Ch. 8: Thought, Language, and Intelligence

Mental Representations

Building blocks organized into concepts or mental categories: objects, people, ideas, and events

Well-defined Problems

A clear goal and a clear set of options to reach that goal

Ill-defined Problems

Hazy goals and indistinct paths for reaching that goal

Mental Sets

Helpful mental frameworks for solving new problems; occasionally get in the way of creative and better solutions

Bounded Rationality

The idea that rational decision making is constrained by limitations in people’s cognitive abilities, available information, and time

Dual-Process Theory

The proposed idea that people use two types of thinking to make judgments and decisions: control and automatic systems

Heuristics

A mental shortcut that allows people to efficiently solve problems and make judgments and decisions

Confirmation Bias

The tendency to look for evidence that confirms preexisting beliefs more strongly than evidence that is inconsistent with those beliefs

Belief Perseverance

The tendency for people to resist changing their beliefs, even when faced with disconfirming evidence

Framing

The way an issue, decision, or options are described in a way that can shift the decision maker’s reference point

Loss Aversion

The tendency to make choices, including riskier ones, that minimize losses

Overconfidence Bias

The tendency to overestimate the accuracy of one’s knowledge and judgments

Hindsight Bias

The tendency that once an outcome is known, to overestimate the likelihood that one would have predicted that outcome in advance

Language Components

Phonemes, morphemes, syntax, and pragmatics

Linguistic Determinism (or Whorfian Hypothesis)

Different languages impose different ways of understanding the world that can shape our thinking.

Language Acquisition

The children’s ability to make sense of speech sounds

Overregularization Errors

Happens when a language learner (usually a child) regular grammatical rules to irregular words that doesn’t need to follow those rules

Natural Selection

The biological process in which the most useful and/or better suited traits of organisms to their environment are passed down.

Does language involve a specialized learning ability, shaped by natural selection?

Human language appears to be shaped by natural selection as vocal sounds are produced by the lower position of our larynx allowing us a larger range of of vocal sounds than other mammals can make

Language Acquisition Device

Noam Chomsky proposed this mechanism to explain the process of language acquisition in children. Explaining this device as activated by language exposure and guides language development with little to no explicit teaching from adults

Sensitive Period

An early period in the life of an organism during which it is especially sensitive to and able to learn from specific information in its environment

Intelligence

The ability to think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, reason, plan, solve problems, learn from experience, and acquire new knowledge

How can intelligence be studied?

By examining correlations among various tests of mental abilities

Anxiety

Includes two major components: emotionality and worry

Stereotype Threat

A concern that one’s performance or behavior might confirm a negative stereotype about one’s group

Achievement Gaps

Persistent differences in the performance of certain groups of people, usually based on characteristics like race or gender

Enrichment

Any process, environment, or activity that enhances cognitive functioning, psychological well-being, or performance by providing mental, physical, sensory, or social stimulation

What is socioeconomic status (SES) influence in enrichment?

Usually the SES of a child’s family is a factor of how enriching will the child’s environment be.

External Barriers

Examples: A school may lack resources to offer adequate enrichment. Or, a child may be unable to attend school regularly because of instability in the home or community

Internal Barriers

These barriers include the beliefs that people hold, especially beliefs about the nature of intelligence and the potential to increase intelligence

Self-fulfilling Prophecy (Pygmalion)

Describes a cycle by which others’ beliefs or our own can affect behavior in ways that brings the belief “to life” and makes it true

Mindsets

A set of attitudes or beliefs that shape how a person views and responds to the world.

Fixed Mindset

The belief that intelligence is genetically fixed and unchaning

Growth Mindset

The belief that intelligence can be developed