Thought, Language, & Intelligence Flashcards
Cognitive psychology
Study of all the mental activities that are involved in thinking, such as knowing, remembering, solving problems, making judgements and decisions, and communicating.
What are mental representations? How are they organised?
The basic building blocks of thinking.
Organized into concepts: mental categories that group similar things
Name two ways to define concepts that don’t have clear boundaries.
Prototype
Family resemblance
Prototype
A kind of best example or average member of a concept, has most of the features associated with the concept
What is the hierarchy concepts can be organised into?
Basic: concepts like table,
Superordinate: concepts are more abstract ones like furniture, that include the base level ones,
Subordinate: concepts are more specific concepts within the base level ones, like dining table
What are two examples of approaches to problem solving?
Trial and error
Algorithm
What is insight?
Sudden, conscious change in understanding.
What’s the effect of adding constraints and assumptions when reasoning through a problem?
Makes it easier to choose, but means you may miss some good options
What are mental sets? Give an example.
Mental frameworks or analogies that help us solve new problems, which we gain through experience.
Example: Fortresses and tumours. 10% could solve problem without fortress analogy, 80% with it.
What is functional fixedness?
Example of a mental set.
Tendency to focus on object’s typical functions and ignore other potential functions.
Mental sets are generally helpful but if we rely on them we can sometimes miss more creative or better solutions.
What is restructuring?
When prior experience hinders us from solving a problem, we have to restructure our mental set.
Judgements
Conclusions drawn from evidence that often lead to decisions
Decisions
Choices that influence behaviour
Do people like having lots of options?
Yes, but it can make it harder for them to decide. Example with supermarket samples of jam–people spent more time trying out samples when there were 24 different kinds available, but bought less jam, than when there were fewer samples.
Bounded rationality
Decision-making is constrained by:
the limitations in human thinking,
the availability of information,
time
Dual-process theories (NOT two-factor theory)
Say we have two modes of thinking.
We can use the controlled system which is slow, takes a lot of effort, and is very rational.
Or we can use the automatic system which is fast and fairly effortless and leads to “good enough” decisions most of the time (I’d debate that).
Heuristics
Heuristics are, usually unconscious, mental shortcuts that help us come to decisions efficiently
The representativeness heuristic
The shortcut for deciding how frequent or probable something is based on how well it represents or is prototypical of a category. E.g. woman basketball player.
The availability heuristic
The shortcut for deciding how frequent or probable something is based on how easily it, or examples of it, come to mind. E.g. murder vs suicide.
What are affective reactions? How are they useful? How can they be harmful?
A gut reaction that tells you whether something will be good for you or bad for you.
In rare cases, a person may not have these (due to brain damage) and makes poor decisions. Shows how useful they are.
Affect can be manipulated without our awareness. See: advertising.
Affect heuristic
Tendency to use the affect (good or bad) we associate with various things to make judgements and decisions.
Stinky bin study
Showed people judge things more harshly when they are experiencing a negative emotion like disgust
Belief perseverance
The tendency for people to stick to their beliefs, even when presented with evidence that disconfirms them.
What is framing? What are two ways it works?
The way an issue, decision or problem is described.
When people are uncertain, their thinking can be easily swayed with framing because it:
○ Shifting the decision maker’s reference point
○ Implicitly recommending an option
How does loss aversion affect decision-making?
People tend to make risky decisions to avoid losses–ie they’ll gamble on the chance of a larger loss for the chance of avoiding any loss.
Overconfidence
Most people overestimate how accurate their judgements and decisions are
What is hindsight bias? How can it be overcome?
A kind of overconfidence. Tendency to think, once we know the answer, that we would have given that answer all along.
This can be partly overcome by forcing people to give specific reasons why each option might have been correct. Example of doctors giving second opinions.
Why are people overconfident?
○ Bad at judging their own knowledge
○ Makes people more attractive
Language (3 components)
Shared system of symbols
and rules for how to use and combine those symbols to communicate.
Used to think and share thoughts with others.
What are the components of language? (7)
• Phonemes: Individual sounds
• Morphemes: Smallest unit of meaning, e.g. “back” in “backing”
• Words
• Phrases
• Sentences
• Grammar:
○ Syntax: Grammatical rules for how sentences are formed
○ Pragmatics: Practical rules of language, e.g. taking turns, intonation, hand and body gestures
Phonemes
Individual sounds
Morphemes
Smallest unit of meaning, e.g. “back” in “backing”
Pragmatics
Practical rules of language, e.g. taking turns, intonation, hand and body gestures
Whorf’s linguistic determinism
Different languages lead to different ways of understanding the world.
Give two pieces of evidence for linguistic determinism.
○ Evidence suggests some aspects of language speed up or slow down thinking, for example Russian has two words for light blue and navy blue and they are not seen as one type of the same thing, and Russians are faster to recognize light and navy blue as different
○ When language lacks specific terms for numbers like the Pirahã, or experiments like the verbal interference task get in the way of using number words, people struggle to reason about exact quantities.
What are the 10 stages of kids learning language identified in the textbook?
- Learn to make sense of speed sounds
- 6-7 months: Distinguish sounds made in all languages, practice through babbling
- End of first year: Perception of phenomes narrows to ones used in languages spoken around them, and only babble those sounds, can also produce single words
- 8 months: can figure out when phenomes co-occur and use this to figure out that there’s individual words
- 6-9 months: understand some words
- 9-10 months: developed expectations for how long words are likely to be
- Infancy: use the direction of a speaker’s gaze to determine what the word they are saying means
- Age 2: Simple, two word utterances that follow rules of word order
- Age 3: Understanding of grammar getting better and they are using it to infer meanings of new words
- Age 5: Speak a lot like adults but make overregularization errors
What does the vocal tract let us do? What does that tell us?
Human vocal tract permits wider array of sounds than other animals like chimps, but this makes us more prone to choking. Suggests wide range of sounds is an evolutionary adaptation.
Language acquisition device. What is it? What’s evidence for it? What is the modern view?
Chomsky argued humans are born with something that lets us learn language.
Supported by examples of kids learning language spontaneously without teaching, e.g. Deaf school in Nicaragua.
Modern day view is we have some innate capacities but learn a lot of it by the usual mechanisms.
When does language learning start?
Before birth
Sensitive period hypothesis
Early exposure to language is important to be able to learn it normally.
What’s the evidence for a sensitive period for learning language? (3 points)
Starting before 5-7 they’ll learn to speak like a native. After that, starts going down gradually.
Evidence:
○ Children raised in inhumane environments with no communication–return to normal life before puberty and they are more likely to develop normal language than those rescued later.
○ Children who learn ASL earlier have better understanding of the grammar. Same with immigrant children who move to the US earlier.
Why are the two hypothesis for why there is a sensitive period for learning language?
One explanation is the mechanisms that let us learn language are stronger in childhood.
Another is that children’s cognitive abilities are more limited and this lets them learn better. For example, they have to learn what each grammatical rule means individually instead of making assumptions.
What is the definition of intelligence in the textbook? (7 components)
Ability to: think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, reason, plan, solve problems, learn from experience, acquire new knowledge
SLAP CAR
What does factor analysis reveal about intelligence?
Factor analysis lets people examine correlations between abilities on different tests.
It reveals there’s a single general intelligence that lies behind abilities on different types of intelligence tests.
What is general intelligence (G factor)? What is it composed of?
The intelligence that underlies abilities on many different intelligence tests.
Generally thought to contain:
○ Fluid intelligence: g(F)–ability to respond to novel stimulus
○ Crystallized intelligence: g(C)–ability to use information you have learned from prior experience
Sternberg’s model of intelligence
Three major types–analytical, creative, and practical:
○ Analytical ○ Creative ○ Practical
Garner’s model of intelligence
Proposed theory of multiple intelligences based on savant syndrome, which shows some people can excel in some areas but not in others.
Who was Francis Galton?
Made an early attempt at an intelligence test to “improve” society through eugenics
What did Binet & Simon try and do? Why?
Developed a test that let them compare a child’s mental age and chronological age. They wanted to compare children of different ages and different levels of social privilege.
Who was Terman?
Developed the Stanford-Binet test to calculate IQ to identify most innately talented children who should be prioritized in education (and was a prominent eugenicist)
Achievement test
Measures how much knowledge a person has acquired over a period of time
Aptitude test
Measures potential to learn or ability in specific areas
Intelligence test
Measures comprehensive capability across all relevant domains
What’s the psychometric approach to intelligence tests and how did it come about?
Dominant.
Spearman noticed some children seemed to have more potential than others.
Assumed g then tested it.
Found which tests correlate with success or failure in school and with each other.
Developed into Binet & Simon
Two-factor theory of intelligence (g/s)
® Factor 1: g–general ability (you can’t train it)
® Factor 2: s–specific abilities ◊ Logical ◊ Spatial ◊ Arithmetical ◊ Mechanical (!!!)
What’s the predictive validity of two-factor theory?
◊ G correlates very very strongly with elementary school grades. R = .7. Correlation coefficient squared = 49%–variability in g can explain 49% of variability in elementary school grades.
◊ High school grades: 36%, college = 20%, graduate school = 15%. Why does it go down? One ideas is motivation and personality express themselves more over time.
◊ Mechanical s correlates–video game expertise (15%)
Multiple intelligence approach
Intelligence is expressed in many ways and we have to acknowledge that people can be high in intelligence in some areas and low in other areas–Gardner.
Intelligence is the product of many different communicating systems.
What is the WAIS? What are its four subtests and where do they come from?
Most popular.
verbal comprehension (g), working memory (g), processing speed (ip) perceptual reasoning (ip)
How does cultural bias affect intelligence testing?
Many factors can make intelligence test questions harder for people from different cultures. But IQ scores should not correlate with cultural background.
WAIS test has tried to minimise this over time. Raven’s Matrices created for this reason.
What’s the concurrent validity of the WAIS and Raven’s Matrices?
If different tests correlate then they might be measuring something similar, if they don’t correlate they must be testing different things
® WAIS correlates with (~) Raven’s Matrices r = .80
◊ In WAIS, questions given in user’s language
◊ In RM, no questions are written in language
What qualities must a trustworthy intelligence test have? (5)
Standardized, reliable, valid
Capture all of what we think of when we think of intelligence
Not capture anything that we don’t think of when we think of intelligence (i.e. cultural biases)
What is standardization in intelligence tests? What does it look like in the Weschler test?
Process of making test scores more meaningful by defining them in terms of relationship to performance of a group.
Percentile rank: shows how many people scored lower than you did.
What makes a intelligent test reliable? What are two ways to test its reliability?
Extent to which test produces consistent results. Examples: Test-retest, Split-Half.
How reliable is the Weschler intelligence test?
Weschler has .96 rest-retest reliability and .98 split half reliability.
Define intelligence test validity
The extent to which a test measures or predicts what it’s supposed to.
Which are the two types of validity that are most relevant to intelligence tests?
–Content validity: extent to which a test samples the behaviour of interest–for example, if testing verbal ability, test will ask participants to make judgements about language, not solve picture puzzles.
–Predictive validity: test’s ability to predict how well participants will perform in situations that require intelligence.
–Intelligence scores predict future academic and job performance but not perfectly, at about .50–so there are other factors involved
How does anxiety affect test performance?
Can cause people to underperform.
Composed of two responses:
○ Emotionality is the body’s response, this doesn’t impair people’s performance and can help.
○ Worry is the thoughts of doing badly, this impairs performance by using up mental resources.
How can anxiety be improved for test takers?
Test takers worry less and perform better if told their anxiety can help them perform well. They don’t experience less emotionality/anxiety, but worry less about it and feel more confident.
What is stereotype threat? How can it be reduced?
Stereotypes lead certain people to experience more anxiety in testing situations, which reduces their performance.
○ Can help us understand achievement gaps in school. Can be reduced with a values-affirmation writing exercise which reduces worry by making test-takers focus on the values that are important to them instead of the test. ○ People also sometimes do better when reminded they're in a group that's expected to do well. ○ "Gladys feels extra anxiety that her performance will confirm such negative stereotypes, even though she does not believe in them"
What do studies on identical and fraternal twins tell us about intelligence?
Identical twins raised together are as similar to each other in IQ scores as the same person taking the test twice (.86) and fraternal twins raised together are not as close (.60)
Genomewide Complex-Trait Analysis
Compares DNA of unrelated people and suggests heritability is more like 34%
IQ scores of related people become more similar as they age. Give two possible reasons.
○ May be that genetics determine your potential, which takes time to develop and be measurable.
○ Another possibility is that genetics shapes the environments people choose for themselves, which shape their intelligence–e.g. more intelligent kid chooses challenging environments, which increases their intelligence
How does enrichment affect intelligence? Give two examples.
- Environments can provide opportunities to stimulate your thinking processes with new info and new problems to solve
- Enriching environments make rats better at solving mazes, even if they’ve been selectively bred to be bad at learning mazes. Impoverished environments make rats bad at learning mazes, even if they’ve been bred to be good at them.
- Children raised in enriching environments tend to develop higher intelligence. SES is important for enrichment. Special education programs can boost academic performance in children from low SES backgrounds.
Self-fulfilling prophecy of intelligence
Or Pygmalion Effect. Others’ beliefs, or our own beliefs, can affect our behaviour in ways that make the belief true.
Ex: people with ADHD believe they are bad at certain things, which makes them practice them less, which makes them worse at them.
If educators treat their pupils as though they’re going to make exceptional gains, they do. Shown in both rats and humans.
What are the two mindsets about intelligence?
○ Growth mindset: Those who believe they can develop their intelligence are more likely to seek out challenges and respond to setbacks with resilience than those with a fixed mindset.
○ Fixed mindset: Those who believe they can’t get more intelligent.
Give some supporting evidence for the multiple intelligences approach. (3 pieces)
□ Brain damage often impacts a specific ability but not others. If G were a localized specific region of the brain, the brain damage would affect everything.
□ Development of systems also happens at different ages–there are big bursts and regressions across time.
□ Gifted (twice exceptional) individuals may have very strong abilities in one area but not others.
Gardner’s 7 (or 8) intelligences
□ Logical/mathematic*** (inc. in g in 2-factor) □ Verbal*** (inc. in g in 2-factor) □ Visual-spatial □ Intra-personal □ Social (interpersonal) □ Body/kinesthetic □ Musical □ Naturalistic
Limitations of Gardner’s model of multiple intelligences (4 points)
□ These 8 are strongly correlated with each other (across populations tho), but they shouldn’t be if we need all of them. This implies the existence of g.
□ Multiple intelligences are strongly correlated with g.
□ Subjective theory: Different researchers could defend entirely different sets of intelligences.
□ Much lower predictive validity than two-factor approach–only about 10% of variability in elementary school grades.
What is the information processing approach to intelligence?
What are the basic psychological mechanisms that give rise to higher forms of intelligence? (Engel)
This is not in competition with the first two approaches, it’s another level of trying to understand it.
Are the factors in the information processing approach relevant to intelligence?
TBD. Most evidence supports a G called working memory that includes processing speed, acquiring new processes, inhibiting old processes.
Other evidence points to a 3 factor model: taking in, shifting, inhibition
Overall, which is the best model for understanding intelligence?
○ The data indicates:
§ There is a general factor
§ There are specific abilities (not intelligences)
§ There is a significant role for information processing, and working memory helps us understand and explain the most important things going on with intelligence
What is the Flynn effect?
- Steady rise in IQ scores over time
- 3 points per 10 years, on many different tests
- IQ test is standardized to make 100 points the average
- This would make average person today smarter than 95% of people in 1900
What are the 3 potential causes of the Flynn effect?
- Instrument decay–changing tests
- Selection or Darwin effect–changing people
- Situational effect–changing environments
What’s the ‘instrument decay’ explanation for the flynn effect and what does it mean?
Maybe the tests themselves are changing and they’re getting progressively easier?
If tests are changing, intelligence isn’t increasing. We could fix this by changing how we test.
What’s the selection or Darwin effect explanation for the Flynn Effect?
The natural selection of who is having children is leading to increases in average intelligence.
If this is the case, we’d have to figure out why certain groups of people are having more children than others.
What’s the situational effect explanation for the Flynn Effect and what does it mean?
Situational effect–maybe there are things we’re doing now that we weren’t doing in the past that is allowing intelligence to increase.
–If this is the case, we can try to make sure we distribute resources in society to ensure people have access to the things that help them develop higher intelligence. (Or, we could say intelligence isn’t a defining goal)
There’s a much steeper increase in IQ scores in “developing” countries vs “developed” countries. Why?
□ More people have access to good nutrition
§ Under this model, we can expect a levelling off of intelligence–once people have enough nutrition, they’ll be able to full realize their potential for intelligence.
□ Less demanding physical work allows more time for cognitive work, creative thinking, and problem solving (i.e. capitalism)?
What is insight? (3 points)
○ It’s unclear exactly what causes insight but brain scans suggest it might be unconscious problem solving that only becomes conscious when you solve it.
○ Also may happen when we be pick up useful info from our environment without being aware of it–ex of study flashing words on screen when people solving anagrams. ○ Happier mood -> solving more problems with insight + same number of problems analytically = more overall. Positive mood may broaden scope of attention.
What are the 8 types of intelligence according to Garner’s multiple intelligences theory?
Verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, visual-spatial, bodily kinesthetic, musical, naturalistic, interpersonal, intrapersonal.
How is the Weschler test standardised?
Define Weschler result in terms of relationship to normal curve–68% of people within 15 points of the average, 100.
How heritable is intelligence?
Suggest heritability across a population is about 50%–differences in genetics explain about half the differences in intelligence scores
Give 4 examples of mental processes the information processing approach suggests are important for intelligence.
–Processing speed: how quickly can you perform mental tasks?
–Acquiring: new mental processes (or habits)
–Inhibiting: how quickly can you inhibit previously learned mental processes?
–Knowledge base: crystallized intelligence, how you can combine the knowledge you have to produce new, interesting thoughts
