Thinking, Language, & Intelligence

Thinking, Language, & Intelligence “The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.” Lines Pauling

Thinking • What is it? • Mental activity involved in understanding, processing and communicating information • Cognitive psychology • Studies how the mind does all that!

Concept Formation • Concept • A mental grouping of persons, places, ideas, events, or objects that share common properties • People organize concepts into hierarchies Dog, horse, elephant, sparrows, goldfish mammal animal

Concept Formation • Prototype • Best representative of a concept • Ex: Sport • Football • Basketball • Golf • Chess • NASCAR

Try these problems • Handout

Problem Solving Strategies • Trial & error

Problem Solving – Trial & Error • Identify problem • Car won’t start • Gather information • Outta gas? Dead battery? • Try a solution • Not outta gas, so I’ll dry off the wires • Evaluate results • Car starts - yeah! • Car doesn’t start - try another solution

Problem Solving Strategies • Algorithm • A systematic, step-by-step problem-solving strategy, guaranteed to provide a solution • Heuristic • A rule of thumb that allows one to make judgments that are quick but often in error

Heuristics • A short cut (that can be prone to errors). Narrows your problem space • We use heuristics when making decisions Who would you trust to baby-sit your child? Your answer is based on your heuristic of their appearances.

Availability Heuristic • Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in our memory. Although diseases kill many more people than accidents, it has been shown that people will judge accidents and diseases to be equally fatal. This is because accidents are more dramatic and are often written up in the paper or seen on the news on t.v., and are more available in memory than diseases. • If it comes to mind easily (maybe a vivid event) we presume it is common.

Representativeness Heuristic Below is Linda. She loves books and hates loud noises. Is Linda a librarian or a beautician? • A rule of thumb for judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they match our prototype. • Can cause us to ignore important information. Chances are, she is a beautician!!!

Problem Solving Strategies • Insight (insight examples – pg. 387) • Mean-end analysis • determining difference between current situation and goal and then reducing the difference by means – What can I do? • Difference Reduction - What direction do I move?

Decision Making • Try to make best choice from alternatives • Utility: value of given outcome • Probability: likelihood you’ll achieve it • Representativeness Heuristic • A tendency to estimate the likelihood of an event in terms of how typical (how similar to the prototype) it seems • Availability Heuristic • A tendency to estimate the likelihood of an event in terms of how easily instances of it can be recalled

Practice • MCQ practice - 271

Problems with Problem Solving • Mental set • The tendency to use a strategy that has worked in the past • Functional Fixedness • A tendency to think of objects only in terms of their usual functions, a limitation that disrupts problem solving

Problems with Problem Solving • Confirmation Bias • The inclination to search only for evidence that will verify one’s beliefs • Belief Perseverance • The tendency to cling to beliefs even after they have been discredited • Anderson (1980)

Overconfidence • The tendency to be more confident than correct. • To overestimate the accuracy of your beliefs and judgments. Considering “overconfidence” who you want to risk 1 million dollars on an audience poll?

Framing • The way an issued is posed. • It can have drastic effects on your decisions and judgments. How do you think framing plays a part in the Health Care Reform debate?

Pg. 151 – Problem Solving • Solve each problem and determine the technique you used and the obstacles you faced.

Pg. 275 – mcq practice

Intelligence • How is it defined? • How is it measured? • What can intelligence be attributed to? • Levels of intelligence

Language • Formal system of communication • Spoken,written, and/or gestures • Between 5,000 and 6,000 languages, worldwide • Most languages also have many dialects

Structure of Language • Grammar • The rules of a language • Syntax • Specifies how words can be arranged • Semantics • Specifies how meaning is understood & communicated

Properties of Language • Semantic • There are separate units in a language and these units have meaning • Phoneme: basic building block of spoken language • Morpheme: smallest unit that carries meaning • Generative • Combing language in novel ways • Displacement • The property of language that accounts for the capacity to communicate about matters that are not in the here-and-now

Language Acquisition • Birth • Cooing, crying, gurgling • 4-6 months • Babbling • 12 months • First words • 2 yrs & up • Telegraphic speech • Overextension

Language Acquisition • No one disputes the stages of language development • But there are two main questions in terms of what it all means • Is language acquisition a product of nature or nurture? • Which comes first – language or thought?

…the answers… • Is it nature or nurture? • Skinner vs. Chomsky • Skinner: Children learn language the way animals learn mazes • Chomsky: The brain is hard-wired for learning lang. • Critical period • During the first few years of life, we are most receptive to language learning • What comes first – thought or language? • Both: sometimes children use words to communicate what they already know and sometimes they form concepts to fit the words they hear

Linguistic Relativity • Hyde, 1984 • Wudgemaker story: “he” “she” “he or she” “they” • Males equally good regardless • Females better in “she” stories, worse in “he” version • The hypothesis that language determines, or at least influences, the way we think Eyeglasses Dumbbell

Intelligence …the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function… F. Scott Fitzgerald

Intelligence • What is intelligence? • The capacity to learn from experience and adapt successfully to one’s environment • Reflects how well we function

Video • http://learner.org/resources/series138.html

History of Intelligence Francis Galton • Believed that intelligence was inherited • Based intelligence on: • Muscular strength • Size of your head • Speed at reacting to signals • Your ability to detect slight differences

Theories of Intelligence • Spearman’s G factor (1904) • Proposed that general intelligence (g) underlies all mental abilities • Specific intelligence (s) • Factor analysis • A statistical technique used to identify clusters of test items that correlate with another • Thurstone’s Primary Mental Abilities • 7 factors which correlate but not enough to represent 1 underlying factor • Verbal comprehension, word fluency, number facility (math), associative memory, perceptual speed for stimulus recognition, reasoning, and spatial visualization

Theories of Intelligence • Triarchic theory of intelligence • Robert Sternberg • Analytical • The mental steps of ‘components’ used to solve problems • This is what traditional IQ tests assess • Creative • Intellectual and motivational processes that lead to novel solutions, ideas, artistic forms, or products • Practical • The ability to size up new situations and adapt to real-life demands

Gardner’s ‘Frames of Mind’ • Multiple intelligences • There are seven (9)types of intelligence • Linguistic: verbal aptitude • Logical-mathematical: mathematical aptitude • Spatial: ability to visualize objects • Musical: ability to appreciate the tonal qualities of sound, compose, and play • Bodily-kinesthetic: ability to control movement • Interpersonal: ability to understand people • Intrapersonal: ability to understand oneself

EQ (Emotional Intelligence) Salovey and Mayer (1990) • Self-awareness • Mood management • Self-motivation • Inpulse control • People skills

Reading ‘The EQ Factor’ • Take the Emotional Intelligence Survey • Read the article and prepare for a socratic seminar • To prepare… • Create a summary • Identify 3 sentences/paragraphs that highlight something you found interesting, powerful, puzzling… • Create 3 Q’s for class discussion

Binet-Simon & Stanford-Binet Scales • Binet-Simon scale (1905) • Assigned mental age based on # items correct • Stanford-Binet • Lewis Terman at Stanford (1916) • Added items suitable to adults • Converted scale to a single score • IQ = mental age x 100 chronological age • This doesn’t work for adults & was adjusted

Problems with the IQ Formula • It does not really work well on adults, why? If a 60 year old man does as well as an average 30 year old then his IQ would be 50!!!!!! That makes no sense!!!!!

The Wechsler Scales • David Weschler • Intelligence is • The global capacity to act purposefully, to think rationally, and to deal effectively with the environment • IQ ratio breaks down as we get older • Deviation IQ • Compares scores to the mean of peer group • WAIS (pg 279) • Measures intelligence for late adolescence through adulthood • Two parts: verbal & performance subtests

Issues to Consider in IQ Testing • Standardization • The procedure by which existing norms are used to interpret an individual’s test score • Reliability • Degree to which test gives consistent results • Validity • Does the test measure what it claims to measure

Distribution of IQ scores 68% Mental Retardation Mentally Gifted 95% 70 85 100 115 130

Extremes in Intelligence • Mental Giftedness • IQ above 130 • MENSA • Limits membership to top 2% of population • Take test…. Are you Mensa quality? • Watch clip on Daniel Tannet

Extremes in Intelligence • Mental retardation • IQ below 70 • Difficulties with: • Self-care • School / work • Social relationships • Four categories • Mild, Moderate, Severe, Profound

Causes of Mental Retardation • Cultural-familial • Inadequate mental stimulation • Poor diet, little or no medical care • Genetic defects • Down syndrome • Brain damage • Fetal alcohol syndrome • Hypoxia

What attributes to intelligence? • Read your section – (7) • Identify key points for your peers • Be prepared to present to class • Tiger Mom (NBC Clip) • HW: read about Racial Stereotypes and Test Performance – Summarize the study and findings

The Nature & Nurture Debate • Nature’s influence on IQ • Identical twins reared together are more similar than fraternal twins reared together • Siblings who grow up together are more similar than unrelated individuals who grow up in the same house • Children are more similar to their biological parents than to adoptive parents • Nurture’s influence on IQ • Prenatal care, exposure to alcohol and other toxins, birth complications, malnutrition in the first few months of life, intellectual stimulation at home, stress, high-quality education, the amount of time spent in school • Head Start programs (and those like it)

Thinking, Language, & Intelligence