Week 7: Thinking, Intelligence, and Language
Cognition:The way in which information is processed and manipulated in remembering, thinking, and knowing.
Artificial intelligence (AI): A scientific field that focuses on creating machines capable of performing activities that require intelligence when they are done by people.
Thinking:The process of manipulating information mentally by forming concepts, solving problems, making decisions, and reflecting critically or creatively.
Concepts:A mental category that is used to group objects, events, and characteristics.
concepts allow us to generalize, concepts allow us to associate experiences and objects, concepts aid memory, making it more efficient so that we do not have to reinvent the wheel each time we come across a piece of information.concepts provide clues about how to react to a particular object or experience.
Prototype model:A model emphasizing that when people evaluate whether a given item reflects a certain concept, they compare the item with the most typical item(s) in that category and look for a “family resemblance” with that item’s properties.
Birds generally fly and sing, so we know that robins and sparrows are both birds. We recognize exceptions to these properties, however—we know that a penguin is still a bird even though it does not fly or sing. The prototype model maintains that people use characteristic properties to create a representation of the average or ideal member—the prototype—for each concept. Comparing individual cases to our mental prototypes may be a good way to decide quickly whether something fits a particular category
Problem solving:The mental process of finding an appropriate way to attain a goal when the goal is not readily available.
Once we find a problem and clearly define it, we need to develop strategies for solving it. Among the effective strategies are subgoals, algorithms, and heuristics.
Subgoals:Intermediate goals or problems to solve that put one in a better position for reaching a final goal or solution.
n. Imagine that you are writing a paper for a psychology class. What are some subgoaling strategies for approaching this task? One might be locating the right books and research journals on your chosen topic. At the same time that you are searching for the right publications, you will likely benefit from establishing some subgoals within your time frame for completing the project. If the paper is due in two months, you might set a subgoal of a first draft of the paper two weeks before it is due, another subgoal of completing your reading for the paper one month before it is due, and still another subgoal of starting your library research tomorrow.
Algorithms:Strategies—including formulas, instructions, and the testing of all possible solutions—that guarantee a solution to a problem.
We use algorithms in cooking (by following a recipe) and driving (by following directions to an address). Compared to humans, computers more efficiently apply algorithms
Heuristics:Shortcut strategies or guidelines that suggest a solution to a problem but do not guarantee an answer.
In your Scrabble game, you know that if you have a Q, you are going to need a U. If you have an X and a T, the T is probably not going to come right before the X. In this situation, heuristics allow you to be more efficient than algorithms would. In the real world, we are more likely to solve the types of problems we face by heuristics than by algorithms. Heuristics help us to narrow down the possible solutions and to find one that works.
Functional fixedness:Failing to solve a problem as a result of fixation on a thing’s usual functions.
occurs when individuals fail to solve a problem because they are fixated on a thing’s usual functions. If you have ever used a shoe to hammer a nail, you have overcome functional fixedness to solve a problem
Reasoning:The mental activity of transforming information to reach conclusions.
Inductive reasoning:Reasoning from specific observations to make generalizations.
For instance, having turned on your smartphone many times without having it explode, you have every reason to believe that it will not explode the next time you turn it on. From your prior experiences with the phone, you form the general belief that it is not likely to become a dangerous object. Or, imagine taking a sip of milk from a container and finding that it tastes sour. Inductive reasoning is at work when you throw out the whole container even though you haven’t tasted every drop
Deductive reasoning:Reasoning from a general case that is known to be true to a specific instance.
. For example, we know that all organisms require oxygen to survive. Squirrels are organisms; therefore, squirrels require oxygen to survive.
Decision Making:The mental activity of evaluating alternatives and choosing among them.
Loss aversion:The tendency to strongly prefer to avoid losses compared to attempting to acquire gains.
We dislike the prospect of losing something we have more than we enjoy the prospect of gaining something new, even when the prospect of a gain outweighs the loss
Confirmation bias:The tendency to search for and use information that supports one’s ideas rather than refutes them(Myside bias.
Hindsight bias:The tendency to report falsely, after the fact, that one has accurately predicted an outcome
For example, after attending a baseball game, you might insist that you knew that the winning team was going to win beforehand
Availability heuristic:A prediction about the probability of an event based on the ease of recalling or imagining similar events.
or example, have you ever experienced a sudden fear of flying after hearing about an airplane crash? Shocking events such as plane crashes stick in our minds, making such disasters seem common. The chance of dying in a plane crash in a given year, however, is tiny (1 in 400,000) compared to the chance of dying in a car accident (1 in 6,500). Because car accidents are less newsworthy, they are less likely to catch our attention and remain in our awareness. The availability heuristic can reinforce generalizations about others in daily life
Base rate neglect: The tendency to ignore information about general principles in favor of very specific but vivid information.
ignore relevant statistical information in favor of case-specific
Representativeness heuristic:the tendency to make judgments about group membership based on physical appearances or the match between a person and one’s stereotype of a group rather than on available base rate information.
Critical thinking:thinking reflectively and productively and evaluating the evidence.
Mindfulness:The state of being alert and mentally present for one’s everyday activities.
Creative thinking:The ability to think about something in novel and unusual ways and to devise unconventional solutions to problems.
Divergent Thinking:Thinking that produces many solutions to the same problem.
Convergent Thinking: Thinking that produces the single best solution to a problem
Divergent thinking occurs during brainstorming, which occurs when a group of people openly throw out a range of possible solutions to a problem, even some that might seem crazy. Having a lot of possible solutions, however, still requires that they come up with the solution that is best. That is where convergent thinking comes in. Convergent thinking means taking all of those possibilities and finding the right one for the job. Convergent thinking is best when a problem has only one right answer
Intelligence: an all-purpose ability to do well on cognitive tasks, to solve problems, and to learn from experience
Validity: the extent to which a test measures what it is intended to measure
For example, a psychologist might validate an intelligence test by asking employers of the people who took the test how intelligent they are at work. The employers’ perceptions would be a criterion for measuring intelligence. When the scores on a measure relate to important outcomes (such as employers’ evaluations), we say the test has high criterion validit
reliability: the extent to which a test gives a consistent, reproducible measure of performance
Intelligence quotient (IQ):An individual’s mental age divided by chronological age multiplied by 100.
Normal distribution: is a symmetrical, bell-shaped curve, with a majority of the scores falling in the middle of the possible range and few scores appearing toward the extremes of the range
Culture-fair tests:Intelligence tests that are intended to be culturally unbiased.
Gifted:Possessing high intelligence (an IQ of 130 or higher) and/or superior talent in a particular area.
Intellectual disability:A condition of limited mental ability in which an individual has a low IQ, usually below 70 on a traditional intelligence test, and has difficulty adapting to everyday life
Triarchic theory of intelligence: Sternberg’s theory that intelligence comes in three forms: analytical, creative, and practical
Language: a form of communication, whether spoken, written, or signed, that is based on a system of symbols
Phonology: a langauge’s sound system
Phonological rules ensure that certain sound sequences occur (for example, in English, sp, ba, and ar) and others do not (for example, zx and qp
Morphology: a languague’s rules for word formation
A morpheme is the smallest unit of language that carries meaning. Some words consist of a single morpheme—for example, help. Others are made up of more than one; for example, helper has two morphemes, help + er. The morpheme -er means “one who”—in this case, “one who helps.”
Syntax:a language’s rules for combining words to form acceptable phrases and sentences
If someone says, “John kissed Emily” or “Emily was kissed by John,” you know who did the kissing and who was kissed in each case because you share that person’s understanding of sentence structure.
semantics: the meaning of words and sentences in a particular language. Every word has a unique set of semantic features
Child and adult, for example, share many semantic features (for instance, both signify human beings), but they differ semantically in regard to age. Words have semantic restrictions on how they can be used in sentences. The sentence, “The bicycle talked the child into buying a candy bar,” is syntactically correct but semantically incorrect. The sentence violates our semantic knowledge that bicycles do not talk.
Pragmatics: The useful character of language and the ability of language to communicate even more meaning than is said
If you ever find yourself in a country in which you know only a little of the language, you will certainly take advantage of pragmatics. Wandering the streets of, say, Madrid, you might approach a stranger and ask, simply, “Autobus?” (the Spanish word for bus). You know that given your inflection and perhaps your desperate facial expression, the person will understand that you are looking for the bus stop.
Biological Influences xxx
Chomsky’s theory of language development: humans come into the world biologically prewired to learn language at a certain time and in a certain way.
Environmental influences of language learning:that language represents nothing more than chains of responses acquired through reinforcement
Herman George Canady, Ph.D.
born in 1901 in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, was a pioneering psychologist known for his groundbreaking research on intelligence testing, particularly the influence of race on test scores. He served as the Chair of the Psychology Department at West Virginia Collegiate Institute for 40 years, where he mentored numerous Black students and built a renowned psychology department. Canady played key roles in organizing Black psychologists through the American Teachers Association and contributed significantly to professional organizations. His legacy includes promoting diversity in psychology and advancing the field's understanding of racial dynamics in intelligence testing.
