Chapter 10 - Thinking and Language
Thinking
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Cognition: mental activity associated with processing, understanding , and communicating info
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To think about so many things, we group them into concepts: mental grouping of similar objects, events, or people
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Prototype: The best representation of a concept. I.e. A dog maybe a good example of the concept of four legged animals
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Algorithm: A logical procedure guaranteed to solve a problem. This method is slow but less likely to make mistakes. I.e.
unscramble the letters in SOSIA to find the word. An Algorithmic approach would be to try all the possible combinations of
letters.
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Heuristic: Using “rule-of-thumb” strategies to solve problems and make judgments efficiently. This method is faster but more
likely to make mistakes. I.e. Unscramble SOSIA. A Heuristic approach would not try combinations with 2 SS’s together.
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Insight: A sudden flash of inspiration and the solution to problem comes to you. This contrasts with strategic problem
solving methods.
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Confirmation Bias : You tend to look for answers that confirm your own expectations/guesses
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Fixation: Inability to look at a problem from a different perspective.
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Mental Set: A type of fixation that works on previous solutions that are successful. It is like your mind is set on your mental
set
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Functional Fixedness: You tend to think of things in their usual functions. I.e. Inability to see that a paperclip could also be
used as a hook instead of clipping papers.
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Representative Heuristics: The tendency to judge things according to how well they match a prototype. Thinking in terms
on well something “represents” another. I.e. if I say a person is strong, muscular, and fast, you might think the person is
some sort of athlete because those qualities best represent an athlete. However, the person could very well be a fit
professor.

Availability Heuristics: The tendency to base the likelihood of events on how vivid you remembered them. How “available”
the instance is in your memory. I.e. If your printer broke down once and took you forever to fix it so that you remember the
instance greatly, the next time you advise someone about a printer, you’ll most likely say printers break down easily.

Overconfidence: Overestimating the accuracy of your judgments. Same as being Overconfident.
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Framing: The way information is shown or set up. Just like how something is “framed” as in framing of a picture. If the
picture is of fruits and the frame looks like an interwoven wooden thread, then the picture looks very natural. If the picture is
placed around a frame that is grey and metallic-like, the effect is very different. Just like if I “frame” the statement: there is a
70% chance of winning as opposed to 30% chance of losing.
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Belief bias: The tendency to perceive what is conflicting with our beliefs to be illogical.
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Belief Perseverance: Tendency for your beliefs to remain or “preserve” even if where you formulated the belief is a wrong
source. I.e. if Jim tells you that dogs can run faster than cats and you believe it, then even If you find out that Jim is a
mental patient, your belief that dogs are faster than cats still remain.
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Artificial Intelligence (AI): Computerized systems that mimic human thinking abilities.
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Neural Networks: Computer circuitry that resemble the real “neural networks” of interconnected neurons in the brain
Chapter 11 - Intelligence
We use intelligence tests to give a numerical value to ones mental abilities by comparing them to others.
The Origins of Intelligence Testing
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Francis Galton (1822-1911) had great enthusiasm in measuring human traits that lead to the “eugenics” movement. His
goal was to “quantify human superiority” by means of tests on strength, reaction time, sensory precision and even head
size. Despite his efforts, no correlation whatsoever was found between general mental abilities and the traits.
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Alfred Binet – founder of modern intelligence testing, sought methods to identify students who would have difficulties in
regular classes by measuring ones Mental Age – if you perform the way a typical 10 year old would, then your mental age
is 10 years old, regardless of your real age. This lead to labeling problems. I.e., people saw your level of intelligence and
not really who you are.
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Lewis Truman- developed the current Stanford-Binet intelligence test. The test measures IQ Intelligence Quotient- mental
age divided by chronological age(real age) times 100. If you are 12 years old(chronological age) and your mental abilities
are the same as those who are 12 years old (mental age). Then your IQ is 12/12 X 100= 100, the average IQ.
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The Stanford-Binet test became applied to many people of differing races. The result, Truman realized, the reason why
non-Anglo Saxons did worst is because the test measures not only their innate abilities but also education and cultural
distinctiveness.
What is Intelligence

We define Intelligence as the ability/capacity to be goal oriented and exhibit adaptive behavior.
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IQ is not a fixed “thing” one has; it is merely a score one obtains from a test.
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Know that intelligence is always expressed in a context. I.e., in the context of warriors, musicians, engineers, artists,
different intelligence levels will be expressed in different areas by one individual.
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To determine if many factors undermine ones general mental ability, psychologists make use of factor analysis – a statistical
method that identifies a variety of related factors in a test.

Charles Spearman believed that there is a general intelligence factor or g factor undermining each ability/factor. I.e., those
who excelled in reasoning also did quite well in all other areas such as spatial ability, verbal, memory, and word fluency.
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People with Savant syndrome excel exceptionally in one ability/skill but has limited mental abilities. I.e., a 12 year old who
has difficulty speaking and walking but can compute numbers as fast as a calculator. Thus, contrary to the g factor, Howard
Gardner believes we have “multiple intelligences” that are independent of each other.
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Also supporting the multiple intelligence theory is the existence of emotional intelligence – the ability to manage, express,
understand, and perceive emotions. People with high emotional intelligence do better in social situations and thus are more
successful in careers, marriages, and parenting. This EI is independent, if not negatively correlated, with academic
intelligence.

With modern brain imaging techniques, researchers still fail (as did with Galton) to find significant correlation between head
size and intelligence.

Brains of people with high performances are less active (intake less glucose), quick, and registers information with more
complexity. One explanation for this could be that people with faster cognitive processes acquire more information.
Assessing Intelligence
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Aptitude tests – predict your future performance or ability to learn new skill. I.e., college entrance exam(designed to test
your ability to do college work), intelligence tests, physical examinations
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Achievement tests – assesses your current knowledge or what you know. I.e., final course examinations (designed to test
the knowledge you already obtained during the course), and chapter tests.

Currently, the most widely used intelligence test is the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) it has 11 subtests and
gives a verbal score, a performance score, and an overall score. Large differences between the verbal and nonverbal
scores indicate possible learning difficulties.

1.
Psychological tests must meet all 3 of the following criteria in order to be widely accepted.
Standardization – To standardize a test, it must first be given to a large representative sample of people in which their scores will
be set as the standard for comparison.
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Normal curve- a bell shaped curve of scores formed by standardized test results. The
majority (68%) of people fall within the center or average of the curve.
2. Reliability – To be reliable, a test must yield consistent results. This is done by comparing scores on two halves of a test or by
retesting.
3.
Validity – The degree to which a test measures what it is supposed to measure.
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Content validity – corresponds to achievements tests. The extent to which a
test measures it’s intended behavior.
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Predictive validity (or criterion-related validity) - corresponds to aptitude tests. The
success the test has in predicting intended behavior
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
Criterion – The behavior being tested.
Flynn Effect – Intelligence tests worldwide show an increase in scores since 1960’s. BUT aptitude test scores are
decreasing; Possible explanations: Greater academic diversity, better education, and/or improved nutrition.
The Dynamics of Intelligence
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Before age 3, except for extremely impaired children, casual observations and intelligence tests predict future aptitudes
minimally; but by age 3, performances on intelligence tests begin to predict adolescent and adult scores
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By age 7, intelligence tests become more stable and increases in stability with age of child
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Mental retardation: condition of limited mental ability as indicated by an intelligence score of below 70 and produces difficulty
in adapting to demands of life; varies from mild to profound; ONLY one percent of population meets criteria and males
outnumber females by 50 percent
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One cause of mental retardation is Down syndrome: physical disorders caused by an extra chromosome in one’s genetic
makeup
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Creativity: ability to produce novel and valuable ideas

Discovered that certain level of aptitude is necessary but not sufficient for creativity, correlates, but only to certain level
(score of about 120)
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Those who are freed from concern of social approval demonstrate better creativity
Genetic and Environmental Influences on Intelligence
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IQ scores of identical twins are virtually the same as though one person taking test twice whereas IQ scores of fraternal
twins are less similar
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Evidence of environmental influence –fraternal twins who are no more genetically alike than any other sibling, but are
treated more alike tend to score high than other siblings
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Adopted children score more similar to their biological parents than their adopted parents
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Heritability: proportion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genes; heritability of trait may vary, depending
on range of populations and environments studied
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Environment that siblings share influences their aptitudes marginally, but significantly influences scholastic achievements

Psychologist J. McVicker Hunt tested the benefits of responsive care giving; trained caregivers to play vocal games with
infants in which first they imitated babies’ babbling, then led babies in vocal follow-the-leader (shifting from one familiar
sound to another) and finally begin to teach them sounds from Persian language; results were all 11 infants could name
more than 50 objects and body parts by 22 months; Hunt’s experiment shows importance of environment on children’s
intelligence
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Racial groups differ in average scores on intelligence tests
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Difference not mostly based on genetics unlike individual performance differences because heritability within groups would
not eliminate the possibility of strong environmental impact on the group differences

Example -IQ performances of today’s better-fed and better-educated population exceeds those from 1930s population by
the same amount as average white today exceed average african-american

Girls are better spellers and are equal or surpasses average boy in math grades, but boys tend to score better in math
problem solving

David Geary and Irwin Silverman speculate that skills came from evolutionary perspective where males tend to be stronger
in skills that their ancestral fathers needed such as tracking prey and navigating way home whereas females were enhanced
in keen memory for location of edible planes by their ancestral mothers
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Researchers discovered that some people are better emotional detectors than others while women are better at it than men
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Some speculate that through evolution where ancestral mother learned to read emotions of infant and may have further
being fueled by cultural tendencies to encourage empathic skills