1 thinking, language, and intelligence chapter 9
TRANSCRIPT
1
Thinking, Language, and Intelligence
Chapter 9
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Thinking
Thinking, or cognition, refers to a process that involves knowing, understanding,
remembering, and communicating.
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Cognitive Psychologists
Thinking involves a number of mental activities, which are listed below.
Cognitive psychologists study these in great detail.
1. Concepts2. Problem solving3. Decision making4. Judgment
formation
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Concepts
The mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people. There are a variety of chairs but
their common features define the concept of a chair.
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Category Hierarchies
We organize concepts into category hierarchies.
Courtesy of C
hristine Brune
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Development of Concepts
We form some concepts with definitions. For example, a triangle has three sides. Mostly, we form concepts with mental
images or typical examples (prototypes). For example, a robin is a prototype of a
bird, but a penguin is not.
Triangle (definition) Bird (mental image)
Daniel J. C
ox/ Getty Im
ages
J. Messerschm
idt/ The Picture C
ube
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Problem Solving
Problem solving strategies include:
1. Trial and Error2. Algorithms3. Heuristics4. Insight
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Algorithms
Algorithms, which are very time consuming, exhaust all possibilities
before arriving at a solution. Computers use algorithms.
S P L O Y O C H Y G
If we were to unscramble these letters to form a word using an algorithmic approach, we would face
907,200 possibilities.
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Heuristics
Heuristics are simple, thinking strategies that
allow us to make judgments and solve problems
efficiently. Heuristics are less time consuming, but more error-
prone than algorithms.
B2M
Productions/D
igital Version/G
etty Images
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Heuristics
Heuristics make it easier for us to use simple principles to arrive at solutions to
problems.
S P L O Y O C H Y GS P L O Y O C H G YP S L O Y O C H G YP S Y C H O L O G Y
Put a Y at the end, and see if the wordbegins to make sense.
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Insight
Insight involves a sudden novel
realization of a solution to a
problem. Humans and animals have
insight.
Grande using boxes toobtain food
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Insight
Brain imaging and EEG studies suggest that when an insight
strikes (the “Aha” experience), it
activates the right temporal cortex (Jung-Beeman &
others, 2004). The time between not
knowing the solution and realizing it is
about 0.3 seconds.
From M
ark Jung-Beekm
an, Northw
estern U
niversity and John Kounios, D
rexel University
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Obstacles in Solving Problems
Confirmation Bias: A tendency to search for information that confirms a personal
bias.
2 – 4 – 6
Rule: Any ascending series of numbers. 1 – 2 – 3 would comply. Wason’s students had difficulty figuring out the rule due to a confirmation bias
(Wason, 1960).
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Fixation
Fixation: An inability to see a problem from a fresh perspective. This impedes
problem solving. An example of fixation is functional fixedness.
The Matchstick Problem: How
would you arrange six matches to form
four equilateral triangles?
From
“Problem
Solving” by M
. Scheerer. C
opyright © 1963 by
Scientific A
merican, Inc. A
ll Rights R
eserved.
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The Matchstick Problem: Solution
From
“Problem
Solving” by M
. Scheerer. C
opyright © 1963 by
Scientific A
merican, Inc. A
ll Rights R
eserved.
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Using and Misusing Heuristics
Two kinds of heuristics, representative heuristics and availability heuristics,
have been identified by cognitive psychologists.
Amos Tversky Daniel Kahneman
Courtesy of G
reymeyer A
ward, U
niversity of L
ouisville and the Tversky fam
ily
Courtesy of G
reymeyer A
ward, U
niversity of L
ouisville and Daniel K
ahneman
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Probability that that person is a truck driver is far greater than an ivy league professor just because there are more truck drivers than
such professors.
Representativeness Heuristic
Judging the likelihood of things or objects in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, a particular
prototype.
If you meet a slim, short, man who wears glasses and likes poetry, what do you think his profession would be?
An Ivy league professor or a truck driver?
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Availability Heuristic
Why does our availability heuristic lead us astray?
Whatever increases the ease of retrieving information increases its perceived
availability.How is retrieval
facilitated?1. How recently we have heard about the
event.2. How distinct it is.3. How correct it is.
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Overconfidence
Intuitive heuristics, confirmation of beliefs, and the inclination to explain failures
increase our overconfidence. Overconfidence is a tendency to
overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments.
In the stock market, both the seller and the buyer may be
confident about their decisions on a stock.
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Exaggerated Fear
The opposite of having
overconfidence is having an
exaggerated fear about what may
happen. Such fears may be unfounded.
The 9/11 attacks led to a decline in air travel due to fear.
AP
/ Wide W
orld Photos
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The Effects of Framing
Decisions and judgments may be significantly affected depending upon
how an issue is framed.
Example: What is the best way to market ground beef — as 25% fat or 75% lean?
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The Belief Perseverance Phenomenon
Belief perseverance is the tendency to cling to our beliefs in the face of contrary
evidence.
If you see that a country is hostile, you are likely to interpret their ambiguous
actions as a sign of hostility (Jervis, 1985).
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Perils & Powers of Intuition
Intuition may be perilous if unchecked, but may also be extremely efficient and
adaptive.
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Language
Language, our spoken, written, or gestured work, is the way we communicate meaning
to ourselves and others.
Language transmits culture.
M. &
E. B
ernheim/ W
oodfin Cam
p & A
ssociates
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Language Development
Children learn their native languages
much before learning to add 2+2.
We learn, on average (after age 1), 3,500
words a year, amassing 60,000
words by the time we graduate from high
school.
Tim
e Life Pictures/ G
etty Images
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When do we learn language?
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Explaining Language Development
1. Operant Learning: Skinner (1957, 1985) believed that language development may be explained on the basis of learning principles such as association, imitation, and reinforcement.
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Explaining Language Development
2. Inborn Universal Grammar: Chomsky (1959, 1987) opposed Skinner’s ideas and suggested that the rate of language acquisition is so fast that it cannot be explained through learning principles, and thus most of it is inborn.
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Explaining Language Development
Childhood is a critical period for fully developing certain aspects of language. Children never exposed to any language (spoken or signed) by about age 7 gradually lose their ability to master any language.
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Critical Period
Learning new languages gets harder with age.
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Thinking & Language
Language and thinking intricately intertwine.
Rubber B
all/ Alm
ay
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Language Influences Thinking
Linguistic Determinism: Whorf (1956) suggested that language determines the way we think. For example, he noted that the Hopi people do not have the past tense for verbs. Therefore, the Hopi cannot think readily about the past.
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Word Power
Increasing word power pays its dividends. It helps explain the bilingual advantage of bilingual children to inhibit one language
while using another.
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Thinking in Images
To a large extent thinking is language-based. When alone, we may talk to
ourselves. However, we also think in images.
2. When we are riding our bicycle.
1. When we open the hot water tap.
We don’t think in words, when:
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Images and Brain
Imagining a physical activity activates the same brain regions as when actually
performing the activity.
Jean Duffy D
ecety, Septem
ber 2003
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Language and Thinking
Traffic runs both ways between language and thinking.
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Intelligence
Do we have an inborn general mental capacity (intelligence)? If so, can we
quantify this capacity as a meaningful number?
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What is Intelligence?
Intelligence (in all cultures) is the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use our knowledge to adapt to new
situations.
In research studies, intelligence is whatever the intelligence test measures.
This tends to be “school smarts.”
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Intelligence: Ability or Abilities?
Have you ever thought that since people’s mental abilities are so diverse, it
may not be justifiable to label those abilities with only one word, intelligence?
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General Intelligence
The idea that general intelligence (g) exists comes from the work of Charles
Spearman (1863-1945) who helped develop the factor analysis approach in
statistics.
Athleticism, like intelligence, is many things
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General Intelligence
Spearman proposed that general intelligence (g) is linked to many clusters that can be analyzed by factor analysis.
For example, people who do well on vocabulary examinations do well on
paragraph comprehension examinations, a cluster that helps define verbal
intelligence. Other factors include a spatial ability factor, or a reasoning
ability factor.
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Contemporary Intelligence Theories
Howard Gardner (1983, 1999) supports the idea that intelligence comes in
multiple forms. Gardner notes that brain damage may diminish one type of ability
but not others.
People with savant syndrome excel in abilitiesunrelated to general intelligence.
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Howard Gardner
Gardner proposes eight types of intelligences and speculates about a ninth one — existential intelligence. Existential intelligence is the ability to think about the
question of life, death and existence.
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Robert Sternberg
Sternberg (1985, 1999, 2003) also agrees with Gardner, but suggests three intelligences rather than eight.
1. Analytical Intelligence: Intelligence that is assessed by intelligence tests.
2. Creative Intelligence: Intelligence that makes us adapt to novel situations, generating novel ideas.
3. Practical Intelligence: Intelligence that is required for everyday tasks (e.g. street smarts).
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Intelligence and Creativity
Creativity is the ability to produce ideas that are both novel and valuable. It correlates
somewhat with intelligence.1. Expertise: A well-developed knowledge base.2. Imaginative Thinking: The ability to see things
in novel ways.3. A Venturesome Personality: A personality that
seeks new experiences rather than following the pack.
4. Intrinsic Motivation: A motivation to be creative from within.
5. A Creative Environment: A creative and supportive environment allows creativity to bloom.
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Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive, understand, and use emotions (Salovey and others, 2005). The test of emotional intelligence measures overall
emotional intelligence and its four components.
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Emotional Intelligence: Components
Component Description
Perceive emotion Recognize emotions in faces, music and stories
Understand emotion
Predict emotions, how they change and blend
Manage emotion Express emotions in different situations
Use emotion Utilize emotions to adapt or be creative
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Emotional Intelligence: Criticism
Gardner and others criticize the idea of emotional intelligence and question whether
we stretch this idea of intelligence too far when we apply it to our emotions.
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Flynn Effect
In the past 60 years, intelligence scores have risen steadily by an average of 27
points. This phenomenon is known as the Flynn effect.
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Genetic and Environmental Influences on Intelligence
No other topic in psychology is so passionately followed as the one that asks
the question, “Is intelligence due to genetics or environment?”
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Genetic InfluencesStudies of twins, family members, and
adopted children together support the idea that there is a significant genetic
contribution to intelligence.
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Heritability
The variation in intelligence test scores attributable to genetics. We credit
heredity with 50% of the variation in intelligence.
It pertains only to why people differ from one another, not to the individual.
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Environmental Influences
Studies of twins and adopted children also show the following:
1. Fraternal twins raised together tend to show similarity in intelligence scores.
2. Identical twins raised apart show slightly less similarity in their intelligence scores.
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Early Intervention Effects
Early neglect from caregivers leads children to develop a lack of personal control over the
environment, and it impoverishes their intelligence.
Romanian orphans with minimalhuman interaction are delayed in their development.
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Schooling Effects
Schooling is an experience that pays dividends, which is reflected in intelligence scores. Increased schooling correlates with
higher intelligence scores.
To increase readiness for schoolwork,projects like Head Start facilitate leaning.
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Group Differences in Intelligence Test Scores
Why do groups differ in intelligence? How can we make sense of these differences?
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Ethnic Similarities and Differences
1. Racial groups differ in their average intelligence scores.
2. High-scoring people (and groups) are more likely to attain high levels of education and income.
To discuss this issue we begin with two disturbing but agreed upon facts:
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Racial (Group) Differences
If we look at racial differences, white Americans score higher in average
intelligence than black Americans (Avery and others, 1994). European New Zealanders score higher than native New Zealanders
(Braden, 1994).
White-Americans Black-Americans
Average IQ = 100 Average IQ = 85
Hispanic Americans
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Environmental Effects
Differences in intelligence among these groups are largely environmental, as if one environment is more fertile in developing
these abilities than the other.
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Reasons Why Environment Affects Intelligence
1. Races are remarkably alike genetically. 2. Race is a social category.3. Asian students outperform North American
students on math achievement and aptitude tests.
4. Today’s better prepared populations would outperform populations of the 1930s on intelligence tests.
5. White and black infants tend to score equally well on tests predicting future intelligence.
6. Different ethnic groups have experienced periods of remarkable achievement in different eras.
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Gender Similarities and Differences
There are seven ways in which males and females differ in various abilities.
1. Girls are better spellers
2. Girls are verbally fluent and have large vocabularies
3. Girls are better at locating objects
4. Girls are more sensitive to touch, taste, and color
5. Boys outnumber girls in counts of underachievement
6. Boys outperform girls at math problem solving, but under perform at math computation
7. Women detect emotions more easily than men do
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The Question of Bias
Aptitude tests are necessarily biased in the sense that they are sensitive to performance differences caused by cultural differences.
However, aptitude tests are not biased in the sense that they accurately predict
performance of one group over the other.
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Test-Takers’ Expectations
A stereotype threat is a self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated based
on a negative stereotype.
This phenomenon appears in some instances in intelligence testing among
African-Americans and among women of all colors.