Thinking and Intelligence
• What type of thing would someone
intelligent say?
• What type of thing would someone
unintelligent say?
• Name 5 qualities about someone that would
indicate intelligence.
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Reasoning and Rationality
• 1-Formal Reasoning
• 2-Informal Reasoning
• 3-Reflective Judgment
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Formal Reasoning
• It is the kind of thinking you find in an
intelligence test.
• The information needed for reaching a
solution is specified clearly.
• There is a single right or best answer.
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Formal Reasoning
1-Algorithm
• A set of procedures guaranteed to produce a
solution even if you don’t really know how
it works.
• Example:
• To solve a problem in long division you just
apply a series of operations that you have
learned.
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Formal Reasoning
2-Logic
• Deductive Reasoning
• Drawing conclusions
from a set of
observations or
premises.
• If the premises are
true, the conclusion
must also be true.
• Inductive Reasoning
• Draw conclusions but
could be conceivably
wrong.
• You draw specific
conclusions from
general premises.
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Formal Reasoning
2-Logic
• Deductive Reasoning
• Inductive Reasoning
• Example:
• Example:
• Most people with
• All human beings are
season tickets must
mortal. I am a human
love music. John has
being.
season tickets.
• If the premises are true • Then, John probably
loves music.
• Then, I am mortal.
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Deductive Thinking
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Inductive Thinking
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Informal Reasoning
• In formal reasoning problems, there may be
no clearly correct solutions.
• Disagreement may exist about basic
premises.
• Information may be incomplete.
• Many view points may compete.
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Informal Reasoning
1-Heuristics
• Rules of thumb that suggest a course of
action without guaranteeing an optimal
solution.
• Examples:
• A doctor who wants to determine the best
kind of treatment.
• A A factory owner who wants to boost
production.
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Informal Reasoning
2-Dialectical Thinking
• Example:
• Is what juries are supposed to do in order to
arrive to a verdict.
• You consider argument for and against the
defendant’s guilt.
• You consider point and counter point.
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Reflective Judgment
Critical Thinking
• The ability to question the assumptions,
evaluate and integrate evidence, relate the
evidence to a theory or an opinion,
• Consider alternative interpretations,
• And reach conclusions that can be defended
as reasonable or plausible.
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Reflective Judgment
Karen Kitchener & Patricia King
•
•
•
•
1-Prereflective Reflective Stages
(the first 2 stages)
The right answer always exists.
No distinction between knowledge and belief,
or belief and evidence.
• Examples:
• I was brought up to believe that a certain ethnic
group is bad.
• If I break a mirror, I will have bad luck.
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Reflective Judgment
Karen Kitchener & Patricia King
• 2-Quasi-Reflective Stages
(the next 3 stages)
• There is no right and wrong answer.
• Knowledge is subjective.
•
•
•
•
Examples:
The unconscious forces may affect personality.
Environment may influence personality.
Genetics may influence personality.
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Reflective Judgment
Karen Kitchener & Patricia King
• 3-Reflective Thinking Stages
(the last 2 stages)
• Although somethings cannot be known with
certainty, some judgments are more valid than
others based on evidence.
• Examples:
• Based on evidence, I believe that the development
of diabetes is genetic.
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What Do You Think?
Common sense is the best distributed
commodity in the world, for every
man is convinced that he is well
supplied with it.
(Rene Descartes)
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Barriers to Reasoning
• 1- Availability Heuristic
Exaggerating the Improbable
Estimating the likelihood of events based on their
availability in memory. We assume such events
are common.
• Example:
• If it happened in the past, then it will happen now.
• I had an accident on the freeway, then I can’t drive
on the freeway.
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Barriers to Reasoning
• 2- Representatives Heuristics
A rule of thumb for judging the likelihood of
things in terms of how well they seem to
represent, or match particular prototypes.
• Examples:
• Believing that someone is famous or
important because of how well he is
dressed.
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Barriers to Reasoning
• 3- Framing and the Tendency to Avoid Loss
How an issue is framed can significantly affect
decisions and judgments.
• Examples:
• If you take chemotherapy, you’ll lose your hair.
(People will respond cautiously)
• If you take the medication for high blood pressure,
you’ll be OK. (People will go for it)
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Barriers to Reasoning
• 4- Confirmation Bias
• Paying attention to information that
confirms one’s own belief.
• Examples:
• Homosexuality is genetic.
• Smoking is not harmful.
(Regardless of the research)
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Barriers to Reasoning
• 5- Biases Due to Fixation or Mental Sets
The inability to see a problem from a fresh
perspective.
• Examples:
• Believing that the medication will not work
and ignoring the doctor’s advice to take the
medication.
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Barriers to Reasoning
• 6- Biases Due to Functional Fixation
Our tendency to perceive the functions of
objects as fixed and unchanging.
• Examples:
• Ransacking the house for a screw driver
when a dime would have turned the screw.
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Barriers to Reasoning
• 7- Overconfidence or The Hindsight Bias
• The tendency to overestimate one’s ability
to predict the future.
• Examples:
• I knew you were going to have a divorce.
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Barriers to Reasoning
• 8- The Need for Cognitive Consistency
• When there is inconsistency between
behavior and belief. (Smoking)
• Examples:
• Denying the evidence or rationalizing
• Modifying the belief
• Changing the behavior
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Barriers to Reasoning
• 9- Belief Perseverance
Clinging to one’s initial conception after the
basis on which they were formed has been
discredited. Confirmation bias contributes
to belief perseverance.
• Examples:
You continue smoking even though research
shows it is definitely connected to lung
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cancer.
Language Development
Month
4
10
12
24
24+
Stage
Babbles many speech sounds
Babbling reveals household
language
One-word stage
Two-word telegraphic speech
Language develops rapidly
into complete sentences
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Language Development
• Behaviorist, B. F. Skinner
• Rationalist, Noam Chomsky
• Cognitive Scientists, Statistical Learning
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Innate Capacity for Language
Noam Chomsky
• Surface Structure
• Deep Structure
• Language Acquisition Device
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Language Acquisition Device
Innate Mental Module
• Children in different cultures go through
similar stages of linguistic development.
• Children combine words in ways adults
never do.
• Adults don’t consistently correct their
children’s syntax.
• Even retarded children develop language.
• Infants can derive simple linguistic rules.
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Nature and Nurture
Genes
Environment
spoken language
heard
Brain mechanisms
Behavior
for understanding
Mastery of
and producing
native language
language
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Language Acquisition
Theory
Rationalist
Chomsky
Language
Aquisition
-Innate
tendency to
acquire
language
-Innate
acquisition
device
Cognitive
Statistical
Learning
Behaviorist
Skinner
-statistical -association
analysis of -imitation
language -reinforcement
-biological
machinery
for
learning
language
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Thinking and Language
• Does language influence thinking?
(Linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf)
• Can we think without language?
(Mental practice)
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Intelligence
• What’s the definition of intelligence?
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Definitions of Intelligence
•
•
•
•
•
The ability to profit from experience
The ability to acquire knowledge or learn
The ability to think abstractly
The ability to act purposefully
The ability to adapt to changes in the
environment.
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Definitions of Intelligence
1-Psychometric Approach
IQ tests – focuses on how people perform on
standardized tests which are designed to
measure skills and knowledge you have
already learned.
2-Cognitive Approach
Intelligence comes in different ways and one
test can’t measure it all.
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Definitions of Intelligence
Psychometric Approach
Cognitive Approach
Alfred Binet
Lewis Terman
William Stern
David Wechsler
Charles Spearman
Goddard
Howard Gardner
Robert Sternberg
Emotional Intelligence
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Alfred Binet
(1857-1911)
• Designed the 1st test that was developed later to
be what we call now the “IQ test.”
• He wanted to measure the mental age as opposed
to the chronological age.
“The scale, properly speaking does not permit the
measure of intelligence, because intellectual
qualities … cannot be measured as linear surfaces
are measured.”
Binet and Simon, 1905)
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Lewis Terman
(1877-1956)
• Revised the test.
• Called the new test the Stanford-Binet.
• Later German Psychologist William Stern
derived the famous intelligence quotient or
IQ.
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William Stern
IQ Scores
• IQ score = Mental Age
(MA)
divided by
Chronological
Age (CA)
multiplied by 100
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David Wechsler
IQ Tests
• Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children
(WISC-III)
A test for children that provides separate measures of
verbal and performance (nonverbal) skills as well
as a total score.
A test for adults that provides separate measures of
verbal and performance skills as well as a total
score.
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Charles Spearman
(1863-1945)
General Intelligence
The g Factor
There is a general factor that underlies the
specific factors.
Those who score high on one factor, score
higher than average on other factors.
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Bell Curve
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Variation in IQ Scores
Range of Scores % of Population Description
130 +
2%
Very superior
120 - 129
7%
Superior
110 -119
16%
High average
90 - 109
50%
Average
80 - 89
16%
Low average
70 - 79
7%
Borderline
70 & below
2%
Deficient
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Evaluating IQ Tests
• Example 1: Focus on black-white
differences
• Example 2: Goddard’s testing of the
immigrants on Ellis Island
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What’s Wrong with Goddard’s
Methodology?
• 1- The test was translated from French.
• 2- The translation might not have been
accurate.
• 3- The immigrants had just endured an
Atlantic crossing.
• 4- The test was interpreted according to
the French norms.
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standardization
validity
content validity
predictive validity
reliability
normal curve
aptitude test
achievement test
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The Cognitive Approach
Robert Sternberg
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Robert Sternberg
1- Analytical (academic problem-solving)
intelligence
2- Creative Intelligence
3- Practical Intelligence
a. change situation (shaping)
b. work on your emotions (adaptation)
c. remove yourself from situation (selection)
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The Theory of Multiple Intelligences
Howard Gardner (1995)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Language
Logical-mathematical
Spatial relations
Bodily-kinesthetic
Musical
Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
7 intelligences
+2
Naturalistic
Existential
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Savant Syndrome
• A condition in which a person otherwise
limited in mental ability has an exceptional
specific skill, such as in computation or
drawing.
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Emotional Intelligence
• 1-Interpersonal Intelligence
• 2-Intrapersonal Intelligence
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Emotional Intelligence
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Components of Creativity
The ability to produce novel and valuable
ideas
• Expertise
• Imaginative Thinking Skills
• A Venturesome Personality
• Intrinsic Motivation
• A creative Environment
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Facts about Heritability
• Heritability gives an estimate of the proportion
of the total variance in a trait that is
attributable to genetic variation in a group.
• The maximun value hiritability can have is 1.0.
• To measure heritability, the populations tested
have to share the same environment.
• Even highly heritable traits can be modified by
the environment.
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