1. Thinking, Language and Intelligence
Cognition—Mental Activities involved in acquiring, storing, retrieving, and using knowledge

2. Thinking—Brain Connections
Prefrontal cortex—associates complex ideas, makes plans, forms and initiates attention, and allocates our attention
Also involved in multitasking bahaviors.

3. Thinking—Cognitive Building Blocks
Mental Images—a mental representation of a previously stored sensory experience, including visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, motor and gustatory imagery
Concept—Mental representation of a group or category that shares similar characteristics

4. Concepts
Artificial Concepts—concepts created from logical rules or definitions; rules for inclusion are sharply defined
Natural Concepts—prototypes—a representation of the “best” or most typical example of a category
Hierarchies—concepts are grouped as subcategories within broader concepts

5. Three-Step Process to Solving Problems
Step 1: Preparation
Identify given facts
Separate relevant from irrelevant facts
Define the ultimate goal
Step 2: Production—Generate Hypotheses
Algorithm—a set of steps that, if followed correctly, will eventually solve the problem
Heuristic—strategies, or simple rules, used in problem solving and decision making that do not guarantee a solution but offer a likely short cut to it

6. Three-Step Process to Solving Problems
Step 3: Evaluation
Does one or more of the hypotheses generated meet the criteria set forth in Step 1? If yes, then the problem is solved, if no, return to Step 2 and produce more solutions.

7. Barriers to Solving Problems
Mental Sets—Persisting in using problem-solving strategies that have worked in the past rather than trying new ones
Functional fixedness—Tendency to think of an object functioning only in its usual or customary way
Confirmation bias—tendency to seek out and pay attention only to information that confirms preexisting positions or beliefs, while ignoring or discounting contradictory evidence

8. Barriers to Solving Problems
Availability heuristic—judging the likelihood or probability of events based on how readily available are other instances in our mind
Representativeness heuristic—estimating the probability of something based on how well the circumstances match our previous prototype

9. Creativity The ability to produce valued outcomes in a novel way
Originality, fluency and flexibility are characteristics associated with creative thought
Divergent thinking—thinking that produces many alternatives or ideas; a major element of creativity
Convergent thinking—narrowing down a list of alternatives to converge on a single correct answer

10. Language
A form of communication whereby we put together sounds and symbols according to specified rules.

11. Language—Building Blocks
Phoneme—smallest basic unit of speech or sound (i.e., p in pansy; ng in sting)
Morpheme—smallest unit of language that carries the meaning; formed from a combination of phonemes

12. Language—Building Blocks
Grammar—rules that specify how phonemes, morphemes, words, and phrases should be combined to express thought
Syntax—grammatical rules that specify how words and phrases should be arranged in a sentence to convey meaning
Semantics—meaning, or the study of meaning, derived from words and word combinations

13. Language and Thought Determination vs. Influence
Words and language do have the power to form our perceptions, however, do words and language determine our thoughts?

14. Language Development
Noam Chomsky and the nativist school of thought suggest that language is an innate predisposition and that children possess a Language Acquisition Device (LAD) which is an innate mechanism that enables a child to analyze language and extract the basic rules of grammar. To support this, Chomsky pointed to the fact that all children go through similar stages of language acquisition.

15. Language Development
Cooing—vowel-like sounds infants produce beginning around age 2-3 months
Babbling—vowel/consonant combinations that infants begin to produce at about age 4-6 months
Toward the end of the first year of life, babbling begins to sound more like the language of the home and sounds are related to meaning

16. Language Development
Overextension—overly broad use of a word to include objects that do not fit the word’s meaning (occurs around age months)
Around age 2, children use Telegraphic Speech—two or three-word sentences of young children that contain only the most necessary words
As children continue to learn the use of language, they tend to Overgeneralize—apply the basic rules of grammar even to cases that are exceptions to the rule

17. Animals and Language Why should humans have all the fun?
Why not “Huked on foniks” for non-humans as well?

18. Intelligence
General capacity to profit from experience, acquire knowledge, and adapt to changes in the environment.
Spearman (1923) proposed that intelligence is a single factor called general intelligence (g) which underlies all intellectual behavior. On the basis of Spearman’s work, tests were used in the military, schools, and business.

19. Intelligence
Fluid Intelligence—aspects of innate intelligence, including reasoning abilities, memory, and speed of information processing, that are relatively independent of education and tend to decline as people age
Crystallized Intelligence—Knowledge and skills gained through experience and education that tend to increase over the life span.

20. Multiple Intelligences
Gardner’s Theory—human beings have eight (possibly nine) distinct intelligences. From individual combinations of these intelligences, each person can develop his/her own profile of intelligence.

21. Gardner’s Theory Linguistic Intelligence Spatial Intelligence
Bodily-kinesthetic Intelligence
Intrapersonal Intelligence
Logical-mathematical Intelligence
Musical Intelligence
Interpersonal Intelligence
Naturalistic Intelligence
Spiritual Existential Intelligence

22. Sternberg’s Triarchic (Three-Part) Theory
Sternberg proposed a theory of “successful” intelligence. He placed importance on the thinking processes used to arrive at answers.
Analytic Intelligence
Creative Intelligence
Practical Intelligence
Sternberg stressed that mental abilities need to be applied in real-world situations.

23. Test Construction
Standardization—Establishing the norms and uniform procedures for giving and scoring a test
Reliability—a measure of the consistency and stability of test scores when the test is readministered
Validity—ability of a test to measure what it was designed to measure

24. IQ Tests and Assessing Intelligence
Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale developed to test the intellectual ability of U.S. born children ages 3-16
Intelligence Quotient (IQ)—a subject’s mental age divided by chronological age and multiplied by 100.
Wechsler Tests—developed for adults, children and preschool children—scoring or verbal and performance areas.

25. Intelligence Extremes
Mental Retardation—ranges from mild to profound, may be caused by genetics, environment or unknown causes
Mild—IQ 50-70
Moderate—IQ 35-49
Severe—IQ 20-34
Profound—IQ below 20

26. Intelligence Extremes
Mental Giftedness
IQ greater than 135
Terman found that high IQ was not a guarantee of success but did offer more intellectual opportunities, i.e., greater number of engineers, physicians, etc. but no less number of alcoholics, suicide, etc. than the general population

27. Intelligence and Culture
Is one race or ethnicity more intelligent than another? i.e., is there genetic heritage of intelligence passed on within races and ethnicities?
Do IQ tests measure without cultural bias?
Stereotype Threat—a person experiences doubt about his or her performance due to negative stereotypes about his or her group’s abilities

28. Nature vs. Nurture
Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart determined that heredity and environment are important, inseparable factors in intellectual development.
Heredity gives us our innate capacities
Environment influences whether an individual will reach full potential.