Thinking, Language, and Intelligence

• Cognition Belief-bias-effect Intuition• Thinking Confirmation bias Framing• Mental image Fallacy of positivity• Concepts Overestimation effect• Problem solving Functional Fixedness• Heuristics Mental Set• Trial and error Overconfidence• Belief perserverance Insight

Concepts• What is cognition?

• Cognition refers to the mental activities involved in acquiring, retaining, and using knowledge. Cognitive abilities, such as analyzing situations, solving problems, making decisions, and using language, are widely regarded as key dimensions of intelligence.

• Thinking involves manipulating mental representations of information in order to draw inferences and conclusions.

• A mental image is a mental representation of objects or events that are not physically present.

• We tend to scan a mental image in much the same way that we visually scan an actual image.

• Sometimes, thinking involves the manipulation of mental images before we can arrive at an answer.

• The mental images we use in thinking are not like photographs.

• They are memories of visual images that are actively constructed and potentially subject to error.

• A concept is a mental category of objects, events, or situations that share similar features or characteristics.

• There are a variety of chairs but their common features define the concept of a chair.

• A formal concept is a mental category that is formed by learning the rules or features that define it.

• A natural concept is a mental category formed as a result of• everyday experience.• A prototype is the most typical instance of a particular

concept….mental image or best example of a category…matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories (when comparing feathered creatures to a protypical bird, a robin)

• Some researchers believe that we store memories of individual instances, called exemplars, of a concept.

Solving problems• Problem solving refers to thinking and behavior directed

toward attaining a goal that is not readily available.• An algorithm involves following a step-by-step procedure or

method that always produces the correct solution.• A heuristic involves following a general rule-of-thumb

strategy to reduce the number of possible solutions to a problem.

• a. One common heuristic is to break a problem into a series of subgoals.

• b. Another heuristic involves working backward from the goal.• c. Flexibility may be the key to successful problem solving.• Trial and error involves actually trying a variety of solutions

and eliminating those that do not work.

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The Matchstick ProblemOur mental set from our past experiences with matchsticks predisposes our arranging them in two dimensions. Functional fixedness is the tendency to view objects as functioning only in their usual or customary way.Mental set is the tendency to persist in solving problems with solutions that have worked in the past.

To arrange six matches to form four equilateral triangles, you must view the problem from a new

perspective.

Obstacles to Problem Solving• The belief-bias effect occurs when people accept

only the evidence that conforms to their beliefs, rejecting or ignoring any evidence that does not.

• Confirmation bias is the strong tendency to search for information or evidence that confirms a belief, while making little or no effort to search for information that might disprove the belief.

• The fallacy of positive instances is the tendency to remember uncommon events that seem to confirm our beliefs and to forget events that disconfirm our beliefs….the news

• The tendency to overestimate the rarity of events is referred to as the overestimation effect.

Making Decisions and Forming Judgments

• When statistical reality is pitted against a single vivid case, the memorable case often wins.

• The availability heuristic is a strategy in which the likelihood of an event is estimated on the basis of how readily available other instances of the event are in memory. The less accurately our memory of an event reflects the actual frequency of the event, the less accurate our estimate of the event’s likelihood will be.

The Representativeness Heuristic

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?• The representativeness heuristic is a strategy in which the

likelihood of an event is estimated by comparing how similar it is to our prototype of the event. This strategy can produce faulty estimates if a. we fail to consider possible variations from the prototype, or we fail to consider the approximate number of prototypes that actually exist.

Overconfidence• We can sometimes become too confident in our

eagerness to confirm the beliefs that we already hold and in doing so; we do not consider the failures. This is overconfidence.

• Belief perseverance is clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.

• Belief perseverance fuels social conflict• Insight is the sudden realization of how a problem can

be solved.• Intuition means coming to a conclusion or making a

judgment without conscious awareness of the thought processes involved. Bowers and colleagues have proposed a two-stage model of intuition:

Bowers

• The first stage is the guiding stage• You perceive a pattern in the information

being considered, but not consciously• The second stage is the integrative stage• A representation of the pattern becomes

conscious, usually in the form of a hunch or hypothesis

Framing• What is framing?• Framing is the way an issue is posed• How an issue is framed can significantly affect

the decisions and judgments

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When do we learn language?

By 4 months of age infants can discriminate speech sounds and read lips. This marks the beginning of the development of receptive language, or the comprehension of speech.

Also around 4 months, babies enter the babbling stage, spontaneously uttering

various sounds, like ah-goo. Babbling is not imitation of adult speech.

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When do we learn language?

Productive language, the ability to produce words, matures after receptive language.

Beginning at or around the first birthday, children enter the one-word stage, speaking one word at a time

and able to make family members understand. The word doggy may mean look at the dog out there.Around 18 months, children go through a word

explosion, learning about 50-100 words a month….the word explosion

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Before the 2nd year, a child starts to speak in two-word sentences, the two-word stage.

This form of speech is called telegraphic speech because the child speaks like a telegram: “Go car,” means I would like to go

for a ride in the car.

Once children move out of the two-word stage they quickly utter longer phrases and by elementary school can understand

complex sentences and get the humor of double-meanings.

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Explaining Language Development

Operant Learning: Skinner (1957, 1985) believed that language development may be explained on the basis of learning principles such as association, imitation, and reinforcement.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. After the window for learning language closes, learning a

second language seems more difficult. People who learn a second language as adults

usually speak it with the accent of their first.

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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.When a language provides words for objects or events, we can think about these objects more

clearly and remember them. It is easier to think about two colors with two different names (A) than colors with the same name (B) (Özgen,

2004).

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What Do Animals Think?

Animal Thinking & Language

We are not the only creatures to display

insight. Kohler demonstrated this with the chimpanzee Sultan.

Some animals even display amazing

numerical abilities. One researcher, Matsuzawa, has spent two decades studying chimps’ ability to remember and relate

numbers.

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Animal Culture

Animals display customs and culture that are learned and transmitted over generations.

Dolphins using sponges asforging tools.

Chimpanzee mother using andteaching a young how to use

a stone hammer.

Copyright A

manda K

Coakes

Michael N

ichols/ National G

eographic Society

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Do Animals Exhibit Language?

There is no doubt that animals

communicate.

Vervet monkeys, whales and even

honey bees communicate with members of their species and other

species.Rico (collie) has a

200-word vocabulary

Copyright B

aus/ Kreslow

ski

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The Case of ApesGardner and Gardner (1969) used American Sign Language (ASL) to train Washoe, a chimp, who

learned 181 signs by the age of 32. Continued research with Washoe and her foster son, showed that chimps can think and

communicate.

Others have shown that pygmy chimpanzees can develop even greater vocabularies and perhaps semantic nuances in learning a language (Savage-Rumbaugh, 1993). Kanzi (shown below)

developed vocabulary for hundreds of words and phrases.

Most now agree that humans alone possess language, if we mean verbal or signed expression of complex grammar. If we simply mean an ability to communicate through a meaningful sequence

of symbols, then apes are indeed capable of language

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But Can Apes Really Talk?1. Apes acquire their limited vocabularies

with a great deal of difficulty, unlike children who develop vocabularies at amazing rates.

2. Chimpanzees can make signs to receive a reward, just as a pigeon who pecks at the key receives a reward. However, pigeons have not learned a language.

3. Chimpanzees use signs meaningfully but lack human syntax.

4. Presented with ambiguous information, people tend to see what they want to see (perceptual set).

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Theories of Multiple Intelligence

General intelligence, G , predicts performance on various complex tasks, in various jobs, in various countries.

Intelligence alone does not bring success, though. In addition to being talented, successful people are also conscientious, well-connected, and energetic.

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Theories of Multiple Intelligence

Robert Sternberg (1985, 1999, 2003) agrees with Gardner, but suggests three

intelligences rather than eight the Triarchic theory of Intelligence.

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)...personality traits

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Intelligence and CreativityCreativity is the ability to produce ideas that are both

novel and valuable. It correlates somewhat with intelligence…remember problem solving abilities

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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Assessing Intelligence

Psychologists define intelligence testing as a method for assessing an individual’s mental

aptitudes and comparing them with others using numerical scores.

Intelligence tests are also used by industrial and organizational psychologists in the process of

personnel selection.Personnel selection is the use of structured tests to select people who are likely to perform well at

given jobs.

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In the US, Lewis Terman, a Stanford University professor, adapted Binet’s test for American school

children and named it the Stanford-Binet Test. From this test, the German psychologist William Stern

derived the Intelligence Quotient (IQ):

The Origins of Intelligence Testing

This formula worked well for children, but not for adults. Today most intelligence tests do not compute an IQ, but rather represent performance relative to

the average.

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The Origins of Intelligence Testing

David Wechsler developed the Wechsler Adult

Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and later the Wechsler Intelligence

Scale for Children (WISC), an

intelligence test for school-aged children.

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The Origins of Intelligence Testing

WAIS measures overall intelligence and 11 other aspects related to intelligence that are designed to

assess clinical and educational problems.

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Principles of Test Construction

For a psychological test to be acceptable it must fulfill the following three criteria:

1. Standardization2. Reliability3. Validity

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StandardizationStandardization is defining meaningful scores by

comparison with the performance of a pretested group.

Standardized tests establish a normal distribution of scores in a bell-shaped pattern called the normal curve.

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Reliability

A test is reliable when it yields consistent results. To establish reliability researchers

establish different procedures:

Split-half Reliability: Dividing the test into two equal halves and assessing how consistent the

scores are.

Test-Retest Reliability: Using the same test on two occasions to measure consistency.

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Extremes of Intelligence

To be labeled as having an intellectual disability, a child must have both a low test score and a difficulty with the demands of

independent living.

Intellectual disabilities sometimes have a known physical cause, as in Down syndrome,

a disorder of varying severity caused by an extra chromosome

21 in the person’s genetic makeup.

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Extremes of Intelligence: Intellectual Disability

Individuals with an intellectual disability (formerly referred to as mental retardation) required constant supervision a few decades ago, but with a supportive

family environment and special education they can now care for themselves.

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Extremes of Intelligence: The 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.

Because of this, tests are periodically restandardized and those who tested at 80,

years ago, would now score a 76. More adults are becoming eligible for special education and

Social Security payments for intellectual disability.

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No other topic in psychology is so passionately followed as the one that asks the question, “Is intelligence due to genetics or environment?”

Studies of twins, family members, and adopted children together support the idea that there is a significant genetic contribution to intelligence.

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Early Environmental InfluencesEarly neglect from caregivers leads children to develop a lack of

personal control over the environment, and it impoverishes their intelligence.

***Remember Erikson’s Psychosocial Developmental Stage of Trust vs Mistrust…

Romanian orphans with minimalhuman interaction are delayed in their development.

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Schooling and Intelligence

Schooling is an experience that pays dividends, which is reflected in intelligence scores. Increased schooling

correlates with higher intelligence scores…equals the playing field, per se’

To increase readiness for schoolwork,projects like Head Start facilitate leaning.

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HeritabilityHeretibility is 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.Group Differences in Intelligence Test

Scores

Why do groups differ in intelligence? How can we make sense of these differences?

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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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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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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.