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Thinking, Language, and IntelligenceThinking

Language

Intelligence

Thinking

Concepts

Solving problems

Making good (and bad) decisions and judgments

Thinking critically about: The fear factor—why we fear the wrong things

Thinking creatively

Close-up: Fostering your own creativity

Do other species share our cognitive skills?

Thinking

Cognition All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

ConceptsMental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, and people

PrototypesMental image or best example of a category

Solving Problems: Trial and ErrorAlgorithm

Methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees you will solve a particular problem

Contrasts with the usually speedier—but also more error-prone—use of heuristics

Heuristic Simple thinking strategy that often allows one to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error prone than algorithms

Insight Involves sudden realization of the solution to a problem; it contrasts with strategy-based solutions

THE AHA! MOMENT

A burst of right temporal lobe EEG activity (yellow area) accompanied insight solutions to word problems (Jung-Beeman et al., 2004).

The red dots show placement of the EEG electrodes. The light gray lines show patterns of brain activity during insight. Fr

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Solving Problems

Wason’s classic study Involves guessing the rule for three-number sets

Confirmation biasThe tendency to seek evidence for our ideas more eagerly than we seek evidence against them

Is this fixation?

FixationInability to see a problem from a new perspective

Obstacle to problem solving

THE MATCHSTICKPROBLEM

How would you arrange six matches to form four equilateral triangles?

Making Good (and Bad) Decisions and Judgments

Life is full of judgmentsHow many of these judgment related terms can you define?

Intuition

Heuristics

Quick-thinking heuristics

Availability heuristics

IntuitionAn effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning

HeuristicA simple thinking strategy that often allows you to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error prone than algorithms

Quick-thinking heuristicA simple thinking strategy that often allows you to make judgments more error prone than algorithms

Availability heuristicInvolves judging the likelihood of an event based on its availability in memory; if an event comes readily to mind, we assume it must be common

Did you get the correct answer?

Solution to the matchstick problem Were you, by chance, fixated on two-dimensional solutions? Solving problems often requires taking a new angle on the situation.

The Fear Factor—Why We Fear the Wrong Things1. We fear what our ancestral

history has prepared us to fear.

2. We fear what we cannot control.

3. We fear what is immediate.

4. We fear what is most readily available in memory.

SCARING US ONTO DEADLY HIGHWAYS In the three months after 9/11, those faulty perceptions led more Americans to travel, and some to die, by car. (Adapted from Gigerenzer, 2004.)

Solving Problems

More confident than correctOverconfidence is the tendency to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments

Belief beyond evidenceBelief perseverance occurs when we cling to beliefs and ignore evidence that proves these are wrong

Solving Problems

Let me put it this wayFraming involves the way an issue is posed

It can be a powerfully persuasive tool

Framing can influence beneficial decisions

Can you think of any such decisions?

Perils and Powers of Intuition

Intuition is analysis “frozen into habit”Intuition is implicit knowledge

Intuition is usually adaptiveLearned associations surface as “gut” feelings

Intuition is hugeCritical thinkers are often guided by intuition

Thinking Creatively

Divergent thinking• Expands the number of possible

problem solutions (creative thinking that diverges in different directions)

Convergent thinking• Narrows the available problem

solutions to determine the single best solution

Thinking Creatively

Robert Sternberg and his colleagues: Five ingredients of creativity

Expertise

Imaginative thinking skills

Venturesome personality

Intrinsic motivation

Creative environment

Comparing Cognitive Processes and Strategies

Do Other Species Share Our Cognitive Skills?

Using concepts and numbersSeveral species demonstrate the ability to sort (e.g., pigeons and other birds; great apes; humans)

Displaying insightHumans are not the only species to display insight (e.g., Chimpanzees)

Using tools and transmitting cultureVarious species have displayed creative tool use (e.g., forest-dwelling chimpanzees; elephants; humans)

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Language development

The brain and language

Thinking without language

Do other species have language?

Language

LanguageInvolves our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning

Used to transmit civilization’s knowledge from one generation to the next

Connects humans

Language Development

When do we learn language?Receptive language: Infant ability to understand what is said to them around 4 months

Production language: Infant ability to produce words beginning around 10 months

What is the difference between receptive and productive language, and when do children normally hit these milestones in language

development?

HOW DO WE LEARN GRAMMAR?

CREATING A LANGUAGE Young deaf children in Nicaragua were brought together as if on a desert island (actually a school). They drew upon sign gestures from their own home to create their own Nicaraguan Sign Language, complete with words and intricate grammar.

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How Do We Learn Grammar?

Language diversity700+ languages worldwide; structurally very different

ChomskyArgued all languages share basic elements called a universal grammar

Theorized humans are born with a predisposition to learn grammar rules; not a built-in specific language

Critical periodSuggests childhood represents a critical period for mastering certain aspects of language

Language

NEW LANGUAGE LEARNING GETS HARDER WITH AGE Young children have a readiness to learn language. Ten years after coming to the United States, Asian immigrants took a grammar test. Those who arrived before age 8 understood American English grammar as well as native speakersdid. Those who arrived later did not. (From Johnson & Newport, 1991.)

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What was Noam Chomsky’s explanation of language development?

Why is it so difficult to learn a new language in adulthood?

Broca’s area

Wernicke’s area

BRAIN ACTIVITY WHEN HEARING AND SPEAKING WORDS

The Brain and Language

Damage to any one of several areas of the brain’s cortex can impair language

Today’s neuroscience has confirmed brain activity in Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas during language processing

In processing language, the brain operates by dividing its mental functions into smaller tasks

________ is the part of the brain that, if damaged, might impair your ability to speak words.

If you damage ________ you might impair

your ability to understand language.

Thinking Without Language

Mental practice relies on thinking in images

Just imagining a physical experience can have similar results

Mental rehearsal can aid in the achievement of academic goals

What is mental practice, and how can it help you to prepare for an upcoming event?

Language Development

Other species have languageVelvet monkeys sound different alarms for different predators

Chimpanzee (named Washoe) was taught sign language by the Garders

Critics noted that ape vocabularies and sentences were simple; vocabulary was gained with great difficulties

Most psychologists agree that humans alone possess language

If your dog barks at a stranger at the front door, does this qualify as language? What if the dog yips in a telltale way to let you know that she needs to go out?

Intelligence

What is intelligence?

Assessing intelligence

Close-up: Extremes of intelligence

The nature and nurture of intelligence

Close-up: What is heritability?

Intelligence across the life span: Stability or change?

Group differences in intelligence test scores

What Is Intelligence?

Spearman’s General Intelligence (g)Humans have one general intelligence that is at the heart of everything a person does

Mental abilities are like physical abilities

Intelligence involves distinct abilities, which correlate enough to define a small general intelligence factor

Gardner and Sternberg discount this theory and propose several different kinds of intelligence

Theories of Multiple Intelligences

Gardner’s eight intelligencesIntelligence consists of multiple abilities that come in different packages

Eight relatively independent intelligences exist, including the verbal and mathematical aptitudes assessed by standard tests

Evidence of multiple intelligence is found in people with savant syndrome

Gardner’s Eight Intelligences

ISLAND OF GENIUS: SAVANT SYNDROME

Matt Savage, an award-winningjazz musician, is a Berklee College of Music graduate who has released many albums.

His success has been hard-won given his early childhood diagnosis of what is now called autism spectrum disorder, which came with struggles to communicate and an initial inability to tolerate sounds of any kind.

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Theories of Multiple Intelligence

Sternberg’s three intelligencesAnalytical intelligence (School smarts: Traditional academic problem solving)

Creative intelligence (Trailblazing smarts: Ability to generate novel ideas)

Practical intelligence (Street smarts: Skill at handling everyday tasks)

Theories of Multiple Intelligence

Findings and criticismsRecent research, using factor analysis, has confirmed that there is a general intelligence factor that predicts performance on various complex tasks and in various jobs

Researchers report a 10-year rule: Expert performers spend about a decade in intense, daily practice

How does the existence of savant syndrome support Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences?

How do Gardner’s and Sternberg’s theories of multiple intelligences differ?

Emotional Intelligence

AbilitiesPerceiving emotions (recognizing them in faces, music, and stories)

Understanding emotions (predicting them and how they may change and blend)

Managing emotions (knowing how to express them in varied situations)

Using emotions to enable adaptive or creative thinking

Emotional Intelligence

Emotionally intelligent peopleAre socially aware and self-aware

Delay gratification in favor of long-term rewards

Read others’ emotions and provide appropriate feedback

Perform well on the job

Are often successful in career, marriage, and parenting situations where academically smarter people fail

Comparing Theories of Intelligence

Intelligence test Method for assessing an individual’s mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores

Aptitude testTest designed to predict a person’s future performance; aptitude is the capacity to learn

Achievement test Test designed to assess what a person has learned

First…A Few Definitions of Tests

Assessing Intelligence: Intelligence Tests

Alfred Binet: Predicting School AchievementAssumed all children follow the same course, but not the same rate, of intellectual development

Measured each child’s mental age

Tested a variety of reasoning and problem-solving questions that predicted how well French children would succeed in school

Assessing Intelligence: Intelligence Tests

Lewis Terman: The innate IQAdapted Binet’s test for wider use

Extended upper end of test’s range

Named this revision the Stanford-BinetTheorized intelligence tests reveal intelligence with which a person is born

William SternDeveloped IQ formula:

IQ no longer computed; now the average performance of others of the same age computed

Assessing Intelligence

David Wechsler: Separate scores for separate skillsCreated most widely used intelligence test today

Yields overall intelligence score and separate scores for verbal comprehension, perceptual organization, working memory, and processing speed

Contains preschool and school-age child versions

Provides clues to strengths or weaknesses

Assessing Intelligence

David Wechsler: Separate scores for separate skills

A block design puzzle like this one can test children’s visual abstract processing ability.

Wechsler’s individuallyadministered intelligence test comes in forms suited for adults and children.

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What did Binet hope to achieve by establishing a child’s mental age?

An employer with a pool of applicants for a single available position is interested in testing each applicant’s potential. She should use an ________ (achievement/aptitude) test. That same employer wishing to test the effectiveness of a new, on-the-job training program would be wise to use an _______ (achievement/aptitude) test.

What is the IQ of a 4-year-old with a mental age of 5?

Intelligence Tests

Three tests of a “good” testWas the test standardized?

Is the test reliable?

Is the test valid?

THE NORMAL CURVE

Scores on aptitude tests tend to form a normal, or bell-shaped, curve around an average score. For the Wechsler scale, for example, the average score is 100.

What are the three requirements that a psychological test must meet in order to be widely accepted? Explain.

The Nature and Nurture of Intelligence

Twin and adoption studiesIdentical twins raised together have nearly the same intelligence test score and specific talents

Fraternal twins are much less similar, but more similar than other siblings

Separated, adoptive twin scores remain very similar

Adoption of mistreated or neglected children or adoption from poverty into middle class enhances intelligence score

IN VERBAL ABILITY, ADOPTED CHILDREN RESEMBLE THEIR BIRTH PARENTS

INTELLIGENCE: NATURE AND NURTURE The most genetically similar people have the most similar intelligence scores. Remember: 1.0 indicatesa perfect correlation; zero indicates no correlation at all. (Data from McGue et al., 1993.)

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Validity and significance of any test is to compare people who score at the two extremes of the normal curve

The low extremeIntelligence score of 70 or below

Difficulty adapting to life demands

The high extremeChildren with IQ scores over 135

Healthy, well-adjusted, and usually successful academically

Extremes of Intelligence

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Intelligence Tests

How does environment influence intelligence?Slowing normal development

McVicker Hunt (1982): Iranian orphanage study found dire, negative effects of extreme deprivation

Malnutrition, sensory deprivation, and social isolation slowed normal brain development

Enhancing normal developmentThere is no environmental recipe for fast-forwarding a normal infant into a genius

What Is Heritability?

Intelligence across the life span: Stability or change?

Cross-sectionalStudy in which people of different ages are compared with one another

Longitudinal studyResearch in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period

Intelligence across the life span: Stability or change?

Deary and colleagues studyAfter nearly 70 years of varied life experiences, the test-takers’ two sets of scores showed a striking correlation of +.66

Johnson studyScots born in 1936 from ages 11 to 70 confirmed the remarkable stability of intelligence, independent of life circumstanceWhen 207 survivors were again retested at age 87, the correlation with their age 11 scores was +.51

INTELLIGENCE ENDURESWhen Ian Deary and his colleagues (2004) retested 80-year-old Scots, using an intelligence test they had taken as 11-year-olds, their scores across seven decades correlated +.66. (When 207 survivors were again retested at age 87, the correlation with their age 11 scores was +.51 [Gow et al., 2011].)

Why Do Intelligent People Live Longer?

Deary (2008)Intelligence provides better access to resources

Intelligence encourages healthy lifestyles

Prenatal events or early childhood illnesses could influence both intelligence and health

A “well-wired body” as evidenced by fast reaction speeds, may foster both intelligence and longer life

Crystal and Fluid Intelligence

Crystallized intelligence: Accumulated knowledge, as reflected in vocabulary and word-power tests

Increases as we age, into middle age

Fluid intelligence: Ability to reason speedily and abstractly, as when solving unfamiliar logic problems

Decreases with age; declines gradually until age 75 and then more rapidly after age 85

With Age We Lose And We Win

WITH AGE WE LOSE AND WE WIN Studies reveal that word power grows with age, while fluid intelligence declines.

Group Differences in Intelligence Test Scores

Gender similarities and differencesCompared to similarities, gender differences are fairly minor

GirlsOutpace boys in spelling, verbal fluency, and locating objects

Are better emotion detectors and are more sensitive to touch, taste, and color

Group Differences in Intelligence Test Scores

BoysOutperform girls in tests of spatial ability and complex math problems

Vary in their mental ability scores more than girls do

Effects of cultureSocial expectations and opportunities matter.

Little gender math gap found in gender-equal cultures.

This is a test of spatial abilities. (From Vandenberg & Kuse, 1978.)

Do the know the answer?

THE MENTAL ROTATION TEST

Racial and Ethnic Similarities and Differences

Agreed-upon factsRacial and ethnic groups differ in their average intelligence test scores

High-scoring people and groups are more likely to achieve high levels of education and income

Group differences provide poor basis for judging individuals

Racial and Ethnic Similarities and Differences

Consider…Genetics research reveals races are alike

Race is not a clearly defined biological category

Within the same population, there are generation-to-generation differences in test scores

Given the same information, Blacks and Whites show similar information-processing skills

In different eras, different ethnic groups have experienced golden ages—periods of remarkable achievement

GROUP DIFFERENCES AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

Even if the variation between members within a group reflects genetic differences, the average difference between groups may be wholly due to the environment. Imagine that seeds from the same mixture are sown in different soils. Although height differences within each window box of flowers will be genetic, the height difference between the two groups will be environmental. (From Lewontin, 1976.)

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WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Might racial and ethnic gaps be similarlyenvironmental?

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The heritability of intelligence scores will be greater in a society marked by equal opportunity than in a society of poor peasants and wealthy aristocrats. Why?

Are Test Questions Biased?

The scientific meaning of bias hinges on a test’s validity

Stereotype threat involves a self-confirming concern that a judgment is based on a negative stereotype

Goals for mental abilities tests: Realize the benefits of testing; guard against misinterpretation; and remember the competence general intelligence tests sample