Ch 8 Flashcards
Elements of Cognition
Elements of Cognition
Concept
A mental category that groups objects, relations, activities,
abstractions, or qualities having common properties.
Basic concepts
Concepts that have a moderate number of instances and that are easier to acquire than those having few or many instances. Example: fruit (abstract) apple (basic) McIntosh apple (specific)
Prototype
An especially representative example of a concept.
Proposition
A unit of meaning that is made up of concepts and expresses a single
idea. Example: “Sarah raises border collies.”
Cognitive schema
An integrated mental network of knowledge, beliefs, and expectations
concerning a particular topic or aspect of the world.
Example: Gender schema - a person’s beliefs and expectations about
what it means to be male or female.
Mental image
A mental representation that mirrors or
resembles the thing it represents; mental
images occur in many and perhaps all
sensory modalities.
How Conscious is Thought?
Subconscious processes Mental processes occurring outside of conscious awareness but accessible to consciousness when necessary. Nonconscious processes Mental processes occurring outside of and not available to conscious awareness.
Insight and Intuition
Stage
Stage One
Nonconscious process.
Clues in the problem automatically activate certain memories or
knowledge.
Begin to see a pattern or structure in the problem.
Stage Two
Conscious process.
Become aware of a possible solution to the problem.
“Aha, now I see!”.
Langer, Blank, & Chanowitz (1978)
A researcher approached people as they were about to
use a photocopier and made one of three requests:
1. “Excuse me, may I use the Xerox machine?”
2. “Excuse me, may I use the Xerox machine, because
I have to make copies?”
3. “Excuse me, may I use the Xerox machine, because
I’m in a rush?”
Mindless Processing
Advantage Helps us complete tasks faster. Disadvantage Leads to trivial mishaps and serious errors. Conscious awareness is needed only when we must make a deliberate choice.
Reasoning
The drawing of conclusions or inferences from
observations, facts, or assumptions.
Formal Reasoning Problems
The information needed for drawing a conclusion or reaching a solution is
specified clearly, and there is a single right or best answer.
Algorithms
A problem-solving strategy guaranteed to produce a solution even if the
user does not know how it works.
Example: A cake recipe.
Deductive Reasoning
premise true + premise true-> conclusion must be true
inductive reasoning
premise true + premise true + possibility of discrepent information-> conclusion probably true
Informal Reasoning Problems
There is often many possible solutions, and you will have to decide which
one is most reasonable.
Heuristic
A rule of thumb that suggests a course of action or guides problem
solving but does not guarantee an optimal solution.
Dialectical reasoning
A process in which opposing facts or ideas are weighed and compared, with a view to determining the best solution or resolving differences
Reflective Judgment
Reflective Judgment involves:
- Questioning assumptions.
- Evaluating and integrating evidence.
- Considering alternative interpretations.
- Reaching conclusions that can be defended as reasonable.
- Willingness to reassess conclusions in the face of new information.
King & Kitchener’s Reflective Judgment Model
1. Prereflective Stages Stage 1 Stage 2 2. Quasi-reflective Stages Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5 3. Reflective Judgment Stages Stage 6 Stage 7
Barriers to Reasoning Rationally
- Exaggerating the improbable
- Avoiding loss
- Relying on mental sets
- Committing the hindsight bias
- Succumbing to the confirmation bias
- Creating cognitive consistency
Exaggerating the Improbable
The inclination to exaggerate the
probability of rare events
Availability heuristic
The tendency to judge the probability of
a type of event by how easy it is to think
of examples or instances
Avoiding Loss
Human beings try to avoid or minimize risks and
losses when they make decisions.
The decisions we make depend on how the
alternatives are framed.
Respond cautiously when choices are framed in
terms of losses
Respond positively when choices are framed in
terms of gain
Fairness Bias
Demonstrated using Ultimatum Game
Partner Gets $20 and decides how much to
give to you
If you accept, money is split based on the
offer.
If you reject, no one receives any money
Many people reject offers they consider too low
or “unfair”
The Hindsight Bias
The tendency to overestimate our
ability to have predicted an event
once the outcome is known.
Everyday Examples of The Hindsight Bias
Political judgments “I always knew my candidate would win.” Medical judgments “I could have told you that mole was cancerous.” Military opinions “The generals should have known that Pearl Harbor would be attacked.”
Biases Due to Mental Sets
Mental Sets
A tendency to solve problems using procedures
that worked in the past.
Make learning and problem solving efficient.
Not helpful when a problem calls for fresh
insights and methods.
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort experienced by a person who simultaneously holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values
Festinger, Riecken, & Schachter (1956)
The Study:
Infiltrated a group of people who thought the world would end
on December 21.
Believed they would be whisked to safety at midnight on
December 20.
Many followers quit their jobs and spent all their savings
Many group members felt
cognitive dissonance when
the world did not end.
Reducing Cognitive Dissonance
Researcher’s prediction Followers would increase their religious belief to avoid the realization that they had behaved foolishly. Result Followers believed that the world had been spared because of their impressive faith!
Cognitive-dissonance in Everyday Life
People will resist or rationalize information that
conflicts with their existing ideas.
Everyday Example:
Smoking cigarettes is dissonant with your awareness
that smoking causes illness.
Efforts to Reduce Dissonance:
Trying to quit, rejecting the evidence that smoking is
bad, or persuading yourself that you will quit later on
Reducing Dissonance
- Justifying a choice or decision freely made
Post-decision dissonance
Tension that occurs when you believe that you have
made a bad decision.
Resolving the dissonance
Convincing yourself that what you chose is truly the best.
Cognitive Consistency
- Justifying behaviour that
conflicts with your view of
yourself. - Justifying the effort put into a decision or choice
Justification of effort
The tendency of individuals to increase their
liking for something that they have worked hard
or suffered to attain.
Overcoming Our Cognitive Biases
People are not equally irrational in all situations. Reducing Cognitive Biases Gaining expertise in an area. Making decisions with serious consequences. Developing an understanding of cognitive biases.
What is Intelligence?
The ability to profit from experience, acquire
knowledge, think abstractly, or adapt to changes
in the environment.
Intelligence Tests
- Provide specific information.
- Notice similarities between objects.
- Solve arithmetic problems.
- Define words.
- Fill in the missing parts of pictures.
- Arrange pictures in a logical order.
- Arrange blocks to resemble a design.
- Assemble puzzles.
- Use a coding scheme.
10.Judge what behaviour would be appropriate in a
particular situation.
Factor Analysis
A statistical method for analyzing the intercorrelations among various
measures or test scores.
Scores that are highly correlated are assumed to measure the same
underlying trait, ability or aptitude.
g factor
A general intellectual ability assumed by many theorists to underlie
specific mental abilities and talents.
Psychometric Approach
The measurement of mental abilities, traits, and processes. Focuses on how well people perform on standardized aptitude tests, which are designed to measure the ability to acquire skills or knowledge in the future.
Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale
First psychological test.
Developed by Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon.
Used to identify slow learners in the classroom.
Mental Age
A measure of mental development expressed in terms
of the average mental ability at a given age.
Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale
Questions
Measure memory, vocabulary, and perceptual
discrimination.
Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
Originally computed by dividing a person’s mental age by
his or her chronological age and multiplying by 100.
Now derived from norms provided for standardized tests.
The IQ Test in North America
Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale
Revision of Binet’s original test.
Developed by Stanford psychologist Lewis
Termann.
Established norms for North American children.
Psychologist David Wechsler developed two IQ tests
1. Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)
Designed to study intelligence in adults
2. Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children
Developed to study children’s intelligence
The Use of IQ Tests
Original Purpose
Binet used his IQ test for predicting school performance.
Identified children with learning problems in order to improve their school
performance.
Present Use
Original purpose has been lost.
Widely used to categorize and rank children in school.
Supposedly measures “natural ability” to succeed.
Culture and IQ Testing
Intelligence tests often favour urban, white, middle-class children.
Recent IQ tests attempted to reduce this bias:
1. Culture-free
Tests that eliminate all cultural bias.
2. Culture-fair
Tests that incorporate knowledge and skills common to many cultures.
Cultural Differences
Cultural values and experiences affect the following: Methods used to classify objects A person’s attitude toward exams Comfort in the exam setting Rapport with the test administrator Competitiveness Ease in solving problems independently
Stereotypes and IQ Scores
Performance on IQ tests depends on an
individual’s own expectations about how they will
do.
Expectations are shaped by cultural stereotypes.
Stereotypes
Popularly held beliefs that people have certain
characteristics because of their membership in a
particular group.
Stereotype Threat
negative stereotypes about ones group-“theyre unintelligent”-> leads to anxiety or disidentification which then worsened performance or reduced motivation
Shih, Pittinsky & Ambady (1999)
Positive Stereotypes: Improve performance
Asian women answered a questionnaire about their ethnicity.
They performed better on a math test than the control group.
Activated the “Asians are good at math” stereotype.
Negative Stereotypes: Weaken performance
Asian women answered a questionnaire about their gender.
They performed worse on a math test than the control group.
Activated the “Women are bad at math” stereotype.
Reducing Cultural Biases
Theoretical Solution
Establish test norms that are not based on white urban children.
Eliminate test items in which such children get higher scores than
others.
Problem with Theoretical Solution
Eliminated items measure skills and knowledge useful in the
classroom.
Reveal who may succeed within the specific cultural and educational
practices that occur within schools.
The Cognitive Approach
Method that looks at many different types of intelligence.
Emphasizes the strategies people use when thinking
about a problem and arriving at a solution.
g factor
Reflects educational practices emphasized in Western
societies.
Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory
A theory of intelligence that emphasizes information
processing strategies, the ability to creatively
transfer skills to new situations, and the practical
application of intelligence.
Three aspects of intelligence:
1. Componential intelligence.
2. Experiential or creative intelligence.
3. Contextual or practical intelligence.
Componential intelligence
Information processing strategies used when we
think intelligently about a problem.
Components
Recognizing a problem.
Selecting a method for solving it.
Mastering and carrying out the strategy.
Evaluating the result
Componential Intelligence
Meta-Cognition
The knowledge or awareness of one’s own cognitive
processes.
Meta-cognition is correlated with academic success.
Enables students to check their comprehension of
material.
Experiential Intelligence
Creativity in transferring skills to new situations.
High in Experiential Intelligence
Cope well with novelty and quickly learn to make new tasks
automatic.
Low in Experiential Intelligence
Perform well only under a narrow set of circumstances.
Contextual Intelligence
Practical application of intelligence, which requires
the ability to take into account the different
contexts in which you find yourself.
Tactic Knowledge
Strategies for success that are not explicitly taught
but that instead must be inferred.
Gardner’s Domains of Intelligence
- Logical-mathematical
- Linguistic
- Musical
- Spatial
- Bodily-kinesthetic
- Interpersonal
- Intrapersonal
- Naturalist
Gardner’s Domains of Intelligence
- Logical-mathematical
Capacity to carry out mathematical operations and
analyze problems logically (Example: Scientist) - Linguistic
Ability to use spoken and written language to
accomplish certain goals (Example: Poet) - Musical
Skill in the performance, composition, and
appreciation of musical patterns. (e.g., pianist) - Spatial
Capacity to accurately perceive the visual-spatial
world and respond accurately to the perceptions.
(e.g., navigator) - Intrapersonal
Ability to understand oneself and to appreciate
one’s feelings. - Interpersonal
Capacity to understand the intentions, motivations and
desires of other people. (e.g., psychologist) - Bodily-Kinesthetic
Ability to coordinate bodily movements (e.g., gymnast) - Naturalist
Ability to understand and maintain an interest in
environmental issues (e.g., biologist)
Critique of Gardner’s Eight Domains
Critique of Gardner’s Domains
Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Intelligence are merely personality traits.
Musical and kinesthetic intelligence are talents.
Supporter for Gardner’s Domains
Forces researchers to think critically about intelligence.
Inspired research on a new type of mental testing, known as dynamic
testing.
Overcome bias that only one type of intelligence = life success.
Motivation and Success
Success depends on drive and determination The Lesson of the Termites Researchers studied 1500 boys and girls All ranked in the top 1 percent of the IQ distribution In adulthood, many became successful However, some gifted men failed to live up to their early promise
The Lesson of the Termites
There was no average difference in IQ between the
two groups.
100 most successful men
Ambitious, socially active, had many interests, and
were encouraged by their parents.
100 least successful men
Drifted casually through life.
Cultural Attitudes and Motivation
Cultural values strongly influence beliefs and attitudes
about intelligence and achievement.
Asian Children vs. North American Children
Asian children were educated in larger classes
with less resources, and came from less educated families.
Asian children still outperformed North American children on
mathematical and reading tests.
Biological Approaches to Intelligence
The Brain and Intelligence
Brain volume is significantly correlated with IQ.
The size of the corpus callosum is also positively correlated with
IQ.
Performance on an intelligence test is positively correlated with the
rate at which the brain reacts to stimuli.
A Note of Caution Studies on the relationship between the brain and IQ are CORRELATIONAL! Correlation ≠ Causation. A third unknown variable may be responsible for the relationship.
