cognition/thinking= knowing, understanding, remembering, communicating
- concept= mental grouping of similar objects (stereotypes, hierarchies)
- we form concepts with mental images: prototypes of what we consider typical
- ex: our concept of a bird is probably a robin or sparrow, the most average, typical, basic bird.
- once we place an item in a category, our memory shifts it more towards that category’s prototype
Problem Solving
- Algorithms-- methodical, logical rules or procedures that guarantee solving a problem
- time consuming, exhaust all possibilities: used mainly by computers
- Heuristics-- simple thinking strategies that involve making judgements, solving quickly
- human-style problem solving: more error prone, but much faster
- representative heuristic= judging the likelihood of things or objects in terms of how well they match a particular prototype
- availability heuristic= estimate the likelihood of events based on availability in memory
- depends on how recent, distinct the event is
- people are more afraid of flying than driving, though driving is more dangerous
- exaggerated fear: after 9/11, nobody wanted to fly
- Insight-- suddenly realize a solution
- chimps have the ingenious realization that they can stack boxes to reach food
- brain imaging+EEG show AHA! moment happens in the right temporal cortex
- occurs 0.3 seconds before realizing insight
Cognitive Biases
fixation= inability to see a problem from a fresh perspective
mental set= tendency to approach a problem in a particular way, especially if it was successful in the past
- functional fixedness= tendency to think of objects for only their traditional uses
overconfidence= confirm beliefs, explain failures
- stock market- both buyer and seller are confident that they will win
framing decisions- how an issue is presented
- 75% lean meat vs. 25% fat meat, surgery with 90% survival vs. 10% death
- depending on how you frame the stats, the consumers opinion is greatly influenced
Confirmation bias= tendency to search for information that confirms our belief
belief bias= tendency of preexisting beliefs to distort reasoning
belief perseverance= hold on to beliefs in face of contrary evidence
Language
linguistics is the study of language- how we communicate meaning to ourselves and others
- phonemes= smallest distinct sound unit in a spoken language
- bat has 3 phonemes: b/a/t, chat has 4: c/h/a/t
- morpheme= smallest unit that carries a meaning- word or part of a word
- unforgettable: un/for/get/table
- words
- phrases
- grammar=system of rules
- semantics: set of rules by which we derive meaning from words
- ex: adding -ed to the end of words puts them in past tense
- syntax: rules for ordering words
- ex: in english, adjective before noun, in spanish, opposite
development
- children learn native language before being able to add 2+2
- learn 3,500 words per year until age 18 when you have learned 60,000
- babbling stage: 4 months- baby utters nonsensical sounds
- not imitating adult speech--making sounds foreign to their native language
- begins to resemble household language at 10 months
- one-word stage: around age 1--speak one word to make family understand
- two-word stage (telegraphic speech): before 2nd year--two-word sentences
- ex: “go car” means “I want to go for a drive”
Theories of learning
- operant learning: Skinner-- reward, punishment, association, imitation
- inborn universal grammar: Chomsky- acquisition is so fast, it can’t be from reinforcement
- we are born with a language acquisition device
- all languages have the same building blocks-all dialects of same universal language
- statistical learning and critical periods: brains discern word breaks
- built in ability for grammar
thinking and language
linguistic determinism: language determines the ways we think about certain things
- we don’t have words for certain concepts/ideas
- word power: expanding your language expands you ability to think
thinking in images: imagining yourself doing an activity activates the same brain regions as actually doing the activity
Animals and Language
animals have cognitive skills, culture, problem solving
- honey bees communicate by dancing
- Gardner and Gardner trained a chimp to use ASL
- animals use gestures to communicate
- Kanzi and Panbanish trained bonobos vocab and semantic nuances through computers
- insight when solving problems (using tools)
- culture: pass on customary behavior to their offspring
- self-awareness: chimps and orangutans use mirrors to inspect themselves if researchers put paint spots on their faces (they recognize themselves!)
Intelligence
the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, use knowledge to adapt to new situations
- intelligence is a concept, not a thing
- if we view it as a trait, we make an error called reification: viewing and abstract concept as a concrete thing
- general intelligence (g): spearman- underlies clusters that can be analyzed by factor analysis
- thurstone felt that we had 7 primary mental abilities: word fluency, verbal comprehension, spatial ability, perceptual speed, numerical ability, inductive reasoning, memory
- relationships between clusters: evidence for g factor
- Kanazawa: g correlates with ability to solve novel problems, but not with success in marrying, parenting etc.
- Howard Gardner: intelligence comes in multiple forms
- linguistic, logical (math), musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, intrapersonal (self), interpersonal, naturalist, existential
- brain damage diminishes one type but not all
- savat syndrome: autistic excel at certain things with low g factor
- Sternberg’s triarchic theory
- analytic intelligence- well defined with one answer
- creative intelligence- adapt to novel situations, develop ideas
- practical intelligence- everyday tasks (street smarts)
Emotion
- emotional intelligence= ability to perceive, understand, manage and use emotions
- success in career, marriage, parenting etc.
- perceiving emotions in faces, music/ understanding how they change, blend/ express emotions gracefully
- gardner and others criticize- stretching idea of intelligence too far
Creativity= ability to produce ideas that are both novel and valuable
- also known as divergent thinking
- correlates with intelligence- convergent thinking
- expertise, imaginative thinking, venturesome personality, intrinsic motivation, creative environment
Neurology
some correlation between brain size and intelligence +0.4
intelligent people perceive stimuli faster, retrieve memory quicker, faster brain response time
Intelligence testing
assesses individuals mental aptitudes; compares to other’s scores
- Alfred Binet: assigns mental ages to children
- Lewis Terman: adapted test, named it Stanford-Binet, called Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
- IQ= mental age/chronological age X 100
- used to discriminate against poor or ignorant people
- aptitude tests predict your ability to learn
- achievement tests show what you already have learned
- Weschler- Weschler adult intelligence scale (WAIS) and WISC for children
- not as biased as the old IQ tests
Test Construction
psychological tests must be standardized, reliable, valid
- standardizing: administer test to representative sample
- those people set the standard for comparing your score
- IQ average is always 100
- normal curve usually follows data
- in perfect distribution, mean, median and mode are the same
- 15 points is a standard deviation for IQ
- flynn effect: have to periodically re-standardize the test because intelligence scores have risen 2 standard deviations in past 100 years
- caused by improved environmental factors: nutrition, enriched environment
- reliability: must yield consistent results
- split-half reliability: split test in 2 halves, assess consistency between them
- measure consistency between different tests (do the results correlate?)
- test-retest reliability: use same test on 2 occasions to measure consistency
- validity: extent to which test predicts behavior or trait, compares test scores to a criterion
- criterion is the behavior that the test is designed to predict
The Remote Associates Test (RAT)
- reliability- split half: +0.92, test-retest: +0.81
- validity- people who score high are usually creative
Dynamics of Intelligence-- fairly stable after age 7
Extremes of Intelligence
- mentally retarded= IQ below 70, difficulty adapting to needs of life
- down syndrome= extra chromosome 21
- high intelligence= IQ above 135
Genetics/Environment debate
- entity theorist-- intelligence is set in stone
- incremental theorist-- intelligence is more of a skill you practice
- significant influences from genes and environment
- early neglect impairs intelligence potential, schooling increases intelligence
- racial groups differ in average intelligence scores
- whites average 100, blacks average 85--but the gap is closing
- result of environmental factors: white privilege and education
- genetically, we are VERY similar, race is more of a social category
- white/black infants and college students have = IQ’s
- gender differences: men fall on the extremes more often than women
biases
- cultural biases= performance differences caused by cultural differences
- scientific bias= test is less valid for certain groups
- stereotype threat= concern that you will be evaluated based on negative stereotype
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