THINKING, INTELLIGENCE, & LANGUAGE
1. The Cognitive Revolution in Psychology
Up through the 1950’s, behaviorism defined experimental psychology with the viewpoint that only observable behavior should be the focus of psychology.
In the 1950’s the field of psychology began to change.
With the invention of computers, there was a new way to think about how the mind works.
And the field of cognitive psychology began to grow.
Now the field of psychology was no longer just about studying behavior, but also included the study of mental processes.
Cognitive psychology studies cognitions - the way in which information is processed and manipulated in remembering, thinking, and knowing.
In previous chapters we have studied the cognitive processes of learning and memory.
In this chapter, we will be studying the cognitive processes of thinking, problem-solving,reasoning, and decision-making.
Computers provide a logical and concrete model of how information is processed in the mind
The physical brain is similar to a computer’s hardware and cognition is similar to a computer’s software.
But the comparison of the brain and a computer is not a perfect one.
For ex. (1) - most computers receive information from a person who has already coded the information and resolved ambiguity…….whereas, in the brain, the neurons respond and sort ambiguous information and encode it, etc.
(2) - computers can do some things better than brains/humans:
A. such as complex numerical calculations
B. and applying and following rules with fewer errors.
(3) - the brain is better at learning new relationships and concepts, and generalizing them to new situations
(4) - the brain/mind is aware of itself….whereas the computer is not
The computer has had some limited success with spoken language, but it’s very concrete.
AI - artificial intelligence is an entire scientific field dedicated to creating machines capable of performing activities that require intelligence.
Ex. Watson and Jeopardy
AI is useful in
1. Tasks requiring speed, persistence, and vast memory
2. Diagnosing illness and prescribing treatment
3. Examining equipment failures
4. Evaluating loan applications
5. Advising students in course planning
2. Thinking
Thinking involves manipulating information mentally
One fundamental aspect of thinking is:
Concepts - mental categories that are used to group objects, events, and characteristics
If we didn’t have concepts, we’d need a different name for every object and idea
Important for 4 reasons:
1. Concepts allow us to generalize, -so that every experience isn’t unique
2. They allow us to associate experiences and objects. For ex. Sports - gives a
framework for comparing one sport to another
3. Concepts aid memory - we can classify things together
4. Concepts provide clues about how to react to a particular object or experience.
Even though chairs may look a little different, we know to sit in them.
Psychologists explain how we organize concepts through the prototype model.
The prototype model states that when people try to decide if something reflects a certain concept, they compare the item with the most typical items in that category and look for a “family resemblance”. Thus, defining properties are used to construct an ideal or ‘prototype’ that potential members of the concept are compared to.
Some problems with this - platypus is not a bird, but a mammal
Not all birds can fly, etc.
Concepts tell us what we think about. But why do we think? One reason we think is in order to solve problems.
Problem Solving - is an attempt to find an appropriate way of attaining a goal when the goal is not readily available.
There are 4 steps in the problem solving process:
1. Find and frame the problem.
2. Develop good problem-solving strategies
3. Evaluate solutions
4. Rethink and redefine problems and solutions over time.
1. Find and frame the problem……defining the problem….ex. Name an infomercial and the problem it is trying to solve.
2. Develop good problem solving strategies
A. subgoaling - means setting intermediate goals that put you in a better position
to solve the problem………..ex. Writing a paper
B. algorithms - strategies that guarantee a solution to a problem…ex. Formulas,
instructions, and the testing of all possible solutions
Sometimes an algorithmic strategy can take a long time….for ex. Scrabble ..
Making all the letter combinations to get the highest scoring word….or chess-
thinking of all the possible moves related to your possible moves
Or SPLOYOCHYG….unscramble…if we used an algorithm we’d have to tray each letter in each position…..907, 200 permutations
C. heuristics - are shortcut strategies or guidelines that suggest a solution to a
problem but do not guarantee an answer.
Ex. Scrabble…if you have a q
You will probably need a u…..and t will not come before an x
Or with SPLOUOCHYG we can use heuristics to exclude rare
Combinations like two Y’s together
In general, we use heuristics…shortcuts…more often than algorithms to solve
problems.
But, sometimes heuristics can lead us to mistakes.
The availability heuristic - refers to a prediction about the probability of an
event based on the ease of recalling or imagining similar events.
One ex. Is the stereotype of the tortured creative genius. Examples?
Vincent Van Gogh, Kurt Cobain..Nirvana, etc.
Because we can recall these people with ease, we assume that geniuses must
have a greater likelihood of mental illness and have had a difficult life
In fact, repeated research has concluded that gifted people have fewer
emotional problems than others, tend to be more mature, and are more
likely to have grown up in a positive family climate.
3. Evaluate solutions - important to come up with the criterion that defines success
Ex. Infomercial….what makes the item successful
What might they have tried that didn’t work?
4. Rethink and Redefine Problems and Solutions over time - look for ways to
Make it better - infomercial examples - swiffer
An obstacle to problem solving - Becoming Fixated - using a prior strategy and
failing to look at a problem from a fresh perspective….getting stuck
Functional fixedness - occurs when individuals fail to solve a problem because they are fixated on a thing’s usual function…and can’t imagine using it in another way
See text…pages 246, 247 and 272
REASONING AND DECISION MAKING
Reasoning - is the mental activity of transforming information to reach conclusions.
Reasoning can be either inductive or deductive.
Inductive reasoning - involves reasoning from the specific to the generalEx. Seeing only some examples and drawing conclusions from that…ex…case study
Deductive reasoning - is reasoning from the general to the specificEx. Starting with a # of suspects and narrowing it down to a primary suspect
Research is another example….take a theory (general) and develop a hypothesis
Decision making - involves evaluating alternative and choosing among them.
Let’s explore the process of choosing more closely with a video
Problems in decision making or choosing:
1. Confirmation Bias - is the tendency to search for and use information that supports our ideas rather than info that goes against our ideas ex. Politics and religionAlso, we tend to seek out and listen to people whose views confirm our own
2. Hindsight Bias - the tendency to report falsely, after the fact, that we accurately predicted an outcome
3. Availability Hueristic - discussed earlier that refers to predicting the probability of an event based on the ease of recalling or imagining similar events.
4. Base rate fallacy - tendency to ignore information about general principles in favor of very specific but vivid information. Ex. Consumer reports gives high ratings to a laptop, but a friend gets one and has all kinds of problems with it, so you probably won’t get that brand.
5. Representative Heuristic - tendency to make judgments about group membership based on appearance or stereotype rather than available base rate information. Ex. From book - 100 men waiting outside a room. 95 Hells Angels and 5 librarians.One man enters the room in a rumpled suit with horn-rimmed glasses. You will guess that he is a librarian.
THINKING CRITICALLY Critical thinking involves reflecting on information, evaluating evidence, keeping an open mind about different viewpoints, and deciding for themselves what to believe in or do.Two mental habits are essential to critical thinking:MindfulnessOpen-mindedness1. Mindfulness - means being alert and mentally present in the momentStaying in higher level consciousness as much as possible…not going into automatic thinking and lower level consciousness Ex. Study where 90% of people gave up their place in line at a copy machine when someone said “ can I go first?’ “ I need to make copies” as compared to 60% when aperson simply said “can I go first?” just by adding a meaningless justification, people “automatically” stepped aside2. Open-mindedness - means being receptive to other ways of looking at things.Knowing what it is you do not know is sometimes the first step to true wisdom.And humility…being able to acknowledge that you might be wrong is an important part of effective problem solving. Thinking CreativelyCreativity, like critical thinking, is a skill associated with superior problem-solvingCreativity - the ability to produce ideas that are both novel andvaluableCreative people tend to be divergent thinkersDivergent thinking - produces many answers to the same questionAs compared to Convergent thinking - which produces one correct answer to a questionConvergent thinking is usually required in testingCreative people have been describe as exhibiting the following characteristics:1. Flexibility and playful thinking includes humor and brainstorming2. Inner motivation3. Willingness to face risk4. Objective evaluation of work Chick-zent-mee-high…..Csikszentmihalhy - has studied creativity and developed the theory of flow.Flow - in psychology is a mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in a state of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity.Researchers have consistently found high correlations between being in a flow state and increased artistic and scientific creativity.It is completely focused motivation and accompanied by a feeling of spontaneous joy in performing the taskTerms that we use to describe this kind of mental state include….in the moment, keep your head in the game, being fully present, in the zone, in the grooveFlow has been describe across cultures and throughout historyFor ex. The teachings of Buddhism speak of a state of mind of ‘doing without doing’ Historians have describe Michaelangelo as having been in a flow-like state when painting the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican in Rome. He was reported to have painted for days at a time and was so absorbed that he did not stop to sleep or eat. When he did stop to sleep, he awoke refreshed and within a short time of resuming his painting he was back into total absorption …flow.The autotelic personality - people who can more easily achieve flow than the average personPersonality traits include - 1. Curiosity2. Persistence3. Low Self-centeredness4. Intrinsically motivated - enjoy what they’re doing - not motivated by $/fame5. Seek high-challenge, high-skill situations Applications of flow theory - Discuss*********1. Playgrounds - 2. Education - Montessori method provides more opportunity for flow experiences3. Music - hip - hop refers to ‘flowing’ when rhyming of the top of your headBase guitar - refer to being ‘in the pocket’ when playing between melody and percussion4. Sports - flow is describe as ‘being in the zone’Sports psychology has measured improved reflexes and coordination whenathletes are ‘in the zone’5. Gaming - video game designers apply this theory to maximize the experience for gamers6. Developers of computer software describe being in ‘hack mode’ when they’re in an undisturbed state of concentration7. Stock market traders use the term ‘being in the pipe’ to describe the flow state whenthey are trading in high volumeFlow is a transcendent experience - meaning the loss of self-consciousnessPerhaps further research will result in classifying flow as an altered state of consciousness. INTELLIGENCEEarlier we discussed biases that can effect problem solving ( confirmation bias, hindsight bias, availability heuristic, representativeness heuristic, and base rate fallacy).In discussing intelligence it is crucial to understand another reasoning error called REIFICATION - which is our tendency to view an abstract, immaterial concept asif it were a concrete thing. To reify is to invent a concept, give it a name, and then convince ourselves that such a thing objectively exists in the world.This is frequently the case when it comes to the concept of IQ.When someone says, ‘She has an IQ of 120’, they are reifying IQ. They are imagining IQ to be a thing this person has, rather than a score she once obtained on a particular intelligence test. Better to say, ‘She scored 120 on the intelligence test’.Intelligence is a socially constructed concept.In the U.S., we generally define intelligence as the ability to do well on cognitive tasks,to solve problems, and to learn from experience.Other cultures define intelligence by whatever attributes enable people to be successful in their cultures.For ex. In the Amazon rain forest, intelligence is considered to be the ability to understand the medicinal qualities of local plants.For research purposes, intelligence is what intelligence tests measure…..and historically that has been the type of intelligence known as school smarts.Later in this lecture we’ll discuss theories of multiple intelligences that go beyond school smarts. But for now, we’ll continue with traditional measures of intelligence. MEASURING INTELLIGENCE - A good intelligence test must have good validity, reliability, and standardization1. Validity - Does the test measure what it intends to measure?An important way to measure validity is the degree to which it predicts a person’s performance on another test or measureFor ex. Correlating an intelligence test with a work performance measure such as performance evaluation2. Reliability - Is test performance consistent (repeatable)?In other words, if you took the same test 6 months later…or yr later..would you get the same results? Reliability is tested by re-testing to see if the results are consistent…. 3. Standardization - using uniform procedures for administering and scoring a test This includes norms - performance standards.Norms are based on giving the test to representative groups/samples of people and they tell us which scores are continued high, low, or averageYour scores can then be compared to the scores of other people in your group…usually age group IQ Tests - The first intelligence test was developed by Alfred Binet in 1904 when he was askedTo develop an intelligence test after France made a law requiring public education for all children. The purpose of the intelligence test was to determine which children would benefit from regular education, and which children might require special education.Binet developed the concept of mental age MA…which is an individual’s level of mental development compared to that of othersAverage MA is the same as chronological age ..CABelow average intelligence would result in an MA lower than CAAbove average intelligence would result in an MA higher than CABinet was outspoken and concerned about intelligence testing…..He was concerned that this measure would be reified and see intelligence as a fixed quantity., rather than as a test to simply identify those children in need of remedial helpHe was afraid that the test would be used to label children and limit their opportunites.Unfortunately his fears were realized shortly after his death in 1911. IQ stands for Intelligence quotientThe term was developed in 1912 by William SternIQ = (MA/CA) x 10010/5 x 100 = IQ of 200 = gifted10/10 x 100 = IQ of 100 = average5/10 x 100 = IQ of 50 = intellectually disabled Lewis Terman, a Stanford University professor, took Stern’s concept of IQ and applied it to Binet’s test which he then adapted to be used as a numerical measure of intelligence. ..The test became known as the Stanford-Binet…and keeps the same name today although after many revisions. Terman promoted the widespread use of intelligence testing. He was a supporter of eugenics - which was a movement in the 1900’s that supported measuring different traits and using the results to encourage only smart and fit people to reproduce.Terman then worked with the U.S. government to conduct the world’s first mass administration of an intelligence test. It was administered to WWI army recruitsand newly arriving immigrants The results led to a change in the immigration laws of 1924 that reduced the quotas of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe in comparison to those from Northern and Western Europe…..so that groups with higher intelligence scores would be more easily admitted to the U.S.Binet would have been horrified that his intelligence test had been adapted for this use.The field of psychology soon became embarrassed by the earlier use of intelligence testing, but they are important reminders of how tests can be misused and misunderstood as well as effected by ideology and bias. Cultural Bias in Testing As intelligence tests were developed, it became apparent that test construction was often culturally biased in favor of urban rather than rural environments…..middle socioeconomic status vs. low SES…and white rather than African American populations.Revisions have been made to revise and remove items that reflect cultural bias.Bias means that the validity of a test would be reduced, since it would be not be measuring something the same way for different groups.As of 2007, nearly all psychologists as represented by the APA’s Task Force on Intelligence….agree that the major U.S. intelligence tests and aptitude tests….the SAT and the ACT are not biased. Their validity does not vary significantly between gender, or ethnic groups or economic groups.Even so, researchers are continuing to work on the development of culture-fair tests -Tests that are completely without cultural biasThey have designed 1. Tests that have questions familiar to all groups of peopleAnd 2. Nonverbal tests Genetics and Environmental Influences on IntelligenceHow much is intelligence influenced by genetics?Heritability -the proportion of variability among people that we can attribute to genes…vs environmentHeritability index for intelligence is .75 this is a positive correlation between parental IQ and children’s IQ………. This suggests a strong genetic influence.. What is the influence of the environment on intelligence?One interesting phenomenon is the Flynn effectResearchers have noted that performance on intelligence tests has been rising steadily and that this increase had been reported in 20 countries. Because the change has been happening so rapidly, it cannot be due to genetic factors, and therefore must be due to environmental factors…but it is still a mystery as to the exact causation.Some possible explanations:1. Rising levels of education2. Better nutrition3. More stimulating environments4. Less childhood disease5. More exposure to information6. Smaller families with more parental involvment7. One possible genetic explanation - Theory of ‘hybrid vigor’ - when cross-breeding occurs in livestock or produce such as corn, it results in offspring that are superior to parents….this may be a phenomenon in global mixing…multiracial offspring Extremes of IntelligenceScores on IQ tests generally conform to a normal distribution - the bell-shaped curve.With the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale….the average IQ is 100The standard deviation is 16 points See page 256 in text.68% score between 1 +/- SD from the mean….scores between 84 and 11696% score between 2 +/- SD scores between 68 and 132Above 130.…is considered the Superior range of intelligence or giftednessBelow 70.… is considered an intellectual disability (previously termed mental retardation) Giftedness - 2.5% of populationFirst studied by Terman who gave us the IQ quotient. He studied a group of 1,500 children with IQ’s of 150...called the Termites….he found that not only were they academically gifted, but they were socially adjusted as well. A follow up longitudinal study showed that many of them became experts in their fields, but did not become creative geniuses in terms of change…they did not revolutionize their fields.It has been suggested that gifted people are better off now because of less societal constraints due to racism and sexism and better access to information through technology.A more current longitudinal study is the SMPY or the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth…started in 1971. 320 participants with average IQ’s of 180.At age 23 they were pursuing doctorates at 50 times the average rate. They were also socially well-adjusted as in Terman’s study, but they were more creative in their accomplishments.There is a syndrome that includes both extremes of intelligence..high and low - Savants - Savant Syndrome is a condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill, such as in computation or drawing.This has been described as ‘having an island of brilliance’.Show video - youtube - Savant - Leslie Lemke Intellectually DisabilitiesIntellectual Disability - defined as:1. IQ below 70 as measured on a traditional intelligence test2. Has difficulty adapting to everyday life…..deficits in independent living skills3. Has these characteristics prior to the age of 18.Only 1% of the population meet the full criteria for this definition. And 50% more males than females.There are many causes…one is Down Syndrome, a genetic cause…an extra chromosome #21.Societal Changes concerning individuals with intellectual disabilities:During the 1800’s, the intellectually disabled were cared for at home. Those with the most severe disabilities often died, but the others found a place in the then mostly farm-based society.From the late 1800’s to the 1970’s ‘state schools” - residential schools under the jurisdiction of state governments were established for the lifetime care of the ‘mentally retarded’. This was the time of institutionalization, but many became warehouses with inadequate services. At that time, when a disabled child was born, many parents were told to institutionalize them and to separate permanently before they became too attached. In the 1970’s, across the country, states began the process of de-institutionalization - not only with the State schools but also with the state hospitals for the mentally ill. The State schools were gradually closed as children and adults were either returned home with social services to help them, or were moved into residential group homes established throughout the communities to provide home-like environments for residents.Many children were mainstreamed back into public schools with the goal being to provide children and adults with the ‘least restrictive” environment possible.Most would agree that deinstitutionalization for the intellectually disabled was a successful process. However, this has not been the case with deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill. We’ll look at this in more depth when we discuss psychological disorders. The final topic under the section on Intelligence involves Theories of multiple intelligences. Sternberg’s Triarchic TheoryStated that intelligence comes in 3 forms: page 2611. Analytical intelligence2. Creative intelligence3. Practical intelligenceGardners’ Eight Frames of Mind1. Verbal2. Mathematical3. Spatial4. Bodily-kinesthetic5. Musical6. Interpersonal7. Intrapersonal8. Naturalist9. ExistentialistAccording to Gardner, each of us has all of these intelligences but to varying degrees. As a result we prefer to learn and process information in different ways.The theories of multiple intelligence have had an enormous impact on education and have motivated teachers to identify the different ways in which their students learn and process information and have adapted their ways of teaching to fit different learning styles.Next, I’d like to discuss the concepts of social intelligence and emotional intelligence.Social intelligence - the know-how involved in comprehending social situations and managing oneself successfully.The concept of social intelligence was first coined in 1920 by the famous psychologist Edward Thorndike who stated that “the best mechanic in the factory may fail as a foreman for lack of social intelligence”.It is this awareness that is at the root of management training programs in various companies which realize that performing tasks and leading people require different skills.One type of social intelligence is emotional intelligence which consists of 4 componentsThe ability to:1. Perceive emotions - recognize them in faces, music, stories2. Understand emotions - predict them and how they change and blend3. Manage emotions - know how to express them in varied situations4. Use emotions - to enable adaptive or creative thinkingResearch indicates that people who score high on measures of emotional intelligence, are emotionally in tune with others, and are more likely to succeed in career, marriage, and parenting in comparison to people who are academically smarter, but emotionally less perceptive. .
