EXAM 2 Chapter 9, 10: Thinking and Intelligence

Cognition

Mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating information

Metacognition

Cognition about cognition; thinking about our own thinking

Concept

A mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people (ex: chair); simplifies thinking with little cognitive effort

Prototype

A mental average or best example of a category, formed unconsciously from many encounters (ex: chair = four legs, seat, backrest); narrower scope than a schema

Schema

A structured framework of related facts, experiences, and relationships between categories (ex: gender stereotypes; dogs bark, are mammals, have fur); broader scope than a prototype

Trial and error

Problem-solving by trying options until one works (ex: Edison testing thousands of light bulb filaments)

Algorithm

A step-by-step procedure that guarantees a solution but is laborious and slow (ex: trying every letter arrangement of SPLOYOCHYG, 907,200 permutations)

Heuristic

A simpler, faster thinking strategy or mental shortcut that is not guaranteed to work (ex: grouping letters that often appear together)

Insight

An abrupt, often satisfying "Aha!" solution; linked to a burst of activity in the right temporal lobe

Fixation

Inability to see a problem from a fresh perspective; being stuck on an initial idea

Mental set

Tendency to approach a problem the way that has worked for us in the past (a type of fixation)

Nine-dot problem

Connect 9 dots with four continuous straight lines without lifting the pencil; solving it requires going literally outside the box (example of fixation)

Intuition

Fast, automatic, unreasoned feelings and thoughts; recognition born of experience (implicit knowledge)

Representativeness heuristic

Judging the likelihood of something by comparing it to a prototype, ignoring base rates (ex: a poetry-reading person is guessed to be an English professor, though truck drivers are 7000x more common)

Availability heuristic

Judging how common an event is by how easily examples come to mind; distorts our judgment of risk (ex: fearing plane crashes more than driving)

Bad news effect

Bad news is more readily available in memory than good news, so we overestimate how likely bad events are

Exaggerating the improbable

Dramatic, vivid events (terrorism, plane crashes) make us fear unlikely events more than statistics justify (ex: a photo of a dead child prompted 55x more donations than statistics)

Overconfidence

Tendency to overestimate the accuracy of our knowledge and judgments (ex: expecting to finish assignments early, expecting more time or money next month)

Belief perseverance

Sticking with our initial beliefs even when shown evidence that disproves them

Framing

The way an issue is presented influences decisions (ex: people prefer "90% fat free" over "10% fat"; solutions framed as gains over losses)

Hindsight bias

After learning an outcome, believing "I knew it all along" (ex: Exploding Whale video: "How could they think dynamite would work?")

Dunning-Kruger effect

People with low ability or knowledge overestimate their competence, while high performers tend to underestimate theirs (ex: internet research vs. an expert's training)

Automaticity

Doing a skill or routine automatically without conscious effort, which frees up processing space for other thoughts

Stroop test

Cognitive psychology example of automaticity; we are programmed to read words automatically, which interferes with naming the ink color

Steps of problem solving

Identify the current situation, identify the goal, and break the problem into sub-problems

Creativity

The ability to produce novel and valuable ideas; supported by a certain level of aptitude

Convergent thinking

Narrowing the options to one correct answer (ex: aptitude tests like the SAT; ER treatment for bleeding)

Divergent thinking

Expanding the number of possible solutions and thinking in novel ways (ex: how many uses for a brick; draw as many things as you can from 20 circles)

5 components of creativity

Expertise, imaginative thinking skills, venturesome personality, intrinsic motivation, creative environment

Intrinsic motivation

Being driven by interest, satisfaction, and challenge rather than external pressures (money, deadlines, impressing others); a key part of creativity

Thinking in other species

Animals can use concepts and numbers, show insight, transmit culture, recognize themselves in mirrors (self-awareness), and use tools

Language

Spoken, written, or signed words and the way we combine them to communicate meaning

Phoneme

The smallest distinctive sound unit in a language (ex: "that" = th, a, t)

Morpheme

The smallest language unit that carries meaning (ex: "readers" = read, er, s)

Grammar

A language's system of rules; semantics (meaning) and syntax (word order)

Universal grammar (Chomsky)

Built-in predisposition to learn grammar rules; explains why preschoolers pick up language so easily (nature view; the language acquisition device, LAD)

Skinner's view of language

Nurture view: language is learned through association, imitation, and reinforcement

Receptive vs. productive language

Receptive = ability to understand what is said; Productive = ability to produce words (receptive develops first)

Babbling (month 4)

Infants babble many speech sounds ("ah-goo"), including sounds from languages not heard at home

Babbling (month 10)

Babbling comes to resemble the household language ("ma-ma")

One-word stage (month 12)

Child speaks single words ("kitty!"); a single word used to express a whole thought is a holophrase

Two-word stage (month 24)

Two-word, telegraphic speech ("get ball") that leaves out small words; followed by rapid development into complete sentences

Vocabulary growth

From the first birthday to high school graduation, children learn about 60,000 words (about 3,500 per year, 10 per day)

Critical period for language

If a child is not exposed to spoken or signed language by about age 7, they lose the ability to fully comprehend and use any language (ex: Genie)

Genie

Case of a child isolated until adolescence without language exposure; never fully learned grammar, supporting a critical period for language

Broca's area

Left frontal lobe; damage causes difficulty speaking words, though the person can still sing familiar songs and comprehend speech

Wernicke's area

Left temporal lobe; damage causes difficulty understanding others' sentences, and speech is fluent but meaningless

Bilingual brain

Natively fluent in two languages = similar brain areas process both; a second language learned after the first uses different areas

Linguistic determinism

Whorf's extreme view that language determines thought (ex: people with no past tense can't think about the past); too extreme

Linguistic relativism

Less extreme view that our words influence our thinking (ex: bilinguals feel like different people in different languages)

Mental practice (thinking in images)

Imagining an action activates the same neural networks as doing it (ex: pianist Liu practicing in his mind in prison)

Intelligence

Ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations; defined by success in one's own time and place

Psychometric approach (~1905)

Not a theory; focuses on measuring the mind and spawned intelligence testing; used to track development, diagnose, and screen for jobs, but began alongside the eugenics movement

Army Alpha and Army Beta tests

WWI intelligence tests for recruits; Alpha for literate recruits, Beta for illiterate recruits

Stanford-Binet Scale

Early intelligence test designed to identify students struggling in school; widely used in the US, and misused (ex: limiting immigration)

General intelligence (g)

A single underlying factor at the heart of all intelligent behavior; different abilities cluster together and correlate

Seven clusters of ability (g evidence)

Word fluency, verbal comprehension, spatial ability, perceptual speed, numerical ability, inductive reasoning, memory

Fluid intelligence (Gf)

Ability to reason quickly and abstractly (ex: logic problems); declines with age

Crystallized intelligence (Gc)

Accumulated knowledge reflected in vocabulary and applied skills; increases with age

Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) theory

Combines many specific abilities (including Gf and Gc) under a broader general intelligence factor

Gardner's multiple intelligences

Independent intelligences: linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial-visual, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalist (+ existential?); no single general intelligence

Evidence for Gardner's theory

Brain damage can destroy one ability and leave others intact; savants have an island of brilliance but often score low on IQ tests

Interpersonal vs. intrapersonal intelligence

Interpersonal = understanding OTHER people (counselors, salespeople); Intrapersonal = understanding YOURSELF (introspective writers)

Sternberg's triarchic theory

Three intelligences: analytic (academic problem solving), creative (novel ideas), and practical (everyday tasks); subtheories are componential, experiential, and contextual

Componential (analytic) subtheory

Metacognition, strategy application (knowing which study methods work), and knowledge acquisition (knowing what you do and don't know)

Experiential (creative) subtheory

Dealing with novel tasks (ex: letting air out of tires to free a truck stuck under a bridge) and automatization of skills

Contextual (practical) subtheory

Adapting (change yourself), shaping (change your environment), selecting (choose a new environment, ex: transferring colleges)

Emotional intelligence (4 components)

Perceiving emotions, understanding emotions, managing emotions, using emotions

Achievement vs. aptitude tests

Achievement tests reflect what you HAVE learned (final exam); aptitude tests predict what you WILL be able to learn (entrance exam)

Intell