Ch 7 - Notes PDF

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Ch.7 Notes for Psych 1101. From Professor Anderson class. Teacher doesnt hand out notes if one does not attend class...

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Thinking, Language, and Intelligence Chapter 7 - NOTES

I. Cognition: the mental activites involved in acquireing retaining and useing knowledge II. Problem solving: the active efforts to discover what must be done to achieve a goal that is not readily attainable A.

3 types of problems: i. ii. iii.

Problems of inducing structure: need to discover the relations among parts of a problem Problems of arrangement: need to arrange parts to satisfy a criterion Problems of transformation: need to carry out a sequence of events to reach a specific goal

B.

Approaches to problem solving i.

Trial and error: try a variety of solutions and eliminate those that do not work a.

ii.

useful when there is a limited number of solutions

Heuristics: a guiding principle or rule of thumb a. b. c.

break a problem into subgoals work backwords from the goal Search for analogies: use to solution to a previous and similar problem as a way of solveing the current problem

d.

change the representation of the problem

iii.

Algorithms: a procedure or method that when foloed step by step always produces the correct solution

iv. Insight: the sudden discovery of the correct solution following incorrect attempts based primarilt on trial and error v. Intuition: coming to a conclusion or makeing a judgement without consious awareness of the thought process involved vi.

problem solving approach and abilty can differ based on culture

B.

Obstacles in problem solving i. ii.

focus on irrelevent information Functional fixedness: the tendency to see an item only in terms of its most common use i.

iii.

Mental set: tendency to persist in problem-solving stratigies that have worked in the -past i.

iv.

Dunker’s 1945 candle problem

Luchin’s 1942 water jug problem

unnecessary constraints

II. Decision-making strategies: evaluating alternatives and makeing choices among them A.

Single feature strategy: base desiciosn on a single feature Additive strategy: systematically evaluate the important features of each alternative Elimination by aspects strategy:

B. C. i. ii. iii.

evaluate all alternatives individually eliminate any alternative that does not meet the criterion evaluate remaining alternatives on the next criterion

E.

Heuristics in judging probabilities i.

ii. iii.

use when makeing decisions that involve uncertainty or when it is difficult to predict that a given event will occur Availability heuristic: estimate likelihood based on the ease with which relevent instances come to mind Representativeness heuristic: estimate likelihood based on how similar an event is to the most typical example of the event i. ii.

ignoring base rates Conjunction fallacy: estimating the odds of two uncertain events happening together are greater than the odds of either event happening alone

E.

Errors in decision making i. ii. iii.

Gambler’s fallacy: belief that the odds of a chance event increase if the event has not occured recently Hot-hand fallacy: belief that someone who is performing well will continue to preform well Overestimating improbable events a.

F.

probably due to availability heuristic

Research suggests our desicion making skills are biased and irrational i. ii. iii. iv.

assumes that a correct decision should follow the rules of logic based on contrived situations dont always have time and information usually adequate in “real world”

III. Language: a system for combining arbititary symbols to produce an infinite number of meaningful statements A.

Characteristics of language i. ii. iii. iv. v.

symbols shared syntax generative displacement

•

global capacity to think rationally act purposefully and deal effectively with the environment

B.

Current intelligence tests i.

ii. iii. iv.

v.

Achievement tests: designed to measure a persons level of knowledge skill or accomplishment in a particular area Aptitude tests: designed to asses a persons capacity to benifit from education or training test are standardized / normed Reliability: the ability of a test to produce consistent results when administered on repeated occasions under similar conditions Validity: the ability of a test to measure what it is intended to meaure i.

vi.

predict academic ability and some vocational success

Tests are culturally biased

IV. The Nature of Intelligence A. B.

Spearman: intelligence as a general ability Thurstone: intelligence as a cluster of abilities i.

C.

7 primary mental abilities

Gardner: multiple intelligence i.

D.

8 different intelligences

Sternberg: i.

Parts of intelligence: a.

ii.

contextual experiential and componential

3 distinct mental abilities: a.

anaytic creative and practical

V. Determinants of intelligence A.

Hereditary influences i. ii. iii.

B.

based on twin and adoption studies IQ is more similar for identical than freternal twins relationship between biological parents and children

Environmental influences i. ii. iii. iv.

C.

more similar enviornment leads to increased IQ some relationship between children and adoptive parents more enriched enviornemt leads to increased IQ The Flynn effect: intelligence is increasing in the industrialized world

Interaction between heredity and environment i.

heredity sets limits and enviornment determines where in limits IQ falls

D.

Cultural differences in IQ scores i. ii. iii.

minorities score lower regarless of culture culture-fair test seems impossible use and interpret with caution...