Psychology Chapter 6: Thinking, Intelligence, and Problem Solving

What is a problem in the context of psychology?

A situation in which there is a goal, but no clear path to reach the goal.

What is a well-defined problem?

A problem with clear goals and a clear path to the solution.

What is an ill-defined problem?

A problem that lacks clear goals or a clear path to the solution.

What are the two steps in problem solving?

Interpreting the problem and trying to solve the problem.

What is fixation in problem solving?

The inability to 'think outside the box' and create a new interpretation of a problem.

What does functional fixedness refer to?

The inability to see that an object can have a function other than its typical one.

What is an insight problem?

A problem that can be solved by a new way to interpret it that yields the solution immediately.

What is an algorithm?

A step-by-step procedure that guarantees a correct answer to a problem.

What is a heuristic?

A problem-solving strategy that seems reasonable based on past experiences, but may not guarantee a correct answer.

What is the anchoring and adjustment heuristic?

A heuristic that uses an initial estimate as an anchor, which is then adjusted up or down.

What is the working backward heuristic?

A problem-solving approach that starts from the goal state and works backward to the start state.

What is the means-ends analysis heuristic?

A strategy that breaks down the problem into subgoals and works toward decreasing the distance to the goal state.

What is probability in the context of psychology?

The likelihood that an event will happen, ranging from 0 (never happens) to 1 (always happens).

What is the representativeness heuristic?

A rule of thumb for judging the probability of membership in a category based on how well an object resembles that category.

What is the conjunction fallacy?

The incorrect judgment that the overlap of two uncertain events is more likely than either of the two events.

What is the gambler's fallacy?

The erroneous belief that a chance process is self-correcting, leading to the idea that an event that hasn't occurred for a while is more likely to occur.

What is the availability heuristic?

A rule of thumb that suggests the more available an event is in memory, the more probable it is.

What is confirmation bias?

The tendency to seek evidence that confirms one's beliefs.

What is the four-card selection task?

A task where one must select cards to determine whether a rule about vowels and even numbers is true or false.

What is illusory correlation?

An erroneous belief that two variables are related when they actually are not.

What is belief perseverance?

The tendency to cling to one's beliefs in the face of contradictory evidence.

What is person-who reasoning?

Questioning a well-established finding because you know a person who violates the established finding.

Who were the first to develop intelligence tests?

Francis Galton in late nineteenth-century England and Binet and Simon in early twentieth-century France.

What did Francis Galton emphasize in his theory of intelligence?

He emphasized nature and believed in genetic determination of intelligence.

What was the purpose of Binet and Simon's intelligence test?

To diagnose children who were subnormal and to address mental retardation.

What is the concept of mental age?

The age typically associated with a child's level of performance.

Who revised Binet and Simon's test for American school children?

Lewis Terman, creating the Stanford-Binet test.

What formula did Terman use for calculating IQ?

IQ = (mental age/chronological age) × 100.

What is the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)?

A test developed by David Wechsler that provides scores for both verbal and performance tests.

What is standardization in psychometric properties?

The process that allows test scores to be interpreted by providing test norms.

What is reliability in the context of intelligence tests?

The extent to which the scores for a test are consistent.

What is validity in intelligence testing?

The extent to which a test measures what it is supposed to measure or predicts what it is supposed to predict.

What is the Flynn effect?

The observation that average intelligence scores have improved steadily over the past century.

What did Charles Spearman propose about intelligence?

He argued that intelligence test performance is a function of a g factor (general intelligence) and specific s factors (specific intellectual abilities).

What did L. L. Thurstone identify as important mental abilities?

Verbal comprehension, number facility, spatial relations, perceptual speed, word fluency, associative memory, and reasoning.

What are the two types of intelligence proposed by Cattell and Horn?

Fluid intelligence (abstract reasoning and memory) and crystallized intelligence (accumulated knowledge and skills).

What are Howard Gardner's eight independent intelligences?

Linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and naturalistic.

What is Robert Sternberg's triarchic theory of intelligence?

It proposes three types of intelligence: analytical, practical, and creative intelligence.

What does 'dysrationalia' refer to?

The failure to think and behave rationally despite having adequate intelligence.

What is heritability in the context of intelligence?

An index of the degree of variation of a trait within a given population that is due to heredity.

What evidence supports the case for nurture in intelligence?

Identical twins raised together show a high correlation in intelligence scores, but this correlation decreases when raised apart.

What does the term 'reaction range' refer to?

The range of potential outcomes for an individual's intelligence based on genetic and environmental factors.

What is the significance of adoption studies in intelligence research?

They show a correlation between adopted children's intelligence test scores and their biological parents that increases as the children age.

What is the relationship between reliability and validity in testing?

If a test is valid, it will also be reliable; however, a test can be reliable but not valid.

What does the term 'deviation IQ' refer to?

A score that compares an individual's raw score to the mean raw score in terms of standard deviation units.