Cognition and mental abilities

liudexiang

contents

• Thought

• Problem solving

• Decision making

• Intelligence

Building blocks of thought

• Language

• Images

• concepts

Language

• Language : A flexible system of communication that uses sounds, rules, gestures, or symbols to convey information.

Language

• Phonemes: the basic sounds that make up any language.

• Morphemes: the smallest meaningful units of speech, such as simple words, prefixes, and suffixes.

• Grammar : the language rules that determine how sounds and words can be combined and used to communicate meaning within a language.

Images and concepts

• Images : A mental representation of a sensory experience.

• Concepts : A mental category for classifying objects, people, or experiences.

Problem solving

• Problem representation: the first step in solving a problem; it involves interpreting or defining the problems.

Divergent and convergent thinking

• Divergent thinking : Thinking that meets the criteria of originality, inventiveness, and flexibility.

• Convergent thinking: Thinking that is directed toward one correct solution to a problem.

Obstacles to solving problems

• Mental set : The tendency to perceive and to approach problems in certain ways.

• Functional fixedness : The tendency to perceive only a limited number of uses for an object, thus interfering with the process of problem solving.

Two problems

• Compensatory model : A rational decision-making model in which choices are systematically evaluated on various criteria.

Decision making

Decision-making heuristic

• Representiveness : A heuristic by which a new situation is judged on the basis of its resemblance to a stereotypical model.

• Availability : A heuristic by which a judgment or decision is based on information that is most easily retrieved from memory.

• Confirmation bias : the tendency to look for evidence in support of a belief and to ignore evidence that would disprove a belief.

Intelligence

• Intelligence : a general term referring to the ability or abilities involved in learning and adaptive behavior.

Theories of intelligence

• Triarchic theory of intelligence : Sternberg’s theory that intelligence involves mental skills, insight and creative adaptability, and environmental responsiveness.

Theories of intelligence

• Theory of multiple intelligence : Howard Gardner’s theory that there is not one intelligence, but rather many intelligences, each of which is relatively independent of the others.

The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale

• The first test developed to measure intelligence was designed by two Frenchmen, Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon. The test , first used in Paris in 1905, was designed to identify children who might have difficulty in school.

The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale

• The first Binet-Simon Scale consisted of 30 tests arranged in order of increasing difficulty. With each child, the examiner started with the earliest tests and worked down the test until the child could not longer answer questions.

Mental age

• A child who scores as well as an average 4-year-old has a mental age of 4.

• A child who scores as well as an average 12-year-old has a mental age of 12.

Intelligence tests

• Intelligence quotient : a numerical value given to intelligence that is determined from the scores on an intelligence test on the basis of a score of 100 for average intelligence.

Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale

• The current one is designed to measure four kinds of mental abilities:

• Verbal reasoning; abstract/visual reasoning, quantitative reasoning, and short-term memory. Test items vary with the subjects age.

Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale

• A 3-year-old might be asked to describe the purpose of a cup and to name objects such as a chair and a key.

• A 6-year-old might be asked to define words such as orange and envelope and complete a sentence such as “ An inch is short; a mile is __ .”

• A 12-year-old might be asked to define skill and juggler and to complete the sentence “ the streams are dry___ there has been little rain”

Welchsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition (WAIS-III)

• An individual intelligence test developed especially for adults; measures both verbal and performance abilities.

• The WAIS was developed in the late 1930s by David Welchsler.

Welchsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition (WAIS-III)

• The WAIS-III is divided into two parts, one stressing verbal skills, the other performance skills.

Verbal skills

• The verbal scale includes tests of information ( Who wrote Paradise Lost? );

• tests of simple arithmetic (Sam had three pieces of candy, and Joe gave him four more. How many pieces of candy did Sam have then?)

• Tests of comprehension ( What should you do if you see someone forget a book on a bus?)

Performance skills

• The performance scale also measures routine tasks. People are asked “ find the missing part” , to copy patterns, and to arrange three to five pictures so that they tell a story.

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition (WISC-III)

• An individual intelligence test developed especially for school-aged children; measures verbal and performance abilities and also yields an overall IQ score.

Group tests

• Written intelligence tests administered by one examiner to many people at one time.

The end