Cognition, Creativity & Intelligence

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Key Concepts:

1. Basic units of cognition: Mental imagery, concepts and language

2. Problem solving

3. Creative thinking

4. Intelligence

Thinking:

• Cognition: Process of thinking, gaining knowledge and dealing with knowledge.

• Human cognition can take many forms, from experiential daydreaming to reflective problem solving and reasoning.

• 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:

• It involves the ability to create and manipulate mental representations of sensory experiences, even in the absence of external stimuli.

• Crucial for various cognitive functions like memory, problem-solving, and creative thinking. 

Concepts:

• A concept is an idea that represents a category of objects or events.

• Concept formation: Process of classifying information into meaningful categories.

• Adults require concepts by learning or forming conceptual rules or guidelines.

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.

Problem Solving:

Methods:

1. Algorithms:

   • Achieved by following a series of set-by-step rules, usually for routine problems.

2. Heuristic:

   • Shortcut for finding a solution to a problem.

3. Insight:

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

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: Values that hold that fantasy is a waste of time.

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

Methods to Solve:

2 key elements of any problem:

1. Surface Structure: A problem’s superficial features.

2. Deep Structure: The problem’s fundamentals.

As your understanding expands, the ability to assess a problem’s deep structure improves considerably.

Expertise also involve fast automatic processing, information is organized in chunks or patterns.

Creative thinking:

• The ability to combine mental elements in new and useful ways.

• Divergent thinking: Thinking that produces many ideas or alternatives.

• Major element in original and creative thought.

Stages of creative thought:

1. Orientation: The problem is identified, and important dimensions are identified.

2. Preparation: Becoming saturated with as much information about the specific problem.

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

4. Illumination: Insight or solutions appear rapidly.

5. Verification: testing and evaluating solutions based during illumination stage.

Creative Personality & Honing it:

• Open to wide variety of experiences.

• Stereotypes: eccentric, neurotic, socially inept.

• Prefer complexities.

• Ask questions: Willingness to challenge conventions

• Make associations: Connecting ideas, questions ir concepts.

• Seek varied input through networking.

Intelligence:

• Overall capacity to think rationally, to act purposefully and to adapt to one’s surrounding.

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

• Fluid intelligence: Ability to solve novel problems involving perceptual speed or rapid insight.

• Crystallised intelligence: Effective use of prior information.

Challenges in Defining Intelligence:

1. Which specific mental abilities actually constitute intelligence

2. Is there really a g-factor, or do we all possess very different unconnected intelligences?