Cognition and Intelligence, Psych Exam 3

What is cognition?

Mental activity involved in processing, organizing, understanding, and communicating information.

A researcher studies how people solve problems. What area of psychology is this?

Cognitive psychology.

What is a concept?

A mental grouping of similar objects, people, events, or ideas.

A cockatiel correctly classifies new pictures as dogs or cats. What does this suggest?

The bird can form concepts and apply them to new examples.

Monkeys trained to classify animals show similar brain responses to new images from the same category. What does this suggest?

They can form concepts that apply beyond the images used in training.

A triangle must have three sides and three angles. What kind of concept is it?

An artificial or formal concept. Membership depends on precise rules.

The category bird includes many different examples, and people often picture a robin first. What kind of concept is bird?

A natural concept. It is organized around typical features and examples.

What is a prototype?

The mental best example of a category, such as a robin for bird.

What is an algorithm?

A step-by-step procedure that guarantees a solution when appropriate and correctly applied.

What is a heuristic?

A mental shortcut that helps you make judgments quickly but can lead to errors.

What is insight?

A sudden realization of the solution to a problem. It feels like an “aha” moment.

What word goes with pine, crab, and sauce?

Apple. Pineapple, crabapple, and applesauce. Seeing the answer suddenly is an example of insight.

What is incubation?

Stepping away from a problem for a time, allowing irrelevant details to fade and a new approach to emerge.

A doctor keeps using the same diagnosis after seeing nine similar patients, even when the tenth patient has different symptoms. What is this?

Mental set. A previously successful approach is applied rigidly to a new problem.

You need a paperweight but overlook a stapler because you only think of it as a tool for stapling. What is this?

Functional fixedness. You overlook another use for a familiar object.

You look only for evidence that supports your theory. What is this?

Confirmation bias.

What is the actual rule in the 2–4–6 exercise?

Any three numbers in increasing order.

Why is 2–5–9 a better test than 10–12–14 if you think the rule is “add two”?

2–5–9 fits increasing order and breaks the “add two” pattern. 10–12–14 fits both rules.

What is intuition?

A fast, automatic judgment that involves little deliberate analysis.

After seeing a vivid story about a plane crash, you assume crashes are common. What is this?

The availability heuristic. You judge likelihood by how easily examples come to mind.

You are certain an assignment will take one hour and it takes four. What does this illustrate?

Overconfidence. Underestimating how long a task will take is also called the planning fallacy.

A student keeps believing a professor ignored them on purpose after learning the professor could not see their raised hand. What is this?

Belief perseverance. The student holds on to the original belief despite contrary evidence.

How do confirmation bias and belief perseverance differ?

Confirmation bias favors evidence that supports a belief. Belief perseverance keeps the belief after evidence challenges it.

A patient prefers a surgery described as having 90% survival over the same surgery described as having 10% mortality. What is this?

Framing. The way equivalent information is presented changes the decision.

What is intelligence in the lecture?

The general capacity to benefit from experience, acquire knowledge, and adapt to changes in the environment.

Why did Alfred Binet and Théodore Simon develop their test?

To predict how children would handle schoolwork and identify students who needed extra educational support.

How do mental age and chronological age differ?

Mental age is the age level typical of the person’s test performance. Chronological age is their actual age.

What was the original IQ formula?

Mental age divided by chronological age, multiplied by 100.

Under the original formula, what is the IQ of an 8-year-old with a mental age of 10?

125. Divide 10 by 8 and multiply by 100.

Why did the original IQ formula work better for children?

A one-year developmental difference matters much more between ages 4 and 5 than between ages 30 and 31.

How is modern IQ scored?

Performance is compared with people in the same age group. The average is 100.

What ranges contain about 68% and 95% of modern IQ scores?

About 68% fall between 85 and 115. About 95% fall between 70 and 130.

Why compare individual scores on a Wechsler test?

An overall IQ score can hide different strengths, such as stronger visual problem-solving and weaker verbal performance.

In the lecture’s IQ distribution, what score is more than two standard deviations above the mean?

Above 130. The lecture associates this range with gifted performance.

How do Spearman’s g and s factors differ?

g is general intellectual ability across tasks. s is a specific ability in one area.

A student breaks down a problem and evaluates the evidence. Which type of Sternberg’s intelligence is this?

Analytical intelligence.

A student invents an original way to approach a problem. Which type of Sternberg’s intelligence is this?

Creative intelligence.

A cook uses hands-on experience to reorganize the kitchen during a rush. Which type of Sternberg’s intelligence is this?

Practical intelligence.

What is the main idea of Gardner’s multiple intelligences theory?

Intelligence includes several kinds of ability. Different people have different patterns of strengths.