Thinking & Intelligence Flashcards
Cognitive psychology is based on 2 ideas
the brain represents information
thinking is the mental manipulation of these representations
Symbolic representations
abstract mental representations that don’t have relationships to physical objects
ex: english words such as a violin
analogical representations
mental representations that have some characteristics of actual objects
ex: maps and family trees
mental maps
how we represent space and can include both analogical and symbolic representations
ex: which is farther east: San Diego, CA, or Reno
Categorization
grouping things based on shared properties; reduces the amount of knowledge we have to hold in memory
ex: musical instruments
Defining attribute model
a category is characterized by a list of features that determine if an object is a member
ex: “bachelor” is characterized by being unmarried and male
what does Defining attribute model suggest?
membership within a category is an all-or-none basis (we include even if they dont have all or exclude even if they do)
ex: flying is an attribute of birds but not all birds can fly
all of a given category’s attributes are equally important in defining that category
ex: some attributes are more important than other (can fly beats warm blooded for birds)
all members of a category are equal in category membership
ex: a 16 year old boy, a man who has been in a committed relationship but never married, and a man in his 30s who goes on a few dates a week
prototype model
within each category, there is a best example for that category; allows for more flexibility in concept formation
exemplar model
all members of a category are examples and together they form the concept and determine category membership
thinking enables us to do the following
reasoning
decision making
problem solving
reasoning
using info to determine if a conclusion is valid or reasonable and when drawing these conclusions, we engage in deductive and inductive reasoning
deductive reasoning
using general rules to draw conclusions about specific instances
ex: bachelors are unmarried men. bill is a man and is unmarried. therefore bill is a bachelor
valid but incorrect conclusion if premises use terms inconsistently or ambiguously
(deductive)
nothing is better than a piece of warm apple pie
a few crumbs of bread are better than nothing
therefore a few crumbs of bread are better than warm apple pie
inductive reasoning
using specific instances to draw conclusions about general rules
ex: your dogs likes hot dogs. therefore all dogs like hot dogs
decision making
attempting to select the best alternative among several options
our decision making is often guided by heuristics
heuristics
shortcuts used to reduce the amount of thinking that is needed to make decisions
can also result in biases like racial stereotypes
framing
the effect of presentation on how info is perceived
prospect theory (framing’s effects)
kahneman and tversky
1) a person’s wealth affects his or her choices
2) loss aversion: bc losses feel much worse than gains that feel good, a person will try to avoid situations that involve losses
ex: would you pick a 20% chance of winning 1000 with an 80% of winning $0 vs a 100% chance of winning $200
paradox choice
having many possibilities can make it difficult to choose one item
been suggested to make people miserable and increase depression
satisficers
look around until they find something that most closely matches what they want and buy it, without worrying about whether better or cheaper products are available
maximizers
always seek to make the best possible choices; hesitate in making decisions and feel paralyzed by indecision when they have to select btw equally attractive choices
result: are more disappointed and more likely to experience regret
problem solving
break down a problem into subgoals
insight
sudden realization of a solution to a problem
“think outside the box”
restructuring
a new way of thinking about a problem that aids its solution
mental sets
problem solving strategies that have worked in the past
functional fixedness
mental representations about the typical functions of particular objects; can create difficulties in problem solving
to overcome this, the problem solver needs to reinterpret the object’s potential function
intelligence
the ability to use knowledge to reason, make decisions, make sense of events, solve problems
psychometric approach
focuses on how people perform on standardized tests
ex: IQ score
mental age
assessment of a child’s intellectual standing compared with that of same-age peers
determined by comparing the child’s test score with the average score for children of each chronological age
intelligence quotient (IQ)
an index of intelligence computed by dividing a child’s estimated mental age by the child’s chronological age and then multiplying this number by 100
IQ in the adult range
measured in comparison with the average adult and not with adults at different ages
how valid is the IQ test?
fairly good predictor of life outcomes
Criticism of intelligence tests
may penalize people for belonging to particular cultures or particular groups
General intelligence (g)
idea that one general factor underlies intelligence
g is a factor that contributes to performance on any intellectual task
what does g influence
important life outcomes like predicting performance in school and work
low g: early death from causes such as heart disease, diabetes, stroke
(socioeconomic status is the most important predictor)
g main value
allowing people to adapt quickly to environmental challenges
g consists of 2 two types of intelligene
fluid and crystallized
fluid intelligence
intelligence that reflects the ability to process information, such as reasoning
crystallized intelligence
intelligence that reflects both the knowledge one acquires through experience and the ability to use that knowledge
fluid vs crystallized
working memory vs long term memory
crystallized intelligence grows steadily throughout the adult years and fluid intelligence declines steadily
multiple intelligences
the idea that there are different types of intelligence that are independent of one another
ex: musical, linguistic, mathematical/logical
analytical intelligence
being good at problem solving and other academic challenges
similar to intelligence tests
creative intelligence
involves the ability to gain insight and solve novel problems
to think in new and interesting ways
practical intelligence
refers to dealing with everyday tasks, such as knowing whether a parking space is large enough for your vehicle
