Thinking and Intelligence Chapter 9

I. Thinking A. Thinking, or cognition, refers to a process that involves knowing, understanding, remembering, and communicating.

B. Concept: The mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people. There are a variety of chairs but their common features define the concept of a chair.

C. Category Hierarchies We organize concepts into category hierarchies. Courtesy of Christine Brune

D. Prototypes Mostly, we form concepts with mental images or typical examples (prototypes). Fruit? Bird (mental image) Daniel J. Cox/ Getty Images J. Messerschmidt/ The Picture Cube

Categories Once we place an item in a category, our memory shifts toward the category prototype. A computer generated face that was 70 percent Caucasian led people to classify it as Caucasian. Courtesy of Oliver Corneille

II. Problem Solving A. Algorithms: Methodical, logical rules or procedures that guarantee solving a particular problem.

Algorithms Algorithms, which are very time consuming, exhaust all possibilities before arriving at a solution. Computers use algorithms. S P L O Y O C H Y G If we were to unscramble these letters to form a word using an algorithmic approach, we would face 907,200 possibilities.

B. Heuristics: simple, thinking strategies that allow us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently. Heuristics are less time consuming, but more error-prone than algorithms. B2M Productions/Digital Version/Getty Images

Heuristics Heuristics make it easier for us to use simple principles to arrive at solutions to problems. S P L O Y O C H Y G S P L O Y O C H G YP S L O Y O C H G YP S Y C H O L O G Y Put a Y at the end, and see if the word begins to make sense.

C. Insight Insight involves a sudden novel realization of a solution to a problem. Humans and animals have insight. Grande using boxes to obtain food Pine, crab, sauce.....

Insight Brain imaging and EEG studies suggest that when an insight strikes (the “Aha” experience), it activates the right temporal lobe (Jung- Beeman, 2004). The time between not knowing the solution and realizing it is 0.3 seconds. From Mark Jung-Beekman, Northwestern University and John Kounios, Drexel University

III. Obstacles in Solving Problems A. Confirmation Bias: A tendency to search for information that confirms a personal bias. Creation vs. Evolution, Global warming, etc., etc.

14 B. Hindsight Bias 1.I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon (you probably knew this slide was coming!) 2.Finding that something has happened makes it seem inevitable

C. Mental Set: A tendency to approach a problem in a particular way, especially if that way was successful in the past. O-T-T-F-?

IV. Using and Misusing Heuristics Two kinds of heuristics, representative heuristics and availability heuristics, have been identified by cognitive psychologists. Amos Tversky Daniel Kahneman Courtesy of Greymeyer Award, University of Louisville and the Tversky family Courtesy of Greymeyer Award, University of Louisville and Daniel Kahneman

Probability that that person is a truck driver is far greater than an ivy league professor just because there are more truck drivers than such professors. A. Representativeness Heuristic Judging the likelihood of things or objects in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, a particular prototype. If you meet a slim, short, man who wears glasses and likes poetry, what do you think his profession would be? An Ivy league professor or a truck driver?

B. Availability Heuristic Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory. Vivid cases stick in our heads!

C. Overconfidence Overconfidence is a tendency to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments. Help us to make judgments more easily??? At a stock market, both the seller and the buyer may be confident about their decisions on a stock.

D. Framing Decisions Decisions and judgments may be significantly affected depending upon how an issue is framed (to scare people frame risks as numbers, not percentages). Example: What is the best way to market ground beef — as 25% fat or 75% lean? Organ donors opt out vs. opt in....

E. Belief Bias The tendency of one’s preexisting beliefs to distort logical reasoning by making invalid conclusions. God is love. Love is blind Ray Charles is blind. Ray Charles is God. Anonymous graffiti

V. Need for Cognitive Consistency A. Cognitive Dissonance: A state of tension that occurs when a person simultaneously holds two cognitions that are psychologically inconsistent, or when a person’s belief is inconsistent with his or her behavior.

B. Justification of Effort: The tendency of individuals to increase their liking for something they have worked hard for or suffered to attain. After listening to a boring group discussion, those who went through sever initiation to join, rated it most highly. (Aronson & Mills, 1959)

VI. Intelligence What is Intelligence? 24

What is Intelligence? A. Intelligence (in all cultures) is the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use our knowledge to adapt to new situations. 25

A. General Intelligence The idea that general intelligence (g) exists comes from the work of Charles Spearman ( ) who helped develop the factor analysis approach in statistics. Athleticism, like intelligence, is many things 26

VII. Contemporary Intelligence Theories A. Howard Gardner (1983, 1999) supports Thurstone’s idea that intelligence comes in multiple forms. People with savant syndrome excel in abilities unrelated to general intelligence. 27

Howard Gardner Gardner proposes eight types of intelligences and speculates about a ninth one — existential intelligence. Existential intelligence is the ability to think about the question of life, death and existence. 28

Robert Sternberg B. Sternberg (1985, 1999, 2003) also agrees with Gardner, but suggests three intelligences rather than eight (triarchic theory of intelligence). 1.Analytical Intelligence: Intelligence that is assessed by intelligence tests. 2.Creative Intelligence: Intelligence that makes us adapt to novel situations, generating novel ideas. 3.Practical Intelligence: Intelligence that is required for everyday tasks (e.g. street smarts). 29

D. Emotional Intelligence Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive, understand, and use emotions (Salovey and colleagues, 2005). EIQ is associated with better job performance (Joseph & Newman, 2010) The case of Elliot??? 30

E. Success = talent + hard work 31

F. Does size matter? Recent Studies indicate some correlation (about +.40) between brain size and intelligence. As brain size decreases with age, scores on verbal intelligence tests also decrease. Gray matter concentration in people with high intelligence. 32

VIII. Assessing Intelligence Psychologists define intelligence testing as a method for assessing an individual’s mental aptitudes and comparing them with others using numerical scores. 33

A. Alfred Binet Alfred Binet and his colleague Théodore Simon practiced a more modern form of intelligence testing by developing questions that would predict children’s future progress in the Paris school system. 34

B. Lewis Terman In the US, Lewis Terman adapted Binet’s test for American school children and named the test the Stanford-Binet Test. 1. The following is the formula of Intelligence Quotient (IQ), introduced by William Stern: 35

C. David Wechsler Wechsler developed the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and later the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC), an intelligence test for preschoolers. 36

1. WAIS 37

E. Principles of Test Construction For a psychological test to be acceptable it must fulfill the following three criteria: 1.Standardization 2.Reliability 3.Validity 38

Standardization Standardizing a test involves administering the test to a representative sample of future test takers in order to establish a basis for meaningful comparison. 39

F. Normal Curve Standardized tests establish a normal distribution of scores on a tested population in a bell-shaped pattern called the normal curve. 40

Reliability A test is reliable when it yields consistent results. To establish reliability researchers establish different procedures: 1.Split-half Reliability: Dividing the test into two equal halves and assessing how consistent the scores are. 2.Reliability using different tests: Using different forms of the test to measure consistency between them. 3.Test-Retest Reliability: Using the same test on two occasions to measure consistency. 41

Validity Reliability of a test does not ensure validity. Validity of a test refers to what the test is supposed to measure or predict. 1.Content Validity: Refers to the extent a test measures a particular behavior or trait. 2.Predictive Validity: Refers to the function of a test in predicting a particular behavior or trait. 42

IV. The Dynamics of Intelligence Does intelligence remain stable over a lifetime or does it change? Are individuals on the two extremes of the intelligence scale really that different? 43

A. Stability or Change? Intelligence scores become stable after about seven years of age. In numerous studies, stability of intelligence scores have been determined (Angoff, 1988; Deary et al., 2004). 44

B. Extremes of Intelligence A valid intelligence test divides two groups of people into two extremes: the mentally retarded (IQ 70) and individuals with high intelligence (IQ 130). These two groups are significantly different. 45

1. Mental Retardation Must have a low test score and a difficulty at adapting to the normal demands of independent living. 46

2. High Intelligence Contrary to popular belief, people with high intelligence test scores tend to be healthy, well adjusted, and unusually successful academically. 47

V. Genetic and Environmental Influences on Intelligence No other topic in psychology is so passionately followed as the one that asks the question, “Is intelligence due to genetics or environment?” 48

A. Genetic Influences Studies of twins, family members, and adopted children together support the idea that there is a significant genetic contribution to intelligence. 49

B. Adoption Studies Adopted children show a marginal correlation in verbal ability to their adopted parents. 50

C. Environmental Influences Studies of twins and adopted children also show the following: 1.Fraternal twins raised together tend to show similarity in intelligence scores. 2.Identical twins raised apart show slightly less similarity in their intelligence scores. 51

VII. The Question of Bias Aptitude tests are necessarily biased in the sense that they are sensitive to performance differences caused by cultural differences. However, aptitude tests are not biased in the sense that they accurately predict performance of one group over the other. 52

A. Stereotype Threat A stereotype threat is a self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype. This phenomenon appears in some instances in intelligence testing among African-Americans and among women of all colors. 53

An Illustration of Stereotype Threat 54