Problem Solving Flashcards
Intelligence (Sternberg)
the cognitive ability of an individual to learn from experience, reason well, remember important information and cope with the demands of daily living.
Problem Solving
a task that captures out operational definition of intelligence
Deductive Reasoning
come to a concrete conclusion based on a general idea (theory to fact) to develop a specific, testable hypothesis
Inductive Reasoning
generate a general idea given some concrete information (fact to theory)
Functional Fixedness
Our difficulty seeing alternative uses for common objects. (get stuck thinking about a specific function)
Insight Problems
a special type of puzzle that engage our problem solving skills and forces us to think outside the box
Reliability
measures the extent to which repeated testing produces consistent results. A reliable test produces the same result if one person takes it multiple times
Validity
measures the extent to which a test is actually measuring what the researcher claims to be testing. A valid test measures only the trait that it’s supposed to be measuring.
Francis Galton
wanted to formally quantify intelligence in an unbiased manner. He recorded how quickly subjects respond to sensory motor tasks by their reaction time. It was reliable and unbiased, but validity is questionable.
Binet
tried to develop a tool to identify public school children in need to special education. He produced an intelligence scale that became a standardized intelligence test.
Charles Spearman
believed in a single type of intelligence. He found that most people who performed well on classic intelligence tasks also performed well on all kinds of tasks. He developed the theory of the generalized intelligence, “G”.
Howard Gardner
argued that there are 8 different intelligences, where each intelligence is independent from the others and a person can be smarter in one over another.
Weschler Scales
standardized to produce an intelligence quotient (IQ)
based on the results of large samples of individuals who have taken the tests
standardized so that someone who achieves the mean score will have IQ 100.
specific IQ is relative to the performance of the rest of the population.
Twin Studies & Twins Growing up in different Environments
IQ levels between identical twins showed a strong positive correlation (significantly stronger than the correlation for fraternal twins)
When in different environments, the IQ correlation is still quite high, but there is still room for error.
The Flynn Effect
the raw score that corresponds to an IQ of 100 has been on the rise since 1932.
Potential Reasons for the Flynn Effect
increased quality of schooling
increased access to info and ideas through media
increased nutrition and health
increased access to technology and media.
Schema
a mental framework for interpreting the world around us. Not always developed in children
Assimilation
incorporation of new information into existing schemas. Manipulating incoming information so that it makes sense.
Accommodation
modifying existing schemas to fit incompatible information
Piaget’s Four Stages of Development
Cognitive development proceeds in stages, each characterized by specific abilities and limitations.
Transition between stages is marked by changes in the child’s schemas
argued that although children progress through the stages at different rates, every child must pass through the stages in the same sequencial order and no stage can be skipped
Sensorimotor Stage
0-2 years.
recognized that they can affect change on their environment and purposely engage with world and act with intention. Characterized by inability to grasp object permanence
Object Permanence
realization that objects continue to exist when no longer visible
Preoperational Stage
2-7 years.
Cannot reverse relationships. Characterized by inability to grasp seriation, egocentrism and conservation.
Seriation
ability to logically order a series of objects.
Egocentrism
understanding the world from a perspective other than his own.
Conservation
ability to logically determine that a certain quantity will remain the same despite adjustment of the container, shape, or apparent size.
Concrete Operational Stage
7-11/12 years.
Can perform tasks that were difficult in pre-operational stage. Is ‘concrete’ because schemas are still concrete and based on personal experiences with the world.
Unable to think in abstract terms or reason based on hypothesis.
Formal Operational Stage
11/12+ years.
able to think critically in abstract terms, work with hypothesis and do everything in the range that makes up adult cognitive abilities
Intense development in fantasy games
Can understand the theoretical World
Decalage
the finding that children sometimes develop skills out of order in the strictest sense of Piaget’s theories
Children’s Language Abilities
criticism towards Piaget’s stages of development. The very tasks that Piaget used to formulate his hypothesis rely heavily on language abilites
Confirmation Bias
tendency to seek out information that directly supports your hypothesis
Heuristics
a mental shortcut used to solve a problem quickly and correctly
Availability Heuristic
our tendency to make decisions based on info that is more quickly available to us, which can lead to error. (EX: amount of media coverage)
Representativeness Heuristic
tendency to assume that what we are seeing is representative of the larger category we have in our mind
