Course Name: EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

Week No.: 16
Topic Name: INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES AND DEVELOPMENT

Learning Objectives:
Ψ Define methodological approaches to individual differences
Ψ To know the three types of variables
Ψ Define reliability of measures in intelligence and development research design
Ψ To know the operational definitions that illustrate intelligence
Ψ Define regression artifacts that illustrate educational assessment
Ψ Determine the effects of motivation and emotion on intellectual performance

Contents:

The study of individual differences began because of important practical decisions that
had to be made about people, but it is a topic that has been mostly ignored by experimental
psychologists, who are primarily interested in finding general laws and explanations for
behavior.
The experimental investigation of individual differences illustrates the need for:
➢ Reliability- to measures of individual characteristics; if individuals’ decisions concerning
future action are to be based on their particular mental abilities, interests, and ways of
responding to events, then measures of these factors must yield similar results on
different test occasions.
➢ Operational definitions- separate people into classes or categories on the basis of the
definitions, so researchers can study these classes of people in experimental settings.
➢ Subject variables- Classified the subject in the study based on their age, intelligence,
sex, degree of neuroticism, or any characteristic of people that can be precisely specified.
➢ Regression to the mean- described as a hazard in interpreting, it leads the investigator or
researcher to believe a change has been produced when, in fact, it has not, or vice versa.

Approaches to Individual Differences

Methodological Approaches to Individual Differences
➢ One set of issues involves the methods used to derive predictions. Two methods of
approaching the problem are the empirical and analytical, which are equivalent to the
inductive and deductive approaches.
● Empirical Approach
➢ This involves a search for a combination of measures that will predict the events in
question and aims to achieve the greatest degree of predictive precision possible by any
means available
 ➢ It is based on finding correlates of the differences in question, such as intelligence tests
designed to predict school scores.
Intelligence tests
➢ used to predict school performance and determine which children will profit from what
types of education.
➢ Predictive Validity- also called as criterion validity, it refers to the ability to test or
determine the predicted future outcome.
➢ Face Validity- means to measure or assess whether a test measures are what the
researchers are supposed to measure.
● Analytical Approach
➢ Measures intelligence that involves a theoretical analysis of what procedures the
effects we attribute to intelligence and analyze the components in order to
measure them.

Variables Leading to Individual Differences

● A second set of issues underlying the study of individual differences concerns the basic
variables that lead to them. Just as in the study of perception, some researchers have
argued for a nativistic (nature) basis for individual differences, whereas others have
proposed an empirical (nurture) basis. This nature–nurture contrast is an old one in
psychology (Schultz & Schultz, 1987), and it is still alive with much controversy.
● Nature Theory
o The genetic differences underlie individual differences.
o A recent study by Herrnstein and Murray (1994), The Bell Curve, illustrates a
heritability theory of intelligence. In particular, Herrnstein and Murray argue that there is
a “genetic factor in cognitive ethnic differences'', which accounts for differences in
intelligence between blacks and whites, as well as other ethnic group differences.
o Several scientists like Fraser and Sternberg have vigorously undermined their proposal
and some of its implications. On the other hand, Nisbett noted that much evidence
opposes Herrnstein and Murray’s view that black-white differences in intelligence test
scores have a genetic basis.
● Nurture View
o The nurture view of individual differences focuses on experiential factors that influence
how organisms develop.
o An example of this kind of proposal was developed by Ericsson, Krampe, and
Tesch-Romer to account for differences in the abilities of violinists and pianists.
o Contrary to Galton’s widely held view that genius is hereditary, Ericsson and associates
present a variety of evidence to show that quality of musicianship is a function of the
amount and quality of practice. They argue that extensive practice for at least 10 years is
the major contributor to musical ability.
Introducing the Variables
❖ We consider here just one type of individual difference, intelligence, but the general
principles also hold for other individual differences.
● Dependent Variable
o In the study of intelligence, the dependent variables are the measures of intelligence
used by each experimenter. Since notions of what intelligence really is differ widely
among experimenters, it is difficult to devise a single measure that would be acceptable to
all.
● Independent Variable
o All individual differences, including intelligence, are subject variables and not true
independent variables. Studies of human intelligence are often aimed at determining the
relative importance of genetic, as opposed to environmental, factors in producing
intelligence.
● Control Variable
o In studies of intelligence, it is difficult to define an exhaustive set of control variables.
The single most important factor to control, however, is generally thought to be specific
learning that could affect test performance.

Reliability and Measures: Intelligence and Development Research Design

● Conduct research with the measure to ensure that the results are consistent with their
understanding of the construct being measured.

Intelligence
● Extraneous factors, such as the amount of sleep a person has gotten, whether he or she ate
a good meal before the test, and so on, can temporarily affect a person's performance on
an intelligence test. It is also more difficult to form an opinion about its stability.

Test Reliability
❖ To assess this ability, we create collections of tasks. These tasks assign them to
individuals to complete within a specified time frame. The score obtained by an
individual is compared to the scores obtained by others. However, before we place much
trust in an individual's score, we need to know how reliable it is, in order to determine the
reliability it uses:
● Test–retest reliability- process of giving the same test twice in succession over a short
time interval.
● Parallel forms- process of giving alternate forms of the test on the two testing occasions.
● Split-half reliability- It involves dividing the test items into two arbitrary groups (such
as odd and even items) and correlating the scores obtained in the two halves of the test.
Stability of Intelligence Measures
● It is generally consistent with others in demonstrating that measured intelligence remains
relatively stable over a large portion of one's life, from early childhood to middle age.

Age as a variable

● Kangas & Bradway stated that in the study, the primary variable of interest was age. As
discussed previously, age is a subject variable. Subject variables, by definition, cannot be
experimentally manipulated. Instead, a researcher can only select instances that satisfy
different categories and study those instances. Thus, research with subject variables is
largely correlational in nature; researchers can identify dependent variables that change
with variations in a subject variable, but it is difficult to pin causation on the subject
variable and not on some possibly confounded factor that varies with the subject variable.
Studies with age as a subject variable clearly illustrate the difficulty of showing age as a
causative variable.

Cross Sectional Design

● A process where a researcher takes a cross section of the population and tests the subjects
in the experiment or procedure of interest.

Example: If a researcher were interested in how intelligence varied with age, she or he
might test people who were 5, 10, 15, 20,25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, and 75
years old. If 25 people were tested at each age, then 375 people would need to be tested.
In fact, this is a quite common research design, although the large number of ages
sampled is atypical.

➢ Cohort effects- refer to effects of the different sorts of people (the cohorts) who grow up
with people of differing ages.

Cross- Sequential Design

● a combination of longitudinal and cross-sectional design by following several differently

aged cohorts over time which study two or more groups of individuals of different ages
are directly compared over a period of time.
● Allowed us to identify changes in individual users' experience. These changes could also
be tracked to different usage ( Kujala et al.)

Example: Investigator is using this design to evaluate children's mathematical skills,

might measure a group of 5 years old and a group of 10 years old at the beginning of the
research and then subsequently reassess the same children every 6 months for the next 5
years.
 Longitudinal Design

● According to Kangas & Bradway, the same group of subjects is tested repeatedly over
time in these designs, and all of the confounding factors inherent in cross-sectional
designs are avoided.

Example: Researchers in 1950 were interested in how age affected people's attitudes
toward war. If people were measured in 1950, their attitudes might generally have been
quite favorable. However if these people were tested 20 years later, their attitudes might
have been much less favorable.

Time lag Design

● The time-lag design keeps the age at testing constant at 19, allowing any changes to be
attributed to people being tested in different eras. However, in this design, age is mixed
up with both the year of birth and the year of the test. If a dependent variable in the entire
cross-sequential design changes with age in both the longitudinal and cross-sectional
components, and the time-lag component shows no change with testing time while
holding age constant, then a researcher may confidently attribute the observed changes to
age itself and not some confounded factor

Example: Study of intelligence might compare a group of people who were 20 years old
I'm 2005 with groups who were 20 years old in 2006, 2007, and 2008

Operational Definitions: Intelligence

Imitation Game

The imitation game is a hypothetical experiment devised by Turing (1950) in an article

titled “Computing Machinery and Intelligence”. The purpose of Turing was to devise a situation
that would allow one to assess whether a machine could think.

Turing Test

The imitation game is usually called the Turing test. The test might be able to identify
whether a machine, computer or otherwise, is intelligent. Turing's test defines the standard for
machine intelligence as follows: A machine is said to be intelligent if an interrogator is
physically separated from one and a person is unable to identify the difference between their
typewritten responses to queries. Simply described, an intelligent machine is one whose output
can mimic human behavior.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)

● Strong AI is the belief, following Turing, that machines can have intelligence. According
to the strong AI perspective, it is conceivable for computers to have a cognitive state that
would be referred to as intelligence if a person had it. The machine's operating program
reflects the cognitive state. According to this theory, intelligence is just the ability to
manipulate the formal symbols in a program.
● Weak AI involves testing human intelligence using computer programs; theorizing about
cognitive theories with computer programs.

Operational Definitions

Many consider the Turing test valid because it has two important features. Since the Turing test
comprises two crucial components, many people believe it to be valid. The first is the fact that
the imitation game's use of machine intelligence evaluation includes a test of whether a
questioner thinks a computer is the same as a person. The second component is more crucial for
our needs. The test that Turing outlined produces a functional definition.

Operational definitions are trustworthy in theory but not always valid, which is the main
reason why the Turing test is debatable. An operational definition's main benefit is that it makes
communication easier. If someone says that a computer is intelligent in this situation, they are
referring to the fact that the machine passed the Turing test. Presumably nothing more than that.

● Construct Validity refers to the extent to which the test measures the construct that is
supposed to measure.

Operational definitions nearly always are limited in their applicability, which means that their
validity will suffer.

The Chinese Room

● There is a major argument against the possibility of strong AI being developed by the
philosopher Searle (1980, 1990), and his objections relate to the fundamental validity of
the test.
● Searle believes that you would pass the Turing test in a real Chinese room competition,
but it doesn’t mean that you are intelligent in Chinese. Despite knowing no Chinese, you
are able to pass the Turing test. You are operating within a machine that deceives a
questionnaire into thinking they are being interrogated by a person. Questions are
answered by a machine.
● Searle adds to his argument by suggesting that true understanding apparently requires a
brain that has causal powers in the situation under examination. You do not understand
 Chinese in the same way that you understand your native language, because you cannot
produce it.

Defining Intelligence

Intelligence has been associated with all kinds of measures. Agreeing that intelligence is
defined as what is measured through IQ tests does not provide many solutions. Its area of
competence is constrained, and the definition is vague and is likely to be challenged by what the
general public believes intelligence to be all about (Sternberg, 1995)

There has been considered a contemporary attempt to define intelligence operationally. It

is a theory of Multiple Intelligences.

● Multiple Intelligence was developed by Garden (1983). In order to incorporate intellect

(in his view) that is less related to Western cultural values than those associated with the
normal intelligence test, his purpose was to widen the traditional academic definition of
intelligence. Gardner attempts to explain each of the seven bits of intelligence
demonstrate that each has unique brain structures connected to it and that each person has
a unique developmental history and might excel in certain areas while failing in others or
average in others, and that each of the domains may be shown to have a cross-cultural
impact significant position, but in various ways.
● Rather than examine all of the intelligence, Garden analyzes one: music. Gardner
demonstrates how the fundamental cerebral architecture of music differs from that of
other intelligence. Being musically talented Unlike language ability, which is linked with
the right hemisphere of the brain hemisphere on the left. People with damage to the left
hemisphere are often aphasic which means they have a disorder of language. People with
damage to the right hemisphere often suffer from tonal agnosia which means they are
unable to sing, and their ordinary vocal inflections are diminished.
● The main issue with Gardner's strategy, according to Sternberg, is that the mechanisms
underlying the seven bits of intelligence are not described. Sternberg advises Gardner to
merely list the intelligence without providing any further details on precisely what they
are and are not. Another point of contention raised by Sternberg is stating that Gardner's
intelligence is specific while intelligence as a whole is broad. As stated by Gardner has
identified skills rather than intelligence, according to Sternberg. lack of musical ability It
may not be noticed and shouldn't be too harmful to a person. Although a person was
incapable of reasoning or planning, two crucial aspects of the intellect for Sternberg were
unable to operate in society.
Regression Artifacts : Educational Assessment

The study of intelligence and individual differences revolves around attempts by

psychologists and educators to improve the performance of individuals. Accurate measurement
lies at the heart of assessing change, whenever measurement error occurs, the possibility exists
that we will wrongly conclude that some sort of change has occurred or failed to occur and the
importance of evaluating such attempts. Certain designs or procedures for gathering data are
particularly susceptible to bias caused by measurement error, example of it are:

Quasi- experimental designs

● According to Campbell & Stanley, the subjects in this design are not randomly assigned
to treatment and control groups. However, the subjects in these groups may be matched
on a number of factors by a researcher, but it is difficult to ensure that important
differences between the groups did not exist prior to the start of the treatment.

Regression artifacts

● Also known as experimental effects or regression to the mean, occurs when population
differences exist, there is the possibility of being misled by. It is a statistical phenomenon
that happens anytime there is an imperfectly correlated pair of measurements and a
nonrandom sampling from the population.
● The phenomenon of regression to the mean occurs because all psychological measures
are subject to a certain amount of variability, it happens when the absence of any
treatment being given to either group and despite matching. With any measure that is not
perfectly reliable, the group of subjects obtaining the highest scores contains not only
those who really belong in the highest category but also others who were placed in this
category by chance errors of measurement.
References:

● Elmes,D.G.,Roedigar III, H.L.,& Kantowitz, B. H. (2008).Experimental Psychology (9th

Editioned.) Wadsworth Publishing.

● Fonseca D. (2004) Role of the implicit theories of intelligence in learning situations:

Retrieved from; https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15627050/

● Duan W. (2017) Incremental Theory of Intelligence Moderated the Relationship between

Prior Achievement and School Engagement in Chinese High School Students; Retrieved

from; https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01703/full

● Torchim W. (n.d.); Regression to the Mean; Retrieved from:

https://conjointly.com/kb/regression-to-the-mean/

● N.d (2022); What is face validity in research; retrieved from;

https://uk.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/what-is-face-validity

Prepared by:

BARAGER, TARHATA
BENIGNOS, KEANNA CLAIRE S.
DIGMA, MIKKA ELLA C.
DUMAGO, IRA A.
GERALDEZ, MARCELA A.
LOLONG, RAZZLE A.
TOMAS, ERICKA M.

BSP 2-2