AP PSYCH UNIT 4MODS 29-33

Thinking, Language, & Intelligence

AP Unit 4 (mods 29-33): Thinking, language, and intelligence

Thinking=cognition consists of: processing understanding remembering communicating

Neuropsychologists are concerned with cellular processes of transduction, neural communication, functions of different regions of the brain related to cognition at both unconscious and conscious levels

Cognitive psychologists are concerned with: how one’s brain juggles past experience, present, and future

possibilities how people “file” or process new information and retrieve it

later how people problem solve how people communicate and use language to think

children develop schemas (like a sorting/filing system in the brain—each folder has a set of rules for organizing and interacting with sensory stimuli) by exploring, manipulating

objects, listening, observing, tasting, etc

assimilating (filing new concepts and objects into existing schema) and

accommodating (making changes to schema to assimilate things that don’t quite fit existing schema; developing subsets of categories within hierarchies)

Developmental Cognitive Theories: Piaget

abstract, able to test hypothesis

abstract, able to test hypothesis

Able to manipulate symbols, perform basic observations, principle of conservation emerges

Able to manipulate symbols, perform basic observations, principle of conservation emerges

Formal Operational

Concrete Operational

Pre-Operational

Sensorimotor

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Birth

starting to learn symbols, very egocentric view of world

starting to learn symbols, very egocentric view of world

all learning enters via sensory stimulilack object permanence until about 8 mo.

all learning enters via sensory stimulilack object permanence until about 8 mo.

New findings challenge some of Piaget’s theorySensorimotor stage:Piaget asserted babies have no concept of object permanence until 8 mo.

•New studies of brain show even younger babies may notice something has been hidden•Karen Wynn’s experiments upend Piaget by showing even infants have concepts of math; show surprise and longer attention when math rules violated

Preoperational stage:•Piaget asserts thinking is egocentric YET candles in the crayon box experiment (AKA “false belief test” click for video) demonstrates children develop “theory of mind” by age 4•Alison Gopnik’s study “Goldfish or broccoli?” shows even babies may have a theory of mind! (see video snippet) start @ 1:40•DeLoache study shows complex symbolic thinking by age 3 (a couple years earlier than Piaget would have thought) when kids able to pass hidden object in model room test

Formal operational•New studies indicate even young children (thought to be preoperational) engage in testing hypotheses See video snippet of Alison Gopnik’s work (start @ 10 min)

Prototypes

Prototypes=schema mental representations into which we file “like” concepts, objects

Corneille “ethnically mixed faces” study demonstrates how people shift their memories to fit preexisting prototypes e.g. shown an image of a photo-shopped

Caucasian man that has been 30% blended with a Japanese man, a person will place the image in a Caucasian prototype and later remember the image as more Caucasian than it really was

How do people solve problems?

Trial and error Algorithms: step-by-step solution

flaw: time consuming, laborious Heuristics: solving problems via short-cuts due to

past learnings flaw: often inaccurate! Tversky & Kahneman (1974) identified 2 kinds of

flawed thinking: representativeness and availability heuristics

Insight: “Ah ah!” moments Jung-Beeman, Kounnious, Bowden have studied fMRIs

of people to determine insight takes place in right temporal lobe

Why is our reasoning so often flawed?

Confirmation Bias: The Fox News vs. CNN rulePeople tune out information that does not

coincide with their own beliefs and seek out information that confirms they are right

Functional fixation: People find it hard to think outside of the box. We are used

to an object being used in a certain way (having a specific function) that we fail to see other uses of the object e.g. I really need a paper clip to fasten some papers together. I

only have a hair pin. I do not see how hair pin could do same thing because my brain assigns hair pin only one function—holding back hair

Mental set We fixate on solutions that have worked for us in the past

and are unable to approach problems in novel ways

Why is our reasoning so often flawed?

Representativeness heuristic causes us to fail to consider statistical and other

relevant information we rely on our prototypes based on past

experience to judge the likelihood of somethingSee video snippet: how media creates biased

representativeness heuristic for criminals and terrorists

Availability heuristic We falsely judge the likelihood of an event as

more likely IF that kind of event is easily recalled by memory

often tied to emotionally vivid eventse.g. Person may believe likelihood of being attacked

by a shark while in ocean is very high because news keeps showing stories about it happening – person is ignoring fact that millions of others swam in ocean that day that were NOT attacked by a shark!

Anchoring heuristic, present bias, fear of losing video snippet (start at 12:30)

Framing matters (Glass half full or empty?) We interpret the meaning of exact same data differently,

depending upon how it is framed When deciding whether or not to take a prescribed

medication, which would you rather hear? A. 10% of people taking the medicine experience severe

discomfortB. 90% of the people taking the medicine experience no

side effects Would you be more likely to buy a skirt for $100 that’s been

marked down from $150 or a skirt for $100? Would you be more likely to buy the $50 microwave, the

$150 microwave, or the $500 microwave if they are all sitting right net to each other on the shelf?

Why is our reasoning so often flawed? New science of neuroeconomics (behavioral economics)

Overconfidence Kahneman and Tversky (1979) quiz Answers:

1. 3.6 million sq miles 2. 19.7 million 3. 385 deaths 4. 219,000 female engineers 5. 441 nuclear plants

Leads us to stubbornly insist we are right and fail to investigate alternative possibilities

Leads us to underestimate the difficulty or amount of time a task will take/overestimate our own abilities

Why is our reasoning so often flawed?

Belief bias—our own opinions are “clearly more logical!” We are more likely to see the flaws of an

argument or statement that disagrees with our own beliefs and less likely to see flaws of an argument that concurs with our beliefs

Belief perseverance We ignore evidence and arguments that go

against our beliefs and in fact become more steadfast in our opinion when presented with arguments against it

Why is our reasoning so often flawed? (note how these next 2 are similar to overconfidence and confirmation bias)

Language: How humans get meaning from sounds

___________: most basic sounds including consonant blends, vowel blendse.g. bl, e, st, ooEnglish has 40

___________: most basic sounds including consonant blends, vowel blendse.g. bl, e, st, ooEnglish has 40

_____________: smallest unit of language that has meaningincludes prefixes, suffixes, words

_____________: smallest unit of language that has meaningincludes prefixes, suffixes, words

_______: the rules for the order of words a sentence within

_______: the rules for the order of words a sentence within

__________ : the rules for making morphemes change their meaning (e.g. creating past tense)

__________ : the rules for making morphemes change their meaning (e.g. creating past tense)

Simplified typical progression of human of language acquisition

Birth-3 months vocalization is created by crying and cooing 3 months-12 months babbling in progressively more refined

ways random rhythmic imitation of “mother tongue”

12 months-18 months holophrastic stage; receptive language improving

18 months-2 years telegraphic stage 2 years + productive language improving overgeneralization/overregularization may appear from age 2-

early elementary age adding “ed” to irregular verbs for past tense; calling all 4 legged furry

creatures dogs

Simplified typical progression of human of language acquisition (cont.)

Simplified typical progression of human of language acquisition (cont.)

How many words and what kind?How many words and what kind?

what is most common body language/gesture?what is most common body language/gesture?

How many words? a. 150 b. 300 c. 450 d. more than 1,000 How many words? a. 150 b. 300 c. 450 d. more than 1,000

How many words now? How many words now?

What is “favorite” (most used) word?What is “favorite” (most used) word?

About how many words now?a.approx. 2000b.about 3000c.about 5000

About how many words now?a.approx. 2000b.about 3000c.about 5000

Language Theories

With which idea do you more agree for how/why people acquire language? A.We learn language through imitation and social reinforcement.B.We learn language due to an innate brain mechanism (AKA a language acquisition device) that once stimulated by the sound of others’ speech is designed to pick up grammar rules.C.Both A and B.

Behaviorist perspective: Skinner, WatsonBehaviorist perspective: Skinner, Watson Noam Chomsky’s theoryNoam Chomsky’s theory

Provide an example to support Whorf’s assertion, the linguistic relativity hypothesis, that language limits thinking.What other name is this theory given?

•linguistic determinism

Statistical analysis studies

Thinking in images

brain image studies show that the same part of brain that is active when person DOING an activity is also active by merely imagining doing it or watching someone else do it

visualization before a performance can enhance performance quality

visualize the process that will get you there; NOT the end goal/reward soccer coaching example

What is going on in the brain when we speak or listen to language? Video short brain imaging related to

language (start at 1:00; stop at 5:43) Video short #2: noticing mistakes in

language (start at 12:50)

What can we learn about language acquisition and the nature or nurture question by studying deaf children and other animals?

window for cochlear implant begins to close at age 4 (oral speech quality diminishes)

deaf children exposed to sign after age 2 show less activity in right hemisphere and less fluency than those exposed from birth

deaf children “babble” with gestures academic achievement and intelligence test scores are

higher for dear children exposed to sign at early age Chimps and gorillas have been taught to use communication

boards with icons for words and sign language to

communicate Kanzi demonstrating receptive language

The Hart-Risley study (1995): The “30-million word gap”

Longitudinal study of language exposure for children from birth to age 3 in 3 socioeconomic cohorts: professional, working class, or poverty

Findings? Huge difference in amount of words heard on a daily basis per

hour professional families utter approx 2,100 words/hour working class families—1,200 words/hour welfare families—620 words/hour

So what? high correlation between vocabulary size at age three and

language test scores at ages nine and ten in areas of vocabulary, listening, syntax, and reading comprehension. Question: How does this relate to Whorf’s linguistic determinism theory?

Intelligence: What is it, what shapes it, how is it measured, and who cares?

Discussion question: What does it mean to be “smart”?A. crystallized vs. fluid intelligence: What’s the difference and how does

one acquire them?a) crystallized= verbal skills and knowledge base b) fluid = the speed of reasoning skills

B. divergent vs. convergent thinking: Which is more important or “smarter”?a) divergent: creative, thinking outside the box, experimentation

(Think Einstein trying to understand the nature of the universe and energy)

b) convergent: synthesizing and analyzing all available information to draw conclusions (Think Sherlock Homes trying to answer “Who done it?”)

c) Intelligence tests, LSAT, GRE measure convergent thinkingC. book smart vs. street smart D. emotional/social smart vs. ideas smart

Intelligence: What is it, what shapes it, how is it measured, and who cares?

What’s your IQ?•1 to 24 - Profound mental disability•25 to 39 - Severe mental disability •40 to 54 - Moderate mental disability •55 to 69 - Mild mental disability•70 to 84 - Borderline mental disability•85 to 114 - Average intelligence•115 to 129 - Above average; bright•130 to 144 - Moderately gifted•145 to 159 - Highly gifted•160 to 179 - Exceptionally gifted (Genius level)•180 and up - Profoundly gifted

Retardation = score lower than 70 AND difficulty living independently

•1% of population•More boys than girls are mentally retarded•Causes? Chromosomal abnormalities, brain injuries, exposure to toxins/teratogens

Retardation = score lower than 70 AND difficulty living independently

•1% of population•More boys than girls are mentally retarded•Causes? Chromosomal abnormalities, brain injuries, exposure to toxins/teratogens

How do we come up with the numbers? 30-minute VIDEO: Understanding Psychology—Testing and Intelligence

How do we come up with the numbers? 30-minute VIDEO: Understanding Psychology—Testing and Intelligence

How do we come up with IQ numbers? Alfred Binet—grandfather of intelligence testing

mental age—the age that corresponds to level of cognitive performance on certain tasks e.g. an 8-year-old should be able to solve certain types of reasoning

problems; an 8-year-old who surpasses this level of reasoning might have a mental age of 10 or 11 while an 8-year-old who is unable to perform at this level might have mental age of 6 or 7

How do we determine mental age? Devise problem solving/reasoning measurement tools to determine

a person’s mental age and how well he/she will do in school Anyone see any problems with this?

Lewis Terman—father of the Stanford-Binet intelligence test WIlliam Stern designs formula to determine a person’s

intelligence in comparison to the general population at that age: IQ (mental age/ chronological age) * 100

More ways to come up with IQ numbers... Weschler tests—most widely used today to determine intelligence

WAIS (for adults) WISC (ages 6-16) WPPSI (ages 4-6)

Each Weschler test consists of subtests that reveal a person’s mental abilities (via a deviation IQ score based on normal curve) in the following areas:

verbal comprehension perceptual organization working memory processing speed

Today there are dozens of different IQ tests available

How do we know a score has any value?

Is the test standardized (questions deemed too easy or hard thrown out) and/or has it been restandardized (made harder to account for increases in scores)?

Do the scores fall onto a normal curve of distribution? (For IQ, 1 standard of deviation is 15 points—this means majority of population (68%) tests between 85 and 115 on IQ tests)

What was the purpose of the test? measuring fluid or crystallized intelligence? measuring achievement (mastery of knowledge or skill) or

aptitude (ability to learn something new)? was it a speed test or a power test?

How do we know a score has any value?

Does the test have reliability? same test yields same results (test-retest, alternate- or equivalent-

form, or split-half) Does the test have validity? Is it testing what it purports to be

measuring? content (does it test all relevant content? e.g. if you were taking a

test to see how much you have mastered all of the disciplines of psychology, it needs to test you on more than Freudian theory) face (is it measuring something that is relevant to what the score is trying to

predict about the test taker?) criterion-related

predictive (does the test accurately predict a person’s future abilities in a career or academic studies?)

concurrent (accurately measures what a person is like now) construct (high positive correlation between predictive results of one test

and another that has already been proven accurate)

Consider this: SAT and GRE have approx. +.5 and +.3 predictive validity for success in college and grad school

Consider this: SAT and GRE have approx. +.5 and +.3 predictive validity for success in college and grad school

Why is intelligence testing controversial? Danger or reifying IQ

People see score on 1 test as defining a person’s intelligence Possible cultural bias in tests

People try to make correlation between race and IQ without considering socioeconomic factors

stereotype threat studies demonstrate that black test takers and female test takers perform differently based on race/gender of test giver, race/gender of other test takers, expectations of how their race/gender will perform on the test

Eugenicists used IQ scores and idea that IQ is heritable to justify sterilization of low IQ people

Scores do not take into account different forms of intelligence (see theories of intelligence on next slide)

Theories of intelligence: academic/cognitive & social/emotional

Charles Spearman g (general intelligence)—general level of intelligence that underlies

all levels of intelligence (mathematical, verbal, spatial, etc) L.L. Thurstone 7 clusters of primary mental abilities Guilford: there are100 mental abilities (invented terms convergent

and divergent thinking) Gardner’s multiple intelligences

8 levels of intelligence including not traditional measures of movement, musical, inter- and intra-personal

Sternberg’s triarchic analytical, creative, and practical (street smart)

Salovey and Myer, Goleman EQ (emotional intelligence) Why are EQ and MI controversial in the field of intelligence theory?

Is intelligence nature or nurture?

How heritable is IQ and why is this a controversial question?• Twin studies show higher similarity in IQ scores for

monozygotic twins than for dizygotic twins—does this mean IQ is highly heritable? (That most of the difference between any 2 people in IQ scores is due to differences in their genes?)

• Flynn effect: Over the past 100 years, IQ scores within 20 countries have increased between 10-25 points (e.g. a 10-year-old today scores on average higher than a 10-year-old did 100 years ago)

• argument for environment—education, increased standards of living, nutrition--being key influencer in IQ scores (and thus low heritability for IQ)

Is intelligence nature or nurture?

How heritable is IQ and why is this a controversial question?• Is the 10-15 point difference between African-Americans

and Caucasian-Americans on IQ tests attributable to genetic differences OR environmental differences OR testing bias?

• Gains in IQ test scores demonstrated with Head Start and early intensive education and nutrition (like Milwaukee IQ study) show IQ differences between the races can be overcome with proper interventions

• Adoptive children’s IQs correlate more with their BIO parents’ IQs than their adoptive parents’ IQs

Development and intelligence

Does early talking correlate with early reading? NO!

Does early reading (by age 4 or 5) correlate with future high performance on aptitude tests? Yes

Does performance on intelligence measures at age 4 predict future aptitudes? YES!

Are intelligence scores fixed or malleable? Both! IQ is highly malleable in childhood and influenced by nutrition, educational

opportunity, exposure to language, etc. By age 7, people’s scores stabilize—your mental age will increase, your

crystallized intelligence will grow, but your aptitude will likely remain similar for the rest of your life e.g. +0.86 correlation between performance on math SAT and math portion

of GRE

The brain anatomy of intelligence: Is the secret of Einstein’s intelligence within the cells and structures of his brain?

Does size matter? Correlation coefficient between brain mass volume and intelligence scores =

+0.4 As we age, brain volume decreases, nonverbal IQ test scores decrease Richard Haier’s studies (2004) show positive correlation between volume of

gray matter (neural bodies) in brain and intelligence scores What causes larger volume brains to develop?

Experience, interactions with the environment rats deprived of social and environmental stimuli develop thinner, lighter

cortexes neural plasticity—brain’s ability during childhood and adolescence to adapt

and grow synapses Does it matter which areas of one’s brain have more volume?

Einstein’s brain was NOT larger than average person’s however his parietal lobe 15% larger than average adult’s

Einstein also had more glial cells than average person

The brain anatomy of intelligence Frontal lobe

active when people are doing verbal and spatial reasoning on intelligence tests

Who’s smarter: the tortoise of the hare? Speed does seem to matter

Earl Hunt (1983) experiment correlates verbal IQ scores with speed of memory retrieval

IQ and speed of processing perceptual information +0.4 correlation

Speed of neurological processing/reaction time on simple tasks positively correlates with IQ scores

Quick Quiz: What do you know about creative intelligence, testing, and intelligence and gender?

Use your notes and each other to try to answer the questions on your handout

1. People who make outstanding creative contributions to the arts or sciences are most likely to A) be unusually sensitive to criticism of their ideas. B) receive above-average scores on standard tests of intelligence. C) show signs of savant syndrome. D) be strongly motivated to attain fame and fortune.  2. The components of creativity include A) impulsivity and empathy. B) expertise and a venturesome personality. C) competitiveness and dogmatism. D) imagination and extrinsic motivation.

3. Whenever Arlo reminded himself that his musical skills could earn him fame and fortune, he became less creative in his musical performance. This best illustrates that creativity may be inhibited byA) emotional intelligence.B) a venturesome personality.C) the g factor.D) extrinsic motivation.

4. Aptitude tests are specifically designed toA) predict ability to learn a new skill.B) compare an individual’s abilities with those of highly successful people.C) assess learned knowledge or skills.D) assess the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas. 5. The final exam in a calculus course would be an example of a(n) ________ test.A) aptitudeB) achievementC) standardizedD) general intelligence 6. Assessing current competence is to ________ tests as predicting future performance is to ________ tests.A) intelligence; standardizedB) aptitude; achievementC) standardized; intelligenceD) achievement; aptitude