficulty recalling it. is problem relates to how we store information and old information that was previously stored.
memories in long-term memory. According to the network theory of
memory, we store memories in nodes that are interconnected a er we Network. Norman has thousands of interconnected nodes,
make new associations. Because the network theory is somewhat com- which form an enormous cognitive network for arranging and
plicated, we’ll review how it applied to Norman’s problem of trying to storing files. Norman must search through this cognitive net-
recall a particular memory. work to find a particular node or file, where a specific memory
is stored.
Nodes. Norman organizes or stores related ideas in separate files,
or categories, called nodes. We simplified this process by showing only Researchers have developed a theory of how we search
six nodes, but there may be dozens. Nodes are categories for storing through thousands of nodes to find a particular one (J. L.
related ideas, such as birds, faces, friends, and store names. McClelland, 2005).

262 M O D U L E 1 2 R E M E M B E R I N G & F O R G E T T I N G

Organization of Network Hierarchy 1. Abstract: Animal

How do you How do you find a specific 1. ANIMAL is node, or memory file, contains information
find a specific memory to answer these that is very abstract and applies to all animals,
questions: How big is a
memory? guppy? Does a rooster such as has skin, can move around, eats, and

have feathers? Does a breathes. This category has answers to very
blue jay have skin? According to network the- general questions about animals—“Does a
ory, you will search for answers to these ques- blue jay have skin?”
tions by using different nodes or memory files.
Nodes are memory files that contain related 2. More Specific: Bird or Fish
is node, or memory file, contains informa-
information organized around a specific topic tion that is somewhat more specific

or category. 2. BIRD 2. FISH because it applies to many fish or
According to network theory, the birds, such as has wings, can fly, and
many thousands of nodes or memory
files are arranged in a certain kind of has feathers. This category has
answers to somewhat specific
Photo Credit: bottom, © Digital Stock Corporation order, which is called a network hier- questions about fish or birds—
Figure/Text Credit: Network hierarchy based on “Retrieval time from semantic memory,” by A. M. Colins and M. R. Quillian, 1969, Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, archy (Diesendruck & Shatz, 2001).
8, 240–247. A network hierarchy refers to the “Does a rooster have feathers?”

arrangement of nodes or memory files 3. Concrete: Blue Jay,
Rooster, Shark, or Guppy
in a certain order or hierarchy. At the

bottom of the hierarchy are nodes with is node, or memory file, con-

very concrete information, which are tains very concrete information

connected to nodes with somewhat that applies only to a specific

more specific information, which in animal. This category has

turn are connected to nodes with answers to very specific ques-

general or abstract information. tions—“How big is a guppy?”

For example, a partial “What color is a shark?”
network hierarchy for Conclusion. Because
nodes or memory files network theory doesn’t have
containing information all the answers to how you
about animals is shown on 3. BLUE JAY 3. ROOSTER 3. SHARK 3. GUPPY file and store information,

the right. Depending on whether you’re Network hierarchy: Arranging memory files (nodes) researchers are developing more complex
looking for a specific memory (How big so that general information is in top file (node #1) and models, such as neural networks, that
is a guppy?) or a more abstract memory try to imitate how the brain organizes
specific information is in bottom files (nodes #3)

(Does a blue jay have skin?), you will and files millions of bits of information
search different nodes, as explained next. (Ratcliff & McKoon, 2005).

Categories in the Brain

Does the e network theory’s idea that information that the brain has built-in categories for sorting and filing different
is filed in interconnected nodes or catego- kinds of information.
brain come ries is partly supported by recent findings By using another research approach involving brain scans (p. 70),

with a built-in showing that the brain seems to have its researchers found further evidence that we use different areas of
filing system? own built-in filing system. For the brain to process different categories. For example, when
example, researchers found subjects were asked to think of objects in specific categories,
that, depending on which area of the brain such as faces, tools, or furniture, researchers found that
is damaged, patients lose the ability to iden- maximum neural activity occurred in different areas of
tify or process information dealing with a the brain. As shown at the le , when people were thinking
specific category. In some cases, patients of animals, the maximum neural activity occurred in the
could no longer identify faces but had no back of the brain, while thinking of tools produced maxi-
problems identifying information in other cat- mum neural activity in the front of the brain (A. Martin et
egories, such as tools, animals, furniture, or al., 1996). e finding that the brain comes with prewired
plants. In other cases, patients could no longer categories for processing information helps explain how you
identify plants but could identify information can easily sort through a tremendous amount of informa-
in different categories (tools, animals, etc.) The brain seems to have tion and quickly find the answer to a specific question, such
(Schacter et al., 2005). ese findings indicate built-in files or categories. as “Does a camel have a hump?” (Low et al., 2003).

A . O R G A N I Z A T I O N O F M E M O R I E S 263

B. Forgetting Curves

Early Memories

What’s e earliest that people in different cul- have little or no language skills, so they cannot verbally
tures can recall personal memories encode early personal memories and cannot recall
your earliest averages 3½ years old (Q. Wang, 2003). them even a er they do develop language skills (Bad-
memory? Researchers did find that children as deley, 2004; Simcock & Hayne, 2002). Also, very

young as 13 months can recall visual young children have not yet developed a complete
events, such as a sequence of moving toys. However, recall- memory circuit in the brain, which is necessary for
ing moving objects is different from recalling personal mem- encoding and retrieving personal memories (Badde-
ories, which is based on having developed a sense of oneself ley, 2004; Bauer, 2002). But even though you’re now
(recognizing the face in mirror as yours), which occurs a er an adult with a completely developed memory brain
age 2 (Howe, 2003). Another reason we rarely remember Earliest memories circuit, why do you still forget things, especially
personal events before age 3½ is that very young children at about age 3½ when taking exams?

Unfamiliar and Uninteresting

Could From your experience studying for exams, MUC. He made up and wrote down hundreds of three-letter non-
you know that just because you verbally sense syllables on separate cards and arranged these cards into sets
you remember encode information by listening, reading, of varying length. To the ticking of a metronome, he turned over
LUD, ZIB? or writing doesn’t mean that you’ll auto- each card and read aloud each of the syllables until he had read all

matically recall this information on exams. the cards in the set. He used only rote memory (made no associa-
e kinds of events that you are more likely tions) and needed only one
to remember or forget can be demonstrated Percent Remembered
LUD or two readings to memo-
with forgetting curves.
ZIB rize a set of seven cards

KON (containing seven nonsense
A forgetting curve measures the amount of ! MUC syllables). He needed about
previously learned information that subjects can SAR 45 readings to memorize a


recall or recognize across time.


We’ll examine how two different kinds of

set of 24 cards (Ebbinghaus,
information—unfamiliar and familiar—are

1885/1913).

remembered by using forgetting curves. e forgetting curve on
One of the earliest psychologists to study the le shows that Ebbing-
Time Between Initial Learning and Memory Test haus forgot about half the
memory and forgetting was Hermann Ebb- unfamiliar and uninter-
inghaus, who used himself as his only subject.
esting nonsense syllables
He got around the fact that people have better within the first hour.
memories for more familiar events by memo-
Hours Days

rizing only three-letter nonsense syllables, such as LUD, ZIB, How long do we remember familiar information?

Familiar and Interesting Photo Credits: top, © Laura Dwight; bottom left and right, © PhotoDisc, Inc.

Can you Ebbinghaus’s nonsense syllables are cer- memory on recognition tests (multiple-choice) than on recall tests
remember the tainly uninteresting, which helps explain (essay or fill-in-the-blank).
why he forgot half within the first hour.
Notice that even though names and nonsense syllables were both
names of your But what about information that is both encoded verbally, subjects correctly recalled about 60% of familiar
high school familiar and interesting, such as the and interesting information (names and faces) a er 7 years, while

classmates? names and faces of your high school Ebbinghaus forgot about 80% of the unfamiliar and uninteresting
graduating class? nonsense syllables a er about
e graph at right shows that even a er a week. One researcher found
47 years, subjects correctly matched about 100 Recognition test that, after 20 years, he best

80% of their high school classmates’ names Percent Correct 80 remembered those events that

with faces; they correctly recalled about 25% 60 Recall test were vivid, rare, and emotion-
a er 47 years (Bahrick et al., 1975). Subjects 40 ally intense (R. White, 2002).
did better on recognition tests (matching
These studies show that
names to faces) because they were given remembering is partly related
20

clues (names). They did poorer on recall 0 3.8 7.4 14.5 25.8 34.1 47.6 to how familiar or interesting
tests (seeing faces and asked to recall the 0.3 the information is. However,

names) because they were not given any Years Since Graduation there are other reasons for
clues. Similarly, students also show better forgetting, as you’ll see next.

264 M O D U L E 1 2 R E M E M B E R I N G & F O R G E T T I N G

C. Reasons for Forgetting

Overview: Forgetting Forgetting refers to the inability to retrieve, recall, or recog-
nize information that was stored or is still stored in long-term
Why do If asked to describe what happened today, you can
I forget accurately recall many personal events, conversations, memory.
things? and countless irritations. However, in spite of hours of We’ll summarize a number of reasons people forget
study, there are many things you seem to have forgotten
when you take an exam. things.

Repression Interference

ere is a documented case of a If you have to study for several exams and take
man, J.R., who became anxious them on the same day, there is a good chance that
while watching a movie that you may mix up and forget some of the material
featured a main character who because of interference.
struggled with memories of Interference, one of the common reasons for forget-
being sexually molested. Later ting, means that the recall of some particular memory is What if you have 2 exams
that night, J.R. had a vivid recol- on the same day?
lection of being sexually abused blocked or prevented by other related memories.
by a parish priest (Schooler, 1994).
J.R.’s case is an example of repression. For example, if you are studying for and taking psychology and sociol-
Repression, according to Freud, is a mental process that ogy tests on the same day, you may find that some of the material on social
automatically hides emotionally threatening or anxiety- behavior in psychology is similar to but different from material in sociology,
producing information in the unconscious, from which and this mix-up will cause interference and forgetting. Because psychologists
repressed memories cannot be recalled voluntarily, but some- believe that interference between material is a common cause of forgetting,
thing may cause them to enter consciousness at a later time. we’ll focus on two different kinds of interference on the next page.
Earlier we discussed the accuracy of recovered
repressed memories involving sexual abuse (pp. 250–251). Amnesia
e J.R. example suggests that a traumatic sexual event
can be repressed and recovered later. However, promi- While showing off her new skates, my sister (R.P.) fell down and
nent memory researchers have questioned the validity of cracked her head on the hard Minnesota ice. She was knocked
repressed memories, pointing to the possibility that such unconscious for a short time, and when she woke up the
memories may have been suggested or implanted during first thing she said was, “What happened?” She
the therapeutic process (Lynn et al., 2003). couldn’t remember what happened because
the blow had caused temporary amnesia.
Poor Retrieval Cues/Poor Encoding Amnesia, which may be temporary or permanent,

Studying for exams by cramming or using rote memory is loss of memory that may occur after a blow or damage to the brain or after disease
may lead to forgetting because these techniques result in
poor retrieval cues and thus poor encoding or storing. (Alzheimer’s, p. 47), general anesthesia, certain drugs, or severe psychological trauma.
Retrieval cues are mental reminders that we create by Depending on its severity, a blow to the head causes the so jellylike brain

forming vivid mental images or creating associations between to crash into the hard skull, and this may result in temporary or permanent
damage to thousands of neurons (p. 50), which form the communication net-
new information and information we already know. work of the brain. e reason people who strike their heads during car acci-
dents usually have no memories of the events immediately before and during
What if I study Many students don’t realize that the accident is that the brain crashed into the skull, which interferes with the
for 2 hours? it’s not how long but how well they neurons’ communication network, disrupts memory, and results in varying
study that matters. Effective study- degrees of amnesia (Riccio et al., 2003).

Distortion Why did I
We may not be aware of the times we misremember something misremember?
ing is not only memorizing but also due to memory distortions caused by bias or suggestibility
creating good retrieval cues. The
best retrieval cues, which ensure (G.H. Bower, 2005; Schacter, 2001). For example, bias was
the best encoding, are created operating when college students remembered 89% of
by associating new informa- their high school A grades but only 29% of D grades
tion with information already or when divorcing couples remembered mostly the
learned. For example, instead of bad times, not the good (Bahrick et al., 1996). Sug-
just trying to remember that the gestibility was operating when victims of crimes
hippocampus is involved in mem- wrongly identified persons who were later cleared
ory (pp. 80, 84, 229), try to make a new association, by DNA evidence (Zernike, 2006). Because of bias and suggestibility, we forget
such as a hippo remembered its way around campus. or misremember things, o en without being aware of the memory distortion.
We’ll discuss the importance of and how to form Next, we’ll more closely examine two important reasons for forgetting—
good retrieval cues for effective encoding on page 267. interference and poor retrieval cues.

C . R E A S O N S F O R F O R G E T T I N G 265

C. Reasons for Forgetting

Interference

What if Sooner or later, every student faces Students who take multiple tests on the
you study for the problem of having to take exams same day o en complain of studying long
in several different courses on the and hard but forgetting information that
three exams? same day. is situation can increase they knew they knew. In this case the cul-
the chances of forgetting material prit may be interference. Similarly, if you
because of something called interference. take two or more classes in succession,
The theory of interference says that we may forget information you may find that information from one
class interferes with learning or remembering information from
not because it is no longer in storage or memory but rather because old or the others. We’ll explain the two kinds of interference—proactive
and retroactive—and how each can lead to forgetting.
newer related information produces confusion and thus blocks retrieval

from memory.

Proactive Interference Retroactive Interference

The first thing to remember about interference is that it can act Note that the prefix retro means “backward,” so retroactive inter-
forward, which is called proactive, or act backward, which is called ference means “acting backward” to interfere with recalling pre-
retroactive. e prefix pro means “forward,” so proactive interfer- viously learned information (M. C. Anderson, 2009a).
ence “acts forward” to interfere with recalling newly learned Retroactive interference occurs when new information (learned

information. later) blocks or disrupts the retrieval of related old information (learned

Proactive interference occurs when old information (learned earlier) earlier).

blocks or disrupts the remembering of related new information (learned Here’s how retroactive interference works.
1. Psychology information.
later).

Here’s how proactive interference can work. From 1:00 to 3:00, you study for a test in psychology. en from
1. Psychology information. 3:00 to 6:00, you study for a test in sociology.
2. Sociology information acts backward.
For two hours you study for a test in
psychology. e more psychology terms You may experience difficulty in
you store in memory, the more poten- remembering the psychology
tial this psychology information has to terms you learned earlier because
“act forward” and disrupt any new and the sociology terms recently
related information you study next. Proactive learned may “act backward” and
2. Psychology information Interference disrupt earlier learned and related Retroactive
psychology terms. Interference
acts forward. Material learned EARLIER 3. Retroactive interference.
For the next two hours you study for a (psychology) interferes with When you take the psychology Material learned LATER
test in sociology. You may experience exam, you may forget some of the (sociology) disrupts learning
learning new information new information (psychology).
(sociology).

difficulty in learning and remembering
this new sociology information because the previously learned psy- psychology terms you studied ear-
chology terms can “act forward” and interfere with remembering lier because of retroactive interference: Recently learned sociol-
new and related terms from sociology. ogy terms “act backward” to interfere with or block the recall of
3. Proactive interference. earlier learned and related psychology terms.

When you take your sociology exam, you may forget some of the Interference, both proactive and retroactive, is one of the two
sociology terms you studied because of proactive interference: Pre- most common reasons for forgetting (Roediger & McDermott,
viously learned psychology terms “act forward” to interfere with or 2005). Interference may also cause serious mistakes if eyewit-
block the recall of the more recently learned and related sociology nesses identify the wrong person, as happened in the study we
terms (M. C. Anderson, 2009a). discussed at the beginning of this module.

Why Did Viewers Forget the Mugger’s Face? If retroactive interference was operating, it means that
We began this module by asking why only 200 out of new faces learned since seeing the mugger’s face acted back-
2,000 viewers correctly identified a mugger’s face that ward to block or disrupt remembering of the mugger’s face.
was shown for several seconds on television. One rea-
son viewers forgot the mugger’s face is that one or Thus, we may forget information that we did indeed
both kinds of interference were operating. store in long-term memory because of one or both kinds
of interference.
If proactive interference was operating, it means
that previously learned faces acted forward to block Besides interference, the other most common reason
or disrupt remembering of the newly observed for forgetting involves inadequate retrieval cues, our
mugger’s face. next topic.

266 M O D U L E 1 2 R E M E M B E R I N G & F O R G E T T I N G

Retrieval Cues Poor retrieval cues Retrieval cues are also important in hiding things.
result in haphazard Researchers asked students to hide things either in common
Have you ever parked your car memory storage. places, such as drawers or closets, or in unusual places, such as
Where did in a ma l l a nd later roa med old shoes or cereal boxes. Later, when asked to locate the hid-
I park it? around the huge lot trying to den objects, students remembered objects hidden in common
places and forgot those hidden in unusual places (Winograd
find it? In that case, the reason & Soloway, 1986). Forgetting hiding places (which we have
for your forgetting probably involved poor retrieval done) and forgetting parking places (which we have done)
cues (M. C. Anderson, 2009c). point to the need for creating good retrieval cues.

Retrieval cues are mental reminders that you create by
forming vivid mental images of information or associating

new information with information that you already know.

Forming Effective Retrieval Cues Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon

One reason we forget things (definitions, names, phone numbers) is that we Most of us have had the frustrating experience of feeling
did not take the time to create effective retrieval cues (discussed on pp. we really do know the name of a movie, person, or song
248–249). You can form effective retrieval cues by creating vivid mental but cannot recall it at this moment. is kind of forget-
images of the information, making associations between new and old infor- ting is called the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon.
mation, or making somewhat bizarre but memorable associations. The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon

For example, researchers wondered which types of sentences students “It’s on refers to having a strong feeling that a
the tip
would remember better: common sentences, such as “ e sleek new train of my particular word can be recalled, but
passes a field of fresh, juicy strawberries,” or bizarre sentences, such as “ e tongue.” despite making a great effort, we are
sleek new train is derailed by the fresh, juicy strawberries.” As a computer temporarily unable to recall this partic-

randomly presented 12 common and 12 bizarre sentences, students were ular information. Later, in a different

told to form vivid mental images of the scenes. When situation, we may recall the information.

retested later, subjects recalled significantly more Research shows the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
bizarre than common sentences. Researchers is nearly universal, occurs about once a week, and most
concluded that subjects remembered better o en involves names of people and objects. Its frequency
the bizarre sentences because they formed increases with age, and usually the thing is remembered
better mental images or associations, which some minutes later (Branan, 2008; B. L. Schwartz, 1999).
produced better retrieval cues (Robinson- ere are three explanations for the tip-of-the-tongue
Vivid mental images make Riegler & McDaniel, 1994). Poor retrieval cues phenomenon. In some cases, information was encoded
great retrieval cues. may also be a problem in eyewitness testimony. with inadequate retrieval cues, and so we must think

Retrieval cues and interference. ere have been cases in which eyewit- up other associations (first letter of name, where last
nesses identified assailants who were later proven innocent based on DNA seen) for recall (Neath & Surprenant, 2003). In other
evidence (Dowling, 2000). One reason eyewitnesses were mistaken is that cases, information is being blocked by interference from
the emotional and traumatic events prevented them from forming effective similar-sounding names or objects. Once we think of
retrieval cues. Another reason the eyewitnesses made mistakes is interfer- something else, the interference stops and the informa-
ence; that is, the faces of the accused assailants somewhat resembled and tion pops into our memory (Koriat, 2005). Last, the brain
interfered with their recognizing the real assailants. ese examples show region responsible for processing and producing sound
that forgetting can result from poor retrieval cues, no associations, or inter- has been reported to be less active as tip-of-the-tongue
ference (S. C. Brown & Craik, 2005). moments become more frequent (Sha o et al., 2007).
Another example of forgetting, which involves retrieval cues and inter- An interesting feature of retrieval cues is that such
ference, usually begins with someone saying, “It’s on the tip of my tongue.” cues can also come from our states of mind.

Photo Credit: © Topham/OB/The Image Works State-Dependent Learning
When you yell at someone for doing the subjects (humans, dogs, rats) learned something while
What happens same annoying thing again, why is it that they used a certain drug, were in a certain mood, or were
when you a long list of related past annoyances in a particular setting and later showed better recall of

get angry? quickly comes to mind? One answer this information when tested under the original learn-
involves state-dependent learning. ing conditions (M. C.Anderson, 2009c; S. C. Brown &
State-dependent learning means that it is easier to recall Craik, 2005). These state-dependent studies indicate

information when you are in the same physiological or emotional that retrieval cues are created by being in certain physi-

state or setting as when you originally encoded the information. ological or emotional states or in particular settings and

For example, getting angry at someone creates an emo- returning to these original states helps recall informa-
tional and physiological state that triggers the recall of tion that was learned under the same conditions.
related past annoyances. Evidence for state-dependent Being in the same state Next, we’ll look inside the brain to see what
learning comes from a wide range of studies in which (emotional) improves recall. happens during remembering and forgetting.

C . R E A S O N S F O R F O R G E T T I N G 267

D. Biological Bases of Memory

Location of Memories in the Brain

Where do you If you learned only 500 new things simple nervous system, in brain-damaged individuals, who
put all those every day, that adds up to storing show deficits in some kinds of memory but not others, and
180,000 new memories every year in individuals who are having their brains scanned for neu-
memories? and 3,600,000 memories after ral activity while they are using different kinds of memory

twenty years. To figure out how (Cabeza & Nyberg, 2003; Zola & Squire, 2005). Based on
the brain stores and files away 3,600,000 memories (a very these studies, researchers have identified the several differ-
conservative estimate), researchers have studied the for- ent areas of the brain that are involved in processing and
mation of memories in sea slugs, which have a relatively storing different kinds of thoughts and memories.

1 Cortex: Short-Term Memories 3 Amygdala: Emotional Memories
When you look up a new phone num- Suppose that each time you hear a particular song associated with a special person, you have a
ber, you can hold it in short-term romantic feeling. e romantic feeling associated with this emotional memory is provided by
memory long enough to dial the num- the amygdala, which is located in the tip of the temporal lobe and receives input from all the
ber. Your ability to hold words, facts, senses. Research using brain scans found that the amygdala plays a critical role in the long-term
and events in short-term memory processing of emotionally intense experiences (Squire & Kandel, 2009). For exam-
depends on activity in the cortex, ple, the amygdala helps us recognize emotional facial expressions, especially fear-
which is a thin layer of ful or threatening ones, and adds a wide range of emotions (positive and negative)
brain cells that covers the to our memories (R. J. Dolan, 2002; Ohman, 2002). So, humans with damage to the
surface of the forebrain amygdala still have memories but the memories lose their emotional impact, such as
(indicated by the thin no longer finding loud noises unpleasant or no longer recognizing emotional facial
red line on the out- 4expressions (Hamann et al., 2002).
side of the brain). Hippocampus: Transferring Memories
Just as the “Save” command on your computer transfers
People may have a file into permanent storage on your hard drive, the
brain damage that prevents them hippocampus transfers words, facts, and personal
from storing long-term memories, events from short-term memory into
but if their cortex is intact, they permanent long-term memory. e
may have short-term memory and hippocampus is a curved, finger-
be able to carry on relatively normal sized structure that lies beneath the
conversations. However, if they can- cortex in the temporal lobe.
not store long-term memories, they The hippocampus is vital for
would not later remember having Areas of the brain involved in memory storing certain kinds of memories. For example, indi-
those conversations.
viduals with hippocampal damage cannot save any declarative memories, such as new words,
2 Cortex: Long-Term Memories facts, or personal events, because the hippocampus is necessary for transferring declarative infor-
mation from short-term into long-term memory (Zeineh et al., 2003). However, people with hip- Photo Credits: (#1) © Photodisc/Getty Images; (#2) © Glow Images/SuperStock
If you learn the words pocampal damage CAN learn and remember nondeclarative or procedural information, such as
to a song, these acquiring motor skills or habits (tying one’s shoes, walking up the stairs, playing tennis) (R. D.
words are stored in Fields, 2005). But, if asked, people with hippocampal damage CANNOT remember actually per-
long-term memory. forming a motor skill (playing tennis) because performing the skill (I played tennis) is a personal
Your ability to remem- event (declarative memory). us, the hippocampus is necessary for transferring declarative infor-
ber or recall songs, mation (words, facts, and events) from short-term into long-term memory but not for transferring
words, facts, and nondeclarative or procedural information (motor skills and habits) (Zola & Squire, 2005).
events for days,
months, or years depends on areas Hippocampus: Retrieving Memories
widely spread throughout the cortex.
Researchers have long assumed that the hippocampus is also somehow involved in retrieving
People may have brain damage memories. Only recently have they discovered that the storage and retrieval of memory actually
that prevents them from learning or
remembering any new songs. How- 5involve activation of the same neurons located in the hippocampus (Gelbard-Sagiv et al., 2008).
ever, if they have an intact cortex, they Brain: Memory Model
may remember the words from songs
they learned before their brain dam- Recent findings indicate that your cortex stores short-term memories as well as long-term mem-
age because such information would ories; your hippocampus transfers or saves declarative information in long-term memory but
have already been safely stored in their does not transfer nondeclarative or procedural information into long-term memory; and your
cerebral cortex (indicated by the thin amygdala adds emotional content to positive and negative memories (Tulving & Craik, 2005).
red line on the outside of the brain). Now that you know the location of memories in the brain, we can examine how individual
memories are formed.

268 M O D U L E 1 2 R E M E M B E R I N G & F O R G E T T I N G

Making a Short-Term Memory

Suppose you just looked up the repeating a phone number, activates a neural assem-
How to make phone number 555-9013 and bly that holds the phone number in short-term
a short-term repeat it as you dial. Researchers memory. However, if you switch your attention
memory? believe that your brain may to something else before encoding the number
in long-term memory, this neural assembly stops
store that number in short-term and the phone number is gone and forgotten.
memory by using interconnected groups of neurons Researchers believe that neural assemblies are
that are called neural assemblies. one mechanism for holding information in short-
Neural assemblies are groups of interconnected neurons term memory (E. E. Smith, 2000). However, as
you’ll see next, permanently storing information
whose activation allows information or stimuli to be recog- in long-term memory involves chemical or struc-
tural changes in the neurons themselves.
nized and held briefly and temporarily in short-term memory.

The figure on the right shows how a very simplified Example of neural assembly
neural assembly might work. Some information, such as

Making a Long-Term Memory
Besides studying memory by genetically altering mice brains, researchers also study memory in sea slugs because their
How to make nervous system contains about 20,000 neurons versus billions in the human brain. A er the sea slug has learned a
a long-term simple task, such as tensing its muscular foot in response to a bright light, researchers can dissect the sea slug’s nervous
memory? system and look for chemical or physical changes associated with learning (Kandel & Abel, 1995). We’ll focus on one
mechanism—long-term potentiation, or LTP—that researchers believe is involved in forming long-term memories.

Long-Term Potentiation (LTP) 2 We’ll use only two neurons (perhaps many hundreds are involved) to make the LTP

1 One way to learn the name of the large process easier to understand. In the figure below, repeating the name “toucan” stimulates
neuron A, which produces LTP and causes neuron A to grow and form new connections
orange-beaked bird on the le is to repeat with neuron B.
its name, “toucan,” several
times. After you repeat 3 LTP changes the struc- neuron
this name (repeated stim-
ture and function of neuron A
ulation), some neurons in so it becomes associated with
your brain actually grow the name “toucan.” To recall the LTP
name of this bird, you activate occurs
and change to form new
connections with other neuron A, which activates its
neurons (Goldstein, newly formed connections with neuron B, and this combined neural
2008; Stickgold & Ellenbogen, 2008). This activation forms the basis for your long-term memory of the name “toucan.”
neural change, which is involved in forming
long-term memories, is part of a complicated 4 Researchers found that LTP is important in the formation of long-term
process called LTP.
Long-term potentiation, or LTP, refers to memory because when the occurrence of LTP was chemically or genetically blocked in
changes in the structure and function of neurons sea snails or mice, these animals could not learn a classically conditioned response or a
water maze (Mayford & Korzus, 2002; Tonegawa & Wilson, 1997). Blocking the occur-
after they have been repeatedly stimulated. rence of LTP blocked the formation of long-term memories. us, neuroscientists believe
For example, by repeating the name the LTP process, which changes the structure and function of neurons, is the most likely
basis for learning and memory in animals and humans (Goldstein, 2008; Tsien, 2000).
“toucan,” you are repeatedly stimulating
neurons.

Forgetting Unwanted Long-Term Memories

Photo Credit: © Nancy Honey/Getty Images Can the Once a long-term memory is made, actually predict how much forgetting people
can you intentionally forget an experience by examining their pattern of
brain forget unwanted memory? Researchers brain activity!

bad memories? have been examining this question As a result of this research, we have a
and have found some remarkable better understanding of how people cope
biological findings that suggest we do have the ability to with memories a er traumatic experiences
intentionally forget bad memories. and the brain dysfunction that occurs in
Researchers have shown that reduced activity in the hip- people who experience ongoing traumatic
pocampus and amygdala (brain structures responsible for memories.
consciously thinking about memories and fear condition- We’ll further explore the topic of for- Brain dysfunction may explain
ing) leads people to forget their unwanted memories (M. C. getting unwanted memories in the Criti- why this woman can’t forget
Anderson et al., 2004; Depue et al., 2007). Researchers can cal inking section (p. 278). her bad memories.

D . B I O L O G I C A L B A S E S O F M E M O R Y 269

Concept Review

1. If you retrieve previously learned informa- 8. Brain damage, a blow to the head, drug use, or severe
tion without the aid of any external cues, you psychological stress may cause a form of forgetting
are using a process of remembering called called (a) , which results when
(a) . If you identify or match the brain’s (b) network is
information that you have previously learned, temporarily or permanently disrupted.
you are using a process of remembering called
(b) . 9. We may not be aware of times Why did I
when we misremember something misremember?

2. Memory files or categories that contain related because of distortions in memory.
information organized around a specific topic are Two common causes of memory distortions
called (a) . One theory of mem- are and .
ory organization says that the separate memory
files, or nodes, in which we file related ideas are 10. If we forget information not
because it is lost from storage but
interconnected in a gigantic system. This idea is rather because other information gets
called (b) . Percent Correct
Photo Credit: (face) PhotoDisc, Inc.in the way and blocks its retrieval, this
1. ANIMAL 3. According to network theory, some nodes Figure/Text Credit: (#4) Graph data from “Fifty Years of Memory for Names and Faces,” by H. P. Bahrick, P. O. Bahrick & R. P. Wittlinger, 1975, Journal of Experimentalprocess is called (a). If information learned ear-
Psychology: General, 104, 54–75.
are arranged so that more concrete informa- lier blocks, interferes with, or disrupts the retrieval of information
tion is at the bottom and more abstract that was learned later, it is called (b) . If informa-
information is at the top; this order is tion learned later blocks, interferes with, or disrupts the retrieval
called a . of information learned earlier, it is called (c) .

4. A diagram of the amount of previ- 100 Recognition test 11. Mental reminders that we create by making images or associ-
ously learned information that sub- ating new information with information that we
jects can recall or recognize across 80 already know are called (a) .
time is called a . If you do not form effective retrieval
We tend to remember information 60 cues when learning new information,
that is familiar and interesting and 40 Recall test you will likely have a difficult time
forget information that is unfamiliar (b) this information
and uninteresting. 20 from long-term memory.

0 0.3 3.8 7.4
Years Since Graduation

5. According to Sigmund Freud, information that 12. Sometimes, despite making a great effort, you are temporarily
is threatening to our self-concept is automatically unable to recall information that you absolutely know is in your
driven into our unconscious, from which we can- memory. This is called the phenomenon.
not retrieve it at will. This process is called
13. According to one memory model of
. the brain, short-term memories are

6. One common reason for forgetting is that What if I have formed and stored in different .
other related memories already stored in long- 2 exams? parts of the (a)
term memory may interfere with or block recall Long-term memories are also
of some particular memory; this idea is called stored in different parts of the
(b) , although these
. kinds of memories are not formed there.

7. Another reason for forgetting comes from Declarative information is transferred by the (c)
a lack of associations between new informa- into long-term memory, which is stored in different parts of the
tion and information we already know; this cortex. However, the hippocampus is not involved in transferring
reason has to do with the quality of the motor skills or habits, which are part of (d)
information, into long-term memory. Both positive and negative
.

emotional associations are added to memories by an area in the
temporal lobe called the (e) .

Answers: 1. (a) recall, (b) recognition; 2. (a) nodes, (b) network theory; 3. hierarchy; 4. forgetting curve; 5. repression; 6. interference; 7. retrieval
cues; 8. (a) amnesia, (b) communication; 9. bias, suggestibility; 10. (a) interference, (b) proactive interference, (c) retroactive interference;
11. (a) retrieval cues, (b) recalling or retrieving or remembering; 12. tip-of-the-tongue; 13. (a) cortex, (b) cortex, (c) hippocampus, (d) procedural,
(e) amygdala

270 M O D U L E 1 2 R E M E M B E R I N G & F O R G E T T I N G

E. Mnemonics: Memorization Methods

Improving Your Memory

Do you At one time or another, almost everyone How can I journal article 15 years ago, I would have it at my fin-
complains about forgetting something. improve my gertips. Now, if I don’t deliberately try to relate it to
complain about Many of our students complain about memory? what I already know, or repeat it a few times, I’m less

forgetting things? forgetting information that they really likely to remember it” (Schacter, 1997, p. 56). is kind
knew but couldn’t recall during of forgetting is commonly caused by poor retrieval cues,
exams. is kind of forgetting has several causes: ere may which result from being busy or distracted and not having
be interference (proactive and retroactive) from informa- or taking the time to create meaningful associations.
tion studied for related classes; there may be poor retrieval If you hear about memory courses that claim to
cues that result from trying to learn information by using greatly improve your memory, what these courses usu-
rote or straight memorization; or students may not use ally teach are how to use mnemonic methods.
elaborative rehearsal (p. 249), which involves making Mnemonic (ni-MON-ick) methods are ways to improve

associations between new and old information. encoding and create better retrieval cues by forming vivid

After about age 40, adults begin to complain about associations or images, which improve recall.

forgetting things that they never forgot before. For example, mem- We’ll discuss two common mnemonic methods—method of loci
ory researcher Daniel Schacter, at age 50, complained, “Reading a and peg method—that improve memory (M. W. Eysenck, 2009b).

Method of Loci Peg Method Effectiveness of Methods
If you need to memorize a list of terms,
concepts, or names in a particular order, an Another useful mnemonic device A national magazine writer, who was 41 years old and
efficient way is to use the method of loci. for memorizing a long list, espe- complained about forgetfulness, decided to improve
cially in the exact order, is the her memory by trying three methods (Yoffe, 1997).
The method of loci (LOW-sigh) is an peg method.
encoding technique that creates visual associ- First, she took a 3-hour memory-enhancement
ations between already memorized places and The peg method is an encoding class ($49) that focused on the peg method. e
new items to be memorized. technique that creates associations magazine writer concluded that the peg method
was impressive and if she were back in college, she
We’ll use the following three steps of the between number-word rhymes and would use it to memorize all the new facts.
method of loci to memorize names of early
psychologists: Wundt, James, and Watson. items to be memorized. Second, she listened to an audiocassette program
Step 1. Memorize a visual sequence of e rhymes act like pegs on ($79) that promised to release the “perfect photo-
places (loci in Latin means “places”), such graphic memory” that everyone already had. e
as places in your apartment where you can which you hang items to be mem- audio program focused on using the peg method
store things. Select easily remembered orized. Let’s use the two steps of without much application to real life. Contrary to
places such as in your kitchen: sink, cabi- the peg method to memorize our the audiocassette’s promise, memory researchers
net, refrigerator, stove, and closet. three early psychologists: Wundt, report that photographic memories are as rare as
Step 2. Create a vivid association for James, Watson. duck’s teeth (Schacter, 1996).
each item to be memorized. For example,
picture Wundt hanging from a bridge Step 1. Memorize the list of peg ird, she read a memory-improvement book
and saying, “I wundt jump.” words shown ($10) that described the peg method, how to pay
Step 3. Once you have created a list one is a bun on the le , attention, and the importance of creating associa-
of vivid associations, mentally put each two is a shoe which consists tions and images.
three is a tree of a number
psychologist in one of the four is a door and its rhyming As this writer’s experience illustrates, improv-
selected places: Wundt five is a hive word. ing one’s memory requires making the effort to use
goes in the sink, James good encoding, such as elaborative rehearsal, which
in the cabinet, Watson Step 2. Next, associate each of the means creating good associations that, in turn, pro-
in the refrigerator. items you wish to memorize with duce good retrieval cues and improve memory.

To recall this list of early psychologists, one of the peg words. As the percentage of people over 50 increases, so
you take an imaginary stroll through For instance, imag- does interest in memory-enhancing drugs, such as
your kitchen and mentally note the image ine Wundt on a bun, the popular herbal supplement ginkgo. However,
stored in each of your memorized places. James with two le researchers found that ginkgo did NOT improve
memory or concentration in healthy adults (Solomon
shoes, and Watson et al., 2002). Still, the search for effective memory
stuck in a tree. enhancers continues. Researchers have found ways to
To remem- improve memory in mice, and they are now testing
ber this list of memory-enhancing drugs in humans (Rovner, 2007).
early psycholo-
Next, we’ll discuss how cultural influences can
gists, you recall each peg along affect what you remember.
with its image of an early psychol- E . M N E M O N I C S : M E M O R I Z A T I O N M E T H O D S 271
ogist that you placed there.

F. Cultural Diversity: Aborigines Versus White Australians

Retrieval Cues

How do you Suppose you lived in In contrast, most of us live in an indus-
survive in a desert the harsh, endless, trial urban culture, in which survival largely
barren desert world depends on the ability to read and write and
versus an office of western Australia, store an enormous amount of verbal, written,
meeting? where many of the and computer-related information (bottom
native Aborigines live photo). Successfully surviving in an industrial
(top photo). For about 30,000 years, the Aborigi- culture is greatly dependent on the ability to
nes have survived by using visual landmarks to store, or encode, enormous amounts of writ-
remember the exact locations of water, food, and Survival depends on VISUAL cues. ten and verbal information by using verbal
game in vast stretches of unmapped country Survival depends on VERBAL cues. retrieval cues.
(R. A. Gould, 1969). Because the Aborigines use
few, if any, written records, their survival in this ese two examples show that survival in
barren desert largely depends on their ability to the Aboriginal culture depends on encoding
store, or encode, enormous amounts of visual and remembering visual information, while
information, such as landmarks for food, water, surviving in an industrial culture depends on
and game. Lacking reading and writing skills, encoding and remembering verbal (written)
Aborigines primarily encode information about information. is cultural difference predicts
the desert by using visual retrieval cues, which that people would perform differently on tests,
are later used to recall information. depending on whether the tests emphasized
visual or verbal retrieval cues.

Visual Versus Verbal Memory
Psychologist Judith Kearins was not surprised to Performance
find that Aborigines scored low on Western-style Kearins tested the adolescents using four different sets of objects—natural, manu-
intelligence tests because these tests emphasize ver- factured, and two combinations. e graph below shows that the Aborigine ado-
bal retrieval cues and put Aborigines at a disadvan- lescents performed significantly
tage. Considering their desert culture, she suspected better in placing objects back in Average Correct Responses

that Aborigines would perform better on tests that their original locations than did
took advantage of their ability to encode with visual the White Australian adoles- White Australians
11.6

retrieval cues. cents (Kearins, 1981). Another
group of researchers essentially Aborigines
Using Visual Cues 16.2
To see if Aborigines were better at visual encoding,
Kearins developed a test that emphasized visual replicated Kearins’s results
retrieval cues. is test consisted of looking at 20 using a younger population
objects that were placed on a board divided into 20 (average age of 9) of Aborigines and White Australians (Klich & Davidson, 1983).

Culture and Retrieval Cues

squares. Some objects were natural—stone, feather, Kearins concluded that the Aborigines’ survival in the harsh desert landscape
leaf; others were manufactured—eraser, thimble, encouraged and rewarded their abilities to encode information using visual
ring. Aborigines and White Australian adolescents retrieval cues. In comparison, the urban school setting of the White Australians
were told to study the board for 30 seconds (sample encouraged and rewarded their ability to encode information using verbal retrieval Photo Credits: top, © Tad Janocinski; center, © PhotoDisc, Inc.
section on right). en all the objects were heaped cues. For example, when questioned about their strategies, many of the Aborigines
into a pile in the center of the board and the chil- said that they remembered only the look of the objects on the board. In compari-
dren were asked to replace the son, White Australians described their strategies in great detail:
items in their original locations. “I looked at the bottom row and remembered onion, banksia nut,
The 44 Aborigine adolescents rock, bone, and apple core.” ese descriptions support the idea
had been reared for the most that the Aborigines used visual retrieval cues, while the White
part in desert tribal ways, had Australians used verbal retrieval cues. ese interesting results
learned a nontraditional form suggest that survival needs do shape and reward a particular way
of English as a second language, of encoding information in memory.
and were now attending school. e better performance of Aborigines on visual tasks indicates
e 44 White Australian ado- that culture does influence the encoding and recall of information.
lescents lived and attended high Besides culture, other factors, such as the type of information
school in a relatively large Aborigine students are better at having to be recalled, may also influence memory, as shown next
urban area (Perth). using VISUAL cues than White in a study on recalling sexual history in adolescents.

Australian students.

272 M O D U L E 1 2 R E M E M B E R I N G & F O R G E T T I N G

G. Research Focus: Memory Accuracy

How Accurate Are Students’ Memories?

Many schools across the United self-image or because they are being influenced by social
Are students States offer sex education in an pressures. If adolescents’ behaviors go against their
telling the effort to reduce adolescent sex- moral or religious beliefs, they may falsify their answers

truth? ual activity. Some sex education so they are more consistent with their values. Another

programs encourage students to challenge in obtaining accurate information by using
take virginity pledges to abstain from sexual inter- a survey is that when people are asked to report on
course until marriage. ese programs are considered their past experiences, their survey responses tend to
to be so important that they are promoted by the U.S. be based on their current beliefs and behaviors more
government (Rosenbaum, 2006). But, how do we know than on past beliefs and behaviors. us, if adolescents
whether or not these programs actually reduce adoles- have recently changed their beliefs or their sex-
cent sexual activity? Since sexual activity is not a ual behaviors, their recollection of the past may
behavior researchers can observe, research methods be biased (Rosenbaum, 2006).
used to study sexual activity are limited to the survey If adolescents are inaccurately reporting
method (see p. 28). their sexual histories, it becomes impossible to
Using surveys to question teenagers about intimate determine whether sex education programs are
behaviors, especially their sexual histories, is very effective in reducing sexual activity. is serious
Surveys are used to
question teenagers about
challenging. Adolescents may deliberately report false their sexual histories. concern led a researcher to study whether ado-
information because they want to present a desirable lescents accurately recall their sexual histories.

Research Method to Evaluate Memory Accuracy Conclusion. Many students changed
To answer the question of how well adolescents recall their their responses about their sexual histories
Why do so many sexual histories, Janet Rosenbaum (2006), a health policy and whether or not they had taken a virgin-
ity pledge. e results of this study show that
students change researcher at Harvard University, studied more than adolescents who have sexual intercourse a er
their answers? 13,000 students in grades 7 to 12 from schools across the making a virginity pledge are likely to deny
having made a pledge. Also, adolescents who
United States. have sexual intercourse before making a vir-
Procedure. e students were questioned two times, a year apart. To respect stu- ginity pledge are likely to deny their sexual
dents’ privacy, many personal questions were asked through headphones and students histories.
typed their answers into a computer. e questions they were asked included: “Have
you ever taken a public or written pledge to remain a virgin until marriage?” Students ese results raise concern about the reli-
were also asked if they ever had sexual intercourse. ability of surveys to collect information
Results. In the first survey, about 13% of subjects reported having taken a virginity about sexual activity among adolescents. One
pledge. In the second survey (a year later), only 6% of subjects reported having ever explanation for why students changed their
taken a virginity pledge (see le bar graph). us, more than half of the subjects who answers is that their beliefs changed during
reported having taken a virginity pledge in the the course of the year between the two sur-
Report Making Virginity Pledge first survey later denied having done so. Also, veys and students may recall only memories
that are consistent with their current beliefs.
subjects who reported having sexual inter- Students may even report behaviors that never
course for the first time in the second survey happened but that are consistent with their
13% First Survey new beliefs. These types of reporting errors
are not uncommon when using surveys to col-
were more likely to deny having taken a virgin- lect information. Overall, the results show that
ity pledge than those who did not report having adolescents’ memories for sexual behaviors are
6% Second Survey sexual intercourse. o en inaccurate.

When first asked about their sexual histo- Just as adolescents may misremember infor-
ries, about 33% of subjects reported having sexual intercourse, but only 29% of sub- mation about their sexual histories, research
jects reported having sexual intercourse when shows that some adults have difficulty recall-
questioned during the second survey (see right ing their sexual histories as well (Garry et al.,
Report Having Sexual Intercourse 2002). Adults may also misremember when
giving eyewitness testimony, our next topic.
Photo Credit: © Peter M. Corr/Alamy bar graph). Many subjects who reported having
had sexual intercourse during the first survey First Survey
and who made a virginity pledge for the first 33%

time during the second survey denied ever hav- Second Survey 29%
ing sexual intercourse. Thus, many subjects
changed their minds about their sexual histo-
ries, especially if they recently made a virginity pledge.

G . R E S E A R C H F O C U S : M E M O R Y A C C U R A C Y 273

H. Application: Eyewitness Testimony

How Accurate Is an Eyewitness? Own-race bias. In the rape case discussed here, the eyewit-

On a hot and humid summer night, Jennifer ompson, a 22-year-
old college student, went to bed in her apartment only to wake up ness was a White female and the accused rapist was a Black man.
frightened by a man lying on top of her holding a knife to her throat. is case brings up another source of eyewitness error: problems
While the man proceeded to rape her, she was committed to study- in correctly identifying individuals of another race. For example,
ing his every physical feature so she could later help police put him researchers found that an eyewitness of one race is less accurate
behind bars. When police presented Jennifer with a photo and physi- when identifying an accused person of another race (Scheck, 2008;
cal lineup of suspects, she picked Ronald Cotton in both instances. G. Wells, 2009). e finding that people better recognize faces of
When she was asked if her rapist was their own race than faces of other races is called own-
present in the courtroom, she again race bias, which can distort and decrease the accuracy
confidently pointed to Ronald Cotton. of eyewitness testimony (Ferguson et al., 2001). For
Eyewitness testimony refers to recall- instance, when White people see the faces of Cotton

ing or recognizing a suspect observed dur- and Poole (le photos), they report the faces look very

ing a potentially very disrupting and similar, but when Black people look at the pictures, they

distracting emotional situation that may say the two men look nothing alike (G. Wells, 2009).

have interfered with accurate remembering. A second problem with eyewitness testimony is that

For example, Jennifer Thompson’s the police and juries generally assume that the more
eyewitness testimony was the damning confident an eyewitness is, the more accurate is the
evidence that sent the defendant (an DNA evidence proved Poole (left) was the testimony. For example, the witness in this rape case
alleged rapist) to prison. A er Ronald rapist, not Cotton (right), who was falsely was very confident when she pointed at the accused
Cotton spent 10 years in prison, DNA identified through eyewitness testimony. man and said, “ ere is no doubt in my mind.” How-

evidence proved that he was not the rapist and implicated another ever, there is only a moderate association or correlation (+0.37)
man, Bobby Poole. e man who had been sent to prison because between how correct the identification of an eyewitness is and how
of the victim’s eyewitness testimony was found innocent and set much confidence the eyewitness feels about his or her identifica-
free (Lithwick, 2009; L. Stahl, 2009). is example points to at least tion (G. L. Wells & Olson, 2003). is means that an eyewitness’s
three problems with eyewitness testimony. confidence is not a good indication of accuracy.
The first problem is that juries assume eyewitness testimony A third problem is eyewitnesses may make errors if law enforce-
is the best kind of evidence because it is so accurate and reliable. ment officials ask misleading or biased questions or make sug-
However, in the United States, more than 230 people have been gestions about the perpetrator’s identification. In these cases, Photo Credits: top, © AP Images/HO/Burlington Police Dept.; bottom left and right, © UPI/Corbis Bettmann
wrongfully convicted of crimes and later been freed because of eyewitnesses may unknowingly accept the misinformation as fact
DNA evidence. Of the 230 convictions, about 77% (177) had been and give unreliable testimony (B. Bower, 2003b). For example, con-
based on (mistaken) eyewitness testimony (Lithwick, 2009). sider the following case of an eyewitness’s mistaken identity.

Can an Eyewitness Be Misled? were questioned and shown photos of the suspects, the police had
Some years ago a series of armed robberies occurred in the Wilm-
ington, Delaware, area. e police had few leads in the case until a suggested the possibility that the robber was a priest. A er being
local citizen said that a Roman Catholic priest, Father Bernard prompted to look for a priest, the witnesses focused on the few
Pagano, looked like the sketch of the robber. similarities Father Pagano had to the real robber. Because Father
At his trial, seven eyewitnesses positively identified Father Pagano was the only suspect wearing a clerical collar, the witnesses
Pagano (le photo) as the robber. But at the last minute, another concluded that he must be the robber. is example is but one of
man, Ronald Clouser (right photo), stepped many that show how eyewitness testimony
forward and confessed to the robberies and may be distorted or biased.
Father Pagano was released (Rodgers, 1982). Because of potential problems with eye-
As you look at these two photos, you will witness testimony, the U.S. Department
wonder how this case of mistaken iden- of Justice released a guide for collecting
tity could possibly have happened. Ronald and preserving eyewitness evidence (G. L.
Clouser is shorter, 14 years younger, and Wells et al., 2000). This guide, based on
not nearly as bald as Father Pagano; research findings discussed in this Appli-
besides, he has different facial features. cation section, warns law enforcement
Why, then, did seven eyewitnesses say agencies about the kinds of errors that
with certainty that Father Pagano was eyewitnesses may make. We’ll next dis-
the robber they had seen? One reason Seven people . . . but Ronald Clouser cuss more of the research findings that
involves how the witnesses were ques- identified Father confessed to being show how eyewitness testimony may be
tioned. Apparently, before the witnesses the robber. changed or biased.
Pagano . . .

274 M O D U L E 1 2 R E M E M B E R I N G & F O R G E T T I N G

Can Questions Change the Answers? or a yield sign, those subjects who had been misled
by earlier questions about a yield sign were more
Because of concern about the reliability of eyewitness testimony, likely to report seeing a yield sign than subjects who
Elizabeth Lo us (1979, 2003a) studied whether people can be mis- were not misled (Loftus et al., 1978). These results,
led and do misremember, especially if they are given false informa- which show that subjects can be misled by being given
tion. We’ll describe some of Lo us’s experiments that demonstrate false but related information, have been replicated by many other
how subjects misremembered what they saw or heard. researchers (Neisser & Libby, 2005).

Did the Car Pass the Barn? How Does False Information Alter Memory?
In one experiment, subjects watched a film of an Based on many such studies, Lo us and Hoffman (1989) concluded
automobile accident and then were questioned that if misleading information is introduced during questioning
about what they saw. One of the questions con- a er an event, people may believe this misinformation and report
tained a false piece of information: “How fast was events that they did not see.
the red sports car going when it passed the barn
while traveling along the country road?” According to Loftus, eyewitnesses
Although there was no barn in the film, 17% of the subjects said believed the false information they were
they had seen a barn, indicating that people may believe misinfor- told, rather than what they saw, because
mation if it fits the overall scene or pattern (Lo us, 1975). the false information altered or overwrote
their original, true memory (Lo us & Lo us, 1980). is expla-
Was There a Stop Sign? nation, which has generated much research and debate, says that
In a well-known study by Loftus and colleagues, people misremember because of a memory impairment: the true
subjects were first shown slides of a traffic accident memory was erased or overwritten (D. G. Payne et al., 1994). How-
involving a stop sign and then asked a series of ques- ever, other researchers argue that the original, true memory is still
tions about the accident. Some of the questions were there but is difficult to retrieve (Zaragoza & Lane, 1994). Whatever
not misleading and asked about the presence of a the cause, these many studies indicate that people (witnesses) do
stop sign. Other questions were deliberately misleading and did not misremember when given misleading information.
mention the stop sign but asked about the presence of a yield sign.
Later, when subjects were asked whether they had seen a stop sign

Is What You Say, What You Believe?

e debate over whether false information overwrites the original car that drove off. As you’re thinking that the car was dark red, you
memory has not been settled. However, what has been settled is that remember hearing another bystander say, “ e car was dark blue.”
sometimes people do come to believe that they actually Source misattribution would occur if you said that
remember seeing things that were merely suggested to the car was dark blue (suggestion you heard) rather
them; this phenomenon is called source misattribution. than dark red (something you saw). Researchers have
Source misattribution is a memory error that results found that false suggestions, misleading questions,

when a person has difficulty deciding which of two or more Did you see a and misinformation can result in source misattribution
sources a memory came from: Was the source something the red or blue car? and create false memories (Roediger & McDermott, 2005).
person saw or imagined, or was it a suggestion? False memories that can result from source misattribution,

For example, suppose you saw a hit-and-run accident involving such as suggestions or misleading questions, are one reason that
a dark red car. During questioning, you are asked the color of the court officials may question the accuracy of eyewitness testimony.

Which Interview Technique Works Best?

Suppose you witnessed a robbery but had trouble picking the sus- a very effective way to increase correct recall and avoid making
pect out of a police lineup. To help you provide reliable information suggestions that might create false memories and increase errors
about the suspect, you might be questioned of source misattribution in children, adults,
using a procedure called the cognitive inter- and senior citizens from varying educational
view (M. W. Eysenck, 2009a). backgrounds (L. M. Stein & Memon, 2006).
The cognitive interview is a technique for Psychologists have answered many ques-

questioning people, such as eyewitnesses, by tions about how eyewitnesses can be misled

having them imagine and reconstruct the details as well as how to improve the reliability of

of an event, report everything they remember their testimony, which may result in life-or-

without holding anything back, and narrate the A cognitive interview is a more effective death decisions. Because most jurors do not
event from different viewpoints. method for questioning eyewitnesses. know that eyewitness testimonies are unreli-

e cognitive interview has proved very able, many courts in the United States allow
useful in police interrogation: Detectives trained in cognitive inter- experts to testify about the reliability of eyewitnesses so juries are
view techniques obtained 47–60% more information from victims made aware of the same studies and findings that you have just read
and suspects than detectives using the standard police interroga- (McVeigh, 2006; Pezdek, 1995). England has gone as far as barring
tion method (Gwyer & Clifford, 1997). e cognitive interview is cases when the only evidence is an eyewitness.

H . A P P L I C A T I O N : E Y E W I T N E S S T E S T I M O N Y 275

Summary Test

A. Organization of Memories 9. If a person experiences a blow to the head, has severe psycho-
logical trauma, or takes or is given certain drugs, that person may
1. If you are asked to retrieve previously learned forget things because of having .
information without the aid of external cues, 1. ANIMAL

you are using a process of remembering 10. You may not always be aware of when you misremember
called (a) , which is gener- something or when your memory is distorted because of the
ally more difficult. If you are asked to answer influence of and .
multiple-choice questions, you can identify or
match information and use a process of remembering called 11. To increase the chances of remembering items from long-term
(b) , which is generally less difficult. memory, we can create reminders that associate new information
with information that we already know; these reminders are called
2. According to one theory of memory organization, we encode .
or file related ideas in separate categories called .

3. We form links between nodes by forming associations. The 12. There are times you are absolutely sure that certain informa-
idea that the interconnected nodes form a gigantic system is called tion is stored in memory but you are unable to retrieve it. This

theory.
Percent Correct experience is called the phenomenon.

Photo Credits: (#5) © PhotoDisc, Inc.4. An arrangement in which nodes are organized in a logical13. Besides creating retrieval cues, it may also be easier to recall
Figure/Text Credit: (#5) Graph data from “Fifty Years of Memory for Names and Faces,” by H. P. Bahrick, P. O. Bahrick & R. P. Wittlinger, 1975, Journal of Experimentalmanner, with more concrete information at the bottom and moreinformation when you are in the same physiological or emotional
Psychology: General, 104, 54–75.abstract information at the top, is called a.state as when you originally learned it; this phenomenon is called

.

B. Forgetting Curves D. Biological Bases of Memory

100 Recognition test 5. If the amount of previously 14. Different areas of the brain are involved
learned information that subjects in different memory processes. For example,
80 can recall or recognize across time the ability to hold words, facts, or events
is plotted, the resulting graph is (declarative information) in short-term
60 Recall test

40
20

0 0.3 3.8 7.4 14.5 25.8 34.1 47.6 called a . For memory depends on activity in the
example, Ebbinghaus demonstrat- (a) . The ability to transfer
Years Since Graduation

ed that the majority of nonsense syllables are forgotten relatively information about words, facts, and events
quickly—within hours. However, other studies showed that more (declarative information) from short-term into
relevant and interesting information may be remembered for long-term memory depends on activity in the (b) .
many years. If this structure were damaged, a person could carry on a conver-
sation but would not (c) the conversation the
next day.
C. Reasons for Forgetting
15. The ability to recall words, facts, and events (declarative
6. If you forget because other memories inter- information) from the past involves activity in the outer covering
fere with or prevent retrieval of some particu-
lar memory, it is called (a) . of the brain, which is called the (a) . For example,
if patients have an intact cortex, they can remember past events
If you forget because information that was because these events are already stored in the cortex. However,
learned earlier interferes with information
learned later, it is called (b) they may have difficulty remembering any new words, facts,
or events (declarative information) because of damage to their
interference. If you forget because information (b) .
that was learned later interferes with information learned earlier,
it is called (c) interference.
16. The ability to transfer motor skills and habits, which is part
7. Forgetting information because it was poorly encoded means of memory, does not involve the hippocampus.
that you failed to form new associations or reminders, which Even though a person with damage to the hippocampus can store
results in poor or inadequate . procedural information, that person would have no memory of
having engaged in that event (declarative information).

8. Freud said you may forget information that is threatening to 17. The area of the brain that adds emotional feelings to memories
your self-concept because it is automatically pushed into your
unconscious, from which you cannot retrieve it at will. This idea is called the . This area is involved in forming a
wide range of happy, sad, and fearful memories.
of Freud’s is called .

276 M O D U L E 1 2 R E M E M B E R I N G & F O R G E T T I N G

18. Researchers believe that the brain forms and briefly stores G. Research Focus: Memory Accuracy
short-term memories by using a circuit of interconnected neurons
called . When these interconnected neurons stop 23. Since sexual activity is not a behavior
researchers can observe, research methods
being activated, the short-term memory vanishes unless it has used to study sexual activity are limited to the
been encoded in long-term memory.
(a) . Janet Rosenbaum at
19. Researchers have evidence that the formation and storage of Harvard University asked more than 13,000
long-term memories involve the repeated stimulation of neurons, adolescents questions about their sexual histo-
which in turn causes neurons to grow and change to form new ries and whether or not they had ever taken a
connections with other neurons; this phenomenon is called virginity pledge. Overall, the results of this
(a) . When this process was chemically or geneti- study show that adolescents’ memories for sexual behaviors are
cally blocked, animals were unable to form (b) , often (b) .
which points to the importance of LTP in forming long-term
memories.
H. Application: Eyewitness Testimony

E. Mnemonics: Memorization Methods 24. In 177 out of 230 cases, eyewitnesses identified the wrong sus-
pect, which indicates that such eyewitness testimony is not always
20. Although we have the capacity to store great (a) . Another problem is that the accuracy of an
amounts of information, we may not be able to eyewitness is only moderately related to the
recall some of this information because of forget- how much (b) the eye-
ting. Techniques that use efficient methods of witness feels. Eyewitnesses have difficul-
encoding to improve remembering ty identifying a suspect of another race;
and prevent forgetting are this is called (c) .
called (a) . Eyewitness testimony may not be reliable
The major function of these tech- because witnesses may be influenced by
niques is to create strong (b) that will serve as officials who ask (d)
effective (c) . questions.

21. A method that creates visual associations between memorized 25. When a person has difficulty deciding which of two or more
places and items to be memorized is called the (a) . sources is responsible for a memory, it is called (a) .
With another method, one creates associations between number- Researchers found that misleading questions and false information
Photo Credits: (#22) © Tad Janocinski; (#23) © Peter M. Corr/Alamy; (#24) © UPI/Corbis Bettmann word rhymes and items to be memorized; this method is called the can cause subjects to (b) events.
(b) .
26. The recall of eyewitnesses may be improved by having them
imagine and reconstruct the details of an event, report everything
F. Cultural Diversity: that they remember, and report things from different viewpoints.
Aborigines Versus White Australians This method is called the (a) . With this method,
eyewitnesses remember much more information about the event
22. Data from Aborigine and White than they do when asked standard questions. This questioning
Australian children suggest that sur-
vival needs may shape and reward a procedure also helps to eliminate suggestions or source misattri-
butions, which can result in implanting (b)
particular way of (a) in witnesses.
information in memory. For example,
in the industrialized world, people
(White Australians) are required to Answers: 1. (a) recall, (b) recognition; 2. nodes; 3. network; 4. hierarchy;
store large amounts of (b) . However, Aborigines 5. forgetting curve; 6. (a) interference, (b) proactive, (c) retroactive;
in the wilds of Australia need to be able to store environmental 7. retrieval cues; 8. repression; 9. amnesia; 10. bias, suggestibility;
information, or (c) , to find their way, locate 11. retrieval cues; 12. tip-of-the-tongue; 13. state-dependent learning;
watering places, and thus increase their chances of survival. 14. (a) cortex, (b) hippocampus, (c) remember; 15. (a) cortex, (b) hippo-
Researchers found that Aborigines performed better on tests that campus; 16. procedural; 17. amygdala; 18. neural assemblies; 19. (a) long-
required (d) retrieval cues and performed less term potentiation, or LTP, (b) long-term memories; 20. (a) mnemonics,
well on tests that required (e) cues. (b) associations, (c) retrieval cues; 21. (a) method of loci, (b) peg method;
22. (a) encoding, (b) verbal information, (c) visual information, (d) visual,
(e) verbal; 23. (a) survey method, (b) inaccurate; 24. (a) accurate or reli-
able, (b) confidence, (c) own-race bias, (d) misleading; 25. (a) source mis-
attribution, (b) misremember; 26. (a) cognitive interview, (b) false
memories

S U M M A R Y T E S T 277

Critical Thinking

Can Bad Memories Be Erased?

QUESTIONS I magine a world where no the processing of emotions in 4 Research shows
one had any bad memo- memories and learning it’s more difficult
1What type of ries. New research discov- fear responses. Using to erase bad memories
long-term memory eries suggest that such a propranolol while than to forget good
includes our recollec- world may not be so implau- actively remember- memories. What
tion of traumatic events sible. For people who are ing traumatic events explains this?
we experienced? frequently haunted by pain- seems to break down
ful, unpleasant memories, unpleasant memories 5 Does the pheno-
2 In this research there may be a simple way by removing the fear menon of source
example, what is to alter or even erase the responses associated misattribution apply
the neutral stimulus? events from their mind. with them. to a person whose
Unconditioned stimu- Many scientists are memory of the wit-
lus? Conditioned Scientists believe that excited about using drugs nessed event gets
stimulus? after a person experiences erased? Why or
a traumatic event, the body not only to modify mem- why not?
3 Why are scientists releases stress hormones, which act ory, but also to permanently erase
primarily focusing to make the bad memory stronger. memory. One such scientist has 6 It’s possible to
on using a drug that To test this theory, Roger Pitman, a achieved promising results in his ani- make a memory
targets brain cells in scientist, found patients who had just mal research. He found that increas- weaker or even disap-
the amygdala and not experienced a traumatic event and ing a particular enzyme to high levels pear, but is it possible
the hippocampus? gave some of them a drug called while the subject actively remembers to create false memo-
propranolol (commonly used to a traumatic experience may actually ries and have people
treat blood pressure), which blocks make the memory vanish. believe them to be
the release of stress hormones, and true?
others a placebo. Patients also tape- The future of memory research is
recorded their recollection of the full of possibilities. There are, of ANSWERS
traumatic experience in detail. course, many ethical concerns. For TO CRITICAL
Months later, patients listened to instance, what if murderers and rap- THINKING
the tapes. Over half of the placebo ists were able to erase from their QUESTIONS
patients exhibited intense physical memory all of the horrific actions
symptoms of anxiety and fear (high they committed? They would thereby
heart rate, sweaty palms), whereas eliminate any feelings of guilt or
none of the patients who received remorse and forfeit the ability to
propranolol had such responses. learn from experience. Also, people
could interfere with the criminal jus-
Other research also supports the tice system by erasing the memories
use of propranolol to decrease fear of important eyewitnesses. Then,
associated with bad memories. For there’s always the risk of perma-
instance, Merel Kindt and her col- nently erasing positive, wanted
leagues created fearful memories in memories in the process.
subjects by administering shocks
when they looked at pictures of spi- For now, scientific advances don’t
ders while instructed to “actively help people forget bad memories
remember” the pictures. One day altogether, but they do help remove
later, half of the subjects were given the trauma and fear associated with
propranolol and half a placebo. All these memories. However, a scien-
were shown pictures of spiders again, tific breakthrough making it possi-
and the subjects given medication ble to completely erase memories in
showed less fearful responses. humans may occur sooner than our
society prepares itself for the ethical
The almost magical effects of pro- implications of such a discovery.
pranolol occur because the drug (Adapted from Gutierrez, 2009; C.
affects brain cells in the amygdala, a Kalb, 2009; Kindt et al., 2009; Lem-
critical brain structure involved in onick, 2007a; McGowan, 2009)

278 M O D U L E 1 2 R E M E M B E R I N G & F O R G E T T I N G

Links to Learning

Key Terms/Key People Learning Activities

amnesia, 265 memory-enhancing PowerStudy for Introduction PowerStudy 4.5™
amygdala: emotional drugs, 271 to Psychology 4.5

memories, 268 method of loci, 271 Try out PowerStudy’s SuperModule for Remembering & Forgetting! In addition
brain: memory model, 268 misleading questions, 275 to the quizzes, learning activities, interactive Summary Test, key terms, module
categories in the brain, 263 mnemonic methods, 271 outline and abstract, and extended list of correlated websites provided for all
cognitive interview, 275 network hierarchy, 263 modules, the DVD’s SuperModule for Remembering & Forgetting features:
cortex: long-term network theory, 262 t 4FMG QBDFE
GVMMZ OBSSBUFE MFBSOJOH XJUI B NVMUJUVEF PG BOJNBUJPOT
neural assemblies, 269 t 7JEFP BCPVU IPX XF BTTPDJBUF OBNFT
BT XFMM BT &MJ[BCFUI -PЂVT T SFTFBSDI
memories, 268 nodes, 263 on eyewitness testimony.
cortex: short-term own-race bias, 274 t *OUFSBDUJWF WFSTJPOT PG TUVEZ SFTPVSDFT
JODMVEJOH UIF 4VNNBSZ 5FTU PO
peg method, 271 pages 276–277 and the critical thinking questions for the article on page 278.
memories, 268 proactive interference, 266
distortion, 265 recall, 261 CengageNOW!
early memories, 264 recognition, 261 www.cengage.com/login
eyewitness testimony: repression, 265 Want to maximize your online study time? Take this easy-
retrieval cues, 265, 267, 272 to-use study system’s diagnostic pre-test and it will create a personalized study
accuracy and retroactive plan for you. e plan will help you identify the topics you need to understand
confidence, 274 better and direct you to relevant companion online resources that are specific
eyewitness testimony: interference, 266 to this book, speeding up your review of the module.
misleading and biased searching for a
questions, 275 Introduction to Psychology Book Companion Website
familiar and interesting memory, 262 www.cengage.com/psychology/plotnik
memories, 264 source misattribution, 275 Visit this book’s companion website for more resources to help you
forgetting, 265 state-dependent study, including learning objectives, additional quizzes, flash cards, updated
forgetting curve, 264 links to useful websites, and a pronunciation glossary.
forming effective retrieval learning, 267
cues, 267 tip-of-the-tongue Study Guide and WebTutor
hippocampus: retrieving Work through the corresponding module in your Study
memories, 268 phenomenon, 267 Guide for tips on how to study effectively and for help learning the material
hippocampus: transferring unfamiliar and covered in the book. WebTutor (an online Study Tool accessed through your
memories, 268 eResources account) provides an interactive version of the Study Guide.
interference, 265, 266 uninteresting
long-term potentiation, or memories, 264
LTP, 269 visual versus verbal
memories, 272

Suggested Answers to Critical Thinking 4. It has to do with the intensity of the emotions connected to the
memories. Essentially, the more intense the emotion, the more
1. Episodic memory is a type of declarative memory and involves likely the event will be transferred to long-term memory and the
knowledge of specific events and personal experiences. more easily it can be recalled or retrieved. When we experience a
pleasant event, the intensity of the emotion is simply not as strong
2. In this example, subjects learn to associate pictures of spiders with because it is for an unpleasant, traumatic event.
receiving shocks. The neutral stimulus is the pictures of spiders,
and the unconditioned stimulus is shocks. By repeatedly pairing the 5. Source misattribution is a memory error that results when a person
pictures of spiders with receiving shocks, subjects learn to associ- has difficulty deciding which of two or more sources the memory
ate pictures of spiders with shock, and as such, the conditioned came from. When a person’s memory of the event is erased, there
stimulus is also the pictures of spiders. is no such confusion because no memory is recalled.

3. The hippocampus transfers personal events from short-term to 6. Yes, there have been hundreds of studies reporting that false
long-term memory and is involved in the recollection of memory, memories can be implanted in children and adults. These studies
but is not involved in the emotional experiences connected to these show that implanting false memories is rather easy and they can
memories. Scientists are trying to remove the emotions involved in grow into very vivid, detailed, and believable personal memories.
memories of events, and the amygdala is the brain structure that
processes emotions in memories. L I N K S T O L E A R N I N G 279

13 Intelligence
MODULE

Photo Credit: © John Lund/Corbis
A. Defining Intelligence 282 Summary Test 300
B. Measuring Intelligence 284 Critical Thinking 302
C. Distribution & Use of IQ Scores 288
D. Potential Problems of IQ Testing 290 Smartest or Strongest Man in America? 303
E. Nature-Nurture Question 292 Links to Learning
Concept Review 295
F. Cultural Diversity: Races, IQs & Immigration 296
G. Research Focus: New Approaches 297
H. Application: Intervention Programs 298

280

Introduction

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall, Who Is the Most Intelligent of Them All?

Who is For the past 200 years, psychologists have rank them according to your idea of intelligence. A er you have
the most been involved in defining and measuring read the module, come back to your ranking and see if you would
intelligent? intelligence, which turns out to be a very com- make any changes.
plicated business. For example, a er reading
about the five individuals described below, Based on my idea of intelligence, here’s how I have ranked the
five individuals: #1___, #2___, #3___, #4___, #5___.

Photo Credits: (A) © Stephen Ellison/Corbis; (B) © AP Images/Luis Martinez; (C) © AP Images/Cheryl Hatch; (D) © WireImage/Getty Images; (E) Courtesy IMG Artists, A. Gregg Cox B. Halle Berry C. Bill Gates D. Alia Sabur E. Jay Greenberg
photo by Bill Phelps At age 37, he could At age 44, she has At age 54, he has At only 8 months, Alia At age 10, Jay enrolled
speak 64 languages already starred in become the richest began reading. She grad- in the world-renowned
fluently, making him, over 30 Hollywood man in the United uated from college at age Juilliard School of
says e Guinness Book movies and become States, worth around 14 with highest honors, Music. By age 14, he
of World Records, the the highest paid Afri- $40 billion. He began becoming the youngest accomplished as much as
planet’s greatest lin- can American actress writing computer pro- female college graduate talented composers do in
guist. He broke the old in Hollywood. Not grams in eighth grade. in American history. Her a lifetime. Jay has com-
record of 58 languages. only has she earned an As a college sophomore, IQ is off the charts. Alia posed more than 100
He began learning lan- Emmy and a Golden he dropped out of Har- is the youngest person to musical works, including
guages at age 5, starting Globe award for her vard and wrote one of ever receive awards from five highly praised sym-
with Spanish, Portu- acting, but she also the first operating sys- the U.S. Department of phonies. He has earned
guese, Italian, German, won Best Actress at the tems to run a computer. Defense, U.S. National many prestigious awards
and Chinese. Since Academy Awards in In his twenties, he Science Foundation, and for his compositions and
then, he has been learn- 2002, making her the founded Microso , NASA. At the age of 19, became the youngest
ing about 5 languages first African American whose so ware operates she became the world’s composer ever to sign
a year. He’s writing a woman to ever win an 90% of the computers youngest professor exclusive contracts with
book—a dictionary. Oscar for best actress. in the world. in history. major recording labels.

Psychometrics What’s Coming

e problem you faced in trying to rank the intelligence of the above five individuals—Cox, We’ll discuss the different theories of
Berry, Gates, Sabur, and Greenberg—is similar to what psychologists faced in having to define intelligence, how intelligence is mea-
and measure intelligence. Since the late 1800s, psychologists have debated the question, What is sured, the meaning of IQ scores, the
intelligence? and have developed a number of tests to measure intelligence. Measuring intelli- problems with intelligence tests, how
gence is part of an area of psychology that is called psychometrics. genetics and environment influence
intelligence, and ways to improve
Psychometrics, which is a subarea of psychology, is concerned with developing psychological tests environmental opportunities.
that assess an individual’s abilities, skills, beliefs, and personality traits in a wide range of settings—
We’ll begin with a very old but
school, industry, or clinic. very basic question: How do we
As you’ll discover in this module, the measurement of intelligence and the development of define intelligence?

intelligence tests are still being debated (Gill et al., 2009; R. J. Sternberg et al., 2003b).

I N T R O D U C T I O N 281

A. Defining Intelligence

Problem: Definition Two-Factor Theory
When college students were asked to In 1904, Charles Spearman reported that he had mea-
What is estimate their overall IQs, men’s What is sured intelligence in an objective way. Spearman was

intelligence? reports of IQ were higher than esti- “g”? one of the first to use the psychometric approach.

mates given by women, and both men The psychometric approach measures or quantifies cog-

and women reported higher IQs for nitive abilities or factors that are thought to be involved in intellectual performance.

their fathers than for their mothers Spearman (1904) reasoned that by measuring related cognitive factors
(Petrides et al., 2004). In fact, over he would have an objective measure of intelligence. is idea led to his
the past 20 years, men have consis- two-factor theory of intelligence.
tently overestimated and women have Spearman’s two-factor theory says that intelligence has two factors: a gen-

consistently underestimated their eral mental ability factor, g, which represents what different cognitive tasks have

IQs, even though researchers find no in common, plus many specific factors, s, which include specific mental abilities

Gregg Cox: sex differences in IQ scores (Colom (mathematical, mechanical, or verbal skills).
speaks 64 et al., 2000).
languages Spearman believed that factor g, or general mental ability, represented Photo Credits: (#1) © Stephen Ellison/Corbis; (#2) © AP Images/Luis Martinez; (#3) © AP Images/Cheryl Hatch; (#4) © WireImage/Getty Images; (#5) Courtesy IMG
People generally believe IQ scores a person’s mental energy. Today, factor g is defined and measured by a Artists, photo by Bill Phelps; right, © WireImage/Getty Images
measure intelligence. But it’s not so person’s performance on various and related cognitive abilities. In other
simple. For example, how did you rank words, modern intelligence tests have essentially changed or transformed
the intelligence of the five individuals Spearman’s g into an objective score, which is commonly known as the
in the le photos, each of whom shows IQ score. Today, many psychologists believe that g, as represented by IQ
a different yet extraordinary skill or scores, is a good measure of a person’s general intelligence (Jenson, 2005).
talent? Do these examples point to
the existence of different kinds of On the basis of Spearman’s two-factor theory, which of the
intelligence (H. Gardner, 2006b)? five individuals (le photos) is most intelligent?
Halle Berry: Many psychologists believe intelli-
Oscar-winning Many psychologists believe that g is the definition
gence is best defined by measuring a of general intelligence, which can be measured by an
actress IQ test and represented by an IQ score. us, one way
to compare people on intelligence is by using scores
variety of cognitive abilities, which is from IQ tests. Ranking intelligence by using IQ
what most intelligence tests measure. scores would favor Sabur (“off the charts” IQ score),
For example, based on an intelligence Gates (one colleague said Gates was “the smartest
test, Alia Sabur received an IQ score person he ever knew”), and probably Cox (speaks 64
so high it was “off the charts.” Oth- languages). However, although Berry (Oscar-winning
ers argue that a definition of intel- actress) and Greenberg (composer) might score high
ligence based entirely on cognitive on IQ tests, they would get little or no credit for having
Bill Gates: abilities is much too narrow. Instead, exceptional motor, acting, or music skills. Alia Sabur:
head of Microsoft; they believe there are many kinds “off the charts”
of intelligence, such as involving
$40 billion IQ; professor

acting skills (Halle Berry), musical Advantages and Disadvantages
abilities (Jay Greenberg), practical One advantage of g is that it can be objectively defined and measured by
skills (Gregg Cox), or solving prob- an IQ test, which gives a single IQ score that is presumed to reflect a per-
lems (Bill Gates) (E. Benson, 2003a; son’s general intelligence. Another advantage is that g is a good predictor
H. Gardner, 2006b). of performance in academic settings and has some success in predicting
More recently, researchers have performance in certain careers (discussed later) (N. Brody, 2000).
pointed to the importance of emo-
Alia Sabur: tional intelligence, which involves One disadvantage of Spearman’s g is the continuing debate over
“off the charts” how well people perceive, express, and whether it is the best measure of intelligence. Or as one researcher states,
regulate emotions in themselves and “We know how to measure something called intelligence, but we do not
IQ; professor know what has been measured” (N. Brody, 2000, p. 30). A second dis-
advantage of g is that it focuses on cognitive abilities but neglects motor,
others (Salovey et al., 2008). Award- perceptual, musical, practical, and creative abilities, which some believe
winning actors (Halle Berry) certainly indicate other kinds of intelligence (H. Gardner, 2006b). A third dis-
have high emotional intelligence. advantage is that g and its focus on cognitive abilities are popular in
We’ll discuss emotional intelligence Western cultures but not in many Asian and African cultures, where
in Module 16. being intelligent includes other abilities, such as how one relates to and
Here we’ll examine three popular understands others (E. Benson, 2003b). For these reasons, psychologists
definitions of intelligence, begin- critical of g’s narrow approach to measuring general intelligence have
Jay Greenberg: ning with the oldest and perhaps the proposed other definitions and ways to measure intelligence. We’ll discuss
music composer; most widely accepted definition of two other definitions of intelligence.
intelligence, the two-factor theory.
child prodigy

282 M O D U L E 1 3 I N T E L L I G E N C E

Multiple-Intelligence Theory Triarchic Theory
Some psychologists reject the idea that intel- Criticizing Spearman’s g as too narrow and
Multiple ligence can be reduced to g and expressed by Three current IQ tests as limited to measuring only

kinds of a single number, an IQ score. Howard Gard- kinds of problem-solving skills and cognitive abili-

intelligence? ner (1999, 2006b) argues for broadening the intelligence? ties, psychologist Robert Sternberg defined
definition of intelligence to include different intelligence by analyzing three kinds of rea-
kinds of abilities, an idea he calls the multiple-intelligence theory. soning processes that people use in solving problems. Sternberg
Gardner’s multiple-intelligence theory says that instead of one kind (2003a) calls his approach the triarchic theory of intelligence.

of general intelligence, there are at least nine different kinds, which include Sternberg’s triarchic theory says that intelli-

verbal intelligence, musical intelligence, logical-mathematical intelligence, gence can be divided into three different kinds of

spatial intelligence, body movement intelligence, intelligence to understand reasoning processes (triarchic means “three com-
ponents”). The first is using analytical or logical
oneself, intelligence to understand others, naturalistic intelligence, and

existential intelligence. thinking skills measured by traditional intelligence
Gardner states that standard IQ tests measure primarily verbal
tests. The second is using problem-solving skills Analytical
and logical-mathematical intelligence and neglect other but equally that require creative thinking and the ability to learn
important kinds of intelligence, such as the ones listed above.
Gardner (1999, 2006b) arrived at his theory of multiple kinds of from experience. The third is using practical think-
intelligence a er studying which abilities remain following brain
damage, how savants and prodigies develop their specialized kinds ing skills that help a person adjust to, and cope with,
of intelligence, and how people in different environments develop
Photo Credits: left, © AP Images/Luis Martinez; center, Courtesy IMG Artists, photo by Bill Phelps; top right, © PhotoDisc, Inc.; bottom and center right, different abilities to adapt and be successful. his or her sociocultural environment. Problem solving
© PhotoDisc, Inc. Unlike Spearman’s g, which measures gen-
On the basis of Gardner’s multiple-
intelligence theory, which of the five indi- eral intelligence by measuring cognitive abili-
viduals (previous page) is most intelligent? ties, Sternberg’s theory breaks intelligence
down into three reasoning processes: analyti-
cal, problem solving, and practical skills.

According to Gardner’s multiple-intelligence On the basis of Sternberg’s triarchic
theory, there isn’t one kind of general intelli- theory of intelligence, which of the five
gence for ranking all individuals. individuals (previous page) is most
intelligent?

Halle Berry: Rather, Gardner views the special According to Sternberg’s triarchic theory, Practical
Oscar-winning abilities of Berry in acting and there isn’t one kind of general intelligence for
Greenberg in music as rep- evaluating these five individuals but rather three different rea-
actress

resenting other kinds of intelligence. Gardner soning processes (analytical, problem solving, practical) that con-
argues that none of the five is more intelligent tribute to and predict the success of each of the five individuals.
but rather that each of the five individuals
shows a different kind of ability or intelligence Jay Greenberg: Advantages and Disadvantages
that was developed and adapted to his or her music composer; One advantage of Sternberg’s triarchic theory of intelligence is
environment. that it doesn’t limit the definition of intelligence to cognitive
child prodigy abilities. Instead, Sternberg’s theory evaluates a person’s intelli-
gence by measuring three different kinds of reasoning processes
Advantages and Disadvantages and how they contribute to a person’s success. For example, a
One advantage of Gardner’s multiple-intelligence approach is that person may be “street smart” or have exceptional practical rea-
it does not reduce intelligence to a single IQ score but rather cred- soning skills but may not necessarily score high on traditional
its people with having different kinds of intelligence. intelligence tests.

Two disadvantages of this approach are not knowing how many One disadvantage of the triarchic theory is that Sternberg’s
kinds of intelligence there are and not having standard measuring research and tests for measuring his proposed three kinds of rea-
techniques to assess different kinds of intelligence (Callahan, 2000). soning processes have so far been criticized as providing little sup-
port for his triarchic theory (N. Brody, 2003; Gottfredson, 2003).
Agreeing with Gardner that g is too narrow a measure of intel-
ligence, Sternberg proposed a triarchic theory.

Current Status and Sternberg’s triarchic approach, measure additional abilities and
skills and represent different kinds of intelligence. ey may replace
Western psychologists used the psychometric approach to measure g and its IQ score as the best measure of intelligence (H. Gardner,
cognitive abilities, which led to the development of intelligence tests 2006b; R. J. Sternberg & Pretz, 2005). Many educators have already
and IQ scores and the concept of g as the best measure of intelli- adopted a multiple-intelligence approach in designing classroom
gence (N. Brody, 2000). Standard intelligence tests remain popular curriculum (Kelly & Tangney, 2006).
because they have proved useful in predicting performance in aca-
demic settings. Critics argue these IQ tests measure only analytical To see how far intelligence testing has come, we’ll go back in time
intelligence and ignore other types of intelligence (Nisbett, 2009). and discuss early attempts to define and measure intelligence.
Newer approaches, such as Gardner’s multiple-intelligence approach

A . D E F I N I N G I N T E L L I G E N C E 283

B. Measuring Intelligence PowerStudy 4.5™

Module 4

Earlier Attempts to Measure Intelligence B. Studying the Living Brain
H. Cultural Diversity: Brain

Size & Racial Myths

Head Size and Intelligence Brain Size and Achievement

Are Efforts to measure intelligence began in Early researchers were reluctant to give up the idea that bigger brains
bigger brains earnest in the late 1800s. That’s when were better. ey looked for a relationship between brain size and
Francis Galton noticed that intelligent personal achievement, another measure of intelligence. However, as
better? people o en had intelligent relatives and shown in the center illustration, there is enormous variation in brain

concluded that intelligence was, to a large size and achievement (S. J. Gould, 1996). Notice that Nobel Prize–
extent, biological or inherited. In trying to assess inherited winner Einstein’s brain (1,230 grams) was slightly below average
intelligence, Galton measured people’s heads and weight and that two famous authors, poet Walt Whitman (1,200
recorded the speed of their reactions grams) and novelist Anatole France (1,000 grams),
to various sensory stimuli. achieved literary fame with brains about half the
However, measures proved weight of Jonathan Swi ’s (2,000 grams), one of
to be poorly related to Jonathan Swift, a great 18th-century the heaviest on record. For comparison, we
intelligence or aca- British writer who wrote Gulliver’s have included a gorilla brain (500 grams),
demic achievement which is actually quite small considering
(S. J. Gould, 1996). Travels, had a brain that weighed 2,000 the size of a gorilla head. It is difficult
grams, one of the largest on record.

Galton switched to test a gorilla’s intelligence, but at
gears and tried to least one is reported to have learned a
correlate head size vocabulary of more than 1,000 hand
with students’ grade Albert Einstein, a Nobel Prize-winning signs (“Koko’s World,” 2006).
point average. For math genius, had a brain that weighed
Brain Size, Sex Differences,
1,230 grams, slightly less than the and Intelligence
average weight of 1,350. Still believing that bigger brains
example, he reported that are better, some researchers
the average head size of Cam-
bridge students who received A’s claimed that women had lower
was about 3.3% larger than that of stu- IQ scores than men because
dents who received C’s (Galton, 1888). women’s brains weigh about 10%
Walt Whitman, a famous less than men’s (Holden, 1995).
19th-century American poet, However, a recent study of over
However, a review of later studies showed had a brain that weighed 1,200 4,000 women and 6,000 men
a very low correlation of 0.15 between head size grams, within the normal range. reported that there was little or
and intelligence (IQ scores) (Vernon et al., 2000). no difference in intelligence (IQ
Such a low correlation has little practical use in scores) between men and women.
measuring or predicting intelligence. For this rea- Researchers concluded that the
son, using head size as a measure of intelligence was larger size of men’s brains does
abandoned in favor of using skull or brain size. Anatole France, a famous not result in higher IQs (Colom
19th-century French author, et al., 2000).
had a brain that weighed
Brain Size and Intelligence 1,000 grams. Measuring Intelligence
Efforts to measure intelligence continued with the work of As you have seen, there is a long
Paul Broca, a famous neurologist in the late 1800s. Broca
claimed that there was a relationship between brain size and
intelligence, with larger brains indicating more intelligence.
Average size of a
gorilla’s brain is
However, a later reanalysis of Broca’s data indicated that mea- 500 grams.
sures of brain size proved to be unreliable and poorly correlated
with intelligence (S. J. Gould, 1996). history of scientists trying to
Recently, the sizes of living brains were measured with brain measure intelligence. However,
scans (p. 70), which permit more precise measurement. A review all the early attempts to use head,
of brain scan studies reported medium-sized positive correlations skull, body, or brain size to measure
(+0.33) between brain size and intelligence (IQ scores) (McDan- Brain size doesn’t necessarily intelligence failed. In fact, a paper pre-
iel, 2005). However, such correlations indicate only that a rela- match performance. sented in 1904 to a German psycho-

tionship exists; correlations cannot tell us whether bigger brains logical society concluded that there was little hope of developing
lead to increased intelligence or whether more cognitive activity psychological tests to measure intelligence in an objective way (Wolf,
leads to bigger brains. ese medium-sized correlations indicate 1973). What’s interesting about this paper is that one of the authors
a positive relationship between brain size and intelligence (IQ was Alfred Binet, who went on to develop the first intelligence test.
scores) but are too low to have practical value in actually predict- We’ll explain how Binet succeeded in developing an intelligence
ing an individual’s intelligence. test when so many others had failed.

284 M O D U L E 1 3 I N T E L L I G E N C E

Binet’s Breakthrough Formula for IQ The first big change
In the late 1800s, a gi ed French psychologist named Alfred was when Binet and
Why did Binet Binet realized that Broca and Galton had failed to assess What Simon introduced the
was the big concept of mental age.
develop an intelligence by measuring brain size. Binet strongly believed
change?
intelligence test? that intelligence was a collection of mental abilities and that
the best way to assess intelligence was to measure a person’s e second big change
ability to perform cognitive tasks, such as understanding the meanings of words or occurred in 1916, when Lewis Terman and
being able to follow directions. his colleagues at Stanford University in
Binet was very pessimistic about developing an intelligence test. California came up with a new and better
By a strange twist of fate, he was appointed to a commission that method to compute the final score. Improv-
was instructed to develop tests capable of differentiating children ing on the concept of expressing the test
of normal intelligence from those who needed special help. Binet results in terms of mental age, Terman
accepted this challenge with two goals in mind: e test must be devised a formula to calculate an intelli-
easy to administer without requiring any special laboratory equip- gence quotient (IQ) score (Terman, 1916).
ment, and the test must clearly distinguish between normal and Intelligence quotient (IQ) is computed by

abnormal mental abilities (N. Brody, 1992). In 1905, Binet and psy- dividing a child’s mental age (MA), as measured

chiatrist eodore Simon succeeded in developing the world’s first Alfred Binet in an intelligence test, by the child’s chronologi-

standardized intelligence test, the Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale (1857–1911) cal age (CA) and multiplying the result by 100.

(Binet & Simon, 1905). Remember that in Binet’s test, mental
The Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale contained items arranged in order of increasing difficulty. age was calculated by noting how many

The items measured vocabulary, memory, common knowledge, and other cognitive abilities. items a child answered that were appro-

e purpose of this first Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale was to distinguish among priate to a certain age. For example, if a
mentally defective children in the Paris school system. In Binet’s time, intellectually 4-year-old girl passed the test items appro-
deficient children were divided into three groups: idiots (most severely deficient), imbe- priate for a 5-year-old, she was said to have
ciles (moderate), and morons (mildest). ese terms are no longer used today because a mental age of 5. A child’s chronological
they have taken on very negative meanings. e problems with this first test were that it (physical) age is his or her age in months
classified children into only three categories (idiots, imbeciles, and morons) and that it and years. To compute her IQ score, we use
did not have a way to express the results in a single score. However, several years later, Terman’s formula, shown below.
Binet corrected both of these problems when he introduced the concept of mental level,
or mental age. (Mental age)

Mental Age: Measure of Intelligence

Binet and Simon revised their intelligence scale to solve several problems (Intelligence (Chronological age)
in their original scale. In this revised test, they arranged the test items in quotient)

order of increasing difficulty and designed different items to Formula for calculating IQ score
measure different cognitive abilities. For each test item,
Binet determined whether an average child of a certain age
could answer the question correctly. For example, a child at us, for the child in our example, we
age level 3 should be able to point to various parts of substitute 5 for MA, 4 for CA, and mul-
the face. A child at age level 9 should be able to tiply by 100. We get: 5/4 = 1.25 × 100 =
recite the days of the week. Because the test items Which items 125. So the child’s IQ is 125. An IQ score
were arranged for each age level (age levels 3 to could an average computed in this traditional way is called
13), this new test could identify which average a ratio IQ because the score represents
3-year-old a ratio of mental to chronological age.
answer? Today the ratio IQ has been replaced by
the deviation IQ, whose computation is
age level the child performed at. If a particular child passed all the too complex to explain here. The reason
items that could be answered by an average 3-year-old but none of for the switch from ratio IQ to deviation
the items appropriate for older children, that child would be said to IQ is that deviation IQ scores more accu-
Photo Credit: left and center, © PhotoDisc, Inc. have a mental age of 3. us, if a 6-year-old child could answer only rately reflect test performance as children
questions appropriate for a 3-year-old child, that child would be get older.
Which items given a mental age of 3 and would be considered retarded in intel-
could an average lectual development. Binet’s intelligence test became popular Since the original Binet-Simon scale
because a single score represented mental age. in 1905, IQ tests have become very popu-
9-year-old lar and have grown into a large business.
answer? We’ll look more closely at one of the most
widely used IQ tests.
Mental age is a method of estimating a child’s intellectual progress by comparing the child’s

score on an intelligence test to the scores of average children of the same age.

At this point, the Binet-Simon scale gave its results in terms of a mental age but not
an IQ score. e idea for computing an IQ score did not occur until some years later,
when the scale was revised by L. M. Terman.

B . M E A S U R I N G I N T E L L I G E N C E 285

B. Measuring Intelligence

Is IQ the We are all curious to learn someone’s IQ
because we believe that this single score reveals
same as a person’s real intelligence. For example, try to

intelligence? match these IQ scores—104, 114, 228—with
three famous people—John F. Kennedy, 35th
president of the United States; J. D. Salinger, famous novelist (Catcher
in the Rye); and Marilyn vos Savant, columnist for Parade magazine
(answers on right). Knowing the IQ scores of these individuals tells
us something of their cognitive abilities, but some psychologists John F. Kennedy: Marilyn vos Savant: J. D. Salinger:
believe that cognitive abilities represent only one kind of intelligence. 35th U.S. columnist for author of
president
Parade magazine Catcher in the Rye

For example, would you expect Salinger, with his average IQ, to be a
very creative novelist, or vos Savant, columnist for Parade magazine,
to have a high IQ twice that of President Kennedy? e achievements of individuals with average
or slightly above average IQs suggest that there are other kinds of intelligence, such as practical, Answers: Salinger, 104; Kennedy,
emotional, social, and creative, which may be equally important to one’s success in life and career 114; and vos Savant, 228, the highest Photo Credits: left, Courtesy, John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library/Museum, # C283-51-63; center, Photo by Deborah Feingold, courtesy of Parade Magazine and Marilyn
(H. Gardner, 2003, 2006b; R. J. Sternberg et al., 2003b). Now, let’s see how IQ scores are measured. IQ on record (Cowley, 1994) vos Savant; right, © UPI/Bettmann/Corbis

Examples of IQ Tests WAIS Verbal Scale: Subtests

The most widely used IQ tests are the Wechsler Adult Subtests for Information
Intelligence Scale (WAIS), for ages 16 and older, and the the verbal scale On what continent is France?
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC), for include infor-
children of ages 6–16. A trained examiner administers mation, com- Comprehension
the Wechsler scales on a one-to-one basis. prehension, Why are children required to go to school?
arithmetic,
The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and similarities, Arithmetic
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) have items digit span, and How many hours will it take to drive 150 miles at 50 miles
that are organized into various subtests. For example, the ver- vocabulary. per hour?
These examples
bal section contains a subtest of general information, a subtest resemble the Similarities
WAIS items. How are a calculator and a typewriter alike?
of vocabulary, and others. The performance section contains a
Digit span
subtest that involves arranging pictures in a meaningful order, Repeat the following numbers backward: 2, 4, 3, 5, 8, 9, 6.

one that requires assembling objects, and one that involves Vocabulary
What does audacity mean?
using codes. The verbal and performance scores are combined
WAIS Performance Scale: Subtests
to give a single IQ score.
Examples of the subtests for WAIS, currently in Subtests for the Digit-symbol coding Shown: Fill in:
performance 1234 1432
its fourth version, are shown on the right. The Verbal scale include
Scale (top right) emphasizes language and verbal skills. digit-symbol Block design
Because of this emphasis, a person from a deprived coding, block Assemble blocks to
environment or for whom English is a second language design, picture match this design.
might have difficulty on this scale because of lack of ver- completion,
bal knowledge rather than lack of cognitive ability. and cancellation Picture completion
test. These Tell me what
In an attempt to measure nonverbal skills and rule out examples is missing.
other cultural or educational problems, Wechsler added resemble the
the Performance Scale (lower right). ese performance WAIS items.
subtests, which measure problem-solving abilities, require
concentration and focused effort, which may be difficult Cancellation test
for individuals who are very nervous, are poor test tak-
ers, or have emotional problems. Although these IQ tests When I say go, draw a line
carefully try to measure verbal and nonverbal abilities, through each red square
you can see that part of one’s success on IQ tests depends and yellow triangle.
on nonintellectual factors, such as cultural, educational,
or emotional factors (Kaplan & Saccuzzo, 2009). We’ll
discuss other problems with IQ tests later in this module.

One reason these IQ tests are widely used is that
they have two characteristics of good tests: validity and
reliability.

286 M O D U L E 1 3 I N T E L L I G E N C E

Two Characteristics of Tests

Can you How truthful are the claims that 1. The reason handwriting analysis
intelligence and other personality 2. or so-called IQ tests in popular maga-
analyze traits can be identified through 3. zines are poor measures of intelli-
4. gence (IQ) is that they lack at least one
handwriting? analyzing handwriting (Searles, Which handwriting sample, 1, 2, 3, or 4, of the two important characteristics
1998)? For example, which one of of a good test. ese two characteris-
the four handwriting samples on the right indicates the is from the person with the highest IQ? tics are validity and reliability, which
highest IQ? (Answer at bottom of page.) mark the difference between an accu-
Although handwriting analysis may claim to mea- rate IQ test (WAIS) and an inaccurate
sure intelligence, research shows that its accuracy is test (handwriting analysis).
usually no better than a good guess (Tripician, 2000).

Validity Reliability

Handwriting analysis is fun, but it is a very poor intelligence test If your style of handwriting remained constant over time, such as
because it lacks validity, which is one of the two characteristics of a always boldly crossing your t’s, then this trait would be reliable.
Figure/Text Credit: (center) Graphs adapted from “Age and WAIS-R A Cross-Sectional Analysis with Educational Level Controlled,” by A. S. Kaufman, C. R. Reynolds & good test. Reliability refers to consistency: A person’s score on a test at one
J. E. McLean, 1989, Intelligence, 13, pp. 246, 247. Copyright © 1989 by Ablex Publishing Company. Adapted by permission.
Validity means that the test measures what it is supposed to measure. point in time should be similar to the score obtained by the same person

Although the definition of validity seems simple and short, this on a similar test at a later point in time.

characteristic makes or breaks a test. For example, numerous stud- For example, if boldly crossed t’s indicated that a person is
ies have shown that handwriting analysis has little or no validity intelligent, then this measure of intelligence would be reliable.
as an intelligence or personality test (Basil, 1989; Tripician, 2000). However, there is no evidence that boldly crossed t’s indicate that
Because handwriting analysis lacks the characteristic of valid- a person is intelligent. So, in this case, handwriting analysis would
ity, it means that this test does not accurately measure what it is be a reliable test of intelligence, but since it lacks validity (doesn’t
supposed to measure. Thus, a test with little or no validity pro- measure intelligence) it is a worthless test of intelligence.
duces results that could be produced by Now, suppose you took the WAIS as
guessing or by chance. Verbal IQ105 a senior in high school and then retook
100 the test as a junior in college. You would
The reason handwriting analysis find that your IQ scores would be much
or tests in popular magazines are not 95 the same because each time you would be
checked for validity is that checking 90 compared with others of your same age.
validity is a long, expensive, and com- 85 Because your IQ scores remain similar
plicated process. One way to show a 80 across time, the Wechsler scales, like other
test’s validity is to give the new test to 75 standardized IQ tests, have reliability
hundreds of subjects along with other 20–24 25–34 35–44 45–54 55–64 65–69 70–74 (C. A Berg, 2000; A. S. Kaufman, 2000).
tests whose validity has already been
established. Then the subjects’ scores Age Group For example, the top graph shows the
on the new test are correlated with their results of verbal IQ scores when seven dif-
No change in VERBAL IQ scores in seven different age
groups indicates that test is reliable.

scores on the tests with proven validity. Performance IQ 105 ferent age groups of subjects were given
Another way that the validity of intel- 100 the WAIS. Notice that verbal IQ scores are
ligence tests, such as the WAIS, was quite stable from ages 20 to 74, indicating
established was to show that IQ scores 95 that the Wechsler scales score high in reli-
correlated with another measure of 90 ability (A. S. Kaufman et al., 1989).
intelligence, such as academic achieve- 85
ment (Deary et al., 2007). 80 But notice that the lower graph shows that
75 there is an overall decrease in performance
However, if IQ scores are valid mea- 20–24 25–34 35–44 45–54 55–64 65–69 70–74 IQ scores from ages 20 to 74 (A. S. Kaufman
sures of cognitive abilities and corre- et al., 1989). However, this general decrease
late with academic performance, why Age Group in performance scores across one’s lifetime

do some individuals with high IQs do Decrease in OVERALL IQ scores across ages is due to reflects changes in psychological and physi-
poorly in college? e developer of the psychological and physiological changes and not ological functioning rather than a decrease
Head Start program, Ed Zigler, believes reliability problems with IQ test. in the test’s reliability.

that academic performance depends on three factors: cognitive Researchers have shown that current intelligence tests, which
abilities; achievement, or the amount of knowledge that a person measure primarily cognitive abilities, have relatively good valid-
has accumulated; and motivation (Zigler, 1995). is means that ity and reliability (Kaplan & Saccuzzo, 2009). Even though IQ
a person may have outstanding cognitive abilities but may lack scores can be measured with good reliability and validity, our
either the achievement or the motivation to succeed in college. next question to answer is: What good or use are IQ scores?
Besides validity, a good intelligence test should also have
(Handwriting answer: I (R.P.) wrote all four samples so that no

reliability. matter which one you picked, I would come out a winner!)

B . M E A S U R I N G I N T E L L I G E N C E 287

C. Distribution & Use of IQ Scores

Normal Distribution of IQ Scores

e le photo is of Chris Burke, who starred in 228, the highest on record. To compare the IQs
the television series “Life Goes On.” Burke has of Burke and vos Savant with those of other
Down syndrome, a genetic defect that results in people, we need to look at the distribution of
varying degrees of mental retardation and physi- IQ scores. IQ scores from established intelli-
cal symptoms (slanting eyes, flattened nose, gence tests, such as the WAIS, are said to have a
visual problems). Although Burke has mild or normal distribution.
borderline mental retardation, he acted in a TV A normal distribution refers to a statistical

IQ 50–85 series and now sings in a band and gives inspira- arrangement of scores so that they resemble the IQ 228
tional talks (Horsburgh et al., 2001). Based on his shape of a bell and, thus, is said to be a bell-shaped
abilities, Burke’s IQ is probably between 50 and 85. curve. A bell-shaped curve means the vast majority of scores fall in the

In comparison, the photo on the right is of Marilyn vos Savant, middle range, with fewer scores falling near the two extreme ends of
who writes a column for Parade magazine and has a reported IQ of the curve.
For example, a normal distribution
of IQ scores is shown at the left and is
About 95 in 100 (95.44%) have IQ scores
between 70 and 130
bell shaped. e average IQ score is 100,
and 95% of IQ scores fall between 70 and
130. An IQ of 70 and below is one sign of
Number of scores About 2 in 100 About 68 in 100 About 2 in 100 mild retardation. An IQ of 130 or higher
(2.27%) have IQ (68.26%) have IQ (2.27%) have IQ is one indication of a gi ed individual.
scores below 70 scores between scores above 130
us, one widespread use of IQ tests is
85 and 115

to provide general categories regarding Photo Credits: left, Courtesy of Marian Burke; right, Photo by Deborah Feingold, courtesy of Parade Magazine and Marilyn vos Savant
mental abilities.
Next, we’ll examine these guidelines
50 70 85 100 115 130 145 in more detail, beginning with mental

Mild Retardation Average IQ Gifted retardation.

Mental Retardation: IQ Scores

What One use of IQ 1 Mild Mental Retardation 4 Causes
scores has been ese individuals have IQs that range from 50 to 70. With spe- ere are two general
is mental to help identify cial training and educational opportunities, they can learn to types of mental retar-
retardation? individuals with read and write, gain social competency, master simple occupa- dation: organic and
mental retardation. tional skills, and become self-supporting members of society. cultural-familial.
Mental retardation refers to a substan- About 85% of individuals with retardation are in this category.
Organic retardation
tial limitation in present functioning that is results from genetic prob-

characterized by significantly subaverage 2 Moderate Mental lems or brain damage.
Chris Burke is
intellectual functioning, along with related Left end of normal Retardation
distribution ese individuals have IQs that an example of some-
limitations in two of eleven areas, including Number of scores one with organic
Retardation range from 35 to 55. With spe- retardation.
communication, self-care, home living, cial training and educational
About 2 in 100 opportunities, they can learn Cultural-familial
social skills, academic skills, leisure, and (2.27%) have IQ to become partially indepen- retardation results from
scores below 70 dent in their everyday lives, a greatly impoverished
safety (American Psychiatric Association, provided they are in a family
or self-help setting. environment. There is
2000).
no evidence of genetic
Currently, there is a transition in 30 50 70
progress to change the term mental Severe/ Moderate Mild or brain damage.
retardation to intellectual disability Profound About 5 million
(Schalock et al., 2007). IQ tests are used
in combination with observations of 3 Severe/Profound Mental Retardation Americans have
adaptive skills, which include social, ese individuals make up 5% of those with mental retardation mental retardation.
home living, and communication skills, and have IQs ranging from 20 to 40. With special training and
to test for mental retardation. On the education, they can acquire limited skills in taking care of their Next, we move
basis of IQ scores and adaptive skills, personal needs. However, because of impaired motor and verbal to the middle of IQ’s
three levels of retardation have been abilities, they require considerable supervision their entire lives. normal distribution.
identified.

288 M O D U L E 1 3 I N T E L L I G E N C E

Vast Majority: IQ Scores Do IQ Scores Predict Job Performance?
ere is a low- to medium-strength correla-
Since the vast majority of people, about Middle of normal distribution
95%, have IQ scores that fall between 70
and 130, it is interesting to see what IQ tion (+0.30 to 0.50) between IQ scores and
scores can tell us. job performance (Neisser et
Do IQ Scores Predict Academic Number of scores About 95 in 100 al., 1996). However, such
(95.44%) have IQ correlations are not very
Achievement? Because IQ tests measure scores between
70 and 130
cognitive abilities similar to those used in accurate at predicting
academic settings, it is no surprise there a specific person’s job
is a medium-strength association, or cor- performance because
relation, between IQ scores and grades several noncognitive
(0.50) and between 70 85 100 115 130 factors that are not
IQ scores and total
Average IQ measured by IQ tests,

years of education that people complete (0.50) such as personality traits (is a can-do per-
(N. Brody, 1997). However, based on medium- son), emotional traits (can deal with stress and
strength correlations alone, it would be difficult get along with co-workers), and practical
to predict a specific person’s academic perfor- know-how (figures out how to get the job IQ scores are
mance because performance in academic set- done), play important roles in predicting somewhat useful
at predicting job
tings also depends on personal characteristics, job performance (Gottfredson, 2002; R. J. performance.
such as one’s interest in school, willingness Sternberg, 2003b).
IQ scores are
useful for predicting
academic success. to study, and belief in one’s ability to succeed Now, we’ll examine the right end of the normal distribution—
(Klomegah, 2007; Neisser et al., 1996). high IQ scores.

Gifted: IQ Scores

Sho Yano (photo below), whose IQ is 200 plus, entered college at Right end of normal Holahan & Sears, 1995; Terman & Oden,
age 9, graduated at age 12, plays classical works on the piano, and distribution 1959). As a group, these gi ed individu-
was the youngest person ever to start a dual M.D.-Ph.D. program
at the University of Chicago. Sho Yano is considered a profoundly Gifted als were generally very successful in life
gi ed child. Although researchers and educators differ in how but not at the extraordinary level that
About 2 in 100 might have been predicted from their
they define gifted, this definition refers to aca- (2.27%) have IQ
demically gi ed children.
A moderately gifted child is usually defined
Photo Credits: bottom left, © AP Images/Anne Ryan; top left, © PhotoDisc, Inc.; top right, © PhotoDisc, Inc. scores above 130; high IQ scores (Colangelo, 1997).
Number of scores about 1 in a million
has an IQ above 180 Generally, despite the stereotype
that gi ed people are socially awkward,
by an IQ score between 130 and 150; a pro- research finds that most are socially well

foundly gifted child has an IQ score about 130 145 adjusted and liked by their peers (Lubin-
Superior Gifted ski et al., 2006). Other research shows that
180 or above. only gi ed children who have demand-

Like Sho Yano, who excels at the
piano and medicine, gi ed children usu- ing and critical parents are more likely to have social and emotional
ally have some superior talent or skill. problems than children with normal intelligence (Elias, 2005).
When placed in regular classrooms, Researchers have long been interested in brain differences
IQ of 200+ labels Sho gi ed children face a number of problems: between gi ed people and those with normal-range intelligence
Yano as gifted. and have found that the brain areas responsible for higher cogni-
ey are bored by the lack of stimulation
and they may feel lonely or develop social problems because they tive reasoning develop differently in highly intelligent children (see
are labeled nerds or geeks. Researchers recommend that gi ed chil- the Research Focus on p. 297) (Shaw et al., 2006). Recently, there
dren be placed in special academic programs that challenge and has been a growing focus on the role of practice and determination
help them develop their potentials (Goode, 2002; Winner, 2000). in gi edness. is view holds that practice and steadfast determi-
How Do Gifted Individuals Turn Out? In the early 1920s, Lewis nation, rather than innate talent, are critical factors in developing
Terman selected a sample of over 1,500 gifted children with IQs gi edness (Ericsson et al., 2007; Gladwell, 2008).
ranging from 135 to 200 (the average was 151) (Hulbert, 2005). Over Conclusion. IQ scores, the most popular measure of intel-
the next 65 years, researchers repeatedly tested these individuals ligence, have proven moderately useful in predicting academic
to determine what they had achieved and how they had adjusted. performance, in helping to define mental retardation, and in iden-
Although 10–30% more of the gifted men obtained advanced tifying the gi ed, but they have low to moderate success in predict-
degrees compared with men in the general population, 30% never ing job performance. One reason IQ scores are not more predictive
finished college, and 2% actually flunked out. Although gi ed indi- is that they do not measure numerous emotional, motivational,
viduals generally showed better health, adjustment, life satisfaction, and personality factors that also influence behavior.
and achievement than people with average IQs, about 9% had seri- While IQ tests have proved useful, we’ll next examine potential
ous emotional problems, and 7% committed suicide (Hegarty, 2007; problems in taking and interpreting IQ tests.

C . D I S T R I B U T I O N & U S E O F I Q S C O R E S 289

D. Potential Problems of IQ Testing

Binet’s Two Warnings Racial Discrimination
You may remember that Binet’s ere have been a number of court cases regarding the
What original goal was to develop a Are IQ appropriate use of IQ tests. Here is one important case

problems did test that would distinguish tests racially and the judge’s ruling.
Binet foresee? between normal and abnormal biased? Larry was an African Amer-
mental abilities and thus iden- ican child who was assigned to
tify children who were mentally retarded and needed special classes for the educable mentally retarded
special help and education. Although previous because he scored below 85 on an IQ test. How-
attempts to measure intelligence had failed, Binet and ever, several years later an African American
Simon succeeded in developing the first scale that psychologist retested Larry and found that his
identified children with varying degrees of mental IQ score was higher than originally thought.
retardation. Binet and Simon’s scale was the begin- Larry was taken out of the special classes,
ning of the modern-day IQ test. However, even in the which were considered a dead end, and
early 1900s, Binet realized that intelligence tests could placed in regular classes that allowed for
be used in two potentially dangerous ways, so he more advancement. On the basis of Larry’s
issued the following two warnings: experience, a class action suit was brought against IQ tests alone should
the San Francisco school system on behalf of all Afri- not be used to define
1 Binet’s Warnings can American schoolchildren in the district. e suit mental retardation.
Binet warned that intelligence tests do not
measure innate abilities or natural intelligence; was based on the finding that, although African American youngsters made
rather, they measure an individual’s cognitive up 27% of all the students enrolled in classes for the mentally retarded, they
abilities, which result from both heredity and made up only 4% of the entire school population (Kaplan & Saccuzzo, 2005).
African American parents wanted to know why their children were so much
2environment. more numerous than White children in these special classes. ey felt there
Binet warned that intelligence tests, by them- must be a bias against African American children in the selection process.
selves, should not be used to label people (for Although Larry’s case came to trial in the early 1970s, the final decision
example, “moron,” “average,” “genius”); rather, was given in 1979 by a judge of the federal court of appeals. e judge agreed
intelligence tests should be used to assess an with the African American parents and found that IQ tests being used in
individual’s abilities and used in combination schools (kindergarten through grade 12) to determine mental retardation
with other information to make academic or were biased against people of color. e court ruled that California schools
placement decisions about people. could not place children of color in classes for children with mental retarda-
tion on the basis of the IQ test alone. e schools were instructed to come up
History shows that neither of Binet’s warnings with an intelligence test that does not favor Whites or else refrain from using
were heeded. In the early 1900s it became common a standardized test to identify slow learners.
practice to treat IQ scores as mea- Definition of mental retardation. In other states, there is disagreement
sures of innate intelligence and about the role of IQ tests in defining mental retardation and making deci-
to use IQ scores to label people sions about placing children in special education classes (BCSSE, 2002).
from “moron” to “genius.” The Despite efforts to improve the edu-
U.S. Congress went so far as to cational opportunities for African
(Mental age)

pass laws that restricted immi- American children in the United
grants based on assumed lev- States, they continue to be more (Intelligence
els of innate intelligence (S. J. likely than White children to be quotient) (Chronological age)

Gould, 1996), an issue we’ll placed in classes for children with
discuss in the Cul- mental retardation and less likely to be placed in classes for gi ed children
tural Diversity (R. Gardner et al., 2001; Losen & Orfield, 2002). Critics of the special educa-
section (p. 296). tion system argue that African American students are overrepresented not
Along with using IQ scores IQ tests have a because of their especially high level of disability but because of discrimina-
to label individuals came racial history of being used tory placement procedures, such as the culturally biased IQ tests (Losen &
and cultural discrimination, Orfield, 2002; J. P. Shapiro et al., 1993).
to discriminate. Educational decisions. Based on the concerns discussed above, psycholo-

some of which continue to the present. For example,
a controversial book, The Bell Curve (Herrnstein & gists and educators recommend that IQ tests alone not be used as the pri-
Murray, 1994), suggested that racial differences in mary basis for making decisions about a child’s educational future. Instead,
IQ scores are due primarily to genetic factors, some- they suggest that educational decisions, especially about placing a child in a
thing we’ll discuss later in this module. For now, we’ll special education class, be made only a er considering a wide range of infor-
examine three issues surrounding IQ tests: cultural mation, which may include IQ scores but also observations and samples of
bias, other cultures, and nonintellectual factors. the child’s behavior from other situations (Palomares, 2003).

290 M O D U L E 1 3 I N T E L L I G E N C E

Cultural Bias Other Cultures Nonintellectual Factors
One criticism of IQ tests We have dis- Maria is 11 years old and
What kind is that they are culturally Are there cussed how What if a has been in the U.S. for
of questions? biased, especially in favor person is two years. She had a hard
different many West- nervous? time learning English, is
of industrialized commu- definitions? ern psychol-
nities, such as the White middle class in the ogists believe not doing well in school,
United States (Serpell, 2000). the best definition of a person’s and is terrified about taking tests. Maria
intelligence is something called comes to take an IQ test, and the psycholo-
Cultural bias means that the wording of the ques- gist tries to put her at ease. However, Maria
is so afraid of failing the IQ test that she just
tions and the experiences on which the questions are g, which is primarily measured sits and stares at the floor. e psychologist
says, “I’m going to give you a word and you
based are more familiar to members of some social by assessing cognitive abilities tell me what it means.” When Maria hears
the word, she is now so anxious that she
groups than to others. and expressed by IQ scores. can’t concentrate or think of what to say.
Maria will probably do poorly on this IQ
For example, consider this question from an test because of nonintellectual factors.
older version of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale
for Children: “What would you do if you were Nonintellectual factors refer to noncognitive
sent to buy a loaf of bread and the grocer said
he did not have any more?”
If you think the answer is “Go to another
store,” you are correct according to the devel-
opers of the Wechsler scale. However, when factors, such as attitude, experience, and emo-

200 minority children were asked this same tional functioning, that may help or hinder perfor-

question, 61 said they would go home. Asked mance on tests.

to explain their answers, they gave reason- For example, nonintellectual factors such
able explanations. Some children answered as Maria’s shyness, fear of strange situations,
“Go home” because there were no other stores The definition of intelligence and anxiety about failing would certainly
in their neighborhood. Yet the answer “Go differs cross cultures. hinder her test performance (Oostdam &
home” would Meijer, 2003). us, students who have test
be scored However, psychologists studying anxiety or who come from an environment
“incorrect,” intelligence in non-Western with poor educational opportunities would
despite it countries, such as in Africa and be disadvantaged in taking IQ tests. Also,
being correct Asia, find these cultures have children diagnosed with autism struggle
in the child’s different conceptions and defini- with traditional IQ tests because they have
experience tions of intelligence. great difficulty interacting with a stranger.
(Hardy One study compared the IQ scores of chil-
et al., For example, the Taiwan- dren with autism who took a test admin-
1976). is ese conception of intelligence istered by a stranger and a test they could
Photo Credits: center, © Natalie Behring-Chisholm/Getty Images; right, © PhotoDisc, Inc. IQ tests are, to some example shows emphasizes how one understands complete on their own.
extent, culturally biased. that different and relates to others, including Healthy children without
when and how to show intelli-
cultural influences and experiences may penal- gence (R. J. Sternberg & Yang, autism scored the same
ize some children when taking standardized 2003). In Zambia (Africa), par- on both tests; however,
tests of intelligence. ents describe the intelligence of children with autism
In today’s IQ tests, many of the above kinds of their children as including cog- scored much higher on
biases have been reduced (A. S. Kaufman, 2003). nitive abilities as well as showing the test they completed
However, researchers still believe that it’s virtu- social responsibility, which is on their own. Clearly,
ally impossible to develop an intelligence test considered equally important nonintellectual factors IQ scores are
completely free of cultural bias because tests will (Serpell, 2003). In Micronesia, play a role on a child’s IQ influenced by
people demonstrate remark- emotions and
reflect, to some degree, the concepts and values able navigational skills as they (Begley, 2007a). experience.
sail long distances using only
of their culture (Greenfield, 2003). For instance, information from stars and sea In comparison, a child
researchers believe the reason Whites tend to currents (Ceci et al., 1997). ese who is experienced and confident at taking
score higher than African Americans on IQ tests navigational abilities certainly tests has nonintellectual factors that aid
is not differences in ability, but rather differences indicate a high degree of intelli- performance. It’s well established that non-
in knowledge. Whites may be more likely to be gence that would not be assessed intellectual factors have a great influence on
exposed to the information typically found on by traditional Western IQ tests. how a person performs on IQ tests (Kaplan
IQ tests (Fagan & Holland, 2007). is is another & Saccuzzo, 2009).
example of how cultural influences can affect a us, the definition of intelli- Next, we’ll discuss an old question about
child’s performance on standard IQ tests. gence differs across cultures. intelligence, the nature-nurture question.

D . P O T E N T I A L P R O B L E M S O F I Q T E S T I N G 291

E. Nature-Nurture Question PowerStudy 4.5™

Definitions Module 4
A. Genes & Evolution

What is the One of the greatest child music nature or heredity factors (being a child genius) with
prodigies of our time is Midori nurture or environmental factors (facing difficult per-
nature-nurture (right photo), who began playing sonal and professional pressures) brings us to the
question? violin at age 3 and made her pro- nature-nurture question.

fessional debut at age 10. Because The nature-nurture question asks how nature—hereditary

Midori was a musical genius at such an early age, her or genetic factors—interacts with nurture—environmental

exceptional skill was due to nature or heredity—that is, factors—in the development of a person’s intellectual, emo-

something she was born with. She played professionally tional, personal, and social abilities.

until age 23, when she suddenly withdrew for four In the early 1900s, intelligence was believed to be
months. e official reason for her sudden withdrawal Midori, child prodigy: primarily inherited or due to nature (Terman, 1916). In
was a “digestive disorder,” but some reports said that “If I went back, I would the 1950s, psychology was heavily influenced by behav-
she was actually suffering from an eating disorder. probably do everything iorism, which emphasized nurture or environmental
Midori’s problem raises questions about the effects of factors in the development of intelligence (B. F. Skin-
differently.”

environment (nurture), specifically how to help a child genius ner, 1953). Today, researchers find nature and nurture interact and
adjust to difficult personal and professional pressures at such a contribute about equally to the development of intelligence (O. S. P.
young age (Cariaga, 1995). e difficulty Midori faced in balancing Davis et al., 2008; Pinker, 2003).

Twin Studies Photo Credits: top, Photo by Brigitte Lacombe, courtesy of Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, California; center, © Myrleen Ferguson/PhotoEdit

What do In exploring how nature and nurture contrib- standard IQ tests, which primarily focus on measuring cognitive
ute to and interact in the development of intel- abilities.
genes do? ligence, researchers compared IQ scores in Interaction of nature and nurture. When researchers report
siblings (brothers and sisters) and in fraternal that genetic factors influence intelligence (IQ scores), they mean
and identical twins. that genetic factors influence cognitive abilities to varying
Fraternal twins, like siblings (brothers and sisters), develop degrees, depending on the environment (Bishop et al.,

from separate eggs and have 50% of their genes in common. 2003). For example, what would happen to cognitive

Identical twins develop from a single egg and thus have skills if a child were rated as being high or low in inter-

almost identical genes, which means they have nearly 100% acting with his or her environment?

of their genes in common. Interaction. An example of how genetic and envi-

Genetic factors. e graph on the right shows that ronmental factors interact in the development of intel-
the correlation in IQ scores between identical twins ligence comes from a study of 3-year-old children who
(0.85), who share nearly 100% of their were identified as being either high or low
genes, was higher than the correlation Median Correlation in IQ Scores in exploring their environments, which is

between fraternal twins (0.60), who share Shared Identical twins reared together a personality trait known as stimulation
50% of their genes, or between siblings genes seeking. ese children were later given IQ
(0.45), who also share 50% of their genes 100% 0.85 tests at age 11 to determine if being high

(Plomin & Petrill, 1997). These findings, Identical twins reared apart or low in stimulation seeking affected their

which come from over 100 studies, indi- 100% 0.72 IQs. Researchers reported that children
cate genetic factors contribute about 50% who had been rated high in stimulation
to the development of intelligence, which Fraternal twins reared together seeking at age 3 scored significantly higher
has a rather specific definition (Plomin & 50% 0.60 on IQ tests compared to children who

Spinath, 2004). Siblings reared together had been rated low in stimulation seek-

Definition of intelligence. As we have 50% 0.45 ing at age 3. is significant difference in
discussed, many researchers define intel- IQ scores (11 points) was not related to the
ligence as relating to Spearman’s g factor Siblings reared apart occupation or education of their parents.
(see p. 282), which is measured by perfor- Researchers concluded that children high
50% 0.25 Source: Adapted from Bouchard &
McGue, 1981; Plomin & Petrill, 1997

mance on cognitive tests and results in in stimulation seeking were more curi-
IQ scores. However, some researchers argue that there are other, ous and open to learning from their environments, which in turn
equally important kinds of intelligence, such as practical (adjusting enhanced the development of their cognitive abilities and resulted
to one’s environment), social (interacting with others), emotional in higher scores on IQ tests (A. Raine et al., 2002).
(perceiving and understanding emotions), as well as creative, musi- us, genetic factors contribute about 50% to the development
cal, and insightful intelligence (R. J. Sternberg et al., 2003b). As of one’s intelligence (IQ score), while the other 50% comes from the
discussed earlier, these kinds of intelligence are not measured by interaction with environmental factors, which we’ll examine next.

292 M O D U L E 1 3 I N T E L L I G E N C E

Adoption and Foster-Care Studies

What would happen if children with indicate that as experiences for African Americans improve, so do
How much does limited social-educational opportunities IQs (W. Williams, 2009).
environment and low IQs were adopted by parents A similar study, this time focusing on children living in Roma-

contribute? who could provide better social-educa- nia, examined the intellectual functioning of children abandoned

tional opportunities? Researchers rea- at birth and placed in state-run institutions (well known for not
soned that if environmental factors influence the providing children with appropriate cognitive
development of intelligence, then providing more envi- stimulation). ose children who remained in the
ronmental opportunities should increase IQ scores. institutions during the first several years of life
To determine whether environment can increase IQ demonstrated significantly poorer intellectual
scores, one research study examined the IQs of African functioning when compared with children who
American children from impoverished environments soon moved into foster care. Children living in
who were adopted into middle-class families, some foster care are much more likely to have good
White and some African American; all of the families educational opportunities than the children
provided many social-educational opportunities for remaining in state-run institutions (C. A. Nelson
the adopted children. Researchers found that the IQs of Children adopted into et al., 2007).
the adopted children were as much as 10 points higher advantaged homes had ese kinds of studies show that children with
than those of African American children raised in dis-
higher IQ scores. poor educational opportunities and low IQ scores

advantaged homes (Scarr & Weinberg, 1976). In a follow-up study, can show an increase in IQ scores when they are provided bet-
researchers reported that the adopted children, now adolescents, ter educational opportunities. Researchers conclude that nurture
had higher IQ scores than African American children raised in or environmental factors contribute to intellectual development
their own communities (Weinberg et al., 1992). Other studies also (Begley, 2009; Duyme, 1999).

Interaction: Nature and Nurture
In the last 15 years, researchers have made because the other 50% is coming from environmental factors. You
What is significant progress in answering the nature- can think of genetic factors as establishing a range of potential

heritability? nurture question, and one tool they have abilities or behaviors, which are shaped and molded through inter-
used is a number called heritability. action with one’s environment. This idea of how genetic factors
Heritability is a number that indicates the amount or proportion of operate is called the reaction range (Bouchard, 1997).

some ability, characteristic, or trait that can be attributed to genetic Reaction range indicates the extent to which traits, abilities, or IQ

factors (nature). scores may increase or decrease as a result of interaction with environ-

For example, the figure below shows that heritability (nature) for mental factors.

Photo Credits: top, © John-Francis Bourke/Corbis; bottom left and right, © PhotoDisc, Inc. overall intelligence (measured by IQ tests) was about 50%, which Researchers estimate that the reaction range may vary up or
means that 50% of general cognitive ability comes from genetic down by as much as 10–15 points in one’s IQ score. For example,
factors. Researchers were also able to calculate the heritability the figure on the right shows that a person’s IQ may vary from 85 to
scores for specific cognitive 110, depending on whether he
Estimates of Heritability abilities, such as spatial ability or she has an impoverished or IQ Reaction Range

Nature— Nurture— (32%), verbal ability (55%), and enriched environment (Zigler 110 IQ
genetic factors environmental memory (55%) (McClearn et al., & Seitz, 1982). may result from
1997). ese studies on herita- having an ENRICHED
factors Conclusion. The stud-
ies on heritability, twins, and upbringing.
bility show that genetic factors adopted children provide an 110
(nature) contribute about half
to intelligence. answer to the nature-nurture
e next big step in genetic question: Nature or heredity
research is the identification contributes about 50% to intel-
of specific genes or groups of ligence (IQ) and environment 100 IQ
genes that contribute to specific or nurture contributes about may result from 100
Intelligence (general abilities) 50%. However, a person’s IQ can having a NORMAL
50% 50% cognitive traits used to mea-
upbringing.

Spatial ability sure intelligence (Plomin et al., vary by 10–15 points (IQ reac-
2008). tion range), depending on how
32% 68%

Verbal ability45% Notice that the heritabil- heredity interacts with different 85 IQ 85
55% ity numbers in the graph on kinds of environments. may result from
the left are in the 50% range,
55% Memory 45% which means that genes do not Next, we’ll examine the having an
determine or fix these abilities, debate over racial differences in IMPOVERISHED

upbringing.

IQ scores.

E . N A T U R E - N U R T U R E Q U E S T I O N 293

E. Nature-Nurture Question PowerStudy 4.5™

Racial Controversy Module 4
H. Cultural Diversity: Brain

Size & Racial Myths

What is In the early 1900s, psychologists believed intelligence was 15-point What causes
primarily inherited. This idea reappeared in a relatively difference the 15-point
difference in
the heated recent book, e Bell Curve, by psychologist Richard Herrn- IQ scores?
controversy? stein and political scientist Charles Murray (1994). But what
brought these authors the greatest publicity was their state-
ment that racial differences in IQ scores were caused primarily by genetic or Blacks Whites

inherited factors. is and other statements from Herrnstein and Murray’s book
set off such a heated and o en misguided public debate that the American Psy-
chological Association (APA) formed a special task force of prominent research-
ers. The goal of the APA task force was to summarize what is known about
intelligence (Neisser et al., 1996). e issues of race, genetics, and intelligence are
still hotly debated (Rushton & Jensen, 2005). We will now focus on the complex 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150
question of racial differences in IQ scores. IQ scores

Difference between IQ Scores Cause of IQ Differences
Group differences. In a careful review of e Bell Curve, one of the leading
Findings. To help you understand the controversy
surrounding racial differences in IQ scores, please researchers in the area of intelligence concluded the book offered no convincing
look at the figure in the upper right. Notice that there evidence that genetic factors were primarily responsible for the 15-point IQ dif-
are two distributions of IQ scores: The orange bell- ference between African Americans and Caucasians (R. J. Sternberg, 1995). is
shaped curve shows the distribution of IQ scores for conclusion is based largely on the distinction between whether genetic factors
African Americans (Blacks), and the blue bell-shaped can influence the development of intelligence in an individual and whether they
curve shows the distribution of scores for Caucasians can influence the development of intelligence among races. e APA task force
(Whites). Although there is much overlap in IQ scores said there is good evidence that genetic factors play a significant role in the devel-
(indicated by overlapping of orange
and blue areas), researchers gener- opment of an individual’s intelligence. However, there is no convincing evi-
ally agree that the average or mean dence that genetic factors play a primary role in the differences in intelligence Photo Credits: (#1) © Anthony Barboza; (#2) © Anthony Barboza; (#3) © Anthony Barboza; (#4) © Anthony Barboza
IQ score for African Americans among races. A tremendous amount of research data challenges Herrnstein Figure/Text Credit: Source: Hernstein and Murray, 1994.
is about 15 points lower than the and Murray’s statement that IQ differences among races are caused primarily
average IQ score for Caucasians by genetic factors (Neisser et al., 1996; R. J. Sternberg et al., 2005).
(Bouchard, 1995). This 15-point
average difference in IQ scores How… Although no one knows exactly what causes the difference in IQ scores
shown in the above graph, many psychologists suggest a number of environ-
means that although there are many mental factors, such as differences in social-economic classes, educational
African Americans with high IQ opportunities, family structures, and career possibilities (Loehlin, 2000).
scores, they are proportionally fewer Recent research that shows the difference in IQs between African Americans
in number compared to Caucasians. and Whites is narrowing by 4–7 points suggests that environmental factors
Two explanations. ere are at can significantly influence IQ (Dickens & Flynn, 2006). us, one of e Bell
least two possible explanations for Curve’s major conclusions—that racial differences in IQ scores are based pri-
this 15-point difference in average is… marily on genetic factors—is not supported by the evidence (Neisser et al.,
IQ scores. One explanation is that 1996). Two prominent researchers concluded that e Bell Curve’s argument
the differences are due to inherited for racial inferiority appeared to be based on scientific evidence, but closer
or genetic factors: African Ameri- examination shows that it was not (S. J. Gould, 1996; R. J. Sternberg, 1995).
cans are genetically inferior to
Whites. Another explanation is that Differences in skin color. Another problem with e Bell Curve is its
the difference is due to a number assumption that skin color is a meaningful way to identify races. For exam-
of environmental factors: African ple, based on skin color, to which race would you assign the individuals in
Americans have fewer social, eco- race… the four photos on the le ? Researchers report that skin color is not reli-
able in identifying racial makeup because recent studies on DNA (genetic
nomic, and educational opportuni- instructions) indicate that people around the world are much more alike
ties than Whites do. than different (Shriver, 2005). In fact, no matter the color of one’s skin,
Although the authors of e Bell genetic instructions in people around the world vary by only about 3–5%
Curve emphasized the role of genetic (M. C. King & Motulsky, 2002). us, differences in skin color are only skin
factors, you’ll see that the APA task deep, and skin color is not a reliable measure to assign people to different
force and many other psychologists races when comparing IQ scores (Venter, 2000).
disagreed. decided?
A er the Concept Review, we’ll discuss how early racial discrimination
was based on IQ scores.

294 M O D U L E 1 3 I N T E L L I G E N C E

Concept Review

1. One approach to measuring intelligence focuses 105 7. A good psychological test has two
on quantifying cognitive factors or abilities that are 100 characteristics. It should give about the
involved in intellectual performance; this is called the 95 same score over time, which is called
(a) approach. Charles Spearman Verbal IQ 90 (a) , and it should
used this approach to develop a two-factor theory of 85 measure what it is supposed to measure,
intelligence: one factor is g, or (b) ; 80 which is called (b) .
the second factor is s, or (c) . 75

20–24 25–34 35–44 45–54 55–64 65–69 70–74
Age Group

2. In comparison to Spearman’s two-factor approach, 8. If IQ scores can be represented Middle of normal distribution

Howard Gardner’s theory says that there are nine by a bell-shaped curve, the pattern
is called a . The About 95 in 100
kinds of , such as verbal skills, scores have a symmetrical arrange- Number of scores (95.44%) have IQ
math skills, spatial skills, and movement skills. scores between
ment, so that the vast majority fall
70 and 130

Photo Credits: (#1) © WireImage/Getty Images; (#2) Courtesy IMG Artists, photo by Bill Phelps; (#3, #4) © PhotoDisc, Inc. 3. Another approach to measuring in the middle range and fewer fall
Figure/Text Credit: (right, #7) Graph adapted from “Age and WAIS-R A Cross-Sectional Analysis with Educational Level Controlled,” by A. S. Kaufman, C. R. Reynolds & intelligence is by analyzing the kinds of near the extreme ends of the range. 70 85 100 115 130
J. E. McLean, 1989, Intelligence, 13, pp. 246, 247. Copyright © 1989 by Ablex Publishing Company. Adapted by permission. (a) processes that people Average IQ
use to solve problems. An example of
this approach is Robert Sternberg’s Number of scores Left end of normal 9. An individual who has a combination of
(b) theory of intelligence. distribution limited mental ability (usually an IQ below 70)
and difficulty functioning in everyday life is said
Retardation

About 2 in 100 to have some degree of (a) .
(2.27%) have IQ
scores below 70

4. Alfred Binet developed an intelligence test that If this condition results from genetic problems
estimated intellectual progress by comparing or brain damage, it is called
a child’s score on an intelligence test to 30 50 70 (b) . Right end of normal
the scores of average children of the Severe/ Moderate Mild distribution
same age. Binet called this concept Profound

. If this condition results from a greatly Number of scores Gifted
impoverished environment, it is called
(c) . Individuals who have About 2 in 100
above-average intelligence (usually IQ scores (2.27%) have IQ
scores above 130;
about 1 in a million
has an IQ above 180

5. Lewis Terman revised Binet’s above 130) as well as some superior talent or 130 145
intelligence test, and the most skill are said to be (d) . Superior Gifted
IQ = ? ? significant change he made was to
? 10. If the wording of test questions and the
develop a formula to compute a experiences on which they are based are more
single score that represents a person’s (a) . familiar to members of some social groups
This formula is IQ = (b) age divided by than to others, the test is said to have a
(c) age, times (d) . (a) . Depending on the
culture, (b) can be
6. The most widely used series of defined in different ways.
IQ tests are the (a) Block design
Intelligence Scales. These tests orga- Assemble blocks to 11. When we ask how much genetic fac-
match this design. tors and how much environmental factors Intelligence (general abilities)

nize items into two subtests, which Picture completion contribute to intelligence, we are asking Spatial ability
are called (b) and Tell me what
(c) scales. In an is missing. the (a) question. There
is good evidence that genetic factors con- Verbal ability
scale.
attempt to measure nonverbal skills tribute about (b) and Memory
and rule out cultural problems,
Wechsler added the (d) environmental factors contribute about
(c) to the development of one’s intelligence. The
extent to which IQ scores may increase or decrease depending on
environmental effects is called the (d) .

Answers: 1. (a) psychometric, (b) general intelligence, (c) specific abilities; 2. intelligence; 3. (a) reasoning, (b) triarchic; 4. mental age;
5. (a) intelligence quotient or IQ, (b) mental, (c) chronological, (d) 100; 6. (a) Wechsler, (b) verbal, (c) performance, (d) performance;
7. (a) reliability, (b) validity; 8. normal distribution; 9. (a) mental retardation, (b) organic retardation, (c) cultural-familial retardation, (d) gifted;
10. (a) cultural bias, (b) intelligence; 11. (a) nature-nurture, (b) 50%, (c) 50%, (d) reaction range

C O N C E P T R E V I E W 295

F. Cultural Diversity: Races, IQs & Immigration

Misuse of IQ Tests In 1924, Congress passed an immigration law to
keep out those believed to have low IQs.
A er Alfred Binet developed the first intelligence tests, he
What were Binet’s gave two warnings about the potential misuse of IQ tests.

warnings about He warned that IQ tests do not and should not be used to
using IQ tests? measure innate intelligence and that IQ tests should not be

used to label individuals. However, in the early 1900s the
area we know as psychology was just beginning, and American psychologists were very
proud of how much they had improved IQ tests. With their improved IQ tests, Ameri-
can psychologists not only used IQ tests to measure what they thought was innate, or
inherited, intelligence but also used IQ tests to label people (as morons or imbeciles).
As if that weren’t bad enough, early psychologists persuaded the U.S. Congress to pass
discriminatory immigration laws based on IQ tests. As we look back now, we must
conclude that the use and abuse of IQ tests in the early 1900s created one of psychology’s
sorriest moments. Here’s what happened.

Innate Intelligence Classifying Races Immigration Laws Photo Credit: © UPI/Bettmann/Corbis
One name that we have already men- Robert Yerkes was a Harvard professor e fact that Yerkes ranked European races
tioned is that of Lewis Terman, who was who was asked to develop a test that
the guiding force behind revising Binet’s could be used to classify applicants for by intelligence eventually reached mem-
intelligence test (which became the the army. Under Yerkes’s direction, bers of the U.S. Congress. Outraged by the
Stanford-Binet test) and also developing over 1.75 million World War I army “fact” that Europeans of “low intelligence”
the formula for computing a single IQ recruits were given IQ tests. From this were being allowed into America, members
score. Terman, who became head of the enormous amount of data, Yerkes of Congress sought a way to severely limit
Department of Psychology at Stanford (1921) and his colleagues reached three the immigration of people from southern
University, firmly believed that intelli- conclusions: and eastern Europe. In writing the Immi-
gence was primarily inherited, that intel- gration Law of 1924, Congress relied, in
ligence tests measured innate abilities, 1. ey concluded that the average part, on Yerkes’s racial rankings and
and that environmental influences were mental age of White American adults imposed harsh quotas on those nations
far less important. was a meager 13 years, slightly above they believed to have inferior stock (people
the classification of a moron (a term from southern and eastern Europe, Alpine
One of Terman’s goals was to test all psychologists used in the early 1900s). and Mediterranean nations).
children and, on the basis of their IQ The reasons they gave for this low
scores, to label and sort them into cat- mental age were (using the terminol- Stephen Jay Gould (1996), a well-known
egories of innate abilities. Terman argued ogy then current) the unconstrained evolutionary biologist, reviewed Yerkes’s
that society could use IQ scores (usually of breeding of the poor and feebleminded data and pointed out a number of problems:
70 or below) to restrain or eliminate those and the spread of Negro blood through poorly administered tests, terrible test-
whose intelligence was too low to lead an interracial breeding. ing conditions, inconsistent standards for
effective moral life (Terman, 1916). retaking tests, written tests given to illiter-
2. They concluded that European ate recruits (guaranteeing a low score), and
Terman hoped to establish minimum immigrants could be ranked on intel- no control for educational level or familiar-
intelligence scores necessary for all lead- ligence by their country of origin. e ity with the English language. As a result
ing occupations. For example, he believed fair peoples of western and northern of these problems, Gould concluded that
that people with IQs below 100 should not Europe (Nordics) were most intelligent, Yerkes’s data were so riddled with errors
be given employment that involves pres- while the darker peoples of southern as to render useless any conclusions about
tige or monetary reward. ose with IQs Europe (Mediterraneans) and the Slavs racial differences in intelligence.
of 75 or below should be unskilled labor, of eastern Europe were less intelligent.
and those with 75–85 IQs should be semi- Looking back, we see clearly that early
skilled labor. In Terman’s world, class 3. They concluded that Negroes psychologists badly misused IQ tests. ey
boundaries were to be set by innate intel- were at the bottom of the racial scale in forgot that IQ tests are merely one of many
ligence, as measured by his Stanford-Binet intelligence. tools to assess cognitive abilities, which
IQ test (S. J. Gould, 1996; Hunt, 1993). many consider to be one of many kinds of
Many of Yerkes’s outrageous and intelligence (H. Gardner, 1995).
Terman’s belief that IQ tests mea- discriminatory views resurfaced in the
sured innate intelligence was adopted by book e Bell Curve (Herrnstein & Mur- We’ve discussed how past IQ tests have
another well-known American psycholo- ray, 1994), which we discussed earlier. been misused and how current IQ tests
gist, Robert Yerkes. Following Yerkes’s lead, IQ scores were may be biased. Is there a new generation of
next used for racial discrimination. intelligence tests on the horizon?
296 M O D U L E 1 3 I N T E L L I G E N C E

G. Research Focus: New Approaches

Can Genius Be Found in the Brain? PowerStudy 4.5™

ere is one question about intelligence Module 4
that has especially interested research- B. Studying the Living Brain

ers: How is the brain of a genius differ- Normal brain weighs about 1,350 grams. Einstein’s brain weighed 1,230 grams, slightly
ent? For example, how was Albert This side view shows the wrinkled cortex, less than normal. Einstein’s brain was different in
Einstein able to think of riding through
which contains separate areas for different that it lacked the yellow area, which allowed his

space on a beam of light or create his functions (feeling, moving, reading, writing, red area, the inferior parietal lobe, to be 15% wider
famous formula (E = mc2), which led to than in normal brains. Also, his parietal lobe had
building the atomic bomb? seeing). Notice the yellow and red areas, rare grooves and ridges. Researchers believe
When Einstein died of heart failure which are part of the parietal lobe. The red that Einstein’s unique parietal lobe increased his
area, the inferior parietal lobe, is especially

used for thinking in visual-spatial terms, for ability to think and imagine such things as space

in 1955 at age 76, Dr. Thomas Harvey, mathematical thought, and for imaging how being curved and that time could slow down
who performed the autopsy, removed things move in space. (Falk, 2009; Witelson et al., 1999).

Einstein’s brain and kept it at Princeton
Photo Credits: top, Adapted from S.F. Witelson, D. L. Kigar, & T. Harvey, Fig. 2, The Lancet, 353, 1999, with permission of the authors; bottom, Lateral prefrontal cortex: University. In 1996, Harvey contacted
From “A Head for Figures,” by Brian Butterworth, Science, 284, p. 928. By permission of B. Butterworth. Dr. Sandra Witelson, a neuroscientist
at McMaster University, and asked if
she wished to examine Einstein’s brain.
McMaster University in Ontario, Can-
ada, has a bank of over 100 brains that
people have donated for research. Dr.
Witelson was able to compare Einstein’s
76-year-old brain with brains of similar Front of Front of
ages from 35 men and 56 women who brain brain

were known to have normal intelligence
when they died. e results of Dr. Witel- figure, Dr. Witelson cautions that they don’t know if every brilliant mathematician has a larger
son’s examination of Einstein’s brain are inferior parietal lobe, which is something only further research can answer. Other researchers
discussed in the figure at the right. wonder if genius can ever be measured or located in the brain, since genius involves a mix-
Although the physical differences ture of creative insights, culture, and life experiences that may be unique to that person (S. C.
in Einstein’s brain are obvious in the Wang, 2000).

How Does a Prodigy’s Brain Develop?

What do With the recent advances in brain scans, intelligent children thinned such that they were equal in thickness
researchers are now able to explore brain to the cortexes of children with average intelligence.
brain scans development like never before. Phillip Shaw Conclusions. This is the first study to show that the brain
show? and his colleagues (2006) at the National develops differently in highly intelligent children. However, it is

Institute of Mental Health and McGill Uni- uncertain what might be causing the changes in cortex thickness.
versity in Montreal completed a long-term study examining One possible explanation is the thickening may be
intelligence and brain development in children. a result of highly intelligent children developing
Method. The team of researchers followed a more neural connections during school years,
group of more than 300 children as they aged from and the later thinning of the cortex may be
6 to 19. Each child was administered intelligence due to unused neural connections wither-
tests at the start of the study, and MRI brain scans ing away to make cognitive functioning
(p. 70) were taken about every two years to mea- more efficient.
sure the size of brain structures. The role of genes and environment in
Results. The thickness of the cortex (p. 74), the changes in the cortex is also unknown.
which is the outer layer of the brain that controls Genes may play an important role as smarter
higher cognitive functioning, began thinner in Lateral children had different cortex thickness even at a young age. But
prefrontal cortex

highly intelligent children, but became thicker than environmental factors (social activities, schooling, diet) may
the cortexes in children with average intelligence by adolescence. also have an important role in the thickening of the cortex over the
As shown in the brain above, the areas that changed the most were years (Grigorenko, 2006).
in the front of the brain and in a strip over the top of the brain, Last, this study examined only group differences, and mak-
which are areas responsible for higher cognitive functioning, such ing any predictions based on an individual child is not possible
as planning and reasoning. By the age of 19, the cortexes of highly (Giles, 2006).

G . R E S E A R C H F O C U S : N E W A P P R O A C H E S 297

H. Application: Intervention Programs

Definition of Intervention Programs An intervention program helps disadvantaged children from low

For a moment, imagine what will happen to
Why might a Nancy’s child. Nancy, who is in her mid- socioeconomic classes to achieve better intellectual, social, and personal-
child need twenties, is a single mother with a 3-year- emotional development, as well as physical health.

a head start? old child. Nancy lives in a lower-class Intervention programs can give Nancy training in how to be
neighborhood and earns less than $5,000 a a good parent and provide her child with educational and social
year doing part-time work. She has completed only two years of opportunities. Perhaps the best-known intervention program in the
high school and has no family and few friends. United States is Head Start, which began in 1965
What effects do you think Nancy’s background, as a six-to-eight-week program. Researchers
educational level, and impoverished environment later discovered that was too brief to be effec-
will have on her child? Psychologists would predict tive. As a result, Head Start was lengthened to
that Nancy’s 3-year-old child will not likely acquire two years, and in 2006, the program enrolled
the social, emotional, and cognitive skills and abili- nearly one million 3- to 5-year-olds across the
ties needed to do well in school or society. Her child United States (ACF, 2006).
may need outside help, which may come from an We’ll focus on successful intervention
Intervention programs create
a stimulating environment. programs for disadvantaged children.
intervention program (Arnold & Doctoroff, 2003).

Parent Training Head Start
Children growing up in disadvan-
taged environments, such as poverty, Head Start, which is a day-care program for disadvantaged children, usually lasts for two years,
o en experience negative effects on from ages 3 to 5, and has six goals: preschool education, health screening, mental health ser-
their cognitive development. New vices, hot meals, social services for the child and family, and involvement and participation of
research has found that parents can parents in the program (Zigler & Styfco, 1994). More recently, Head Start has emphasized
improve their children’s mental abil- teaching basic academic skills, such as reading, in order to prepare disadvantaged children to
ities by better relating to them at do well in kindergarten (R. T. Cooper, 1999).
home. Head Start was initially viewed as something of a failure because two to three years a er chil-
dren le Head Start, few if any differences in IQ or other academic scores were found between
This research study tested the those children and control groups (Clarke & Clarke, 1989). However, Head Start showed other
mental abilities of children in two important long-term beneficial effects (Kirp, 2004; Zigler & Styfco, 1994):
different groups. The parents of O Adolescents who had been in the Head Start program were more likely to be in classes
one group of children participated appropriate for their ages rather than to have had to repeat a class,
in parenting skills classes to learn were less likely to show antisocial or delinquent behavior, and were
how to provide consistent routines more likely to hold jobs.
at home, discipline their children in O Mothers whose children had been in the Head Start program
constructive ways, and better com- reported fewer psychological symptoms, greater feelings of mastery,
municate with their children over- and greater current life satisfaction.
all. e parents of the second group O Children who had two years of Head Start and an additional Photo Credits: top, 1991 © Ira Block; bottom, © Photodisc/Getty Images
of children did not receive training two to seven years of educational help were much more successful
in parenting skills. Results showed in graduating from high school (69%) than a control group (49%).
that for those children whose par- O At the age of 40, adults who had been in Head Start were more
ents received parent training, the likely to have earned college degrees and to have owned a home and
scores on tests of memory, attention, a car, and less likely to have criminal records and be drug users.
language ability, and IQ increased. Head Start results in Another program similar to Head Start, called the Chicago
Additionally, the parents of these long-term personal Child Parent Center Program, enrolled children 3–4 years old
children reported less stress at and social gains. and lasted for 18 months. Over 1,500 children in this program
home and an improvement in their
children’s behavior (Downs, 2008; were tracked from ages 5 to 20 and were found to be more likely to graduate from high school
Stevens & Neville, 2008). and less likely to be arrested than poor children not in the program (A. J. Reynolds et al., 2001).
From studies like these we can draw two conclusions. First, often early and rather large
This research suggests that increases (up to 10 points) in IQ scores do not last a er the child leaves the intervention pro-
children living in disadvantaged gram. Second, programs like Head Start result in a number of long-term benefits, such as bet-
environments can benefit from ter social and personal well-being and increased chances of graduating from high school and
intervention programs in many avoiding crime (Zigler, 1995; Zigler & Styfco, 2001). ese long-term effects indicate that pro-
ways, such as improving their cogni- grams like Head Start should not be evaluated solely on IQ scores but also on other personality,
tive and behavioral skills. motivational, and psychological benefits.

298 M O D U L E 1 3 I N T E L L I G E N C E

Raising IQ Scores Need for Intervention Programs

In the early days of Head Start, psychologists were very encouraged to The most successful intervention programs have a strong
find that the program initially increased disadvantaged children’s IQ educational emphasis, well-trained teachers, and a low
scores by about 10 points, a very significant amount. One reason IQ
scores can be raised in young children from disadvantaged homes is ratio of children to trained teachers.
that these children have not been exposed to and have not acquired the
kinds of skills and cultural experiences assessed by IQ tests. However, Researchers make three important points about the useful-
when disadvantaged children are exposed to the enriched environment ness of childhood intervention programs:
of Head Start, these children quickly acquire all kinds of new skills and
abilities that help them score higher on IQ tests (Spitz, 1997). 1 Currently, millions of children in the United States are

For example, researchers compared two groups of disadvantaged living in poverty, which is known to have a devastating
children, all of whom had IQ scores below 80 (100 is considered the negative influence on a young child developing important
average IQ). Some of these children, called the experimental group, social-emotional skills and cognitive abilities. In addition,
were placed in a special educational intervention program from ages 3 living in poverty is known to lower academic achievement
to 5. Other children, called the control group, were given no additional and goals, decrease motivation, and contribute to school
training and remained in their home environments. failure and dropouts (Arnold & Doctoroff, 2003). Interven-
tion programs help reduce the devastating effects that con-
The figure below shows that, after only one year, children in the tinuing poverty can have on families and give children a
experimental group (intervention program) showed a significant much needed head start (Zigler & Styfco, 2001).
increase in IQ scores (about 10 points) compared to the children in the
control group who remained in disadvantaged home environments 2 About 25 to 30% of children live in single-parent fami-
(Schweinhart & Weikart, 1980). However, after the children left the
intervention program at the age of 5 and entered public school, their lies that are below the poverty line (Kassebaum, 1994). In
IQ scores began a slow but consistent decline. At the same time, the IQ some cases, impoverished family environments lead to
scores of control children began a gradual increase as they benefited neglect or abuse, which has very negative effects on a child’s
from attending public school. By the age of 11, there was no longer any social, emotional, and intellectual development. Intensive
difference in IQ scores. intervention programs during the first years of life are effec-
tive in reducing and preventing the significant intellectual
Preschool Elementary Middle dysfunction that may result from continuing poverty and
100 Age 3 4 5 lack of environmental support (Zigler & Styfco, 2001).
Photo Credits: top, © Jacques Chenet/Woodfin Camp & Associates; inset, © PhotoDisc, Inc. 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
95 Experimental group: 3 Results from the most extensive and longest-term
90 Children placed in special programs with many
IQ 85 educational opportunities. Notice initial increase research study of intelligence show that childhood intelli-
80 gence affects physical and mental illness later in life, overall
75 in IQ scores followed by gradual quality of life, and even an individual’s life span. We have
70 decline after children left known that childhood intervention programs improve chil-
program. dren’s mental abilities, but only recently have we learned
that children’s mental abilities affect their lives in signifi-
Control group: cant ways for years to come (Deary et al., 2009).
Children remained in their impoverished
home environments and scored low on IQ It is for all the reasons stated above that researchers
tests. After children enter school, IQ scores strongly advocate for the development of well-designed
improve but then gradually level off. childhood intervention programs.

Initial increase in IQ scores (age 4) gradually disappears after children
leave Head Start program and return to less stimulating environments.

One reason for this decline in IQ scores is that a er children leave an
intervention program, they usually return to less stimulating environ-
ments, which offer less educational, social, and motivational support. For
this reason, researchers make two strong recommendations: First, pro-
grams like Head Start should be lengthened from three to at least five or
more years so children have more time to learn and practice their newly
acquired social, emotional, and academic skills; second, parents must
become involved in helping their children develop cognitive skills, such
as reading to their children (G. Nelson et al., 2003; Zigler & Styfco, 2001).

Finally, as we discussed earlier, intervention programs should not be
evaluated solely on IQ scores but rather on other social, emotional, and
psychological gains that are found to be long-lasting.

H . A P P L I C A T I O N : I N T E R V E N T I O N P R O G R A M S 299

Summary Test

A. Defining Intelligence 7. The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and Wechsler
Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) have items that are orga-
1. A subarea of psychology that is concerned nized into various subtests. Subtests for general information,
with developing psychological tests to assess an
individual’s abilities, skills, beliefs, and person- vocabulary, and verbal comprehension are some of those in the
(a) section. Subtests that involve arranging pic-
ality traits in a wide range of settings—school, tures in a meaningful order, assembling objects, and using codes
industry, or clinic—is called .
are examples of subtests in the (b) section. An
individual receives a separate score for each of the subtests; these
2. Spearman’s two-factor theory of intelligence says there is a gen- scores are then combined to yield overall scores for verbal and
eral factor, called (a) , that represents a person’s
ability to perform complex mental work, such as abstract reason- performance abilities, which, in turn, are combined into a single
score, called an (c) score.
ing and problem solving. The general factor underlies a person’s
performance across tests. In addition, there is a second factor,
called (b) , that represents a person’s specific 8. A good psychological test must have two qualities. One quality
ensures that a person’s score on a test at one point in time is simi-
mental abilities, such as mathematical or verbal skills. These spe- lar to a score by the same person on a similar test at a later date;
cific mental abilities may differ across tests.
this is called (a) . The other quality ensures
that a test measures what it is supposed to measure; this is called
3. Gardner says that there are at least nine kinds of intelligence: (b) . Although the results from analyzing hand-
verbal intelligence, musical intelligence, logical-mathematical
intelligence, spatial intelligence, body movement intelligence, writing may be consistent from time to time, this is a poor test of
personality or intelligence because handwriting analysis lacks the
intelligence to understand oneself, intelligence to understand quality of (c) .
others, naturalistic intelligence, and existential intelligence.
This is called the theory.

4. Sternberg’s triarchic theory says that intelligence can be C. Distribution & Use of IQ Scores
divided into three ways of gathering and processing information
(triarchic means “three”). The first is using (a) 9. Suppose IQ scores are in a sta- Middle of normal distribution

skills, which are measured by traditional intelligence tests. The tistical arrangement that resembles
the shape of a bell, with the vast
second is using (b) skills that require creative Number of scores About 95 in 100
(95.44%) have IQ
thinking, the ability to deal with novel situations, and the ability majority of scores falling in the scores between
70 and 130
middle range and fewer scores fall-
to learn from experience. The third is using (c) ing near the two extreme ends of
skills that help a person adjust to, and cope with, his or her socio-
cultural environment. the curve. This arrangement is 70 85 100 115 130

called a . Average IQ

B. Measuring Intelligence 10. Substantial limitation in present functioning that is charac-
terized by significantly below average intellectual functioning,
along with related limitations in two of eleven areas, including
5. In trying to measure intelligence, Block design communication, self-care, home living, social skills, and safety,
researchers through the years have Assemble blocks to
learned that neither skull size nor match this design. is called .

brain weight is an accurate predictor Picture completion 11. There are two general causes of mental retardation: genetic
of . Tell me what problems or brain damage give rise to (a)

6. The first intelligence test, which is missing. retardation, and in the absence of apparent genetic or brain
damage, greatly impoverished environments can give rise to
was developed by (a) , measured vocabulary, (b) retardation. Mental retardation is reflected
memory, common knowledge, and other cognitive abilities.
By comparing a child’s score with the scores of average in IQ scores at one end of the normal distribution. At the other Photo Credit: (#1) © WireImage/Getty Images
end of the normal distribution of IQ scores are those who are
children at the same age, Binet was able to estimate a child’s considered (c) ; such people have above average
(b) . Thus, the Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale
gave its results in terms of mental age, while the IQ score was intelligence (usually IQs above 130) as well as some superior talent
or skill.
later developed by (c) , who devised a formula
to calculate an individual’s intelligence quotient. The formula
can be written as IQ = (d) .

300 M O D U L E 1 3 I N T E L L I G E N C E

D. Potential Problems of IQ Testing G. Research Focus: New Approaches

12. Binet warned that intelligence tests should 15. In looking for physical differences
not be used to measure (a) in Einstein’s brain, researchers
mental abilities because intelligence tests mea- found that he had a 15% wider
sure cognitive abilities, which are influenced (a) , which is
by both heredity and environment. Binet also involved in visual–spatial and
warned that intelligence tests, by themselves, mathematical thinking. By using
should not be used to (b) MRI brain scans and intelligence tests,
people—for example, a moron or a genius. researchers found that the thickness of the brain’s cortex began
Current IQ tests have been criticized for including wording or (b) in highly intelligent children, but became
experiences that are more familiar to a particular culture, which (c) than the cortexes in children with average
is called (c) . The definition of intelligence dif- intelligence by adolescence. By the age of 19, the cortex of highly
fers across (d) and may differ from the Western intelligent children was (d) in thickness to that
idea of g. One reason individuals may do poorly on IQ tests is of children with average intelligence.
Photo Credits: (#12) © Natalie Behring-Chisholm/Getty Images; (#14) © UPI/Bettmann/Corbis; (#15) Adapted from S.F. Witelson, D. L. Kigar, & T. Harvey, Fig. 2, The noncognitive factors, such as attitude, experience, and emotional
Lancet, 353, 1999, with permission of the authors; (#16) © Photodisc/Getty Images functioning, which are called (e) .
H. Application: Intervention Programs

E. Nature–Nurture Question 16. A program that creates an environment with
increased opportunities for intellectual,
13. The (a) ques- social, and personality-emotional devel-
tion refers to the relative contribu- Intelligence (general abilities) opment is called an (a)

tions that genetic and environmental Spatial ability program. New research finds that

factors make to the development of parents can improve their children’s
intelligence. On the basis of twin (b) by better relating
Verbal ability

studies, researchers generally con- Memory to them at home. Although data indicate
clude that about (b) that IQ increases resulting from inter-
of the contribution to intelligence (IQ vention programs may be short-lived,
scores) comes from genetic factors and about (c) there are other long-term positive bene-
comes from environmental factors. Adoption studies support the fits, such as being more likely to graduate from high school and
idea that environmental factors contribute to intellectual develop- less likely to be involved in (c) activities. Results
ment (as measured by IQ scores). The idea that about half of one’s from the most extensive and longest-term research study of intelli-
intellectual development is dependent on environmental factors gence show that childhood (d) affects physical
has resulted in (d) programs that give impover- and mental illness later in life, overall quality of life, and even an
ished children increased social-educational opportunities. There individual’s life span.
is little or no cause-and-effect evidence that the average difference
in IQ scores between African Americans and Whites is caused
primarily by (e) factors.

F. Cultural Diversity: Races, IQs & Immigration Answers: 1. psychometrics; 2. (a) g, (b) s; 3. multiple-intelligence;
4. (a) analytical, cognitive, or logical, (b) problem-solving, (c) practical;
14. Early psychologists ignored Binet’s warning about misusing 5. intelligence; 6. (a) Binet and Simon, (b) mental age, (c) Terman,
IQ tests. For example, in the early 1900s, Terman believed that IQ (d) MA/CA × 100; 7. (a) verbal, (b) performance, (c) IQ; 8. (a) reliability,
tests did measure (a) intelligence, and he wanted (b) validity, (c) validity; 9. normal distribution; 10. mental retardation;
to use IQ tests to sort people into categories. Terman’s view was 11. (a) organic, (b) cultural-familial, (c) gifted; 12. (a) innate, (b) label
adopted by Robert Yerkes, who wanted or classify, (c) cultural bias, (d) cultures, (e) nonintellectual factors;
to use IQ tests to rank the intelligence of 13. (a) nature–nurture, (b) 50%, (c) 50%, (d) intervention, (e) inherited,
(b) entering the United or genetic; 14. (a) innate, (b) immigrants, (c) immigration laws, or
States. In the 1920s, (c) quotas; 15. (a) inferior parietal lobe, (b) thinner, (c) thicker, (d) equal;
were written to exclude citizens from cer- 16. (a) intervention, (b) mental abilities, (c) antisocial, delinquent, or
tain countries because Yerkes had ranked criminal, (d) intelligence
these individuals low in intelligence.

S U M M A R Y T E S T 301

Critical Thinking

Smartest or Strongest Man in America?

QUESTIONS Smartest, definitely. Though Chris include construction worker, life- 5 According to Photo Credit: © Mark Peterson/Corbis
Langan can bench press a whop- guard, farmhand, cowboy, factory Sternberg’s triar-
1Based on Chris’s ping 500 pounds, his intellect is far worker, firefighter, and, for the past chic theory, which type
IQ score, what more impressive. Chris’s IQ score is 20 years, a bouncer at a bar. Isn’t of intelligence stands
type(s) of intelligence off the charts at an estimated 195 working as a bouncer one of the last out most for Chris?
does he excel at? (average IQ score is 100). Only one jobs you expect the smartest man in
in several billion people has an IQ America, and quite possibly in the 6 Given Chris’s high
2 Based on the nor- of 195 or above. Even Einstein didn’t world, to have? So, you have to ask IQ of 195, what
mal distribution, compare, as his IQ is estimated to yourself, why did Chris end up like size brain must he
where does Chris rank have been 150. Chris is surely a this? The answer is because of his have?
in intelligence? rocket scientist, brain surgeon, or disadvantaged environment. There
Nobel Prize winner, right? Wrong! was no one to help him. No one ever ANSWERS
3 Which intelligence Let’s take a look at Chris’s life to encouraged him to pursue greatness. TO CRITICAL
theory takes his understand why he hasn’t achieved Absolutely nothing in his back- THINKING
weight-lifting and the extraordinary career success we ground helped him take advantage QUESTIONS
physical strength into expect from him. of his remarkable talents.
consideration?
Chris’s childhood left much to be Chris is now in his fifties, still lift-
4 Is Chris’s ability to desired. His family was so poor he ing weights and working as a
speak and read at had only one outfit, which con- bouncer. He’s also working on a
an early age mostly sisted of unmatched socks and a theory that explains problems scien-
attributable to nature shirt, pants, and shoes, all with tists and philosophers have been
or nurture? holes in them. His father left before thinking about for thousands of
his birth and his mother had four years. He calls his theory Cognitive–
husbands, three of whom died. Theoretic Model of the Universe
Chris’s fourth stepfather was physi- (CTMU). He believes CTMU can
cally abusive toward him. For answer all questions about reality
instance, he asked Chris questions and prove the existence of God. If
and when Chris answered them anyone can answer such questions,
correctly, he punched Chris in the surely Chris, with an IQ of 195, is a
mouth. Chris took up weight-lifting top contender.
in his early teens, and one day when
his stepfather began beating him, he We have to wonder what would
struck back so hard, his stepfather have happened to Chris had he been
left and never returned. born into a wealthy, well-respected,
and well-connected family. Only if he
Despite harsh living circum- were raised in such an environment
stances, Chris’s intellect persevered. could he have become the brain sur-
He began speaking at 6 months of geon or Nobel Prize winner we expect
age, and by age 3 he was reading. He from a man with an unmatched IQ.
skipped ahead in school and even (Adapted from Brabham, 2001;
then, he felt he knew more than his Gladwell, 2008; L. Grossman, 2008;
teachers. All he had to do to ace Preston, 2008)
exams was to quickly skim his text-
books. Chris is one of the few to
obtain a perfect score on the SAT,
and he even squeezed in a nap dur-
ing this challenging timed test.

Because of life circumstances,
Chris never finished college. Instead,
he has worked labor jobs throughout
his life. Some of the jobs he’s had

302 M O D U L E 1 3 I N T E L L I G E N C E

Links to Learning

Key Terms/Key People Learning Activities

Binet’s warnings, 290 IQ scores predict job PowerStudy for Introduction PowerStudy 4.5™
Binet-Simon Intelligence performance, 289 to Psychology 4.5

Scale, 285 mental age, 285 Try out PowerStudy’s SuperModule for Intelligence! In addition to the quizzes
brain size and mental retardation, 288 and learning activities, interactive Summary Test, key terms, module outline
misuse of IQ tests, 296 and abstract, and extended list of correlated websites provided for all modules,
achievement, 284 nature-nurture the DVD’s SuperModule for Intelligence features:
brain size and t 4FMG QBDFE
GVMMZ OBSSBUFE MFBSOJOH XJUI B NVMUJUVEF PG BOJNBUJPOT
interactions, 292 t *OUFSBDUJWF WFSTJPOT PG TUVEZ SFTPVSDFT
JODMVEJOH UIF 4VNNBSZ 5FTU PO
intelligence, 284 nature-nurture pages 300–301 and the critical thinking questions for the article on page 302.
brain size, sex differences,
question, 292 CengageNOW!
and intelligence, 284 nonintellectual www.cengage.com/login
cultural bias, 291 Want to maximize your online study time? Take this easy-
cultural-familial factors, 291 to-use study system’s diagnostic pre-test and it will create a personalized study
normal distribution, 288 plan for you. e plan will help you identify the topics you need to understand
retardation, 288 organic retardation, 288 better and direct you to relevant companion online resources that are specific
fraternal twins, 292 other cultures and to this book, speeding up your review of the module.
g factor, 282
Gardner’s multiple- intelligence, 291 Introduction to Psychology Book Companion Website
psychometric www.cengage.com/psychology/plotnik
intelligence theory, 283 Visit this book’s companion website for more resources to help you
genius and brain approach, 282 study, including learning objectives, additional quizzes, flash cards, updated
psychometrics, 281 links to useful websites, and a pronunciation glossary.
differences, 297 racial discrimination and
gi ed child, 289 Study Guide and WebTutor
head size and IQ tests, 290 Work through the corresponding module in your Study
reaction range, 293 Guide for tips on how to study effectively and for help learning the material
intelligence, 284 reliability, 287 covered in the book. WebTutor (an online Study Tool accessed through your
Head Start program, 298 skin color and IQ eResources account) provides an interactive version of the Study Guide.
heritability, 293
identical twins, 292 differences, 294
intelligence quotient Spearman’s two-factor

(IQ), 285 theory, 282
intervention programs, 298 Sternberg’s triarchic
intervention programs and
theory, 283
advantages, 299 validity, 287
IQ differences, 294 Wechsler Adult Intelligence
IQ scores and
Scale (WAIS), 286
intervention, 299 Wechsler Intelligence Scale
IQ scores predict academic
for Children (WISC), 286
achievement, 289

Suggested Answers to Critical Thinking that nature is hereditary or genetic factors and nurture is environ-
mental factors.
1. Traditional IQ scores, such as the WAIS, assess verbal and perfor- 5. Sternberg’s triarchic theory includes three kinds of intelligence:
mance abilities. Given his score is obtained by only one in several analytical, problem solving, and practical. Given Chris’s high score
billion people, it is safe to say he does extremely well in both types on a traditional IQ test, we know he has extraordinarily high analyt-
of intelligence. ical intelligence. The progress he has made in his CTMU theory
reflects his analytical intelligence and suggests he also has high
2. Based on a normal distribution of IQ scores, Chris’s score of 195 problem-solving intelligence.
falls in the profoundly gifted range and is extremely uncommon. 6. This question cannot be answered with certainty. There is a
medium-sized positive correlation between head size and intelli-
3. The only intelligence theory that includes physical strength as a gence, but remember that correlations do not demonstrate cause
type of intelligence is Gardner’s multiple-intelligence theory, which and effect. For example, there are people who have an above-
states that body movement intelligence is one of the nine types average brain size but below-average intelligence, and vice versa.
of intelligence.
L I N K S T O L E A R N I N G 303
4. Because Chris began speaking when he was only 6 months old
and reading by age 3, all while being in a severely disadvantaged
environment, nature can be credited for his talents. Remember

Thought

14 & Language
MODULE
306
Photo Credit: © Kjell Sandved/Photolibrary308
A. Forming Concepts 310 I. Application: Do Animals Have Language? 322
B. Solving Problems 312 Summary Test 324
C. Thinking Creatively 314 Critical Thinking 326
D. Language: Basic Rules 317
E. Acquiring Language 318 Music Improves Language Skills in Kids 327
Concept Review 320 Links to Learning
F. Decisions, Thought & Language 321
G. Research Focus: Dyslexia
H. Cultural Diversity: Influences on Thinking

304

Introduction

Concepts In his late thirties, Carter has become one of
the most successful hip-hop artists and entre-
Jeff, who is only 14 months old, walks up to preneurs in the country. He has sold nearly 40
What is that his mother and says, in a somewhat demand- million albums and received several Grammy
four-legged ing voice, “Juice.” Jeff’s one-word sentence, Awards for his musical accomplishments.

thing? “Juice,” is shorthand for “Can I please have a His creativity extends beyond his musical

glass of orange juice?” Even as a toddler, Jeff work and includes his own line of cloth-
already knows a considerable number of words that represent a
whole range of objects, such as cookie, car, bottle, bunny, baby, ing, fragrances, restaurants, and hotels.
Carter passionately describes these cre-
juice, ball, apple, and the most hated words of all for a young child, ative accomplishments as an “extension”
“wash up.” So when Jeff points at an object and says, “Ball,” his one- With little formal
of him (Ali, 2006; DeCurtis, 2009). schooling, Shawn
word sentence is short for “That is my ball.” Jeff ’s use of these We’ll discuss what creativity is and Carter became a very
single-word “sentences” indicates that he is on his way to learning
a very complex system of communicating by using language. what makes creative people different. creative person.

Jeff also uses one-word “sentences” Cognitive Approach
to ask questions. For instance, he’ll
point to a picture in his animal book How do toddlers like Jeff learn to speak a
and ask, “Name?” is means “What How does complex language and to recognize hundreds
is the name of that animal?” Jeff has your mind of objects? How did Shawn Carter, with little
already learned that a four-legged, formal schooling, develop his musical ability
fuzzy-tailed, large-eared animal is work? and express his creativity in so many ways?

Photo Credits: center left, © Charles Allen; top right, © Al Bello/Getty Images; bottom right, © Chad Baker/Thomas Northcut/Getty Images a bunny; a four-legged, long-nosed e answers to these kinds of questions involve figuring out how
animal that barks is a dog; and a our minds work. One way to study mental processes is to use the
four-legged, short-eared animal with cognitive approach.
a long tail that says “meow” is a cat. The cognitive approach is one method of studying how we process,
Jeff learned that this Perhaps when Jeff sees an animal,
four-legged animal is a such as a dog, cat, or rabbit, he takes store, and use information and how this information, in turn, influences
rabbit and not a cat or dog. a “mental photo” that he uses for
what we notice, perceive, learn, remember, believe, and feel.

future identifications. But that would mean storing an overwhelm- We have already discussed several
ing number of “mental photos” of all the animals, objects, and aspects of the cognitive approach: learn-
people in his environment. We’ll explain a more efficient system ing in Modules 9 and 10, and memory
that Jeff probably uses to identify animals, objects, and people.
and forgetting in Modules 11 and 12.
Creativity Here we’ll explore two other cognitive
processes: thinking and language.
Thinking, which is sometimes

One of Jeff’s favorite things to do is paint the referred to as reasoning, involves mental
animals in his picture books. Although Jeff
How does processes that are used to form concepts,

one become makes a terribly wonderful mess, his parents solve problems, and engage in creative

creative? encourage him because they hope that Jeff’s activities.

early interest in painting may indicate that he Language is a special form of communication

has a creative talent for painting or art. How one becomes a cre- Of all animals, in which we learn and use complex rules to form
ative person is quite a mystery. Take the case of Shawn Carter, bet- humans have the and manipulate symbols (words or gestures) that
ter known as Jay-Z, for example. greatest language are used to generate an endless number of mean-
ingful sentences.
ability.

Shawn Carter’s early years showed no signs of his creativity. No In fact, thinking and using language are two things we do much
one thought Carter would amount to much. He grew up in Brook- better than animals (Hoff, 2009; Woodard, 2005).
lyn’s Marcy projects, which were overrun with drugs and violence.
When Carter was 11, his father le , and his mother had to raise
him as well as his three older siblings. Only a year later, at the age What’s Coming
of 12, Carter shot his brother for stealing his jewelry. He dropped
out of high school to deal drugs, where he o en faced dangerously We’ll discuss how we form concepts, solve problems, think cre-
close bullets. While dealing drugs, he began exploring the hip-hop atively, acquire language, and make decisions. We’ll examine why
scene. Even as he achieved some recognition for his music work people have difficulty recognizing words (dyslexia) and how lan-
and opportunities to pursue it became available, he was reluctant guage used by animals is different from the language of humans.
to give up the life of dealing drugs.
We’ll begin with the interesting question of how Jeff learned to
distinguish a rabbit from a dog, and a dog from a cat.

I N T R O D U C T I O N 305

A. Forming Concepts

During your childhood, there was a time when every animal you saw was called a “dog.” As a child, #1
you gradually learned to tell the difference between a dog, a cat, and a rabbit by forming a different
Is it a concept for each animal.
dog, cat,

or rabbit? A concept is a way to group or classify objects, events, animals, or people based on some features, traits, or

characteristics that they all share in common.

How you formed the concept of a dog or cat or rabbit has two different explanations: the exemplar model and the proto-
type theory (Nosofsky & Zaki, 2002; H. Olsson et al., 2004).

Exemplar Model Prototype Theory
You easily recognize the animals on the le , but the question is: How Please look at the three animals on the right, #1,
did you know which animal was which? Is it because #2, and #3. Despite the great differences in size, #2
your mind contains definitions of hundreds of color, and facial features of these animals, proto-
animals? type theory explains why you can easily and
The exemplar model says that you form a concept of an quickly recognize each one as a dog.

object, event, animal, or person by defining or making a men- Prototype theory says that you form a concept by

tal list of the essential characteristics of a particular thing. creating a mental image that is based on the average #3
characteristics of an object. This “average” looking
According to the exemplar model, you formed a
concept of a dog, cat, or rabbit by learning its essen- object is called a prototype. To identify a new object, you

tial characteristics. e essential characteristics of a dog match it to one of your already formed prototypes of

might include that it barks and has a long nose, two ears, objects, people, or animals.

two eyes, four legs, some hair, and usually a tail. Simi- Based on many experiences, you develop proto-
larly, you made mental definitions for all animals. types of many different objects, persons, and ani-
en, when you looked at the three animals on the mals (Rosch, 1978). For example, your prototype
le , you automatically sorted through hundreds of a dog would be a mental image of any particu-
of animal definitions until you found one that lar animal that has average features (nose, tail,
included the essential properties of a dog, cat, or ears, height, weight). By using your prototype of
rabbit. Once you found the definition, you knew a dog, you can easily and quickly identify all three Photo Credits: (#1) © PhotoDisc, Inc.; (#2, #3) © PhotoDisc, Inc.; (#4) © Animals/Animals; all left, © PhotoDisc, Inc.
One way to form what the animal was. Although the exemplar animals on the right—the large brown mutt
concepts is to model seems like a reasonable method of forming (#1), the tiny Chihuahua (#2), and the color- Another way to
make definitions. concepts, it has two serious problems. ful Dalmatian (#3)—as being dogs. form concepts is to
form prototypes.

Problems with the Exemplar Model Advantages of the Prototype Theory

Too many features. In real life, it is very difficult to list all the fea- Average features. One advantage of the prototype theory over
tures that define any object (Rey, 1983). For example, if your list of the exemplar model is that you do not have to make a mental
features to define a dog wasn’t complete, the list might also apply to list of all the defining features of an object, which is often
wolves, jackals, coyotes, and skunks. If your list of features to define a impossible. Instead, you form a prototype by creating a mental
dog included every possible feature, such a mental list would be com- picture or image of the object, animal, or person that has only
plete but take so long to go through that it would be very slow to use. average features.
And worse, you would need a long Quick recognition. Another advantage of the prototype the-
list of defining features for each and dog (dog, dag) n.; pl. dogs, dog. ory is that it can result in quick recognition, as happened when
every animal, person, and object. you identified these different-looking animals (#1, #2, and #3)
Such a great number of mental lists 1. any of a large and varied as dogs. e more a new object resembles a prototype, the more
would tax the best of memories. group of domesticated quickly you can identify it; the less it matches your prototype,
animals (Canis familiaris) that the longer it takes.
Too many exceptions. After have four legs, a tail, two For example, what is the strange ani- #4
making a list of defining features, ears, prominent nose, a hairy
you would also need to list all the coat, and a bark. mal on the right (#4) and where is its

exceptions that do not fit into the dictionary definition of dog. For head? Because this animal’s features are
example, some dogs rarely bark, some are very tiny, some are very not close to your dog prototype, it will
large, some are hairless, and some are very fuzzy. take you some time to figure out that it
Because of these two problems, you would need to check two has hair like “dreadlocks,” its head is
mental lists—a long list that contained all the defining features and on the right, and it’s an unusual dog (called a Puli).
another that contained all the exceptions—before finding the concept Prototype theory, which explains that you form concepts by
that correctly identified the animal, person, or object. creating and using prototypes, is widely accepted and has gen-
For these reasons, the exemplar model has generally been replaced erally replaced the exemplar model (Geeraerts, 2006).
by a different theory of how we form concepts: the prototype theory. Next, we’ll discuss when children begin forming concepts.

306 M O D U L E 1 4 T H O U G H T & L A N G U A G E

Early Formation Categories in the Brain PowerStudy 4.5™
At the beginning of this A child’s ability to form and develop con-
module, we described how BLOCKS cepts is helped not only by having a stimu- Module 4
B. Studying the Living Brain
14-month-old Jeff had lating environment but also by how the Module 11
D. Long-Term Memory:

Storing

already learned a number brain is organized. Brain scans and brain
of concepts, such as stimulation of normal subjects and tests on
juice, cookie, car, ball, brain-damaged individuals showed that Functions of Concepts
apple, cat, dog, and different visual concepts, such as animals,
bunny. Many children faces, vegetables/fruits, and nonliving If you woke up one day to find that
10 to 16 months old things, as well as auditory concepts, such you had lost all your concepts, you
can form concepts; as animal, human, and tool sounds, are pro- would indeed have a very bad day.
that is, they can cessed and stored in different parts of the
correctly identify brain (Ilmberger et al., 2002; J. W. Lewis et at’s because concepts perform
different living By 10 to 16 months, al., 2005). us, as children interact with and two important functions: ey orga-
things (cat, dog, infants learn a number learn to identify different objects, they can nize information and help us avoid
rabbit) as animals easily place different objects into different relearning (Humphreys & Forde,
of concepts. 2001).

and then place each living thing in the categories because the brain is already set up 1 Organize information. Concepts
correct category (Quinn, 2002; Quinn & to store different categories
Oates, 2004). in different areas (Ilm- allow you to group things into cate-
Recent studies have reported that berger et al., 2002). gories and thus better organize and
children develop many concepts or is process of plac- store information in memory. For
categories (animal, vegetable, face) by ing things into categories animal example, instead of having to store
hundreds of mental images of many
experiencing or interacting with objects occurs very quickly. For different kinds of dogs, you can store
and things in their environments, and example, you quickly and a single prototype of the average dog.
children show their grasp of concepts easily recognize the three
even before they have developed much objects on the right as tur- 2 Avoid relearning. By having
language ability (Mareschal & Quinn, tle, apple, and clown, and
2001). For example, as 14-month-old Jeff you easily place them into fruit concepts that can be used to classify
and categorize things, you can easily
(above photo) plays with different objects three different categories: classify new things without having
in his environment, he will learn that animal, fruit, and person. to relearn what each thing is. For
one kind of object is a nonliving thing Researchers explain that example, once you have a concept for
called a block. Initially, a child’s catego- you were able to recog- a dog, rabbit, cat, or cookie, you do
ries may be very broad, such as objects, nize these three things not have to relearn what that thing is
by matching each to your person on each new encounter.

Photo Credits: top left, and all center, © PhotoDisc, Inc.; bottom right, © Haig Kouyoumdjian people, animals, and events. already formed prototypes Brain is Without concepts, our cognitive
However, as children gain more expe- of a turtle, apple, and prewired worlds would consist of unconnected
rience with objects, animals, people, and clown (Squire & Knowlton, to make pieces of information. In fact, some
things in their environments as well as 1995). categories. forms of brain damage destroy a
develop increased language skills, which person’s ability to form concepts,
happens around age 5 (p. 315), they learn One reason you are not aware of forming so that the person is
to form more complex concepts, such as prototypes or classifying things into catego- unable to name
the qualities of objects—heavy, shiny, col- ries is that these cognitive processes occur or categorize
orful, sweet, bitter—and the position and at an unconscious level, which means that what he or she
placement of objects—up, down, high, you are unaware of and cannot recall what sees (visual
low. e chances of a child interacting is happening (p. 246). Evidence that forming agnosia—see
with a wide variety of objects and thus prototypes and matching things to proto- p. 79). By using
developing many concepts and categories types occur at an unconscious (implicit) concepts, you
What if you
had to always
are greatly increased by being raised level comes from studies that found that can identify, relearn that this
in a stimulating environment, but the although amnesic patients were able to form categorize, and
chances are hindered in an impoverished prototypes and correctly match things to store informa- is a dog?

one (Quinn, 2002). prototypes, they could not explain how they tion very efficiently.
us, the development and formation did it. Researchers concluded that using pro- ere is no doubt that concepts
of concepts depend, in large part, on the totypes involves implicit processes, which are useful for identifying objects and
child’s opportunity to interact with the we are not aware of and cannot voluntarily helping us make sense of our world.
environment and, as you’ll see next, in recall (Squire & Knowlton, 1995). Next, you’ll see that concepts are
part on how the brain is neatly organized As you’ll see, not being able to form con- valuable for solving problems and
to process information into categories. cepts would make every day a very bad day. thinking creatively.

A . F O R M I N G C O N C E P T S 307

B. Solving Problems

How do In 1997, world chess champion, A computer that was the unsolved problem; (2) the operations state,
experts solve Garry Kasparov (photo below), lost unemotional, unconcerned, which involves trying various rules or strategies
a chess match for the first time to a to solve the problem; and (3) the goal state, which
problems? powerful computer (McClain, and uncaring beat me is reaching the solution. One plan used by expert
at chess!

2005). He played another computer problem solvers, such as Kasparov, is to think in broad
in 2003 and tied (three games each) (Byrne, 2003). is terms of how to solve the problem, while less successful nov-
human-versus-computer chess match was all about ices become too focused on specifics (Abernethy et al., 1994).
thinking and problem solving. For example, when novice players are in a difficult position,
Problem solving involves searching for some rule, they may spend much time calculating possible moves, o en

plan, or strategy that results in our reaching a certain planning many moves ahead, yet never find the best solution.

goal that is currently out of reach. An expert player has more knowledge of chess positions and

In previous matches, Kasparov had always examines fewer, but better, possibilities in much less time
beat the computer because he was the better thinker and problem (P. E. Ross, 2006). Being a successful problem solver involves using
solver. For Kasparov, as well as for most of us, problem solving different kinds of thinking, some of which can be programmed
involves three states: (1) the initial state, which is thinking about into a computer.

Different Ways of Thinking computer’s “thinking” was more fixed because it has been pro-
In this man-machine chess match, Kasparov’s grammed to use a set of rules that lead to specific outcomes, called
Can a thinking involved a combination of intuition algorithms. Solving problems by using algorithms or heuristics
computer (clever guesses based on years of experience) and illustrates two very different ways of thinking (Lohman, 2000).
creative mental shortcuts, called heuristics. e
think?

Algorithms Heuristics Artificial Intelligence Photo Credits: top, © Richard Pohle/Sipa Press; bottom, © PhotoDisc, Inc.
It took 50 years of effort
If you wanted to win at a Kasparov’s unique brain, together with his years of experience, allowed before scientists learned
variety of games, such as him to play chess using heuristics (hyur-RIS-ticks). how to program a computer
chess, checkers, or bridge, that could beat Kasparov
you would follow a fixed set Heuristics are rules of thumb, or clever and creative mental shortcuts, that at chess. One goal of com-
of rules that are called algo- reduce the number of operations and allow one to solve problems easily and puter science is to develop
rithms (AL-go-rhythms). quickly. artificial intelligence,
which means programming
Algorithms are a fixed set of In the late 1990s, Kasparov’s clever and creative shortcuts, or heu- machines (computers and
rules that, if followed correctly, ristics, had given him the advantage over the fixed and not so creative robots) to imitate human
will eventually lead to a solution. algorithms of computer programs. However, computers now have thinking and problem-
been programmed with new algorithms that increase their speed of solving abilities.
For example, learning to “thinking” from analyzing 100,000 chess moves per second to 2.5 mil-
play chess involves following lion. As a result of this increased speed, human chess grand masters, For example, scientists
algorithms that define how whose thinking focuses on using clever heuristics, no longer have a recently developed a “think-
pieces move and the results clear advantage over a computer’s “thinking” ability (Boyce, 2002). ing” program modeled on
of those moves. e reason how the brain thinks (neural
relatively few chess players Besides being used to solve chess problems, heuristics are often network). Scientists pro-
become grand masters like used in daily life to make decisions or draw conclusions (Bailenson grammed a computer with
Kasparov is that people vary et al., 2000). A commonly used heuristic is called the availability this “thinking” program and
in their ability to learn and heuristic. the basic rules of checkers.
use algorithms. In no time, the computer
The availability heuristic says that we rely taught itself to play checkers
Initially, the computer on information that is more prominent or easily at the expert level (Fogel,
was given little chance to recalled and overlook other information that is available 2000). Can you imagine a
beat world chess champion but less prominent or notable. computer teaching itself to
Kasparov because playing play expert checkers? is
chess by using algorithms For example, the murder rate in the United States actually represents a major break-
is a slow process. Instead decreased in the late 1990s. However, during this time, network cover- through in artificial intelli-
of using algorithms, chess age of homicides increased 473%, which made news of murders more gence—teaching machines
champion Kasparov was available and, according to the availability heuristic, led people to con- to think like humans.
playing with a potentially clude that murder rates had become epidemic (Comarow, 2001).
more powerful set of rules
called heuristics. Using the availability heuristic to make a decision means taking a
mental shortcut. Although heuristics allow us to make quick decisions,
they may result in bad decisions, since we make them using shortcuts,
which limits the amount of information we use (F. Bower, 1997).

308 M O D U L E 1 4 T H O U G H T & L A N G U A G E

Three Strategies for Solving Problems
Most of us have had the experience of getting stuck while trying to solve a problem and wondering what to do next. By
What if studying people who are good at problem solving, such as chess players, engineers, and computer programmers, psy-
you get chologists have identified a number of useful strategies for solving problems. We’ll discuss three problem-solving

stuck? strategies—changing a mental set, using analogies, and forming subgoals. (Solutions to the first two problems appear
on page 317.)

Photo Credit: top center, © Craig McClain It takes new thinking to connect all dots with How would you mount a candle on the The best strategy for writing a term paper
Figure/Text Credit: (left) Adapted from Conceptional Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas, by James L. Adams, pp. 17–18. Copyright © 1974 by James L. Adams. 4 straight lines without lifting pencil. wall using what you see here? is to break the task into subgoals.
W. H. Freeman & Co., Publishers. Adapted by permission of Da Capo Press, a member of Perseus Books Group.
Changing One’s Mental Set Using Analogies Forming Subgoals
Problem. Imagine that you have a box Problem. Suppose your assignment is to
Problem. Connect all nine dots shown of matches, two candles, a piece of write a term paper titled “Creativity and
above by drawing four straight lines string, and several tacks, as shown in Madness.” A useful strategy for writing this
without lifting your pencil from the the photo above. How would you paper is to divide the assignment or general
paper or retracing any lines. If, like most mount a candle on the wall so that it problem into a number of subgoals.
people, you have difficulty solving this could be used as a light?
problem, it may be because of functional Using subgoals is a strategy that involves
fixedness. You may solve the candle problem breaking down the overall problem into sepa-
in a flash of insight. However, most of rate parts that, when completed in order, will
Functional fixedness refers to a mental us have to develop a strategy to solve result in a solution.
set that is characterized by the inability to see the problem, and a good strategy may
an object as having a function different from involve using an analogy. As shown in the figure above, the first
its usual one. subgoal is doing research and finding a
An analogy is a strategy for finding a number of articles on creativity and mad-
For instance, you probably have a similarity between the new situation and an ness. The second subgoal is reading the
mental set that a straight line must begin old, familiar situation. articles and taking notes. e third sub-
and end on a dot. To solve the nine-dot goal is making a detailed outline of the
problem, you need to break out of func- If you adopt an analogy to solve whole paper. A fourth subgoal is using
tional fixedness, which involves thinking the candle problem, here’s how your your outline to write the paper. e strat-
of a line as continuing past a dot (T. C. thinking might proceed: “I’m familiar egy of working on and completing each
Kershaw & Ohlsson, 2004). with using a shelf to hold a candle on specific subgoal makes the overall project
the wall. Which of the objects—candle, more manageable and reduces unproduc-
e nine-dot puzzle is a good example string, or box—could serve as a shelf? tive worrying and complaining that can
of the kind of problem that is o en solved If I remove the matches, I can tack the interfere with starting and completing
in a sudden flash, known as insight, box to the wall.” your paper.
which we discussed earlier (p. 226).
As you gain more experience and The strategy of setting specific goals
Insight is the sudden grasp of a solution knowledge, you become better at using to solve a problem has some advantages:
after many incorrect attempts. analogies to solve problems. is is one Goals direct and focus attention, help get
reason that businesses prefer employ- you energized and motivated, and increase
You can increase your chances of ees with experience: ese employees persistence and lessen procrastination
solving a problem by insight if you con- are more likely to use analogies to solve (E. A. Locke & Latham, 2002).
sider the problem from many different problems.
viewpoints and unusual angles and if Another problem-solving strategy is to
you decrease your anxiety and concern, What about the problem every stu- use creative thinking, our next topic.
which will in turn help you to overcome dent must face—writing a paper?
functional fixedness. B . S O L V I N G P R O B L E M S 309