Psychology Ch. 8: Intellegence, Cognition, Language, and Creativity

Lewis Terman Experiment

-Terman selected 1,500 children with IQs of 140 or more. He followed this gifted group ("termites") into adulthood and found that most were quite successful. The correlation between IQ scores and school grades is .50. The link would be stronger but motivation, special talents, off-campus learning, and many other factors also affect grades. -IQ is not good at predicting success in art, music, writing, dramatics, science, and leadership (these are more in the creativity category) -IQ reveals potential, does not reveal success

Grammar

A set of rules for combining language units into meaningful speech or writing. One part of grammer is syntax (rules for ordering words when forming sentences). Syntax is important because rearranging words almost always changes the meaning of a sentence: "dog bites man" vs "man bites dog". Traditional grammar is concerned with "surface" language--the sentences we actually speak.

"Reverse Vision"

Information from the eyes normally activates the brain's primary visual area, creating an image. Other brain areas the help us recongnize the imafges by relating it to sotred knowledge. When you form a mental image, the system works in reverse. Brain areas where memories are stored send signals back to the visual cortexx where once again an image is created. For example: if you visualize a friend's face right now, the area of your brain that specializes in perceiving face will become more active.

Wechsler Adult Intelligene Scale--Third Edition (WAIS III) / for children: Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children--Fourth Edition (WISC-IV)

This is specifically designed to test adult intelligence. However, both this is and SB5 measure performance and verbal intelligence

Image

a mental representation that has picture-like qualities;an icon

Visual-Spacial

Ask test takers to reproduce patterns of blocks and choose pictures that show how a piece of paper would look if it were folded or cut "Suppose that you are going east, then turn right, then turn right again, then turn left. In what direction are you facing now?"

Knowledge

Asseses what a person knows abut a wide range of topics "why is yeast added to bread dough?" "What does "cryptic" mean?

Fraternal Twins

Come from two separate eggs fertilized at the same time. IQ's of these are more similar than the IQs of ordinary siblings only because parents treat twins more alike than ordinary siblings, resulting in a closer match in IQs.

Synaethesia

Images cross normal sensory barriers ex. spiced chicken tastes "pointy", for another pain is the color orange and third, human voices unleash a flood of colors and tastes. Most of us use images to think, remember and solve problems. p 315

SB5

Measures five cognitive factors (types of mental abilities) that make up general intelligence: 1. fluid reasoning 2. knowledge 3. quantitative reasoning 4. visual-spatial processing 5. working memory (each with verbal and nonverbal questions) (Best suited for children and adolesence)

Working Memory

Measures the ability to use short-term memory "Correctly remember the order of colored beads on a stick" "After hearing several sentences, name the last word form each sentence"

Concept

an idea representing a category of related objects or events

The creative personality

pg. 332

Cognition

The process of thinking or mentally processing information (images, words, rules, and symbols)

Concept Formation

The process of classifying information into meaningful categories. At its most basic, it is based on experience with positive and negative instances (examples that belong, or do not belong to the comcept class)

Bilingualism

The ability to speak two different languages

Phonemes

The basic speech sounds of a language.

Denotative Meaning

The exact, dictionary definition of a word or concept; its objective meaning.

Deductive Thought

Thought that applies a general set of rules to specific situations; for example, using the laws of gravity to predict the behavior of a single falling object. (going from general principles to specific situations)

Gifted Children

-Above 130 on IQ tests. -Less than 1% of the population scores above 140, these people are known as geniuses

Functional Fixedness

This is a prime example of restricted thinking. This is a rigidity in problem solving caused by an inability to see new uses for familiar objects. Karl Duncker illustrated the effects of functional fixedness by using a candle.

Intelligence Quotients (IQ)

You have to compare the mental age, chronicle age, and intelligence quotient. When the SB5 was first used, IQ was defined as mental age divided by chronological age (CA) and multiplied by 100. Calculating IQ scores allows a comparison between children with different chronological and mental ages. (10 yr old has a mental age of 12, IQ score is 120) A persons IQ score will be 100 when their mental age equals their chronological age 100=average intelligence

Street Smart

Practical Intelligence

Fluid Reasoning

"An apprentice is to a master as a novice is to an..." "How are an apple, a plum, and a banana different from a beet? Other items ask people to fill in the missing shape in a group of shapes and to tell a story of something that is going on in several pictures

Measuring Intelligence

"Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, Fifth Edition (SB5). This is made up primarily of age-ranked questions. Questions get harder as you get older. Appropriate for ages 2 to 85+ years.

IQ and Race

African-American children in the United States scored lower than European-American children. Japanese-American children scored above average in IQ.

Howard Gardner's eight different kinds of intelligence

1. Language (linguistic abilities): writer, lawyer, comedian 2. Logic and Math (numeric abilities): scientists, accountant, programmer 3. Visual and Spacial (pictorial abilities): engineer, inventor, artist 4. Music (musical abilities): composer, musician, music critic 5. Bodily-kinesthetic (physical abilities): dancer, athlete, surgeon 6. Intrapersonal (self-knowledge): poet, actor minister 7. Interpersonal (social abilities): psychologist, teacher, politian 8. Naturalist (an ability to understand the natural environment): biologist, medicine man, organic farmer.

Stages of Creative Thought

1. Orientation: As a first step, the person defines the problem and identifies its more important dimensions. 2. Preparation: In the second stage, creative thinkers saturate themselves with as much information about the problem as possible 3. Incubation: Most major problems produce a period during which all attempted solutions will be futile. At this point, problem solving may proceed on a subconscious level: Althought the problem seems to have been set aside, it is still "cooking" in the bachground. 4. Illumination: The stage of incubation is often ended by a rapid insight or series of insights. These produce the "Aha!" experience, often depicted in cartoons as a lightbulb appearing over the thinker's head. 5. Verification: The final step is to test and critically evaluate the solution obtained during the stage of illumination. If the solution proves faulty, the thinker reverts to the stage of incubation. pg. 331

Conjunctive Concepts

A class of objects that have two or more features in common (for example, to qualify as an example of the concept an object must be both red and triangular). Another example: a motorcycle must have two wheels and an engine and handle bars. They are defined by the presence of two or more features.

Twin Studies

A comparison of the characteristics of twins who were raised together or separated at birth; used to identify the relative impact of heredity and environment. This allows us to estimate how much heredity and environment affect intelligence.

Relational Concepts

A concept defined by the relationship between features of an object or between an object and its surroundings (for example, "greater than", "lopsided") It is based on how an object relates to something else or how its features relate to one another. -larger -above -left -north -up-side down ex. brother because he has a brother that has the same parents

Functional Solution

A detailed, practical and workable solution

Conceptual Rule

A formal rule for deciding if an object or event is an example of a particular concept. Ex. a triangle must be a closed shape with three sides made of straight lines.

American Sign Language (ASL)

A gestural language. It is not pantomime or a code. It is a true language. Although ASL has a spatial grammar, syntax, and semantics all its own, both speech and signing follow similar universal language patterns.

Mechanical Solutions

A problem solution achieved by trial and error or by a fixed procedure based on learned rules. These are solutions to routine problems. These are achieved by trial and error or by rote. When a problem is solved by rote, thinking is guided by an algorithm, or a learned set of rules that always leads to a correct solution (ex. steps needed to divide one number into another.. not using a calculator)

Two-way bilingual education

A program in whcih English-speaking children and children with limited English proficiency are taught half the day in English and half in a second language.

Base Rate

A second common error in judgment involves ignoring the base rate. It is the basic rate at which an event occurs over time; the basic probability of an event.

What are the signs that may reveal a child is gifted?

A tendency to seek out older children and adults; am early fascination with explanations and problem solving; talking in complete sentences as early as 2 or 3 years of age; unusually good memory; interested in books or reading; showing of kindness, understanding, and corporation towards others. These lists go further than the g-factor

Culture-Fair Test

A test (such as an intelligence test) designed to minimize the importance of skills and knowledge that may be more common in some cultures than it is in others. These attempt to measure intelligence without being influenced by a person's verbal skills, cultural background, and educational level.

Insight

A thinker who suddenly solves a problem has experienced insight. Insight is a sudden mental reorganization of a problem that makes the solution obvious. Insight is so rapic and clear that we may wonder why we didn't see the solution sooner. These are usually based on reorganizing a problem. This allows us to see problems in new ways and makes their solutions seem obvious.

Artificial Intelligence and Cognition

AI is a long way from duplicating general human intelligence. AI systems like the Cubinator offer a way to probe some of our specific cognitive skills, or intelligences. 1. Computer Simulations are programs that attempt to dupicate specific human behaviors especially thinking, decision making, and problem solving. 2. Expert Systems are computer programs that respond s a human expert would. They have demystified some human abilities by converting complex skills into clearly stated rules a computer can follow. (can predict weather, play chess, read etc)

Causes of Intellectual Disability

About half of all cases of intellectual disability or organic, or related to physical disorders: Genetic abnormalities (missing genes, extra genes, defective genes) Fetal damage (prenatal damage from teratogens such as a disease, infection, or drugs) Birth injuries (lack of oxygen during delivery) Metabolic disorders (affect energy production and use in the body (intellectual disability) Malnutrition and exposure to lead, PCBs nad other toxins early in childhood can cause this too.

Represented Heuristic

According to Tversky and Kahneman it is a tendency to select wrong answers because they seem to match pre-existing mental categories. That is, we ten to give a choice greater weight if it seems to be representative of what we already know. Ex. In a courtroom, jurors are more likely to think a suspect is guilty if they look like someone that would commit a crime.

Concepts

An idea that represents a category of objects or events. These help us identify important features of the world.

Intelligence

An overall capacity to think rationally, act purposefully, and deal effectively with the environment. The core of intelligence is usually thought to consist of small general mental abilities (called the g-factor) in the areas of reasoning, problem solving, knowledge, memory, and successful adaptation to one's surroundings. Many psychologists accept an operational definition of intelligence by spelling out the procedures they use to measure it. Thus,by selecting items for an intelligence test, a psychologist is saying ina very direct way, "this is what i mean by intelligence. A test that measures memory, reasoning, and verbal fluency offers a very different definition of intelligence than one that measures strength of grip, shoes size etc.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Any artificial system (often a computer program) that is capable of human-like problem solving or intelligent responding. This is valuable where speed, vast memory, and persistence are required. (playing a chess game or solving Rubik's cube)

Heuristic

Any strategy or technique that aids problem solving, especially by limiting the number of possible solutions to be tried. Typically, a heuristic is a "rule of thumb" that reduces the number of alternatives thinkers must consider. Although this raises the odds of success, it does not guarentee a solution.

Disjunctive concepts

At least one of several possible features. These are "either/or" concepts. To belong to the category, an item must have "this feature or that feature or another feature" Ex. a strike is either a swing and a miss or a pitch over the plate or a foul ball.

Chimp Language

Beatrix and Allen Gardner used operant conditioning and imitation to teach a female chimp to use ASL. David Premack taught a chimp to use 130 "words" consisting of plastic chips arranged on a magnetized board.

Convergent Thinking

Thinking directed toward discovery of a single established correct answer; conventional thinking. (lines of thought converge on the answer)

Conditional Statement

Contains a qualification, often in the if/then form. "If sarah take apple, then mary give sarah chocolate"

What distinguishes creative thinking from more routine problem solving?

Creative thinking involves all these thinking styles, plus fluency, flexibility, and originality. By counting the number of times you showed each of these, we could rate your creativity or capacity for divergent thinking. Rather than repeating learned solutions, creative thinking produces new answers, ideas, or patterns.

General Solution

Defines the requirements for success, but not in enough detail to guide further action

Identical Twins

Develop from a single egg and have identical genes

Tests of Creativity

Divergent Thinking. Tests of divergent thinking seem to tap something quite different from intelligence. Generally there is little correlation between creativity tests and IQ test scores. Each of these tests can be scored for fluency, flexibility, and originality. Divergent thining is an important part of creativity but there is more to it. To be creative, the solution to a problem must be more than novel, unusual, or original. It must also be practical if it is an invention and sensible if it is an idea. Creative person brings reasoning and critical thinking to bear on new ideas once they are produced.

Logical Thought

Drawing conclusions on the basis of formal principles of reasoning. This is proceeding from given information to new conclusions on the basis of explicit rules)

Kanzi's Lexigrams

Duane Rumbaugh and Sue Savage-Rumbaugh. The chimp is given a keyboard with a lexigram (geometric symbol) on each key and using this he can create sentences several words long. Kanzi's ability to invent a simple grammar may help us better understand the roots of human language. It is certainly the stronget answer yet to critics.

Giftedness

Either the possession of a high IQ or special talents or aptitudes

Common Barriers to Problem Solving

Emotional Barriers: inhibition and fear of making a fool of oneself, fear of making a mistake, inability to tolerate ambiguity, excessive self-critism Cultural Barriers: values that hold that fantasy is a waste of time; that playfulness is for children only; that reason, logic and numbers are good; that feelings, intuitions, pleasure, and humor are bad or have n value in the serious business of problem solving. Learned Barriers: conventions about uses (functional fixedness), meanings, possibilities, taboos Perceptual Barriers: habits leading to a failure to identify important elements of a problem

IQ and Environment

Evidence for an environmental view of intelligence comes from adoption studies. Orphans lose points on IQ becuase they dont have parents, love etc.

Experts

Expert skills are based on aquired strategies (learned heuristics) and specific organized knowledge (systematic information). Experts are better able to see the true nature of problems and to define them in terms of general principles.

Hot Cognition

Feelings also tend to affect good judgement. When we must make a choice, our emotional reactions to various alternatives can determine what intuitively seems to be the right answer. Emotions such as fear, hope anxiety, liking or disgust can eliminate possibilities from consideration or promote them to the top of the list.

Noam Chomsky

He focused instead on the unspoken rules we use to change core ideas into various sentences. Chomsky believes that we do not learn all the sentences we might ever say. Rather, we actively create them by applying transformation rules to universal, core patterns.

Multiple Intelligences

Howard Garder's theory that there are seveal specialized types of intellectual ability

Performance Intelligence

INtelligence measures by solving puzzles, assembling objects, completing pictures, and other nonverbal tasks

Prototypes

Ideal models to identify concepts. It is a model used as a prime example of a particular concept. ex. Robin

Basic units of thought

Images: picture-like mental representations Concepts: ideas that represent categories of objects or events Language: consists of words or symbols and rules for combining them

Understanding

In problem solving, a deeper comprehension of the nature of the problem.

Flexibility

In tests of creativity, flexibility is indicated by the number of different types of solutions produced. This is the number of times you shift from one class of possible uses to another.

Fluency

In tests of creativity, fluency refers to the total number of solutions produced. This is defined as the total number of suggestions you are able to make.

Originality

In tests of creativity, originality refers to how novel or unusual solutions are. This is how novel or unusual your ideas are.

Summary of IQ and heredity

In the final analysis, intelligence reflects development as well as potential, nurture as well as nature. Moreover, the fact that intelligence is partly determined by heredity tells us little if any real value. Genes are fixed at birth. Improving the environments in which children learn and grow is the main way in which we acn ensure that they reach their full potential.

Stored Images

Information from memory. We use these to apply past experiences to problem solving.

Verbal Intelligence

Intelligence measures by answering questions involving vocabulary, general information, arithmetic, and other language- or symbol-oriented tasks

Intuition

Intuition is a quick, impulsive thought that does not make use of formal logic or clear reasoning. It may provide fast answers, btu it can also be misleading and sometimes disastrous.

Kinesthetic Imagery

Kinesthetic images are created from muscular sensations. Such images help us think about movements and actions. Kinesthetic sensations can guide the flow of ideas. These are important in music, sports, dance, skateboarding, martial arts and other movement-oriented skills. People with good kinesthetic imagery learn such skills faster than those with poor imagery.

Unusual Uses Test

Measures divergent thinking. You would be asked to think of as many uses as possible for some object, such as the plastic containers.

Anagrams Test

Measures divergent thinking. You would be given a word such as creativity and asked to make as many new words as possible by rearranging he letters.

Consequences Test

Measures divergent thinking. You would list the consequences that would follow a basic change in the world. For example, "What would happen if everyone suddenly lost their sense of balance and could no longer stay upright?"

Deviation IQs

Modern Tests use these. They are an IQ obtained statistically from a person's relative standing in his or her age group; that is, how far above or below average the person's score was relative to other scores. (This goes by percentile)

How is Term's more successful Termites differ from the less successful?

Most of them had educated parents who taught them to value learning. They also had intellectual determination, which is a desire to know, excel and perserve.

"Obama Effect"

Obama is providign a role model, inspiring better acedemic performance in African-American students.

Familial Intellectual Disability

Occurs mostly in very poor households where nutrition, intellectual stimulation, medical care, and emotional support may be inadequate. This is based largely on an impoverished environment. Thus, better nutrition, education, and early childhood enrichment programs can prevent many cases of intellectual disability.

Mental Images

People with good imaging abilities tend to score higher on tests of creativity. Stephen Kosslyn found that smaller an image is, the harder it is to "see" its details.

The nature of Insight

Robert Sternberg and Janet Davidson believe that insight involves three abilities: 1. Selective encoding which refers to selecting information that is relevant to a problem while ignoring distractions. 2. Selective combination or bringing together seemingly unrelated bits of useful information. 3. Selective comparison. This is the ability to compare new problems with old information or with problems already solved.

Transformation Rules

Rules by which a simple declarative sentence may be changed to other voices or forms (past tense, passive voice, and so forth). We use these rules to change a simple declarative sentence to other voices or forms (past tense, passive voice, and so forth)

Modern Intelligence test orginated with attempts to measure the mental abilities of children in Paris

SB5

Random Search Strategy

Solving problems often requires a strategy, If the number of alternatives is small, this may work. This is trying possible solutions to a problem in a more or less random order. This is another example of trial-and-error thinking in which all possibilities are tried, more or less randomly.

Internal Representation

The most basic thinking... Mental expression. Ex. a chess player who mentally tries out several moves before actually touching a chess piece... and then planning

Framing

The most general conclusion about intuition is that the way a problem is stated or framed, affects decisions. Framing is in thought, the terms in which a problem is stated or the way that it is structured. People tend to look for positive qualities that can be awarded to something else. When questions are framed, it can channel us down a narrow path so we attend to only part of the information provided rather than weighing all the pros and cons. Usually, the broadest way of framing or stating a problem produces the best decisions. Framing decisions so narrowly greatly increases the risk of maing a poor choice.

Intellectual Disability (formerly mental retardation)

The presence of a developmental disability, a formal IQ score below 70, or a significant impairment of adaptive behavior.

Morphemes

The smallest meaningful units in la language, such as syllables or words. ex. in english the sound m,b,w cannot forma syllable mbwa. In Swahilim they can.

Connotative Meaning

The subjective, personal, or emotional meaning of a word or concept. This can be measured with a technique called semantic differential. When we rate words or concepts, most of their connotative meaning boils down to the dimensions good/bad, strong/weak, active/passive.

Semantics

The sudy of meanings in words and language. It is here that the link between words and thinking becomes most evident.

Created Images

These are assembled or invented rather than simply remembered. Ex. a artist proposing a sculpture before beginning work.

Quantitative Reasoning

These measure a person's ability to solve problems involving numbers "If I have six marbles and you give me another one, how many marbles will I have?" "Given the numbers 3,6,9,12, what number would come next"

Group Tests

These usually require people to read, follow instructions, to solve problems of logic, reasoning, mathematics, or spatial skills

Inductive Thought

Thinking in which a general rule or principle is gathered from a series of specific examples; for instance, inferring the laws of gravity by observing many falling objects. (going from specific facts or observations to general principles)

Divergent Thinking

Thinking that produces many ideas or alternatives; a major element in original or creative thought. (it is the reverse in which many possibilities are developed from one starting point)

Fixation

This is one of the most important barriers to problem solving. This is the tendency to repeat wrong solutions or faulty responses, especially as a result of becoming blind to alternatives. Usually this occurs when we place unnecessary restrictions on our thinking.

Illogical Thought

Thought that is intuitive, haphazard, or irrational. This is intuitive, associative, or personal.

Faulty Concepts

Using inaccurate concepts often leads to thinking errors. Ex. social stereotypes are over simplified concepts of groups of people. A related problem is all-or-nothing thinking (one dimensional thought). In this case, we classify things as absolutely right or wrong, good or abd, fair or unfair etc.

Language

words or symbols and rules for combining them, that are used for thinking and communication. Most thinking relies heavily on language because words encode (translate) the world into symbols that are easy to manipulate. Language also plays a major role in defining ethnic communities and other social groups. Thus, language can be a bridge or a barrier between cultures. Translating languages can cause a rash of semantic problems. A language must provide symbols that stand for objects and ideas. A true language is also productive: it can generate new thoughts or ideas.