Cognition, Creativity & Intelligence

Thinking

Cognition: Process of thinking, gaining knowledge.

Experiential processing: Thought that is passive, effortless and automatic.

Reflective: Thought that is active effortful and controlled.

3 basic units: Mental images, concepts and language.

Mental Images

Ability to create and manipulate mental representations of sensory experiences.

Concept

Idea that represents a category of objects or events.

Concept formation: Process of classifying information into meaningful categories.

Language

Language is a means to express ideas that exist as a vague image or feeling.

It consists of:

• Symbols: To symbolize objects and ideas.

• Phonemes: Basic speech sound.

• Morpheme: Speech sound collected into meaningful units, such as symbols.

Structure of language consists of:

• Grammar: Set of rules for making sounds into words and words into sentences.

• Semantics: study of meaning in words and languages, denotative or connotative.

Problems

Fixations: Tendency to get ‘hung up’ on wrong solutions or not see alternatives.

Functional fixedness: Tendency to perceive an item only in terms of it’s most common use.

Emotional Barriers: Inhibition and fear of making a fool of oneself.

Cultural barrier

Learned Barriers: Conventions about uses, meanings, taboos, possibilities.

Problem Solving Methods

Algorithms: Following a series of set-by-step rules.

Heuristic: Shortcut for finding a solution.

Insight: Sudden mental reorganization of a problem that makes the solution obvious.

2 key elements of any problem:

Surface Structure: A problem’s superficial features.

Deep Structure: The problem’s fundamentals.

Creative Thinking

Ability to combine mental elements in new and useful ways.

Divergent thinking: Thinking that produces many ideas or alternatives.

Stages:

1. Orientation: The problem is identified.

2. Preparation: Collecting information about the problem.

3. Incubation: Problems solving may happen on a subconscious level.

4. Illumination: Solutions appear rapidly.

5. Verification: Testing and evaluating solutions.

Intelligence

Capacity to think rationally, to act purposefully and to adapt to one’s surrounding.

G-factor: Measure of an individual’s intelligence as opposed to specific abilities.

Fluid intelligence: Ability to solve novel problems involving rapid insight.

Crystallised intelligence: Effective use of prior information.