Comprehensive Study Guide: Cognition, Thinking, Intelligence, and Language
The Cognitive Revolution in Psychology
Definition of Cognition: Cognition refers to the way information is processed and manipulated in remembering, thinking, and knowing. It encompasses all mental activities and processes associated with the mind.
Field of Cognitive Psychology: This is a broad discipline that includes the study of consciousness, memory, and cognitive neuroscience.
Historical Context: Behaviorism: After the first decade of the 20th century, behaviorism dominated experimental psychology.
B.F. Skinner's View: Behaviorists like Skinner believed the human mind was an abstract entity best left to philosophers. They argued that psychologists should focus solely on observable behavior and had little use for mental processes occurring "between the ears."
The Shift in the 1950s: Views began to change during the 1950s, largely motivated by the advent of computers.
The Computer Analogy: Scientists (Leahy, 2017) reasoned that if computer internal operations could be observed, human mental processes could be studied similarly.
John von Neumann: In the late 1940s, this mathematician developed the first modern computer, demonstrating that machines could perform logical operations.
The Hardware/Software Metaphor: Psychologists began to view the brain as the computer's hardware and cognition as its software.
Herbert Simon (1969): A pioneer in comparing the human mind to computer processing systems. In this analogy, sensory and perceptual systems act as input channels, mental processes act like software on data, and processed input remains in memory or is retrieved as an observable response.
Evolution of the Field: By the late 1950s, the cognitive revolution was in full swing, peaking in the 1980s. Cognitive psychology became the label for approaches seeking to explain observable behavior by investigating unobservable mental processes and structures.
Comparison: Computers vs. Human Brains:
Information Input: Computers typically receive clean, pre-coded information from humans. Human neurons respond to ambiguous information from sensory receptors (eyes, ears, etc.).
Calculations and Rules: Computers are faster and more accurate at complex numerical calculations and following rules consistently. They represent mathematical patterns better than humans.
Flexibility and Learning: The human brain is incredibly flexible, capable of learning new rules, relationships, and patterns and generalizing them to novel situations. Computers are more limited in their ability to change, learn, or develop new learning goals.
Consciousness: The human mind possesses self-awareness; computers do not.
Artificial Intelligence (AI): A scientific field focused on creating machines capable of performing activities that require intelligence when performed by humans.
Utility: AI excels in tasks requiring speed, persistence, and vast memory, such as medical diagnoses, loan evaluation, and viral spread projections.
AI in Art: A French group called "Obvious" used AI to create a portrait entitled Edmond de Bellamy, which sold at auction for over in 2018.
Thinking: Concepts and Problem Solving
Definition of Thinking: Thinking involves manipulating information mentally by forming concepts, solving problems, making decisions, and reflecting critically or creatively.
Concepts: Mental categories used to group objects, events, and characteristics.
Importance: Concepts help us make sense of the world (e.g., knowing both poodles and collies are "dogs"), generalize, improve memory, and provide clues on how to react to experiences (e.g., reacting to "food").
The Prototype Model: A model suggests people decide if an item fits a concept by comparing it to the most typical item or items (the prototype) in that category, looking for a "family resemblance."
Problem Solving: Finding an appropriate way to attain a goal when the goal is not readily available.
Steps in Problem Solving:
Find and Frame Problems: Recognizing a problem exists and defining it clearly. Many real-world problems are ill-defined and require creativity.
Develop Good Problem-Solving Strategies:
Subgoals: Intermediate goals or problems devised to put a person in a better position to reach a final solution. One often works backward from the final goal to the first step.
Algorithms: Strategies that guarantee a solution, such as formulas, instructions, or testing all possible solutions. While consistent, they can be time-consuming for humans.
Heuristics: Shortcut strategies or "rules of thumb" that suggest a solution but do not guarantee an answer. They are fast and help narrow down possibilities.
Evaluate Solutions: Judging the effectiveness of a solution against a clear criterion or standard.
Rethink and Redefine: Continually improving past performances and staying open to revisions.
Obstacles to Problem Solving:
Fixation: Using a prior strategy and failing to look at a problem from a new perspective.
Functional Fixedness: Failing to solve a problem because of being fixated on a thing's usual functions.
Example: The Mayer String Problem requires using pliers as a weight for a pendulum rather than as a gripping tool.
Reasoning and Decision Making
Reasoning: The mental activity of transforming information to reach a conclusion. It involves logic and is tied to critical thinking.
Inductive Reasoning: Reasoning from specific observations to make generalizations (bottom-up processing). Example: Tasting one sip of sour milk and concluding the whole container is bad.
Deductive Reasoning: Reasoning from a general principle known to be true to a specific instance (top-down processing). Example: Developing a specific hypothesis based on a broader general theory.
Decision Making: Evaluating alternatives and choosing among them. Unlike reasoning, rules for decision making may not exist, and outcomes are less certain.
Two-System Model of Thinking:
System 1 (Automatic): Rapid, heuristic, associative, and intuitive. It involves "gut feelings" or hunches. These are often products of learned associations and implicit memory.
System 2 (Controlled): Slower, effortful, analytical, and conscious. Required for difficult mathematical problems.
Biases and Heuristics in Decision Making
Loss Aversion: The tendency to strongly prefer avoiding losses over acquiring gains. Losses carry about twice as much weight as gains in decision making.
Endowment Effect: People ascribe greater value to things they own. In one study (Kahneman et al., 1990), mug owners valued their mugs dollars higher than potential buyers.
Sunk Cost Fallacy: Reluctance to give up on a venture because of past investment, even when current costs outweigh benefits.
Confirmation Bias: The tendency to search for and use information that supports one's ideas rather than refutes them (also called "my side bias").
Hindsight Bias: The tendency to falsely report after an event that we accurately predicted the outcome ("I knew it all along").
Availability Heuristic: Predicting the probability of an event based on how easily similar events are recalled.
Example: Fearing plane crashes because they are vivid in news, even though the statistical probability of dying in a car accident is significantly higher ( in vs. in for planes).
Base Rate Neglect: The tendency to ignore general principles (base rates) in favor of very specific but potentially misleading information.
Representativeness Heuristic: Making judgments about group membership based on physical appearance or stereotypes rather than base rate information.
Critical Controversy: Artificial Intelligence and Bias
Training Data Sets: AI systems are trained on enormous datasets. If the data contains historical biases (racism, sexism), the AI will replicate and potentially amplify those biases.
Criminal Justice Example: Predictive AI used to determine if a person will reoffend can be biased by variables like socioeconomic status or education, which correlate with race.
Garbage In, Garbage Out: AI systems are only as fair as the data they are fed. Many developers do not allow public access to these datasets, making bias difficult to identify.
Critical Thinking and Creativity
Critical Thinking: Thinking reflectively and productively while evaluating evidence.
Mindfulness: Being alert and mentally present. Mindlessness is automatic behavior without thought.
Open-Mindedness: Being receptive to other ways of looking at things and active questioning.
Conspiracy Theories: Explanations involving secret plots by evil groups. They are often linked to System 1 processing and driven by feelings of powerlessness or anxiety.
Creativity: The ability to think about something in novel ways and devise unconventional solutions.
Divergent Thinking: Producing many solutions to the same problem (used in brainstorming).
Convergent Thinking: Producing the single best solution to a problem.
Characteristics of Creative Thinkers: Flexibility, playful thinking, inner motivation, willingness to face risk, and objective evaluation of work.
Intelligence: Definition, Measurement, and History
Definitions of Intelligence:
U.S. Context: All-purpose ability to do well on cognitive tasks, solve problems, and learn from experience.
Cultural Variations: In Kenya, responsible participation in family life; in Uganda, knowing appropriate action; in Papua New Guinea, remembering clan names.
Eugenics: A dark chapter in intelligence history involving the belief that the human species could be improved by selective breeding. Traces of this often racist philosophy influenced early intelligence scholars.
General Intelligence (): Charles Spearman (1904) proposed that a common general cognitive ability underlies performance in all cognitive areas.
Measurement Criteria:
Validity: The extent to which a test measures what it intends to (e.g., criterion validity predicts school grades).
Reliability: How consistently an individual performs on a test.
Standardization: Uniform procedures for administration and scoring, establishing norms.
Influences on Intelligence:
Heritability: The proportion of differences in IQ explained by genetic variation. It is substantial but not the sole factor.
Flynn Effect: The worldwide increase in IQ scores over recent decades, suggesting the impact of environmental improvements.
Theories of Multiple Intelligences
Sternberg's Triarchic Theory: Three main types of intelligence:
Analytical: Ability to analyze, judge, evaluate, compare, and contrast.
Creative: Ability to create, design, invent, originate, and imagine.
Practical: Ability to use, apply, implement, and put ideas into practice.
Gardner's Nine Intelligences: Verbal, Mathematical, Spatial, Bodily-Kinesthetic, Musical, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Naturalist, and Existential.
Language: Structure, Development, and Cognition
Five Basic Rule Systems of Language:
Phonology: A language's sound system (phonemes).
Morphology: Rules for word formation (morphemes are the smallest units of meaning, e.g., "helper" has two morphemes: "help" + "-er").
Syntax: Rules for combining words into phrases/sentences.
Semantics: The meaning of words and sentences.
Pragmatics: The useful character of language; using words to communicate more than is said.
Language and Thought:
Whorf's Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis: Argument that language determines the way we think (e.g., Inuit words for snow). Critics argue language reflects rather than causes thought.
Biological Basis of Language:
Noam Chomsky: Argued humans are biologically prewired to learn language at a certain time (universal grammar).
Brain Regions: Broca's Area (speech production) and Wernicke's Area (language comprehension) in the left hemisphere.
Environmental Basis: Cases like Chelsea (who was deaf until age ) show that while vocabulary can be learned later, there is a critical period for acquiring grammar.
Thinking, Problem Solving, and Health and Wellness
Cognitive Appraisal: A person's interpretation of a situation.
Primary Appraisal: Interpreting if an event is a harm/loss, a threat, or a challenge.
Secondary Appraisal: Evaluating resources and determining how effectively they can be used to cope.
Cognitive Reappraisal: Regulating feelings about an experience by reinterpreting it from a different angle.
Benefit Finding: Focusing on the good that has arisen from a stressful or negative life event, which is linked to better physical and psychological health.