Week3/4/5 Flashcards
1
Q
Overview of Language areas of Brain –>
A
Language involves several distinct areas in the brain (left side)
2
Q
What are the 4 interrelated developmental processes for language?
A
- Phonological Development : learning to segment speech into meaningful units of sound (identifying phonemes- elementary units of sound that distinguish meaning) Rake vs. Lake
- Semantic Development: learning the system for expressing meaning in a language (beginning with morphemes, which are the smallest unit of meaning in a language)
- Syntactic Development : learning the syntax, the rules to combining words, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives.
- Pragmatic Development: acquiring knowledge of how language is used, which includes understanding a variety of conversational conventions (how close we stand while speaking, how long we talk, how loud we speak to each other)
3
Q
What is meant by grammar?
A
comprising the entire set of rules for combining symbols to speak and write a language
4
Q
What area of the left hemisphere is responsible for speech code?
A
Speaking –> Speech Code generatedin ‘Broca’s area –>signals to motor cortex –> muscles of mouth move
5
Q
What cortex area is responsible for listening to speech?
A
Auditory cortex.
Listens to speech –> cortex processes sound waes and creates ‘auditory code’ –> Wernicke’s area interprets auditory code as language
6
Q
Which two brain areas are involved with reading?
A
Visual Cortex & Wernicke’s area.
Reading –> visual cortex processes printed words –> Angular gyrus produces an auditory code that gets sent to the Wernicke’s area for understanding
7
Q
What does this area do:Broca
What does this area do:Wernicke’s
If damaged, what can ppl NOT do?
A
-
Speech Production: Speaking words/generates speech code (damage here doesn’t affect singing or comprehension of others’ speech)
damage: “a person would struggle to speak words, yet could sing familiar songs and comprehend speech or write their conversation down on paper” -
Speech Comprehension: Interprets auditory code as language
damage : “people were unable to understand others’ sentences and could speak only meaningless sentences”
8
Q
Function of each of these 6?
- Visual Cortex:
- Wernicke’s Area:
- Angular Gyrus:
- Motor Cortex:
- Broca’s Area:
- Auditory Cortex:
A
- processes written words and creates visual representation
- interprets auditory code as language
- turns visual representations into an auditory code
- moves mouth muscles to pronounce words
- generates speech code and controls speech muscles via the motor cortex
- processes sound waves and creates an auditory code
9
Q
What are phonemes?
A
The smallest distinctive sound units in a language. There are 869 phonemes in in the 500 languages identified, but not every language uses all the sounds.
English uses only 40.
ex: pronouncing bat – b, a, t
ex: pronouncing that – th, a, t
ex: pronouncing mercedes - 3 different ‘e’ phonemes
10
Q
What are morphemes?
A
Smallest language units that carry meaning. Can be a whole word or parts of a word
In English, a few morphemes are also phonemes -
ex: the article ‘a’
ex: the word ‘readers’ – read + er (indicates a person) + s (not one, but multiple ppl)
ex: prefixes such as re-, pre, un-.
ex: suffixes such as conjugating verbs
Every word in a language contains one or more morphemes
11
Q
How many people live with disabling hearing loss worldwide?
A
360 million
12
Q
What is ‘aphasia’?
A
An impairment in language
13
Q
Define semantics
A
derives meaning from sounds
When one adds ‘s’ to the word ‘apple’, that person is referring to more than one apple. This is an English language rule.
14
Q
Define syntax
A
ordering words into sentences
15
Q
Language Development:
Around 4 mos of age?
Around 10 months of age?
Around 1 yrs age ?
Around 1 1/2 yrs age?
After 2 yrs of age?
A
Babbling of any sounds (can distinguish between sounds made in all languages) ex: cooing, then babbling occurs
Babbling of household sounds heard from parents(even if da-da, kit-ty, mama, and regardless of any language, kids start mostly with nouns in language learning) – By 10 mos, infants have lost the ability to distinguish all sounds from any language.
one-word sentence stage
two-word sentence stage (‘telegraphic speech’ - Want juice)
rapid development of speech and sentences and understanding small jokes
16
Q
Good info to look over:
A
17
Q
What does it mean language has ‘generativity’?
A
our ability to use the finite set of words in our vocabulary to put together an infinite number of sentences to express an infinite set of ideas
Can you understand this sentence? Yes? Bizarre but understandable:
“the giraffe took off in a rocket ship and several days later, landed on the moon, whereby it skipped frivolously over the alien sandy dunes”
18
Q
Define ‘Universal Grammar’?
an example?
A
ex: a baby’s parents move to another country, baby then starts speaking the parents’ language, but simultaneously learns the local language of the country.
19
Q
What is the difference between ‘receptive’ & ‘productive’ language?
A
ex: when a baby reaches a milestone where he starts to pay attention to his parent’s faces when they speak
20
Q
T or F: Children who are taught in a bilingual class, have higher creativity AND academic performance
–as opposed to a 1-language school
A
TRUE
21
Q
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis:
What is linguist Benjamin Whorf’s idea on language?
Sapir’s idea on language?
A
Linguistic Determination (strong version)
Hypothesis that language determines the way we think and our perceptions.
ex:The Hopi have no past tense for their verbs, and it is very difficult for them to readily think about the past
Linguistic Relativism (weaker version)
Hypothesis that language we speak merely influences how we think and view the world.
22
Q
Define what heuristics are?
Define what an algorithm is?
A
Heuristic : a simple thinking strategy—a mental shortcut—that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems quickly & efficiently; (speedier but more error-prone)
Algorithm : A systemic approach that exhausts all possibilities to arrive at a solution (slow but accurate)
23
Q
Barriers to Effective Reasoning:
Two scientists, Kahneman & Tversky, explored how we use heuristics to make judgements and decisions…and how it may lead us astray.
Define Representativeness Heuristic
A
Judging the likelihood of some event in terms of how well it represents or matches some prototypical instance.
ex: if we meet a slim person wearing glasses, we think he must be a professor. What about a truck driver? Logically, the probability is higher that he is a trucker because there are far more truckers than professors.
24
Q
When we estimate the likelihood of events based on the ease with which we retrieve them from memory, we are demonstrating:
A
Availability Heuristic
judging the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common. (p. 329)
If we think of it quickly, it must be significant! (sometimes incorrectly)
25
What is the **Framing Effect**
The tendency for people's choices to be affected by how a choice is presented or framed (how it's worded)
26
Good to Review
27
How is **creativity** defined?
the ability to **produce** of ideas that are **novel** & **valuable**
28
Define **metacognition**.
cognition about our cognition; keeping track of and evaluating our mental processes. (p. 327). Basically, 'beyond thinking' and thinking about our own thinking process.
29
What is meant by **prototype**?
We often form our **concepts** by developing a prototype—a **mental image or best example of a category**
Matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories (as when comparing feathered creatures to a prototypical bird, such as a crow)
30
Difference between **convergent** & **divergent** thinking?
**Convergent**: narrowing the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution
**Divergent**: expanding the number of possible problem solutions; creative thinking that diverges in different directions
31
What are 4 ways to boost **creativity**?
1. **develop expertise**: develop knowledge and be an expert at something
2. **allow time for incubation** (The extra time allows the unconscious to form new associations between novel connections. Think hard on it, then set it aside - REM sleep on the problem!)
3. **allow 'defocused attention'** (mind to roam freely with no phone or tv distracting. A walk or a run is better to foster creativity)
4. **experience other cultures and ways of thinking**: travelling or even getting out of your own neighbourhood allows your brain to integrate others perspectives
32
An obstacle to problem solving is **fixation**. What is this?
(1) **in cognition**, the inability to see a problem from a new perspective; an obstacle to problem solving.
[(2) in psychoanalytic theory, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved. (pp. 328, 520)]
33
What is our **intuition**?
an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning. (p. 328)
| fast, automatic, unreasoned feelings & thoughts
34
A potential source of irrationality is _____, our tendency to cling to our beliefs in the face of contradictory evidence.
and
The tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and ignore contradictory evidence.
**Belief** **Perseverence**
**Confirmation Bias**
35
# Barriers to effective reasoning:
What is **confirmation bias**?
What a tendency to search for information that **supports** our **preconceptions** and to **ignore or distort contradictory evidence**
leads us to seek evidence for our ideas more eagerly than we seek evidence against them
36
What is driving these biases?
1. need for **cognitive consistency**. Don't want to have **cognitive dissonance**( state of tension that occurs when a person holds two cognitions that are inconsistent OR a belief is incongruent with a behaviour), so we compulsively try to make everything fit.
**Efforts to reduce dissonance**:
Reject Belief
Change Behaviour
Deny the evidence
Rationalize
37
What are 3 **factors** that affect Intelligence
1. Hereditary
2. Environmental
3. Social / Cultural
4. Internal Beliefs (how stereotype threats affects our perfomance - we perform the way we think others' want us to perform at)
38
Having a growth mind set reduces your chances of dropping out of school.
T or F
TRUE
39
Virtual Twins are..
Same age, unrelated children raised together as siblings.
40
**Heritibility refers to the extent to which genes are responsible for variation among individuals in a particular characteristic**, NOT the extent to which genes are responsible for an individuals level of a particular characteristic.
An experiment finds that men who take a spelling test have lower scores after they read an article about how women typically outscore ment on this kind of test. T**his finding supports the concept of _.**
| STEROTYPE THREAT
41
In 1988, Dr Sternberg identfied **3 fundamental types of intelligence:**
Critiques of Sternberg: Sternberg's theory of intelligence found to be empirically lacking. Gottfredson carefully reviewed the evidence on 'practical intelligence' and found evidence lacking and claims 'g' intelligence is still best predictor
AND
Wen-Tank Chooi found this Triarchic Ability Test to be highly correlated...meaning that it is more like the 'g' model.
**STERNBERG** Triarchic Theory: (know 3 things below)
1. **Practical** (when components are applied in daily life to help us adapt/shape/select environments --> skills included motivating others, delegating to others correct tasks, promoting oneself)
2. **Analytical** (when components are applied to familiar problems from daily life)
3. **Creative**(when components are applied to new kinds of situations and tasks)
**Sternberg** argued that Gardner's multiple intelligences could be reduced to 3 basic forms of intelligence.
Early dissenter from the psychometric approach. Argued for 'Theory of Successful Intelligence'.
1. ability to achieve one's goals despite socioeconomic context
2. capitalize on one's strengths while correcting for ones' weakness's
3. adapt and shape and select environments
4. exercise a combo of analytical and creative and practical abilities
There are 2 components: METACOMPONENTS (executive processes (planning/monitoring/evaluating actions) + PERFORMANCE COMPONENTS (execute instructions from above) + KNOWLEDGE-ACQUISITION COMPONENTS (allow us to learn new info so we can plan and execute actions)
| 'INTERPERSONAL' IS NOT ONE OF THEM
42
Which MAJOR factor is NOT related to success?
INDIFFERENCE
**GRIT** is very important and **determination**.
| Not intelligence.
43
Define **cognition**
How is it different from intelligence?
Perceiving the **enviroment**, **learning** and **remembering** info, **thinking** and **solving** problem and using **language**.
**Intelligence** describes the differences in these cognitive abilities
Intelligence is a social construct -- a concept invented to describe individual differences in cognition ability. There is no universally accepted definition of intelligence. Environment and culture shapes it.
44
Define **Factor Analysis**
A statistical procedure for identifying clusters of related items within a set of data
45
Define '**s factors**'
**specific** forms of intelligence that support distinct mental abilities
(emphasized by the theories of **Thurstone and Gardner**)
| Primary Mental Abilities
46
Difference between **Multiple Intelligences** & **Primary Mental Abilities**?
| Thurstone
1. **Multiple Intelligences**: *Gardner's theory* that there are 8 or 9 distinct intelligences, each controlled by a section of the brain. He also came to the idea (along with Sternberg) that the psychometric approach was too limited and intelligence was more than 'g'.
*Evidence*: savants can be profoundly lacking in many areas but extremely smart in a couple.
*Critiques*: lack of studies...due to a lack of assessment strategies. Also found they are correlated (maybe meaning the 'g' factor) BUT it has found widespread application in EDUCATION. Gardner's wants to see the educational system support a spectrum of intelligences, helping and benefitting all potentials.
2. **Primary Mental Abilities**: *Thurstone's* name for 7 (down from 56!) specific forms of intelligence (word fluency, verbal comprehension, spatial visualization, number facility, associative memory, reasoning, & perceptual speed. **These were later found to be correlated and could be accounted for in terms of Spearman's 'g' intelligence factor.
| #2 is aka as 's factors' -Gardner built on Thurstone's views
47
What is meant by the **G Factor**?
General intelligence that underlies all mental abilities.
(Emphasized by **Spearman's Theory**)
Came up with **Two-Factor Theory** of intelligence -- the intercorrelations of intelligence by proposing '**general** **intelligence**' (there is a mental power that supports more specific mental abilities, so 'g' is a correlational factor.
**A statistical regularity that consistently emerges when pl take several tess of mental ability, showing test scores are highly correlated. And this stat regularity is one of the best predictors we have of various educational, occupational and even health and well-being outcomes"
48
What characterizes these 8 types of intelligence?
GARDNER'S **Multiple Intelligences**:(*know this list*)
1. **Logical** - math smart (see intelligence in numbers and logic, chains of reasoning and recognize patterns and order)
2. **Naturalist** - nature smart
3. **Musical** - music smart
4. **Intrapersonal** - self smart (emotional life, oneself and others, discriminate emotional states of self and others)
5. **Interpersonal** - People Smart (understand ppl and relationships, perceive and respond to moods, personalities, intentions, desires of others)
6. **Kinesthetic** - Body smart (use body skillfully and handle objects adroitly, hands-on ppl with tactile sensitivity)
7. **Spatial** - art smart (perceive world accurately, recreate aspects of the world accurately, sensitivity to details, orientation is 3-D space)
8. **Linguistic** - word smart (can argue, persuade, entertain, instruct effectively with language)
49
# SYNOPSIS
50
4 components of Emotional Intelligence?
Studies suggest it's good for **educational** or **vocational** outcomes (more than can be gleaned from IQ or personality tests)
EI (or EQ) formulated originally 30 yrs ago by Mayer-Salovey-DiPaolo. Ability to **perceive** and express emotion, **assimilate** emotion in though, **understand** and reason with emotion, **regulate** emotion in the self and others:
1. perceiving
2. managing
3. understanding
4. using
Journalist Daniel GOLEMAN wrote a book that suggested EQ to be stronger than IQ, at times.
51
Can assess theories with studies of ______ __ which is the extent to which a measure will enable you to predict some outcome above and beyond what some other measure has already done
**INCREMENTAL VALIDITY**
Although no incremental validity has been found for EQ, a recent meta-analysis by MacCann did find measues of EQ do predict **Academic** **performance** above and beyond measures of cognitive ability and measures of personality.
52
Difference between **fluid** intelligence (**Gf**) & **crystallized** intelligence (**Gc**)?
**Catell + Horn's Extended Gf-Gc Model**
1. **FLUID** : our ability to reason speedily and abstractily/memory/reason/solve problems.
Decreases in late adulthood.
2. **CRYSTALLIZED**: accumulated knowledge of verbal sklls/one's culture.
Increases with age.
53
What is Carroll's **Three-Stratum Hierarchy**?
Carroll did a meta-analysis of some 460 data sets of intelligence (basically all studies ever done!) and published book *Human Cognitive Abilities* .
1. Stratum III - top of hierarchy and consits of **Spearmans 'g**'
2. Stratum II - middle and contains those **broad** abilities that are differentially influenced by 'g'
3. Stratum I - bottom and consists of a variety of **specialised** abilities that are highly related to at least one of the Stratum II
54
What is the **Cattell-Horn-Carroll** Theory?
In 1997, two theories were joined because they were similar, into the most **empirically supported and widely accepted** conceptualization of intelligence.
Its not fixed and can be revised.
"Broad Outline: that intellectual abilities are conceptualized as a hierarchy in terms of **general, broad, and narrow abilities**"
55
With respect to the components of emotional intelligence, ____ emotion is to **identifying** one's own emotions as ____ emotion is to knowing how to **handle** other people's emotions
PERCEIVING & MANAGING
56
A research design includes which concepts:
1. Intro
2. Design
3. Measure
4. Interpret
5. Conclusion
57
What is the **WAIS** (Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale)?
Wechsler was most interested in measuring the separate strengths involved in intelligence
```Most widely used **individual** intelligence test.
Provides separate scores for verbal intelligence (information, similarities, arithmatic, vocabulary, comprehension, digit span) and nonverbal intelligence (picture completion, picture arrangement, block design, object assembly, digit symbol)
58
The widely used American revision of Alfred Binet's original intelligence test was developed by..
LEWIS TERMAN
59
Defining meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested group is known as ...
STANDARDIZATION
For an intelligence test (and all psychological tests), to be widely accepted , it must be
**STANDARDIZED**
**RELIABLE** (results are consistent)
**VALID** (results satisfy objectives)
60
Difference between **aptitude** and **achievement**?
1. **aptitude** : designed to predict a person's future performance. *The capacity to learn for prediction of future*
2. **Achievement**: testing on a specific skill or chapter in a textbook. **What I've learned**.
61
High reliability does not ensure a test's **validity**. What does this mean?
What about **criterion validity**?
**Validity** is the extent to which the test **actually** measures or predicts what it promises.
**Criterion Validity** refers to the extent to which a measure is *associated* with some concrete outcome
ex: a prof hands out a test on Ch 11 & 12, but instead the students discover it's on Ch 13 & 14.
62
What is '**reliability**' ?
How about '**test-retest reliability**'?
How **consistent** a measure is &
ability of a measue to yield the **same** result every time it is used
63
Define **Cognitive Psychology**
branch of psychology concerned with cognition (mental processes associated with perceiving, learning, remembering, thinking, decision-making)
64
# Define:
Concept
Construct
Schema
1. **Concept**: mental representation that acts as filters through which we experience and interpret the world.(structure in the mind that denotes a thing or a class of things in the world)
2. **Construct**:
3. **Schema**: mental framework for categorizing, organizing, and interpreting information. A network of concepts.
65
What is **Jean Piaget**'s idea of a **mental model**?
How did he use the constructs of **assimilation** and **accommodation** to explain schema developement?
| Swiss psychologist
"A cohesive, repeatable action sequence possessing component actions that are tightly interconnected and governed by a core meaning" - Piaget
* a basic building block of intelligent behaviour that organizes knowledge and allow us to appropriately respond to the world.
66
Differentiate between Piaget's **Assimilation** & **Accommodation**
**Assimilation**: a child learns new things by incorporating new info into an already existing schema. Child then is in a state of equilibrium.
**Accomodation**: if another object which can't be classified into the existing schema is learned, the child creates a new schema-- **Accomodating** a new schema.
Child goes from '**Disequilibrium**' to Equilibrium many many times as it creates a **mental model** of the world
67
What is Charles **Bartlett**'s view on schema's?
"A schema is an active organization of past experiences in which the mind abstractsa general cognitive structure to represent many particular instances of those experiences"
Studied how **schemas** influence how we **interpret** and **remember** information. Stories and facts are **retold** based on our culture, upbringing, biases, cliches.
68
Difference between
1. Self-Schemas
2. Person Schemas
3. Group Schemas
4. Role Schemas
5. Event Schemas
1. **Self & Person** : general knowledge and beliefs about consistent characteristics and traits of ourselves and others. (ex: I think I am honest, reliable, dependable, friendly etc.)
2. **Group** : (stereotypes) general knowlege and beliefs about consistent characteristics and traits of particular social groups
3. **Role** : " " about how a person playing a particular role is supposed to act (ex: a waitress is supposed to be friendly and be attentive while working)
4. **Event** : (scripts) " " about what usually happens and when it happens in particular situations (ex: visiting a doctor)
69
what are some factors that influence our **schemas** and **construal** (interpretation)?
| of a social gathering like a party?
1. **Properties of Mind**: basic level of categorization -- we could classify people based on age, gender, weight, money looks, etc
2. **Personality** **Traits**: a persons personality influences how they interpret the party - **agreeable** person will see happiness, and a **disagreeable** person will see provocation in everything (**hostile attribution bias**)
3. **Situational Factors**: context in a situation heavily influences how we interpret the situation.
4. **Cognition**: our thoughts in our brains as we are interpreting a situation --Psychologists use **priming** to get schemas more **accessible** in our brains
5. **Motivation**: our motivation in the moment influence our schemas
6. **Emotions**: what we are feeling at the time of interpretation
7. **Sociocultural Experiences**: our experiences with a culture
A person's construal of a situation really depends on the this complex interplay.
70
# Strategies used to determine what conceptual category a stimulus belongs
Define the 'Classical View' of categorization
An **instance** is classified as belonging to a **category** if it posseses certain **critical** features (necessary & sufficient)
ex: A VEHICLE. It has wheels. Non-living. An engine.
but what about bicycles, boats & horses? It's been shown that it's difficult to come up with a set of defining attributes for most categories. Some are more or some are less vehicle-like.
71
# Strategies used to determine what conceptual category a stimulus belongs
Define the 'Probabilistic View' of categorization
An **instance** is classified as belonging to a category if the **similarity** between the instance and the category is **above** some critical threshold
**ex**: a boat may not have all the attributes of a car, but is has enough of the same things that we can categorize it as a vehicle of some sort
**SCIENTIST**: Eleanor Rosch studied 'family resemblances' (how many features does an object share with other objects, boat vs. car)
HIGHLY ADOPTED by clinicians today: if a patient has at least a couple of the symptoms, then they have such and such probabilistic categorization scheme based on family resemblance)
**PROS**: we understand the world by simplifying it
**CONS**: we can fall into overly simplifying people and placing them into categories (gay, straight, girl, boy, student, etc)
72
# Strategies used to determine what conceptual category a stimulus belongs
Define the 'Goal-Based View' of categorization
An **instance** is classified as belonging to a category if it **matches** the goal that **organizes** that category (the goal you have holds the category together)
ex: a 'goal' category like 'I can use this to transport thing' can apply to wheelbarrows, cars, skateboards
ex: What about dog, computer, wallet, phone? The 'goal' = things I take out of my home in a fire
73
Eleanor Rosch has 3 hierarchical categories for **how** we organize our **concepts**
1. **Super-Ordinate** Category: a dog would be an 'animal'
2. **Basic-Level** Category: people were quickest at this level in categorizing stuff ( such as 'dog'). **Most** **differentiated** at this level and **prototypes** can be made at this level.
3. **Subordinate** Category: dog would be a 'German Shepherd'
74
Define 'Priming'
**SCIENTISTS**: Higgins, Rholes & Jones (1977) did a classic study on **priming** and **perception**. Two conditions: Positive (confident, independent) & Negative (foolish, conceited)
After reading a story, participants described the character with worse or better traits depending on how they were 'primed'.
75
What is Negative Stereotype **activation** and Negative Stereotype **inhibition**?
1. **Activation**: if criticised by another racial group, we tend to think of negative racial stereotypes *to make ourselves feel better after the criticisms*
2. **Inhibition**: if praised, we inhibit this stereotyping
76
**Deductive** Reasoning
**Inductive** Reasoning?
1. **Deductive** : General to specific. if the premises is true, then the conclusion must be true. (If all men are mortal, and socrates is a man, **then socrates must be mortal**. A+B=C)
Theory-->Hypothesis--->Observation-->Confirmation
2. **Inductive** : Specific to general. Evidence supports a conclusion. (If all the swans I've seen have been white, I would predict the next swan is white. But I could be wrong)
Observation --> Pattern --> Hypothesis --> Theory
77
What is** behavioural genetics**?
study of relative contributions that genes and environment make to various human characteristics
| KNOW THIS
78
Difference between **heritability** & **environmentality**?
**1. **Heritability** : proportion or % of variation in a **phenotypic** trait in a **population** that is due to *genetic* variation between individuals in that population. It is *changeable* for any given trait and it is an *estimate* and it refers to a *population*, not individuals!
Although it is an estimate (not precise) because the measurements are based on individuals, so there is inherently errors between samples.
**ex**: If have a perfectly uniform environment, any variation would mean 100% heritability. Only in this instance, would environmental influences not matter. If the enviro becomes heterogenous, that it produces phenotypic variation, then heritability would drop (genetic influences would drop)
2. **Enviro** : proportion or % of variation in a **phenotypic** trait in a **population** that is due to *enviro* variation between individuals in that population.
These complement each other.
79
Method in studying Behavioural Genetics:
1. **Family Studies**: if a charactistic is heritable, then family members will be more similar. Hard to separate the genetic and the enviromental influences though!
2. **Twin Studies**: compares monozygotic against dizygotic (fraternal) . Identical twins are more similar than fraternal so if characteristic is heritable, it's due to genetics. Identical and Fraternal twins also have '*equivalent* *environments*' -- one is not more similar than the others.
3. **Adoption Studies**: compare kids adopted out after birth, to their bio parents who they didn't grow up with. A direct comparison of **nature and nurture**. As kids grow up wth adoptive parents, the mental similarities wane until basically 0% by the time they are adults --> implicates GENES as the determinants of intelligence, NOT environments.
Critiques : Selective Placement is not occurring and Representativeness is not occuring.
4. **Combined Twin-Adoption Studies**: traits are still similar showing that GENES highly influence intelligence
80
Major conclusions on studies of GENES vs. INTELLIGENCE?
1. **Intelligence is highly heritable** : considerable, conservative average being 50%
2. **Heritability of Intelligence Increases with Age**: increases substantially from infancy to late adulthood. Maybe due to '**genetic amplification**' -- meaning the small genetic differences are amplified as ppl increasingly select, modify, and create environments that reflect their genetic propensities.
3. **Intelligence Indexes Genetic Effects Across Various Learning Abilities** : variious cognitive abilities are influenced by many of the same genes
4. **The Heritability of Intelligence is Caused by Many Genes of Small Effect** : means intelligence is not the cause of a single gene. Results from many genes, each causing a small change.
81
3 MAJOR Conclusions then regarding the link between ENVIRONMENT & INTELLIGENCE?
1. **Child Development requires basic level of care** - nutrition, education, socialization. If these are in place, then inellectual dvlp will occur
2. **Genes may exert more IF socioeconomic factors are optimal **-- if socioeconomic conditions worsen, then environmental influences a lot more
3. **Heritability Increases with Age** - genes become inceasingly more determinant over the lifespan, maybe due to **gene-environment correlations**
82
What is the **Neural Efficiency Hypothesis**?
If the brain has faster/more efficient transmission of info, then it's the basis for higher intelligence.
**Result**: there is a correlation between processing speed and intelligence.
**Could test it via**
* Hick Paradigm-Type Task
* Sternberg Task
* Inspection Time Task
Could look at **Brain Activity** via PET scan while participants did tasks. Negative Correlation though: as intelligence increases, brain activity decreases for a given task (low to moderate difficulties and neg correlated with males...;(
Intelligence is pos correlated with **short-distance functional coupling** - as intelligence increases, brain area communicate more effectively.
83
Parieto-Frontal Integration Theory?
| P-FIT
intelligence tasks seem to congregate in the parietial & frontal brain regions
FOUR STAGES:
1. Occipital & temporal regions proces sensory
2. Parietal integrate and abstracts sensory info (angular gyrus, super marginal gyrus, superior parietal lobule)
3. Parietal area interacts with Frontal. Enables problem solving, evaluation, hypothesis testing
4. Anterior Cingulate - arcuate fasciculus for reliable communication between regions
MOST EMPIRICALLY VALIDATED NEUROLOGICAL MODEL OF INTELLIGENCE. with patterns of activation in the P-FIT areas and white matter
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sex differences -- quick reference
1. Evolutionary Explanatiion - hunter gathering
2. Biological Explanations : woman more greymatter, men more white matter, men more grey in left. Not for women.Men rely on left more for verbal and spatial, woman both sides.
3. Sociocultural Explanations:
4. Biopsychosocial Explanations:
