chapter 10: reasoning and intelligence Flashcards
analogy
the similarity in behavior, function, or relationship between entities or situations that are in other respects, such as their physical makeup, different from each other
example of an analogy
a baseball glove is analogous to a butterfly net, both are used to capture an object and have a funnel-like shape
what is A:B :: C:X
example of an analogy (man is to woman as boy is to what)
Raven’s progressive matrices test
measure of fluid intelligence, the items are visual patterns rather then words, knowledge of word meanings isn’t essential
Experiment with children and the genie - what is it and what is an example of
example of how children use analogies - children told to transfer balls from one bowl to another without standing up, in one condition told a story about a genie who used his staff to bring the bowl closer, in the other he used it as a tunnel
experiment with analogies and political viewpoints
students used analogies for both sides of the argument (the Canadian government should eliminate deficit spending even if that would require a sharp reduction in such social programs as health care and social support)
which brain structure is NOT involved in analogical reasoning
the prefrontal cortex - anterior left inferior prefrontal cortex
what did excessive training in analogical reasoning result in
changes in the distribution of white matter connecting frontal cortices and in the frontal and parietal lobes
by what age do children start using the same brain regions as adults to solve analogical reasoning problems
by age 6
what can an educator do to support students in making analogical comparisons
provide them with opportunities to make comparisons between newly learned concepts and previously learned ones, present source, and target analogies simultaneously so that the student may visualise ways in which they’re related, provide additional cues that move between the two contexts being compared in order to highlight analogical mappings, highlight the similarities and the differences between sources and targets, use relational language to facilitate attention to shared relationships
What is some evidence concerning the usefulness of analogies in scientific reasoning?
Darwin came up with the concept of natural selection as the mechanism of evolution partly by seeing the analogy between the selective breeding of plants and animals by humans and in nature
Kepler came up with the theory of the role of gravity in planetary motion by drawing analogies between gravity and light
How are analogies useful in judicial and political reasoning? What distinguishes a useful analogy from a misleading one?
In both contexts can convince people more easily, and simplify new or complicated issues by comparing them to more familiar or less complicated issues, where the answer seems clear
Can mislead in that way
Inductive reasoning
attempt to infer some new principle or proposition from observations or facts that serve as clues, reasoning that if founded on perceived analogies or other similarities
what is the other name for inductive reasoning and why
hypothesis construction, the inferred proposition is at best an educated guess
what are the three biases tm
the availability bias, the conformation bias, and the predictable-world bias
what is the availability bias?
when we reason, we tend to rely too strongly on information that is readily available to us and to ignore information that is less available
example of availability bias
students said that d is more likely to occur in the first position in a word, causes that have been emphasized in the media are overestimated, more frequent causes underestimated, and a doctor who just treated several cases of one thing may be predisposed to perceive something else as that disease
how is the confirmation bias dealt with in science
scientists design studies aimed at disconfirming their currently held hypothesis, can never prove something is absolutely correct, but can prove if it’s incorrect
sequencing numbers experiment
confirmation bias - only a few people discovered that it’s any increasing sequence of numbers
is availability bias related to intelligence
no
what is maximizing and what is matching
in a game of chance, maximizing is always going with the most likely option, matching is attempting to guess based on previous traials
do rats have the predictable world bias
no, they always maximise, not smart enough to see patterns
is predictable-world bias related to intelligence
yes, higher IQ people maximise
what are the two different ways in which people demonstrated the confirmation bias
number sequencing experiment and assessing personality introvert/extrovert experiment
how does a die-tossing game demonstrate the predictable world bias?
people believe they can guess
deductive reasoning
attempt to derive logically the consequences that must be true if certain premises are accepted as true
series problem
requires you to organize items into a series on the basis of a set of comparison statements and then arrive at a conclusion that was not contained in any single statement (A taller than B, A shorter than C, C is shorter than D, is D shorter than C
syllogism
presents a major premise, and a minor premise that you must combine mentally to see if a particular conclusion is true, false, or indeterminate (all chefs are violinists, Mary is a chef, is she a violinist?)
what did piaget say about deductive reasoning
people who’re around 13 years old or older reason deductively by applying abstract logical principles which can be expressed mathematically
what is abstract logic
problems are solved by a sort of mental algebra, in which the specific contents of the problem are mapped onto the Xs and Ys of logical equations
abstract logic - experiments
all living things need water - roses need water - roses are living things (30% of students got correct), all insects need oxygen - mice need oxygen - mice are insects (almost everybody) + nonsense terms (70% got it right)
bias for thinking inductively
natural tendency to reason by comparing the current information with previous experience
Wason’s selection task
four cards on the table (A, G, 2, 7) and given a rule “if a card has a vowel on one side, then it must have an even number on the other side” - fewer than 10% got it, A and 7
when presented as beer, coke, 16 years old, 25 years old - much easier
deontic reasoning
reasoning about what one may, should, or ought to do
why was beer easier than numbers
deontic reasoning
insight problems
problems that are specially designed to be unsolvable until one looks at them in a way that is different from the usual way, mix of inductive and deductive reasoning
mental set
well-established habit of perception of thought
functional fixedness
the failure to see an object as having a function other than its usual one
what is the candle problem?
people are given a candle, box of matches, a box of tacks and are asked to attach the candle to the bulletin board so it can be lit - easier if the tacks are placed next to the box, encouraging subjects not to fixate on distracting surface properties of the problem
design stance
people readily assume that tools are designed for an intended purpose, adaptation -
when is the design stance seen at the earliest and how
12- and 18-months-old with a light display and a small hole on its side - they watched as the experimenter grasped the round end of a spoon (35%) or a novel spoon-like (60%) object and inserted the object’s straight end into the box
is the design stance seen in other animals
no, chimps bonobos and gorillas don’t show it
are mental capacities required for solving insight problems different from those required for deductive reasoning?
yes, people’s abilities to solve insight problems are correlated with their creativity (thinking of clever joke titles)
what is the incubation period?
a person unconsciously reorganizing the material related to the problem while consciously doing and thinking about other things
what is working-memory capacity correlated with
the ability to solve deductive reasoning problems, not with insight problems
what are unconscious, fast, mental processes more important for?
insight problems
priming
activation of mental concepts to a level that doesn’t reach the level of consciousness, but still makes that concept more available for forming connections to other concepts (incubation period)
broaden and build theory
negative emotions narrow one’s focus of perception and thought, lead people to only focus on the specific emotion-evoking objects and think only of routine, well-learned ways of responding
examples of the broaden and build theory
students who just watched a comedy were more successful in solving the candle problem than were those who had seen either a serious film or no film + doctors were more successful when given a bag of candy
evolutionary explanations of the broaden-and-build theory
emergency isn’t the right time to test creative ideas
alternative explanation to the broaden-and-build theory
feeling of playfulness is conductive to learned and creativity
how do people from west and non-west sort stuff?
westerners into taxonomic categories, things that are similar in some property or characteristic and non-westerners into functional groups that are often found together in the real world
example of taxonomic/function grouping
ax, log, shovel, saw - westerners said log doesn’t belong, non-westerners said it’s the shovel
how do East Asians perceive and reason + example
more holistically and less analytically, focus on and remember the whole scene and interrelationships among objects
experiment with an underwater scene - Japanese students gave a much more more complete descriptions, more likely to recall relationships among elements
more likely to recognize fish when in front of the same background
what is the absolute and the relative task
absolute task involves analytic processing, relative involves holistic processing
at what age does the absolute/relative task division happen
6 years old
what happens when testing younger children on the absolute task
all children found the absolute task more difficult
how do East Asians describe success
talk about the supportive family, excellent education, inherited wealth or other fortunate circumstances
is the difference between west/non west genetic
no, within a couple of generations, East Asians who moved to the US lost holistic views
what are the roots of west/non-west differences
west influenced by Ancient Greek philosophy (separate, independent nature of entities), East Asians influenced by Confucianism (balance, harmony, wholeness)
what is intelligence
the mental activities necessary for adaption to, as well as shaping and selecting of, any environmental context
how were the first IQ tests made
school systems wanted them to determine who could profit most from education, employers wanted them to help decide whom to hire for jobs and armies wanted to decide how to assign recruits to ranks and tasks
what was the first IQ test and where/when was it made
Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale, in France in 1905
what skills was the Binet-Simons IQ test measuring
skills required for schoolwork: testing memory, vocabulary, common knowledge, use of numbers, understanding of time, ability to combine ideas
how did they test the Binet-Simons Intelligence Scale
problems were pretested with school children of various ages and the results compared with teachers’ ratings of each child’s classroom performance
what was the first IQ test in North America and when/where was it developed
Stanford-Binet Scale, in Stanford in 1916
what are the most common tests today and who/when developed them
David Wechsler in the 1930s, Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale fourth edition + his Cale for children (7 to 16) + his preschool and primary scale of intelligence (2 to 7 years old)
what groups are subtests grouped into and about each one
Verbal comprehension (vocabulary, similarities, information), perceptual processing (spatial and quantitative reasoning - block design, matrix reasoning, visual puzzles), working memory (digit span, arithmetic span), processing speed (symbol search, digit-symbol coding)
test’s abilities to predict success in schools
between 0.3 and 0.7
how is the correlation between IQ and career success, measured on-the-job performance as measured by supervisors’ or colleagues ratios
moderate positive correlation, depends on the type of job, little judgement and reasoning - 0.2 but for jobs that require a lot of judgement and reasoning 0.5 or 0.6
Scotland IQ study
people who scored high when 11 years old much more likely to still be alive at age 76, a 15 point difference was associated with a 21% difference in survival rate
positive manifold
people who scored high on any mental test tended to score higher on all other tests (0.3 to 0.6)
factor analysis
analyzing patterns of correlation, some common factor is measured by every mental test
what is g and who
general intelligence, every mental test is partly a measure of g and partly a measure of some specific ability that is unique to that test + Spearman
what did Catell say
two types of intelligence: fluid and crystallized
what is fluid intelligence
ability to perceive relationships among stimuli independently of previous specific practice or instruction concerning those relationships
what tests reflect fluid intelligence
tests of memory span, speed of processing, and spatial thinking + Raven’s Progressive Matrices test
what is crystalized intelligence
mental ability derived directly from previous experience
what tests assess crystalized intelligence
tests of knowledge of word meanings, cultural practices, how particular tools or instruments work
when does fluid and when does crystallized intelligence peak?
fluid around 20 to 25 and crystallized increases until about 50
how are speed of responding and intelligence correlated + who
moderately, negatively 0.3 to 0.5 - Galton
inspection time
the minimal time a subject needs to look at or listen to a pair of stimuli to detect the difference between them
how is the correlation for inspection time and intelligence
0.3 for fluid and 0.2 for crystallized
what are the components of executive functions
working-memory (ability to monitor and add/delete contents of the short-term store), switching and inhibition
can working-memory-span problems predict cognitive ability
yes, better than simpler memory-pan measures
what did Sternberg say about intelligence
it’s mental self-government, people who do well on IQ tests are those who can control their mental resources in a way that allows for efficiency in problem solving
heritability
the degree to which variation in a particular strain within a particular population of individuals stems from genetic differences as opposed to environmental differences
what is the range for heritability
from 0 (none of the differences in a trait are attributed to inheritance) to 1 (100% of the differences in a trait are attributed to inheritance)
what is the difficulty when looking at heritability
related people also usually share similar environments
how is heritability calculated
(r identical twins - r nonidentical twins) x 2
what’s another way to assess heritability
study the IQ correlation of Paris of identical twins who were adopted at an early age into separate homes
for how many % of IQ variance among children and adults do genetic differences account for
30% to 50%
when children in the experiment divided into a higher-education group and a low-education group how did original heritability change
original: 0.57
in the high-education group it was 0.74, but for low-education group it was 0.26
harmful environments have a strong impact on the development of traits, better environments have little influence beyond that
are both crystallized and fluent intelligence heritable
yes
how is the correlation of IQ for adopted siblings
when they’re still children it’s 0.25, but for them as adults it’s essentially zero
did the IQ correlation change in adulthood for twins too
for fraternal yes for identical no
why does IQ correlation drop in adulthood
people increasingly choose their own environment, and their gene differences influence what kind of environments they choose
correlation between openness and IQ and why
yes! openness to experience includes curiosity, independence of mind, broad interests + both for crystallized and fluid intelligence
in the US how do IQ scores of black people compare to those of white people
12 points lower
racist experiments
identified a sample of black kids in Chicago who had high IQs, interviewed parents - they don’t have more EU ancestry + also biochemical methods
stereotype threat
when people are made aware of negative stereotype for their particular social group, they tend to confirm them
stereotype threat experiment
black students scored lower when they were told they were taking an intelligence test than when they were told the test didn’t assess intelligence
voluntary and involuntary/castelike miniroties + who
Ogbu! voluntary minorities emigrated in hopes of bettering themselves + see themselves as better than those who they left behind
involuntary minorities became minorities through being conquered, colonized or enslaved (score about 10 to 15 points lower on IQ tests)
Buraku outcasts of Japan
emancipated from their official outcast status but still often occupy menial positions and are perceived as inferior - the IQ gap disappeared when they moved to the US
Flynn effect
steady increase of IQ of about 9 to 15 points every 30 years
on which tests is the greatest IQ increase
tests geared toward fluid intelligence, Raven and the similarities subtest on the WISC
