Cognition, Intelligence and Language

Question 1

What does psychology deal with?

Answer 1

PSYCHOLOGY deals with ‘the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behavior in a given context; it’s a study of mental process.

Question 2

What is Cognitive psychology?

Answer 2

COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY specifically looks at ‘the psychological study of higher mental processes, including thinking and perception’

Question 3

What is Cognition?

Answer 3

Cognition looks at
‘the mental action or process
of acquiring knowledge and understanding
through thought, experience, and the senses’.

Cognition includes:

1. Thinking
2. Decision making
3. Intelligence

Question 4

What is thinking?

Answer 4

Thinking is the:
• the mental manipulation of internal representations of objects,
activities, problems, or situations.

• When we are thinking we make use of certain mental structures or systems of symbols.

Involves: Problem-solving

[ Mental images, concepts, and language]
These are the basic units of thinking

Question 5

Basic units of thought

Answer 5

1. Mental images
2. Concepts
3. Language (symbols)

Question 6

Mental images, what are they?

Answer 6

They are – mental representations that have picture-like qualities –
more than just pictures includes images formed by other senses or a combination of senses.

Question 7

What are concepts?

Answer 7

Concepts are – ideas that represent categories of objects or events, simplify the world.

• Building blocks of thinking that help us to organize information
• Hierarchical organization of concepts:

1. Superordinate level – food
2. Intermediate level – fruit
3. Subordinate level – apple

Question 8

Language (symbols) define.

Answer 8

words or symbols and rules for combining them.

Symbols also include mathematical formula, pictures, graphs, and maps

Question 9

Discuss mental images.

Answer 9

• Occur in a mental space; can be manipulated, picked up, rotated and scanned.
• Mental images are not flat, like photographs.
• Mental rotation is partly based on imagined movements. ie we mentally
“pick up: an object and turn it around

Question 10

How are mental images formed?

Answer 10

• Formation of mental images reverses 
operation from memory to visual cortex, 
where the image is recreated.
• Other sensory modalities, including kinesthetic images – muscular 
sensations

In general:
• 97% of us have visual images
• 92% have auditory images
• More than 50% have imagery for movement, touch, smell, and pain

Question 11

We use (mental) images to do what?

Answer 11

think, remember, and solve problems.
• Make a decision or solve a problem
• Improve a skill
• Change a feeling
• Aid memory

• People with good imaging score high on creativity

Question 12

Synesthesia

Answer 12

images cross normal sensory barriers. Chicken tastes

‘pointy’, sounds like a ‘bottom’, sounds have colors, etc

Question 13

Concept formation

Answer 13

-It is a process of classifying information into meaningful categories.

e.g What is this? [picture showing a dog]
You reply dog… next question is what type of a dog is that?

Question 14

Conceptual rule and conceptual errors

Answer 14

Conceptual rules: guidelines for deciding whether objects or events belong to a concept class.

Conceptual errors: oversimplification of a complex category – eg.
stereotypes

Question 15

Prototype

Answer 15

Prototype: Representative example of a concept; exhibits the typical
features and acts as a reference point.
• The process of concept formation is the part of the mind’s attempt to
function economically, to minimize processing time and effort
• Helps us to identify things efficiently
• We mentally compare things we see to prototypes

Question 16

Types of meaning

Answer 16

• Denotative meaning (exact definition)

* Connotative meaning (emotional or personal meaning)

Question 17

Faulty concepts

Answer 17

Using inaccurate concepts often leads to thinking errors.

e. g. social stereotypes
e. g. all-or-nothing thinking

Question 18

Thinking styles may be Logical, Illogical, deductive, and inductive. What do all these mean?

Answer 18

• Logical: proceed from given information to new conclusions on basis of explicit rules
• Illogical: intuitive, associative, or personal
• Deductive: going from general principles to specific situations
• Inductive: going from specific facts or observations to general principles.

Question 19

Thinking creatively.

Answer 19

Includes all thinking styles plus:
• Fluency: defined as the total number of suggestions one is able to
make
• Flexibility: number of times one shifts from one class of possible uses
to another
• Originality: how novel or unusual ideas are

Question 20

Language as a system?

Answer 20

Language is a system of symbols that stand for or represent objects and ideas:

• A shared system of meaning used to communicate with others
• Easier to manipulate and convey meaning.
• Language and thought–thinking can take place without language, but
thinking relies heavily on language
• Helps us to form concepts through naming and classifying
perceptions
• The words we use affect meaning (and thought)

Question 21

Thinking and Language: Cross-Cultural Studies –Linguistic determinism

Answer 21

• Developing particular words for an object or phenomenon enables the perception of differences, making distinctions, and categorizing information in ways that would not otherwise be possible.

In other words, we perceive the world
according to the framework conferred by our language.

• Sapir-Whorf documented a large number of words Eskimo have for ‘snow’.

• Also, the Native American Hopi do not distinguish between past, present, and future, as European languages do. He argues that this affects the perception of
time as circular and continuous

Question 22

The structure of Language

Answer 22

• Phonemes: basic speech sounds
• Morphemes: speech sounds collected into meaningful units (syllables,
words)
• Grammar: a set of rules for combining words into sentences; syntax =
rules for word order

Question 23

• Transformation rules: Noam Chomsky

Answer 23

• The dog bit the man
• The man was bitten by the dog
• The dog did not bite the man
• Did the dog bite the man?
• Language is productive – generates new thoughts and ideas.
• Language is not limited to speech: Gestural languages

Question 24

problem-solving

Answer 24

1. Mechanical solutions
2. Heuristics
3. Insightful solutions
4. Common barriers to problem-solving
5. Solutions by understanding

Question 25

Mechanical solutions

Answer 25

• Mechanical solutions may be adequate for routine problems. • These are achieved through: Trial by error By rote

Question 26

Solutions by Understanding

Answer 26

• Understanding the problem implies gaining a deeper comprehension of the problem. • German psychologist Karl Duncker found this involved two phases: • Discovering the general properties of a correct solution (the overall idea of what is required to solve the problem but without specific detail) • Then working on a functional solution with sufficient detail to guide further action to solve the problem

Question 27

Heuristic strategies

Answer 27

Heuristic refers to any strategy or technique that aids problem solving, especially by limiting the number of possible solutions to be tried. • A heuristic is a “rule of thumb” that reduces the number of alternatives to consider

Question 28

Some heuristic strategies

Answer 28

1. Identify the way the current situation differs from your desired goal and identify the steps you need to take to reduce the difference. 2. If you can’t get to the desired goal identify intermediary goals or subproblems to get you closer 3. Try working backward from the desired goal to the starting point or current state 4. Represent the problem in other ways e.g. with graphs, diagrams, or analogies 5. Generate a possible solution and test it

Question 29

Heuristic strategy: general thinking strategy -5 steps aimed to achieve effective problem solving

Answer 29

* IDENTIFY: identify the problem * DEFINE: define it clearly * EXPLORE: Explore possible solutions and knowledge * ACT: act by trying a possible solution or hypothesis * LOOK: look at the results and learn from them

Question 30

Insightful solutions

Answer 30

• Gaining insight – a solution appears suddenly and we wonder why we didn’t see it before, a problem seen in a new way so that solution is clear. • Re-organise elements of a problem, selecting elements that are relevant and ignoring those that are not • Comparison of new problems with old information, information about problems that have already been solved

Question 31

Insightful solutions: | Three-process view by Robert Sternberg and Janet Davidson

Answer 31

``` Proposed that insight involves three abilities: • Selective coding • This refers to selecting information that is relevant to a problem while ignoring distractions. ``` * Selective combination * Bringing together seemingly unrelated bits of useful information * Selective comparison * The ability to compare new problems with old information or with problems already solved.

Question 32

Barriers to Problem-solving.

Answer 32

1. Fixations: Functional fixedness: the inability to see new uses for familiar objects 2. Emotional barriers – unable to solve problems because our emotions get in the way of thinking clearly. Inhibition, fear of making fool of self, fear of making mistake, excessive self-criticism, etc. 3. Learned barriers – conventions about uses (Fixations, functional fixedness) , possibilities, taboos 4. Perceptual barriers – sometimes we tend to see only one aspect of a problem and ignore others 5. Cultural barriers – one culture may lead us to believe that reason and logic are the best means to solving a problem and that fantasy and play are a waste of time because their valued ethic is work.

Question 33

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Answer 33

• Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to computer programs capable of doing things that require intelligence when done by people. • AI is based on the fact that many tasks – from harmonizing music to medical diagnosis – can be reduced to a set of rules applied to a body of information. * AI is invaluable in situations where speed, vast memory, and persistence are required. * Machine ‘intelligence’ is ultimately ‘blind’ outside its underlying set of rules. In contrast, human cognition is more flexible. Humans are able to take into account exceptions, context, and interpretations as they think.

Question 34

Define intelligence

Answer 34

• In general, intelligence is the ability to act purposefully, to think rationally and to deal effectively with the environment • Intelligence also involves general mental abilities: Capacity to learn, memory, ability to reason and solve problems, and successful adaptation to environment • Complex concept viewed differently

Question 35

Many psychologists simply accept an operational definition of intelligence, spelling out the procedures they use to measure it.

Answer 35

• By selecting test items a psychologist is saying in a very direct way ‘this is what I mean by intelligence’ • By using the formal tests this justifies their operational definitions (functional issue, often simply using what is available)

Question 36

• Measuring intelligence

Answer 36

Using psychological tests • Standardised measure of a person’s behavior • Set procedures for administration and scoring • Norms – how well you score relative to other people • Reliable – consistently measures • Valid – measures what it claims to measure

Question 37

Mental age

Answer 37

• Mental age is based on the level of age-ranked questions a person can answer. • e.g. at ages 8/9 very few children can define the word ‘connection’ • At age 10, 10% can. • At age 13, 60% can. • Mental age is a good measure of actual ability. But mental age says nothing about whether overall intelligence is high or low, compared with other people of the same age. • To find out what a particular mental age means, we must consider a person’s chronological age. Then we can relate mental age to actual age. • This yields an IQ or intelligence quotient. • Notice that a person’s IQ will be 100 when mental age equals chronological age.

Question 38

Intelligence quotient

Answer 38

• MA (mental age) gives an indication of mental ability but does not provide information regarding the functioning in comparison to people of same chronological age • IQ allows us to compare the test performance of people of different ages • MA (mental age) generally increases until 16 years and then remains on the same level • IQ stabilizes around 6 years of age • Average IQ at any age is 10

Question 39

Intellectual disability | Prevalence 1% of the population.

Answer 39

To assess for ID (intellectual disability) • IQ less than 70 ``` CATEGORIES of Intellectual disability: • Mild ID • Moderate ID • Severe ID • Profound ID • Assess adaptive behavior ```

Question 40

Assess adaptive behavior.

Answer 40

• Assess adaptive behavior (a person’s ability to perform basic skills such as dressing, eating, communicating, shopping, and working) * Mild ID: can get through primary school then struggle, concrete topics * Moderate ID: needs some supervision and then can take care of basic needs, engage in limited conversation * Severe ID: need close supervision in all areas, recognizes people, gesture or broken language * Profound ID: need constant care, communicate often through crying if has a need.

Question 41

Causes of Intellectual disability

Answer 41

Causes: organic: fetal damage, birth trauma, metabolic disorders, genetic abnormalities.

Question 42

Intelligence theories

Answer 42

1. Biological intelligence: • Sir Francis Galton – believed that intelligence was hereditary • Nature (inherited component of intelligence) vs nurture (effects of the environment) 2. Intelligence as one general factor (g) or multiple factors • Charles Spearman – general intelligence-based research on findings that there was a strong relation between performances on different intellectual tasks • Gardner – multiple intelligences – defines intelligence in terms of mental skills or abilities

Question 43

Multiple intelligences

Answer 43

• Musical intelligence – composing, appreciating, and performing music • Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence – the movement of the body or body parts • Logical-mathematical intelligence – logical reasoning, solving problems and numerical calculation • Linguistic intelligence – related to the expression and understanding of language * Spatial intelligence – for organizing things in space * Interpersonal intelligence (emotional) – for getting on with people • Intrapersonal intelligence – understanding ourselves and being in touch with our feelings • Naturalist intelligence

Question 44

Intelligence: Hereditary vs environment

Answer 44

• People who are closely related obtain similar scores on IQ tests • People who are raised in similar environments obtain similar scores on IQ tests •Genetic potential is present at birth and environmental factors activate this potential

Question 45

Information processing approach

Answer 45

• Intelligence is based on three components – attentional processes, information processes and planning processes

Question 46

Robert Sternberg – 3 aspects of Intelligence

Answer 46

Componential intelligence - ways in which people process information • Experiential intelligence – the way a person’s past experience contributes to knowledge and skills that are applied in life situations • Contextual intelligence – ability to adapt to real-world situations and contexts He believed that intelligence is a culturally defined concept