Thinking, Language, and Intelligence

Term / Explanation / Application/Example/Extension

Thinking Introduction

/ Cognitive abilities- are all mental abilities involved in thinking, knowing, and remembering / Cognitive psychologists study how we mentally process information from the environment in terms of how it is modified, stored, and retrieved
Divergent thinking- ability to think along many alternatives to generate overall solution of problem / Brainstorming is an example of divergent thinking.
Convergent thinking- ability to apply logic and thinking to narrow down possible solutions / Listing ideas on a white board and then discussing each idea and erasing those that don’t apply- converging ideas
Concepts are mental groupings, or categories based and formed through items sharing common similarities. / Concepts are like files in a filing system each file contains similar documents- for example, you have a concept based on your favorite foods
Formal concept is a concept that is clearly defined, or based on a set or rules or properties / A square is defined by having four equal sides. Any item that has four equal sides is identified as a square concept
Natural concept is concept that is defined by no fixed set or defining rules, but rather a set of common characteristic features / A house is defined, or grouped by certain common characteristic features like a roof and floor, windows, etc. A car is not confused with a house because it does not have the same characteristic features.
Prototype is the best example, or most typical example of a concept / If your favorite car is a Dodge Charger SRT8, then this car is considered your prototype because it is the best representation of your concept of cars.
The closer an item is to your prototype, the quicker you can recognize and categorize the item
Schemas- generalizations and mental representations about persons, places, and things, which provide automatic thought patterns and opinions / Some people have a schema that describes athletes as making a lot of money. This is an automatic thought resulting in athletes automatically being associated with money. Mention athlete, assume money
Scripts- type of a schema that is a mental representation of a familiar sequence / An example of a script would be the sequence of how you start your car- open door, insert key, turn key, put on a seat belt, put car in reverse, etc.
Thinking Strategies / Formal reasoning- process of following a rigorous, specific set of rules to reach a conclusion / Length X Width X Height = Volume/ use this procedure, or algorithm, you are guaranteed to find the volume of an object.
Algorithm is a logical rule, or procedure that guarantees a solution
Informal reasoning- arriving at a conclusion based on the believability of evidence, or hunches and feelings / Some students choose not to write out every step to a math problem in order to save time; however using this approach may lead to mistakes.
Heuristics are a simple thinking strategies, rules-of-thumb which use short cuts to save time, but when used do not guarantee a solution or answer.
Anchoring heuristic- mental short cut, or automatic response that is simply based on past knowledge or experience, which is often used to save time rather than time spent thinking about a topic or situation. / Stubbornness would be another way to describe an anchoring heuristic- people become stubborn or lazy and do not consider other possible explanations / When asked if it is cold in Alaska, to save time a person may just quickly answer, yes, based on what they already know. Unfortunately, not completely thinking about the regions of Alaska could prevent them from knowing that some areas are actually warm because they were anchored by incorrect information.
Representativeness heuristic- forming opinions or thoughts based on how well a topic matches the prototype / Can be compared to making assumptions- just assuming that something or someone is the way it is because it matches what you already know. Assuming that all people who drive a nice car are rich- because your prototype of rich includes driving nice cars / If a person were to use the representativeness heuristic when deciding if he or she likes a certain car, the person would compare the car to their prototype. If the car matched their prototype he or she would consider it a nice car. / The problem with the representiveness heuristic is that if the prototype is not accurate or up to date, then it will serve as an inaccurate comparison. For example, if a teacher on the first day of class is wearing blue jeans and a t-shirt you may assume someone who dresses like that is a cool and an easy teacher because that description matches your prototype of what an easy teacher looks like. However, just because this teacher matches your prototype, does not mean he or she is an easy teacher.
Availability heuristic- thinking that is based on one’s present; available information at that moment he or she has to form an opinion or make a choice / Can be compared to ignorance- lack of knowledge or effort to obtain knowledge concerning topic or situation / Some may think that breast cancer is more prevalent, or have more cases than other cancers because they have more available information, or know the most about breast cancer. / The problem associated with the availability heuristic is that the available or present information a person has may not be accurate or complete.
Problem-solving / Means-to-an-end- continuously asking yourself where you are in relation to your final goal then decide what the next step will be to finishing / Dieting is an example of a means-to-an-end. A person weighs him or herself on a weekly basis and then determines what is working and what needs improvement.
Insight- sudden realization of a solution to a problem / An example of insight would be if you have ever been asked a question and you know the answer, but you are not able to remember at that moment, and then hours later for some reason the answer just comes to you.
Intuition- coming up with a conclusion or answer without any conscious type of thought / Intuition is a “lucky guess.” You respond with the correct answer, “4” and feel very proud of yourself, until the teacher asks you how you came with that answer. The problem is with intuition is that you don’t know how you came with the answer.
Incubation- stepping back from a problem or taking a break and then retrying the problem / “Writer’s block” could be alleviated or helped by applying incubation. You take a break because you cannot come up with a theme, and then after going for a run you are able write very good.
Obstacles for problem solving / Fixation in the inability to see a problem from a new perspective. Two examples of fixation are mental set and functional fixedness. / People get frustrated trying to solve math problems because often they make the same mistake. This occurs because the brain becomes fixated on a particular method or solution to solve a problem, which prevents seeing any other possible solutions.
Mental set is the tendency to approach a problem using the same method or what was successful in the past; even if the method is not effective anymore. / Some people do not change their approach for meeting people. If they were successful with a “pick-up” line in the past, then they are more likely to use the same line every time they meet someone- no matter the outcome- even it is no longer working
Functional fixedness is the tendency to think of things or objects with only one function or purpose / Some people try to rip open a box because they do not have a box cutter. They did not realize that they could have used their keys because they only saw their keys as just unlocking locks and not as a way to open a box.
Confirmation bias is the tendency to focus on information that only supports one’s thinking or beliefs- also an example of an anchoring heuristic / Stubbornness is a characteristic of confirmation bias. People do not want to consider other beliefs that are not consistent, or confirm their beliefs either, because they either don’t want to be wrong, or are just lazy.
Overconfidence occurs when confidence is greater than one’s abilities / A mediocre team has a good chance of beating a better team who are overconfident because they might display much effort
Framing occurs when an issue or question is presented or written in a certain way to infer a specific type of meaning / If a professor wants to infer that his class is difficult then he may say that 10% of you will fail this class, instead of saying that 90% of you will pass this class. The professor uses the word “fail” in his statement to scare his students into thinking they may fail the class.
Belief perseverance- clinging or sticking with certain personal beliefs even if new information proves those beliefs wrong
Persevere means to follow through or stick with / Many arguments originate from belief perseverance. People get frustrated with others because they fail or refuse to see the correct point of view. In other words, a person’s beliefs persevere through new information even if that new information is correct.
Belief bias- occurs when existing beliefs distort or affect the interpretation of new information / If a high school teacher presents incorrect information and students accept and learn this incorrect information, then when these students go to college this incorrect information will affect the way they learn the correct information. This occurs because relearning something correctly requires effort. Most people ask if the information was correct in the past, then why is the information not correct now.?
Decision-Making / Single-feature model is when you base a decision on one single feature or aspect for each alternative / When picking a prom date a person may look at one feature, such as who has the nicest car and pick from that one feature.
Additive model is adding up the pluses or minuses for each alternative and then comparing which alternative has more positives / A person may consider a prom date by making a list of pros and cons for each date and then pick the one who has the most positives.
Elimination by aspects model is to evaluate the alternatives and then eliminate the ones that do not meet the criteria you are looking for. / If a person’s bank account matters the most for picking a prom date then a person may eliminate the dates based on who does not meet their expectations for sufficient bank funds.

Language

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Building blocks of language

Phoneme- smallest distinctive sound unit like a vowel or consonant / aaaaa, cccc.
Morpheme- smallest unit that carries meaning like a suffix or a prefix / A, ed, pre, ist / Remember there is more to a morpheme (has meaning) than a phoneme
Grammar- a system of rules that enable communication
Semantics- set of rules to derive meaning / Adding ed to a word makes the word past tense
Syntax- rules for makingwords into sentences / Nouns before verbs, adjectives before nouns
Language acquisition
Noam Chomsky believed that children have a predisposition or are born with an ability to learn a specific language / “Nature” side of argument that each child is prepared to learn a distinctive language predicated on their genetic design
B.F. Skinner believed that children learn a language through association, imitation, modeling / “Nurture” side of argument suggesting that each child learns a language, which depends on environmental factors- teaching, books read
Benjamin Whorf- Linguistic Relativity hypothesis- based on the idea that our language abilities structures the way we think about the world / Think about as kids get older- their intelligence and thinking improve as their vocabulary and comprehension increases. A 12th grader has different thinking skills than a 1st grader mainly because a 12th grader has more understanding and improved language skills
Language stages
Babbling & cooing- 3-4 months- utters various sounds
One-word stage- 1 year- child utters single words
Two-word stage- 2 year- child utters 2 word statements
Telegraphic speech- child speaks like a telegram- verb before noun / “goes dad”
Overregulazation or words- not knowing the rules of grammar / “I sitted down”
Theories of Intelligence / Intelligence is our ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations / Intelligence test – a method for assessing a person’s mental abilities through the comparison of others. / Psychometric approach is a method of studying intelligence that emphasizes the score of an IQ test.
Charles Spearman developed the g factor, which stood for general intelligence, and he believed that this single g factor was responsible for each type of mental ability. / If you received a score of 120 on an IQ test then this would be your indicative of your g factor. Since your g factor is high, then no matter what profession or career you chose you would be successful. Spearman did not believe in separate intelligences like musical or analytical, but just one overall general intelligence. / Most people know a person who may be intelligent in math, but struggle with verbal abilities. In other words, even people that are intelligent in one area may struggle in another area, which proved Spearman’s theory wrong that there was one overall intelligent factor. In addition, people who are diagnosed with Savant Syndrome, which are individuals who are mentally challenged, but have one unique ability like good memory, also disproved Spearman’s theory (according to Spearman since their g factor (intelligence test score) was low they should struggle with everything they mentally perform).