Chapter 7 Notes – Thinking, Language, and Intelligence
Foundational Concepts: Cognition and Thought
• Cognition
• Refers to all mental activities involved in acquiring, retaining, and using knowledge.
• Thinking
• Defined as the manipulation of mental representations to draw inferences and reach conclusions.
• Key theme: thinking underlies analysis of situations, problem-solving, and decision-making.
Mental Representations: Images and Concepts
• Mental Images
• Often visual “pictures,” but can engage any sense (auditory, tactile, olfactory, gustatory).
• Are manipulated mentally just like real-world objects (e.g., rotation, resizing, scanning distances).
• Neural Overlap of Perception & Imagery
• Fusiform Face Area (FFA) activates when viewing or imagining faces.
• Parahippocampal Place Area (PPA) activates when viewing or imagining places.
• Concepts
• Mental categories created on the basis of shared properties—serve as cognitive shorthand to economize effort.
• Formed by learning the defining attributes of category members.
• Prototype: the “best” or most typical example stored for quick comparison.
• Items far from the prototype (e.g., bat, walrus, pangolin for “mammal”) take longer to categorize.
• Exemplars: specific category examples kept in memory; allow flexible classification when no clear prototype exists.
Problem Solving
• Definition: goal-directed thinking or behavior when the solution is not immediately obvious.
• Four Universal Strategies
• Trial and Error—multiple solutions attempted, non-working options eliminated.
• Algorithms—systematic, logical rules that guarantee a correct answer (e.g., long division or the formula for area ).
• Heuristics—general “rules of thumb” that cut down the solution space but don’t guarantee correctness.
• Insight—sudden, often unexpected realization of the answer (the classic “A-ha!” moment).
Obstacles to Problem Solving and Decision Making
• Functional Fixedness
• Tendency to see objects only in their usual roles; blocks alternative uses (e.g., failing to see a brick as a makeshift doorstop).
• Mental Set
• Persisting with solutions that worked in the past even when new solutions are more effective; can hinder creativity yet sometimes provides a helpful heuristic when tasks are similar.
• Persistence of Unwarranted Beliefs & Logical Errors
• Belief-bias effect, confirmation bias, fallacy of positive instances, and overestimation effect distort evaluation of evidence.
• Critical thinking—active evaluation, analysis, and inference—counteracts these obstacles.
Decision-Making Strategies
• Single-Feature Model—base the choice on one critical attribute (e.g., cheapest product).
• Additive Model—list attributes, rate each option, add scores to reveal the best alternative.
• Elimination-by-Aspects Model—sequentially discard options that fail to meet important criteria, even if they possess other positives.
• Uncertainty & Probability Estimation
• Availability Heuristic—likelihood judged by ease of recalling similar events; leads to exaggerated fear of rare, vivid events (e.g., avoiding beaches after shark news but ignoring bicycle accident statistics).
• Representativeness Heuristic—probability estimated by similarity to a prototype; errors arise if we ignore base rates or variation in prototypes.
Language: Structure, Development, and Impact on Thought
• Defining Characteristics
• Symbolic, rule-governed (syntax), generative (infinite novel sentences), and allows displacement (talk about non-present events).
• American Sign Language (ASL)
• Meets full linguistic criteria (syntax, displacement, generativity).
• Neurological evidence: same cortical regions light up in speakers and ASL users.
• Whorfian (Linguistic Relativity) Hypothesis
• Posits language shapes thought; strong version (“language determines perception”) lacks support.
• Current view: language and cognition interact bidirectionally and are shaped by culture (cf. Pirahã tribe’s limited number terms).
• Language Development Milestones
• Cooing (~3 mo): repetitive vowels “ahhhh.”
• Babbling (~5 mo): consonant + vowel strings “ba-ba-ba.”
• One-Word Stage (~12 mo).
• Two-Word Stage (~2 yrs).
• Language Spurt (~2½ yrs): rapid vocabulary and grammar growth.
• Critical period: decline in new-language mastery around ages 6–7.
• Innate Mechanism
• Noam Chomsky—children possess a biologically primed “language acquisition device.”
• Infant-directed speech (exaggerated pitch, simplified syntax) appears universally and even in signed languages.
• Comprehension vs. Production Vocabulary
• Children understand more words than they can produce; comprehension grows >2× production rate.
Bilingualism & Animal Communication
• Balanced bilinguals display
• Enhanced attentional control, reduced distractibility.
• Superior task-switching and perspective-taking abilities.
• Greater “cognitive reserve,” delaying late-life cognitive decline.
• Animal Cognition Findings
• Bonobos, dolphins, parrots follow spoken commands but lag far behind human linguistic ability.
• Prairie dogs possess complex predator-specific alarm calls coding type, size, and speed of threat.
• Dogs excel at reading human social cues despite average non-linguistic cognition.
Measuring Intelligence: Historical Evolution
• Alfred Binet
• Commissioned by French gov’t to identify students needing help; devised tasks sampling basic mental abilities.
• Introduced “mental age.”
• Lewis Terman → Stanford–Binet
• Adapted test for U.S.; created IQ formula .
• Example: 10-yr-old with MA 13 ⇒ .
• Group Testing in WWI
• Army Alpha (written) & Beta (oral/illiterate) tests for millions of recruits; fostered overuse and discriminatory applications (e.g., immigrant screening at Ellis Island).
• David Wechsler
• Developed WAIS for adults, WISC for children, WPPSI for preschoolers.
• Provides verbal, performance, and overall IQ; compares scores to age-based norms rather than MA/CA ratio.
Principles of Test Construction
• Achievement Tests measure learned knowledge/skills.
• Aptitude Tests predict capacity to benefit from training.
• Key Psychometric Criteria
• Standardization—uniform procedures + normative sample following the normal distribution.
• Reliability—consistency over repeated administrations.
• Validity—accuracy in measuring intended construct.
Theories on the Nature of Intelligence
• General Intelligence (g)
• Charles Spearman: single factor underlying diverse abilities; equated with overall “mental energy.” Similar test scores evidence shared variance.
• Multiple Intelligences
• Howard Gardner outlines eight independent intelligences (linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic). Cultural valuation differs; empirical backing limited.
• Triarchic Theory (Robert Sternberg)
• Analytic (problem-solving), Creative (novelty), Practical (everyday adaptation).
• Integrated Models
• Cattell–Horn–Carroll (CHC) three-stratum structure: top = g, middle = broad abilities (fluid, crystallized, visual-spatial, etc.), bottom = narrow skills.
• Changing Conceptions
• Early IQ predicted school/job outcomes; modern views consider culture, social interaction, specific cognitive profiles.
Extremes of Intelligence
• Intellectual Disability
• Deficits cause impaired adaptive functioning; neurodevelopmental origin.
• Giftedness (Leta Hollingworth)
• with exceptional domain talents; education + environment vital for nurturing potential—not just genetics.
Genetics, Environment, and IQ
• Heritability ≈ 50 % in general population—reflects variance attributable to genes within a group, not between groups.
• Twin & Adoption Studies (average IQ correlations)
• Identical twins together: .86; apart: .72.
• Fraternal twins together: .60.
• Non-twin siblings together: .47; apart: .24.
• Adoptive parent/child: .24; adopted siblings: .32.
• Pattern shows genetic influence yet environment still matters (correlations drop when reared apart).
• Two Pots Analogy (Lewontin)
• Genetically similar seeds in poor vs. rich soil illustrate how group differences cannot be ascribed to genes if environments differ.
• Flynn Effect—worldwide, mean IQ scores have risen across decades; too rapid for genetic change ⇒ environmental improvements (nutrition, education, complexity of life).
• Cultural Bias & Discrimination
• Tests mirror the culture in which they’re developed; e.g., Japan’s Burakumin score 10–15 points lower due to social discrimination, not biology.
• Stereotype Threat (Steele & Aronson)
• Anxiety over confirming a negative stereotype impairs performance; triggers physiological arousal and mental distraction.
Creativity Enhancement Workshop
• Set explicit creative goals.
• Positively reinforce original ideas and behaviors.
• Engage in “problem finding” before problem solving.
• Build a broad, relevant knowledge base.
• Experiment with alternative strategies; embrace flexibility.
• Persist through setbacks; creativity often entails iterative failure before success.