PSYC331

What are 2 of the main criticisms of the Multiple Intelligence theory

1. MI theory is not supported by empirical data 2. MI theory is incompatible w/the theory of General Intelligence, w/hereditarian accounts and/or w/environmental accounts of the nature and causes of intelligence

what are 2 ways in which mental sets can develop

1. May come from making assumptions that aren't part of the problem 2. May develop due to recent experiences

what are two examples of the availability heuristics

1. The doctor immediately thought that the patient had influenza because all of his patients he had seen this week had influenza. He didn't even consider the possibility that it could be another illness. 2. People think that airplanes are more dangerous than they actually are because they see the number of news stories are about airplane accidents and not about car accidents, causing people to believe plane accidents are more common than car accident

what are the steps in MAUT

1. identify important dimensions of the choices. 2. give weight to how important each dimension is; the more important dimensions given higher weights. 3. identify all of the alternative choices 4. rank order the alternative choices along each of the dimension, with the best alternatives being higher ranked. 5. "multiply" the ranks by the weights that you've given the dimensions. 6. use the results of multiplying the ranks by the weights of the dimensions to choose the alternative with the highest value.

situated cognition

A belief that one's culture and one's everyday surroundings and tasks set both set boundaries and possibilities for the cognitive tasks that are practiced and therefore strengthened in the normal course of daily life

need for cognition

A persons motivation to take on intellectual tasks and challenges

What are the advantages and disadvantages of algorithms

Advantage - it is guaranteed to produce a solution Disadvantage - it is inefficient for humans when the number of possible solutions is large

What are the advantages and disadvantages of heuristics

Advantage - they often provide quick solutions Disadvantage - May sometimes lead to errors

cognitive tempo

Cognitive style of reflectivity/impulsivity The extent to which a child delays response in the course of searching for the correct alternative in a context of response uncertainty.

effects of schooling on cognition

Formal schooling changes some, although certainly not all, important aspects of cognitive processing. In particular, schooling affects one's ability to deal with more "abstract materials; to rely less heavily on contextual, immediate cues from the surrounding environment; and to explain one's response and thinking more clearly. Schooling also helps people figure out how to approach novel tasks, especially in planning and structuring. All in all, schooling apparently helps people "step back" from their everyday routine and promotes their thinking from different points of view. And, as the laboratory of comparative Human Cognition (1983) pointed out, school prepares people especially well to participate in cognitive psychology experiments

experimenter expectancy effects in gender research

Intelligence test constructors often exclude any items that show a reliable gender difference in responses.

what are the levels of self-government according to Sternberg & Zhang

Local and global

What is an example of a problem-solving heuristic

Means-end analysis - it breaks the problem into subgroups to solve little goals in order to reach the larger goal

What is an example of mental set

Nine dot problem, water jar problem

gender differences in cognition

Overall patterns of performance between men and women are far more similar than different, except on very specific tasks Many descriptions of cognitive gender differences have been proven to be false or very exaggerated. Even for differences that are very well established the magnitude of difference between males and females is small, accounting for up to only 5% if total variance.

helpless orientation

People fail to set challenging goals and give up rather easily when "the going gets tough."

mastery orientation

People set goals to challenge themselves and therefore to increase their competence, understanding, or mastery of something new

What is Sternberg's triarchic theory of intelligence

Referred to as a theory of successful intelligence to distinguish the theory from theories of strictly academic intelligences

What are the steps in problem-solving

Representing the problem, generating possible solutions, evaluating the possible solutions

illusory correlation

Seeing a relationship between two things when they are not actually related (ex. Migraines and stress question)

rationality

Selecting ways of thinking and acting to serve your ends or goals or moral imperatives, whatever they may be, as well as the environment permits OR to consider all your relevant goals and principles, not just the first ones that come to mind. Rational decision making involves gathering information as detailed and fairly as possible under the circumstances, and requires you to examine evidence that does and does NOT support initial inclinations

sunk cost effect

The more time, money, or effort that has been invested in something, the greater the tendency is for that person to continue an endeavor

What are alternate explanations for the incubation effect

The person actually continues to think about the problem consciously Taking a break allows the person to approach the problem from a new perspective

hindsight bias

The tendency to believe that we could have easily predicted an outcome once it has already happened

confirmation bias

The tendency to search for evidence that will support one's beliefs or hypotheses rather than evidence that would disprove one's beliefs (can go as far as ignoring evidence that doesn't support their beliefs/hypotheses)

framing effects

The way in which a choice is worded may affect people' judgements or decisions, or how likely something is perceived to happen

gambler's fallacy

This is the mistaken belief that if something happens more frequently than normal, it will happen less frequently in the future, or if something happens less frequently than normal, it will happen more frequently in the future

describe how using heuristics to generate potential solutions to problems differs from using algorithms

Using algorithms, you have to systematically test every possible solution. Heuristics are general mental shortcuts or "rules of thumb" based on previous experience

overconfidence

When assessing their own knowledge or predicting the behavior of others or themselves, people's confidence often exceeds their performance (and if they are overconfident they won't seek out other resources leading to bad decisions).

cultural relativism

a belief that cognitive practices, beliefs, competences, and capacities differ from culture to culture, depending on the tasks and contexts specific to a culture

cultural universality

a belief that cognitive practices, beliefs, competences, and capacities do not differ from culture to culture but are common to humankind

thinking style

a preference for using abilities in a certain way. It is not an ability itself, but the way one likes to utilize that ability

ill-defined problems

a problem that does not have the goals, starting info, and/or legal steps stated explicitly

well-defined problems

a problem whose goals, starting info, and legal steps are stated explicitly

means-end analysis

a problem-solving strategy in which the solver compares the goal to the current state, then chooses a step to reduce maximally the difference between them (book definition). Breaks the problem into subgroups to solve little goals in order to reach the large goal (lecture notes).

generate-and-test technique

a problem-solving strategy in which the solver generates possible solutions and then tries each to see if it constitutes a solution (trial and error)

working backward

a problem-solving technique that identifies the final goals and the steps, in reverse order, that are necessary to reach the goal

mental set

a rigidity in the way one approaches problems and generates solutions. The tendency to adopt a certain framework, strategy, or procedure based on immediate experience or context

critical thinking

a type of thinking that involves careful examination of assumptions and evidence and that is purposeful and deliberate

hill-climbing heuristic

an unconscious thought process for problem solving in which there is a starting point and end point, and the individual takes steps to reach the end goal. It is a step by step process, where one step is solved at a time

what are Sternberg's 3 aspects of intelligence

analytical, creative and practical

What are examples of functional fixedness

candle problem (people forget that they can use the matchbox as a holder for the candle, and instead only use the matches to light the candle); shoe string problem (people don't realize that they should use the screwdriver and tie it to one shoestring to use it as a pendulum)

How does the availability heuristic lead to error in judgment

means that people make judgements based on the retrievability of certain instances. This means that the information that is most available to us will be influenced by things such as the saliency, recency, level of encoding, and the effectiveness of the memory search. So, the information that is important, has been encoded most recently, and most deeply, along with the information that is most effectively recalled in memory search is the information that is used to make judgments. This information can be inaccurate and biased and so without accurate information we can make errors in judgement.

Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences

o A biopsychological potential to process information that can be activated in a cultural setting to solve problems or create products of value in the culture. o Each person possesses a basic set of 7-12 intelligences. Each of us is equipped with these potentials, which we can mobilize and connect according to our own wants and our cultures preferences.

reasoning by analogy

problem solving that employs an analogy between the current problem and another problem that has already been solved (book definition). Trying a specific solution that worked for a seemingly similar problem in the past (lecture notes). Study: "tumor" problem in the book; most participants weren't able to make the analogy unless they were directed; but if they were given 2 stories they were able to do it without being told

availability heuristic

tendency to estimate the likelihood of an event by how easily instances of it can be recalled/brought to mind

representativeness heuristic

tendency to estimate the probability of an item belonging to a particular category by how closely it resembles the prototype of that category tendency to estimate the probability that an item was generated by a process, by how closely it resembles that process (ex. Sequence of heads/tails problem) Sources of bias: insensitivity to base rates, insensitivity to sample size, misperception of chance

Functional fixedness

tendency to think of objects only in terms of their usual uses or what they were designed for. People have difficulty seeing alternate uses for common objects

anchoring and adjustment heuristic

tendency to use an initial value as a reference point in making new numerical estimate, adjusting from that value Sources of bias: anchors are used regardless of their validity, adjustments are insufficient

successful intelligence

the ability to balance the needs to adapt to, shape and select environments in order to attain success, however one defines it, within ones socio-cultural context

ecologically rational

the degree to which a heuristic fits with the structure of the environment; and so humans need multiple heuristics and need to know when to use each

adaptive toolbox of heuristics

the idea that humans this toolbox of heuristics that allow them to make accurate judgements and decisions in both social and nonsocial contexts, even when there is limited time, knowledge, and cognitive resources

elimination by aspects strategy

the individual focusing on one dimension at a time and evaluating all of the options. The options that do seem unacceptable (exceed the threshold) value for this factor are eliminated. This is then repeated for another factor, and continues until only one alternative is left

incubation effect

when stuck on a difficult problem, people are sometimes better able to solve the problem after taking a break

practical intelligence

• Abilities involving applying, using, implementing and putting into practice. • Examples include tasks such as practical- reasoning problems of the kinds one encounters in everyday life (e.g. figuring out how to make friends), solving practical mathematics problems, or planning routes using maps. • These abilities, as mentioned earlier, tend not to be correlated with analytical abilities and can even be negatively correlated with them

creative intelligence

• Abilities involving creating, exploring, discovering, inventing, and imaging. • While testing his theory he had people (a) write short stories with unusual titles (such as 'The Octopus's Sneakers'), (b) draw artwork based on novel topics (such as 'Earth from an Insect's Point of View'), (c) create advertisements for dull products (such as a new brand of door knob), and (d) solve quasi-scientific problems (such as how one could tell whether someone had been on the Moon in the last two months). • Performance on these tasks is evaluated for novelty, quality and task-appropriateness

analytical intelligence

• Abilities that involve analyzing, evaluating, critiquing and comparing and contrasting things. • Ex: abilities measured by conventional tests of academic ability, such as standardized tests. • Underlying these skills is a set of information-processing components that can be isolated through experimental methods and identified via mathematical models

why are thinking styles important in psychology

• All psychologists think individual differences are interesting • Understanding these differences can lead to better predictive/explanation of performance

why are thinking styles important in occupations

• Different thinking styles can lead to better success in specific fields • Different positions (levels) in a field are compatible with specific thinking styles

global self-government

• Predilection for tasks that require engagement with large, abstract ideas. • Likes to deal with big ideas and can often lose track of details • Ex: A student with a global orientation will do well with understanding the main ideas of a passage but have a hard time comprehending the details.

Local self-government

• Predilection for tasks that require engagement with specific, concrete details • Pay much attention to details when making a decision • Ex: Students with a local orientation learn many details when studying for a test, but does not understand how the concepts all interrelate.

Why are thinking styles important in education

• Thinking styles are argued to be another construct to help predict academic performance. • Matching students and teachers with similar thinking styles • Knowing a students thinking style can alter a teachers teaching methods and lead to better understanding of material • Match thinking styles within a discipline in school with later job demands