Cognitive Psych - Thinking, language and intelligence Flashcards
Nature vs Nurture
- Chomsky
○ Language is innate
Language acquisition device (LAD) - Skinner
○ Language is learned
Operant conditioning (reinforcement and punishment)
Emergentist view of language acquisition
- Language as an emergent behaviour
A complex phenomena that arises from the interactions of underlying processes but cannot be deduced or explained from the nature and logic of these properties
Multilingualism and cognition a century ago
○ View was extremely negative (believed that bilingualism would impair intelligence)
Multilingualism and cognition in the past 50 years
- Have accumulated evidence to the contrary
“Mental flexibility” (Pearl and Lambert) - Advantages in executive control
Mixed evidence -> bilingual advantage now being questioned - May contribute to “cognitive reserve”
Ex. studies examining the onset of dementia in Toronto hospital patients
Aphasia
- Language impairment affecting the production and/or comprehension of speech
The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
Linguistic determinism (strong form) vs. linguistic relativism (weak form)
Boroditsky et al
- People that speak languages that use arbitrary gender classification (french, spanish, italian…) vs people that do not (english)
- Asking how they would describe words
Knowledge representation
- A representation is anything that stands in for, or corresponds to, something else
- Ex. a map is a representation of city streets, a portrait is a representation of a person
Mental representation
A hypothetical “internal” cognitive symbol that represents external reality
Analogical representations
- Representations which maintain some of the physical characteristics of the actual object
Ex. an image of a princess
Symbolic representations
- Representations which do not correspond to the physical characteristics of actual objects
Ex. the word princes
Mental images
○ They allow us to answer questions about objects that are not in our presence
○ Also allows us to solve problems
○ We can manipulate these mental images
Ex. is this letter a mirror image or not
Categorization
The process of grouping things based on shared information
Classical categorization
- Objects are categorized according to a certain set of rules or specific set of features
- AKA the defining attribute model
- Membership within a category determined on an all-or-none basis
Ex. “A triangle is a figure with three angles and three sides”
Problems with classical categorization
- We often make exceptions to our rules
- Some attributes are more important for defining category membership than others
- Some concepts appear to be better category members than others
Concept
- A mental representation that groups objects, events, or relations around common themes
Prototype model
- Objects are categorized according to how closely they resemble the “prototype” (or best example) of the category
Ex. pigeons vs ostriches as the “average bird”
Exemplar model
- Instead of a single prototype, all members of the category that we have encountered form the concept; we choose a specific example
- Individuals may rely on either rule-based (defining attribute) or resemblance-based (prototype or exemplar) approaches depending on the situation
cultural differences in thinking styles
○ Analytic thinking (Western)
- Rule based
○ Holistic thinking (Eastern)
- Family resemblance
cultural differences in categorization strategies
○ Taxonomic (Western)
- Cat and dog go together
- Squirrel and the rabbit go together
○ Thematic (Eastern)
- Dog and bone go together
- Rabbit and the carrot go together
Heuristics
§ Shortcuts or “rules of thumb” used to deduce the amount of thinking that is needed to make a decision
Deductive reasoning
if the premises are true, then the conclusion must be true
Inductive reasoning
when you start with specific observations or facts, and infer a general rule or conclusion from them.
Benefits of heuristics
- Require minimal cognitive resources
- Allows us to decide quickly
- Often lead to reasonably good decisions
- But can lead to errors and biases
Maximizing vs satisfying
“Good enough” vs “Best possible outcome”
Availability heuristic
Estimating the frequency of an event based on how easily examples of it come to mind
Representativeness heuristic
Making judgements of likelihood based on how similar the person or object is to our prototype for that category
problem solving strategies
- Subgoals
- Working backward
- Restructuring
framing effects
- Refer to changes in the way information is perceives as a result of the way in which the information was presented
- Ex. framing a decision to emphasize either the potential losses or the potential gains of a decision alternative
- Often used in media and politics
Ex. Kahneman & Tversky’s Asian disease study
functional fixedness
- Example of a mental state
- Getting ‘stuck’ or ‘fixed’ in a particular approach to solving a problem or completing a task
Francis Galton
Believed in intellectual superiority in white people
Binet and Simon
○ Focus on cognition; notion of “mental age”
- Direction: ability to know what to do and how to do it
- Adaptation: ability to create strategies for implementing this knowledge and monitoring its progress
- Criticism: ability to step back and find error in one’s thinking
Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
- A score on a normed test of intelligence (how your score compares to other people who have taken the test before you)
○ Average IQ is 100, standard deviation of 15 - Scores help predict how successful someone will be at school or in a complex career
- However, it is only one of many factors that predict success
- Many other factors (motivation, work ethic, etc.) are just as important
Lewis Terman
IQ= (mental age/chronological age) x100
General intelligence
Information processing in novel or complex circumstances; thinking logically without the need to use learned knowledge
Spearman’s two factor theory of intelligence
- g factor and s factor
- “g” factor is linked to the general ability, while the “s” factor is linked to the specific ability
Fluid intelligence vs crystallized intelligence
- Cattell divided general intelligence into 2 types
○ Fluid intelligence
Information processing in novel or complex circumstances; thinking logically without the need to use learned knowledge
○ Crystallized intelligence
Knowledge acquired through experience, and the ability to use this knowledge to solve problems
WAIS
Weschler adult intelligence scale
- IQ test
Factor analysis
A statistical method that looks at how lots of different observations correlate and determines how many theoretical constructs could most simply explain what you see
Stanovich’s notion of “dysrationalia”
The inability to think and behave rationally despite having adequate intelligence
The cognitive reflection test
- Better predictor of performance on heuristics and biases problems than IQ-type measures
Triarchic theory of intelligence
Robert Sternberg
- Analytical
- Creative
- Practical
Successful intelligence
○ Capitalizing on strengths
○ Compensating for weaknesses
○ Critical importance of adaptivity
Augmented theory of successful intelligence
○ Wisdom -> using skills and knowledge toward a common goa
Theory of multiple intelligences
- Howard Gardner
- Promoted the idea that people can show different skills in a variety of different domains
- Related to the notion of learning styles
- That a “visual learner” will learn best if provided with visual (vs verbal) information
- Is an intuitive theory, but not supported by scientific evidence
Emotional intelligence (EQ)
- A social intelligence that emphasizes the ability to manage one’s emotions, recognize emotions in others, understand emotional language, and use emotions to guide thoughts and actions
- Is also predictive of grades, ability to deal with challenges of university exams
Incremental theory as a buffer
- Academic failure + high academic contingent self-worth + entity theory of intelligence = bad news (lower self-esteem, increased anxiety, etc.)
- However, students who were primed with an incremental theory of intelligence were protected from the negative effects of the failure
Mindset theory
Fixed vs growth mindset by Carol Dweck
