Cognition, Language, and Intelligence

1. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence

2. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Definition of Cognition • Intellectual processes • Perception • Memory • Thinking • Language • Obtained • Transformed • Stored • Retrieved • Used through which information is

3. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Three Primary Facets of Cognition • Cognition processes information • Cognition is active • Information is • Obtained through senses • Transformed through interpretive processes • Stored and retrieved through memory • Used in problem solving and language • Cognition is useful

4. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Concepts: The Basic Units of Thinking • Concepts • Basic units of logical thinking • General categories of things, events, qualities linked by common feature(s) • Makes most productive thinking possible • Allows efficient processing of information

5. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Types of Concepts • Simple concepts have a single common feature • Complex concepts • Conjunctive: simultaneous presence of 2 or more common characteristics • Disjunctive: presence of one common characteristic or another, or both apple Red t-shirt ball aunt mom’s sister female Schizophrenic person hears having voices distorted not there beliefs

6. Superordinate concept Vehicles Cars Boats Planes Basic concepts Sailboat Glider Sportscar Motorboat Jet plane Station wagon Subordinate concepts Kayak Propeller plane Luxury sedan Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Basic Concepts

7. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Cards used in laboratory studies Can you tell what the concept is here?

8. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Natural Concepts • Concepts that are easier to learn than others • Assumption – humans are biologically prepared • Two primary characteristics • Natural concepts are basic • Natural concepts are prototypical – they make good prototypes

9. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Natural Concepts • Three levels of inclusiveness • Superordinate concepts are very inclusive • Basic concept has medium degree of inclusiveness • Subordinate concepts are least inclusive

10. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Natural Concepts • Why basic concepts are easier to learn than superordinate or subordinate concepts – four characteristics make them natural • Basic concepts share many attributes • Members share similar shapes • Members often share motor movements • Basic concepts are easily named

11. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Thinking and Problem Solving • Sophisticated thinking is based on concepts • Understanding concepts gives insight into content of thinking • Problem solving – cognitive process in which information is used to reach a goal blocked by some obstacle • Steps must be performed in sequence

12. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Steps in Problem Solving • Formulating the problem • Clearly define it in specific terms (what is it?) • Understanding and organizing elements of the problem (what is here and missing?) • Be flexible in thinking; use insightfulness • Avoid getting stuck in mental sets – habitual ways of thinking

13. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Steps in Problem Solving • Generate and evaluate alternative solutions (what if ?) • Try to foresee effects and consequences • Choose best solution • Strategies to find best solution • Trial-and-error

14. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Problem Solving • Strategies to find best solution • Heuristic reasoning using algorithms • Efficient but subject to error • Representativeness heuristic – judgments based on assumptions that unknown is similar to what is known • Problems solving affected by emotions – not totally a cognitive, logical process

15. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Creative Problem Solving • Creativity – ability to act or think in novel and ways that are valued by others • Convergent thinking • Logical, factual, conventional, focused thinking • Divergent thinking • Unconventional, loosely organized and directed • Breaks out of mental sets more easily

16. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Problem Solving • Wallas’ four steps • Preparation • Initial attempts to look at facts, solutions • Incubation • Rest period; leave it alone for a while • Illumination • Sudden insight as to a solution • Verification • Test the solution

17. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Human Diversity • Inferential reasoning – reaches conclusion with information going beyond what is known • Different cultures: more alike than not • Culture does shape thinking • Bicultural individual – goes back-and-forth between two cultural mind-sets

18. American thinking (category) Chinese thinking (relationship) Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Which two belong together?

19. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Language • Symbolic code used in communication • Semantics – meaning or semantic content • Generative – infinite set of utterances made into finite set of elements and rules • Phonemes – smallest units of sound • Morphemes – smallest units of meaning • Syntax – combines morphemes, phonemes • Prescriptive rules of grammar

20. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Language and Thought • Whorfian Hypothesis known as linguistic relativity hypothesis • A culture’s language shapes member’s thinking • The more important something is to a culture, the more words exist to describe it • Linguistic relativity led to rethinking certain words in our language - - example: chairman became chairperson

21. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Animal Language • Humans have most flexible, symbolic communication • Bees have simple, elegant form of communication • Round dance – distance communicated but not direction • Tail-wagging dance – direction communicated by angle to sun and distances through loose figure-eight patterns

22. Direction of flower Round dance Tail-wagging dance Cognition, Language, and Intelligence

23. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Animal Language • Teaching primates language • Washoe – limited use of ASL • Koko - demonstrated more spontaneous and generative use of language than Washoe • The primates did not master human syntax • Accomplishments of both is less than that of 3-year-old humans

24. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Mastered 150 signs for limited but useful commands such as “Gimme sweet drink” Washoe Mastered 600 signs for more generative communication such as “That Koko” “Finger bracelet” “I was sad and cried this morning” Koko

25. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Intelligence • Sum total of cognitive abilities • Popularized by Galton in late 1800s • Differing views • Galton – intelligence is single general factor • Spearman – g (based on complex mathematical analysis) is general factor of intelligence • Wechsler agrees with Spearman

26. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Intelligence • Differing views • Thurstone – Primary Mental Abilities Test measures seven intellectual abilities • Guilford – extreme position that some 150 different abilities make up intelligence • Gardner – 8 independent types of intelligence based on research with savant syndromes

27. Logical-mathematical Spatial (artistic) Naturalistic intelligence (understanding nature) Linguistic Kinesthetic (athletic) Intrapersonal (personal adjustment) Interpersonal (social skills) Musical Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Gardner’s Intelligences

28. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Biological Basis of General Intelligence • Genes influence many aspects of intelligence • High g – believed to have greater ability to form neural connections in the brain • Better able to learn from experience • Brain can process information faster including • Faster reflexes, reaction times • Less time to make simple judgments

29. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Cognitive Components of Intelligent Behavior • Sternberg – cognitive steps used • Encode – put in memory in usable form • Infer relationships between terms/elements • Map or identify common characteristics • Apply identified relationship • Compare alternative answers • Respond with an answer

30. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence • Fluid intelligence • ability to process information quickly, devise strategies to solve problem • Crystallized intelligence – • ability to use previously learned skills in problem solving

31. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Measures of Intelligence • IQ Test • Terman – Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test • Wechsler – WISC-III and WAIS-R • Controversies over intelligence tests • Use of small samples • Uses for predicting future behavior • Do tests really measure intelligence?

32. (MA) Mental Age = x 100 IQ Chronological Age (CA) Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Construction of Intelligence Tests • Binet – score is intelligence quotient(IQ) • Ratio IQ no longer used • New approach: deviation IQ and normal distribution

33. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Good Intelligence Tests • Characteristics - • Standardization • Norms based on large sample of general population • Objectivity – no bias • Reliability – same results time after time • Validity – measures what it is supposed to measure • Predictive validity

34. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Tacit Intelligence • Everyday intelligence not taught in school • General intelligence tests are limited • Predicts success in school, complex occupations • Cannot predict tacit intelligence • Persons with low or limited general intelligence rarely have high tacit intelligence • Persons with high general intelligence – more likely to have good practical knowledge across many areas

35. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Individual Differences in Intelligence • Contributing factors • Combination of heredity and experience • Monozygotic twins – evidence of heredity • Intellectual environment one is raised in • Enriched environments can increase IQ

36. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Importance of IQ Scores • Modern society • Persons with higher IQ scores do better in educational achievement, and obtain higher paying employment • Average truck driver – IQ under 100 • Average doctor or lawyer – IQ is 125 or more • High correlation between educational and occupational success

37. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence People Are Becoming More Intelligent • IQ scores increased over several generations • Tests measured fluid and crystallized IQ • Larger gains measured by fluid IQ tests • Explanations • Nutrition and health have improved • Levels of education have increased • Technology made environment more complex • More complex, multicultural society

38. 120 115 Relative mean intelligence scores 110 105 100 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 Year data collected Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Intelligence scores of individuals born in different years but tested at the same age

39. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Race-Ethnic Differences • Intelligence and achievement since 1930s • African American scores average 15 points below whites • Hispanic/Latino Americans average scores fall between those of whites and African Americans • Asian Americans average 5 points higher than scores of whites

40. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Race-Ethnic Differences • Large increases in IQ since 1930s due to • Lives of African Americans have improved (more opportunities in education and life) • Less children born benefit from family size • Changes in health and nutrition • Bell curve – U.S. becoming meritocracy • Society headed toward genetic decline

41. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Normal Distribution 2% 14% 34% 34% 14% 2%

42. Average Many Below average Above average 34.13% 34.13% Percent of persons scoring in each segment under the normal curve Number of persons obtaining each score 13.59% 13.59% 2.14% 2.14% Few 70 55 85 100 115 130 145 IQ scores Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Normal Distribution

43. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence Extremes in Intelligence • Mental retardation – IQ of 70 or below • Wide range of conditions resulting from genetics, trauma, and maternal infections • Mildly retarded – IQ of 50 to 70 • Moderately retarded – IQ of 35 to 49 • Severely retarded – IQ of 20 to 34 • Profoundly retarded – IQ under 20 • Gifted – high IQ and high creativity • High achievers and highly successful in life

44. Cognition, Language, and Intelligence The End