Chapter-9-Thinking-and-intelligence Flashcards
What is cognitive psychology?
The study of perception, learning, memory, and thought. How people tend to acquire, transform, store, and retrieve knowledge.
What are cognitions?
Mental processes involved in gaining knowledge.
What are 4 elements of cognitions?
- Concepts2. Propositions3. Cognitive schemas4. Metal Image
What are concepts?
Mental categories used to classify events and objects. Includes prototypes.
What are prototypes?
Standard and typical examples to define fuzzy concepts.
What are propositions?
Units of meaning which are composed of concepts to express single ideas.
What are cognitive schemas?
Integrated mental networks of knowledge, beliefs and expectations.
What are mental images?
A mental picture which mirrors the thing it represents.
What are two levels of Consciousness in thought?
- subconscious processes2. nonconscious processes
What are subconscious processes?
Processes which occur outside of conscious awareness and are only accessible when necessary (psychoanalytic theory)
What are nonconscious processes?
Not available to conscious awareness.
What are two types of nonconscious processes?
Implicit learning and mindlessness.
What is implicit learning?
Acquiring knowledge without awareness and being able to explain what you have learned.
What is mindlessness?
Operating on autopilot (e.g. being oblivious or stereotyping)
What is reasoning?
Drawing conclusions/ inferences from observations, facts, and assumptions.
What are formal reasoning problems?
Problems that are solved with established methods and have one single correct solution.
What are informal reasoning problems?
Problems that do not have a clearly correct solution.
What is deductive reasoning?
When a conclusion follows necessarily from certain premises. Premise is true then conclusion is true.
What is inductive reasoning?
When premises support conclusion but there is still a possibility that the conclusion is false.
What are heuristics?
Rules of thumb that suggest a course of action to guide problem-solving but does not necessarily guarantee an optimal solution.
What is dialectic reasoning?
Process in which opposing facts are weighed and compared in order to determine the best solution/ resolve differences. (pros & cons)
What stages are there in the development of reflective judgement? (3)
- Pre-reflective2. Quasi-reflective3. Reflective
What are pre-reflective stages?
Assumptions that the correct answer can be obtained through the senses of from authorities. (children rely on parents)
What are quasi-reflective stages?
Stages that recognize limits to absolute certainty, realize judgement should be supported by reasons, yet pay attention to evidence that confirms beliefs (confirmation bias)
What are reflective stages?
Stages that consider evidence from a variety of sources and reason dialectically.
What are 7 barriers to rational reasoning?
- Exaggerating improbable (affect and availability heuristic)2. Avoiding loss (framing effect)3. Fairness bias4. Hindsight bias5. Confirmation bias6. Mental Sets7. Need cognitive consistency
What is the affect heuristic?
Tendency to consult one’s emotions instead of estimating the probability of something occurring objectively.
What is the availability heuristic?
Tendency to judge the probability of a type of event by how easy it is to think of examples. (plane crash in 9/11 stopped people from taking planes even though more deaths occur from car crashes)
What is the framing effect?
The tendency to respond more cautiously to things that are negatively framed in order to minimize losses.
What is the fairness bias?
A sense of fairness taking precedence over rational self-interest when making economic choices.
What is the hindsight bias?
Tendency to overestimate one’s own ability to have predicted something once the outcome of the event is already known.
What is the confirmation bias?
Tendency to look for/ inly pay attention to information that support one’s own beliefs.
What are mental sets?
Tendency to solve problems using procedures that worked for previous problems.
What is cognitive dissonance?
A state of tension that occurs when a person holds two cognitions that are psychologically inconsistent, or when a person’s own belief is incongruent with their behaviour.
When would one try to reduce cognitive dissonance?
- When you must justify a choice that you made freely2. When you need to justify behaviour that conflicts with your view of yourself3. When you need to justify effort put into a decision of choice.
What is intelligence?
An inferred characteristic of an individual that usually defines the ability to profit from experience, acquire knowledge, think abstractly, act purposefully, or adapt to changes in the environment.
How is intelligence measured? (2)
Using psychometric or cognitive approaches.
What is the psychometric approach to intelligence?
Approach measures mental abilities, traits, and processes.
What is factor analysis?
Statistical method for analyzing intercorrelations among measures or test scores.
What is the “g factor”?
A general intellectual ability assumed by many theorists to underlie specific mental abilities and talents.
What is mental age (MA)?
The relative intellectual development relative to that of other children.
Which scientists examined mental age?
Binet (developed first test to pick out which children were not doing as well) and Simon..
What was an early scoring system devised to yield IQ?
MA/CA x 100
Why didn’t the early way of measuring IQ work well?
Doesn’t apply to adults.
How is IQ distributed on a graph?
“normally” on bell shaped curve.
What percentage of people have an IQ between 85-115?
68%
What percentage of people have an IQ between 55-145?
97.50%
What are 3 types of IQ tests?
- Standford Binet Intelligence test -> Lewis Terman brought to North America2. Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)3. Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)
What is Stereotype threat?
A burden of doubt a person feels about their own performance due to negative stereotypes about parts of their identity and their groups abilities.
What is the cognitive approach to intelligence?
Assumes that there are many kinds of intelligence and emphasizes strategies people use when thinking about a problem and arriving at a solution. Reject “g factor”.
What is Sternberg’s Triarchic theory of intelligence?
Emphasizes information processing strategies, the ability to creatively transfer skill to new situations, and the practical application of intelligence.
What are Sternberg’s 3 aspects of intelligence?
- Componential-analytic2. Experiential- creative3. Contextual- practical
What are Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences?
- Linguistic2. Logico-mathematical3. Musical4. Spatial5. Bodily-kinesthetic4. Naturalist5. Interpersonal (awareness of others)6. Intrapersonal (self-aware)
What is cognitive ethology?
Study of cognitive processes in nonhuman animals.
Can some animals anticipate events, plan, and coordinate activities with others?
Yes.
In Kohler’s study of the chimpanzee sultan, what did he discover?
Sultan was able to think, plan, and problem-solve to get bananas down from a high location.
What is ‘theory of mind’?
A system of beliefs about the way one’s mind and the minds of others work. Some animals may have this.
What is anthromorphism?
The tendency to falsely attribute human qualities to nonhuman beings.
What is anthropodenial?
The tendency to think that humans have nothing in common with other animals.
What is creativity?
A measure of our divergent thinking.
What tests the mental flexibility necessary for creativity?
The Remote Associates Test.
What personality characteristics are important for creativity?
- Nonconformity2. Curiosity3. Persistence
