Chapter 8- Thinking & Intelligence

Question 1

What is an algorithm?

Answer 1

A methodical, logical rule of procedure that guarantees you will solve a particular problem.

Question 2

What is heuristic?

Answer 2

A simple thinking strategy that often allows you to make judgments and solve problems efficiently.

Question 3

What is insight?

Answer 3

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

Question 4

What is confirmation bias?

Answer 4

A tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort evidence that contradicts them.

Question 5

What is fixation?

Answer 5

Obstacle to problem-solving. Once we get hung up on a problem it’s hard to approach it from a different angle.

Question 6

What is intelligence?

Answer 6

A mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations.

Question 7

What is general intelligence (g)?

Answer 7

A general intelligence factor that, according to Spearman and others, underlies specific mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test.

Question 8

What is creativity?

Answer 8

The ability to produce new and valuable ideas.

Question 9

What is emotional intelligence?

Answer 9

The ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions.

Question 10

What is standardization?

Answer 10

Defining uniform testing procedures and meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested group.

Question 11

What is an intelligence test?

Answer 11

A method for assessing an individual’s mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores.

Question 12

What is an aptitude test?

Answer 12

A test designed to predict a person’s future performance.

Question 13

What is an achievement test?

Answer 13

A test designed to assess what a person has learned.

Question 14

What is normal curve?

Answer 14

A symmetrical, bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many types of data.

Question 15

What is reliability?

Answer 15

The extent to which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test, on alternative forms of the test, or on retesting.

Question 16

What is validity?

Answer 16

The extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to.

Question 17

What is mental age?

Answer 17

A measure of intelligence test performance devised by Binet; the chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance.

Question 18

What is Standford-Binet?

Answer 18

The widely used American revision (by Terman at Stanford University) of Binet’s original intelligence test.

Question 19

What is intelligence quotient (IQ)?

Answer 19

Defined originally as the ratio of mental age to chronological age multiplied by 100. On contemporary intelligence tests, the average performance for a given age is assigned a score of 100.

Question 20

What is Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)?

Answer 20

The most widely used intelligence test; contains verbal and perfrormance (nonverbal) subtests.

Question 21

Why can news be described as “something that hardly ever happens”?

Answer 21

If a tragic event such as a plane crash makes the news, it is noteworthy and unusual, unlike much more common events such as traffic accidents.

Question 22

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

Answer 22

Infants normally start developing receptive language skills (ability to understand what is said to and about them) around 4 moths of age. Then, starting with babbling at 4 months, and beyond, infants normally start building productive language skills (ability to produce sounds and eventually words).

Question 23

What was Noam Chomsky’s explanation of language development?

Answer 23

Chomsky maintained that all languages share a universal grammar, and humans are biologically predisposed to learn the grammar rules of language.

Question 24

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

Answer 24

Our brain’s critical period for language learning is in childhood, when we can absorb language structure almost effortlessly. As we move past that stage in our brain’s development, our ability to learn a new language drops dramatically.

Question 25

_ _ 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.

Answer 25

Broca’s area; Wernicke’s area

Question 26

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

Answer 26

Mental practice uses visual imagery to mentally rehearse future behaviors, activating some of the same brain areas used during the actual behaviors. Visualizing the details of the process is more effective than visualizing only your end goal.

Question 27

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

Answer 27

Gardner sees intelligence as eight relatively independent abilities. Sternberg agrees with Gardner that there is more to real-world success than traditional understandings of intelligence. However, he thinks that there are just three kinds of intelligence, not eight.

Question 28

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

Answer 28

Binet hoped that the child’s mental age would help identify appropriate school placements with children of similar abilities.

Question 29

An employer with a pool of applicants for a single available position is interested in testing each applicant’s potential. To help her decide whom she should hire, she should use an _ (achievement/aptitude) test. The same employer wishing to test the effectiveness of a new, on-the-job training program would be wise to use an _ (achievement/aptitude) test.

Answer 29

aptitude; achievement.

Question 30

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

Answer 30

125 (5/4x100=125)

Question 31

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

Answer 31

Must be standardized, reliable, and valid.

Question 32

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?

Answer 32

Perfect environmental equality would create 100% heritability, because genes alone would account for any remaining human differences.

Question 33

What is the difference between a test that is biased culturally and a test that is biased in terms of its validity?

Answer 33

A test may be culturally biased if higher scores are achieved by those with certain cultural experiences. That same test may not be biased in terms of validity if it predicts what it is supposed to predict.

Question 34

What is cognition?

Answer 34

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