Test 3 cognitive

Cognitive Style

A habitual and/or preferred means of approaching cognitive tasks

permission schema

A pragmatic reasoning schema that states that if a person satisfies condition A, then they get to carry out action B. The permission schema has been used to explain the results of the Wason four-card problem. If condition A is satisfied, action B can be carried out. E.g. being 21 to drink alcohol

functional fixedness

A problem solving phenomenon in which people have difficulty seeing alternate uses for common objects. A Classic Example of Functional Fixedness Here's one well-known example of functional fixedness at work: You have two candles, numerous thumbtacks, and a box of matches. Using only these items, try to figure out how to mount the candles to a wall. How would you accomplish this? Many people might immediately start trying to use the thumbtacks to affix the candles to the wall. Due to functional fixedness, you might think of only one way to directly use the thumbtacks. There is another solution, however. Using the matches, melt the bottom part of each candle and then use the hot wax to stick the candle to the match box. Once the candles are attached to the box, use the thumbtacks to stick the box to the wall. Functional fixedness is just one type of mental obstacle that can make problem-solving more difficult. However, this doesn't mean that functional fixedness is always a bad thing. In many cases, it can act as a mental shortcut allowing us to quickly and efficiently determine a practical use for an object. For example, imagine that someone has asked you to open a toolbox and find a tool that can be used to loosen a screw. It would take a tremendous amount of time if you had to analyze every item in the box to determine how effective it might be at performing the task. Instead, you are able to quickly grab a screwdriver, the most obvious item for loosening a screw.

Fluid vs. Crystallized Intelligence

According to Knox (1977), ". . . they constitute the global capacity to learn, reason and solve problems that most people refer to as intelligence. Fluid and crystallized intelligence are complementary in that some learning tasks can be mastered mainly by exercising either fluid or crystallized intelligence. Both types of intelligence are equally important in everyday life. For example, when taking a psychology exam, you might need to rely of fluid intelligence to come up with a strategy to solve a statistics problem, while you must also employ crystallized intelligence to recall the exact formulas you need to use. Fluid intelligence along with its counterpart, crystallized intelligence, are both factors of what Cattell referred to as general intelligence. While fluid intelligence involves our current ability to reason and deal with complex information around us, crystallized intelligence involves learning, knowledge and skills that are acquired over a lifetime. It is important to note that despite the name, crystallized intelligence is not a form of fluid intelligence that has become 'crystallized.' Instead, the two factors of general intelligence are considered separate and distinct. Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence Throughout Life Fluid and crystallized intelligence tend to change throughout life, with certain mental abilities peaking at different points. Fluid intelligence has long-been believed to peak quite early in life, but some new research suggests that some aspects of fluid intelligence may peak as late as age 40. Crystallized intelligence does tend to peak much later in life, hitting its apex around age 60 or 70. Some things to remember about fluid and crystallized intelligence: •Both types of intelligence increase throughout childhood and adolescence. •Fluid intelligence peaks in adolescence and begins to decline progressively beginning around age 30 or 40. •Crystallized intelligence continues to grow throughout adulthood. Recent research also suggests that brain training might play a role in improving certain aspects of fluid intelligence.

stereotype threat

Anxiety and resulting impaired performance that a person may experience when confronted with a negative stereotype about a group to which they belong.

Anology

Chicago was to corruption what Pittsburgh was to steel or Hollywood to motion pictures.

inductive reasoning

Collecting data to draw a conclusion that may or may not be true.

critical thinking

Critical thinking involves suspending your beliefs to explore and question topics from a "blank page" point of view. It also involves the ability to know fact from opinion when exploring a topic. A type of thinking that involves careful examination of assumptions and evidence and that is purposeful and deliberate

Crystallized intelligence

Crystallized intelligence involves knowledge that comes from prior learning and past experiences. Situations that require crystallized intelligence include reading comprehension and vocabulary exams. This type of intelligence is based upon facts and rooted in experiences. As we age and accumulate new knowledge and understanding, crystallized intelligence becomes stronger. As you might expect, this type of intelligence tends to increase with age.

fluid intelligence

Fluid intelligence involves being able to think and reason abstractly and solve problems. This ability is considered independent of learning, experience, and education. Examples of the use of fluid intelligence include solving puzzles and coming up with problem-solving strategies. Fluid intelligence tends to decline during late adulthood.

syllogistic

Formal reasoning in which people draw a conclusion from a set of assumptions is known as _____ reasoning.

Spearman's g

General intelligence, also known as g factor, refers to the existence of a general intelligence that influences performance on mental ability measures. The existence of general intelligence was first described by Charles Spearman in 1904. According to Spearman, this g factor was responsible for overall performance on mental ability tests. Those who hold this view believe that intelligence can be measured and expressed by a single number, such as an IQ score. The idea is that this underlying general intelligence influences performance on all cognitive tasks.

Guilford' alternative uses task

In Guilford's Alternative Uses Task (1967) examinees are asked to list as many possible uses for a common house hold item (such as s brick, a paperclip, a newspaper) Example Name all the uses for a brick: 1.A paperweight 2.A doorstop 3.A mock coffin at a Barbie funeral 4.To throw threw a window 5.To use as a weapon 6.To hit my sister on the head with Scoring Scoring is comprised of four components: 1.Originality - each response it compared to the total amount of responses from all of the people you gave the test to. Reponses that were given by only 5% of your group are unusual (1 point), responses that were given by only 1% of your group are unique - 2 points). Total all the point. Higher scores indicate creativity* 2.Fluency - total. Just add up all the responses. In this example it is 6. 3.Flexibility - or different categories. In this case there are five different categories (weapon and hit sister are from the same general idea of weapon) 4.Elaboration - amount of detail (for Example "a doorstop" = 0 whereas "a door stop to prevent a door slamming shut in a strong wind" = 2 (one for explanation of door slamming, two for further detail about the wind).

Guilford's Alternative Uses Task (1967)

In Guilford's Alternative Uses Task (1967) examinees are asked to list as many possible uses for a common house hold item (such as s brick, a paperclip, a newspaper) Example Name all the uses for a brick: 1.A paperweight 2.A doorstop 3.A mock coffin at a Barbie funeral 4.To throw threw a window 5.To use as a weapon 6.To hit my sister on the head with Scoring Scoring is comprised of four components: 1.Originality - each response it compared to the total amount of responses from all of the people you gave the test to. Reponses that were given by only 5% of your group are unusual (1 point), responses that were given by only 1% of your group are unique - 2 points). Total all the point. Higher scores indicate creativity* 2.Fluency - total. Just add up all the responses. In this example it is 6. 3.Flexibility - or different categories. In this case there are five different categories (weapon and hit sister are from the same general idea of weapon) 4.Elaboration - amount of detail (for Example "a doorstop" = 0 whereas "a door stop to prevent a door slamming shut in a strong wind" = 2 (one for explanation of door slamming, two for further detail about the wind). *You might have noticed that the higher fluency the higher the originality (if you did "good for you!") This is a contamination problem and can be corrected by using a corrective calculation for originality (originality = originality/fluency). Administration Any one can administer Guilford's Alternative Uses Task (1967). No training required. Materials can be created by the examiner and individually administered to the examinees or shown on an overhead projector to a group of examinees. Typically the test is administered in a classroom setting. However, the test can also been an unlimited time "take home": since time is an issue. The majority of responses given by the examinees in the first few minutes tend to be their least creative.

means-ends analysis

In means-ends analysis, the problem solver begins by envisioning the end, or ultimate goal, and then determines the best strategy for attaining the goal in his current situation. If, for example, one wished to drive from New York to Boston in the minimum time possible, then, at any given point during the drive, one would choose the route that minimized the time it would take to cover the...

obligation schema

Knowledge that taking an action (such as paying a pension) is required if a prerequisite (such as retirement) is fulfilled. Knowledge that taking an action is required if a prerequisite is fulfilled

Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences

One of the more recent ideas to emerge is Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. Instead of focusing on the analysis of test scores, Gardner proposed that numerical expressions of human intelligence are not a full and accurate depiction of people's abilities. His theory describes eight distinct intelligences based on skills and abilities that are valued in different cultures. The eight intelligences Gardner described are: •Visual-spatial Intelligence •Verbal-linguistic Intelligence •Bodily-kinesthetic Intelligence •Logical-mathematical Intelligence •Interpersonal Intelligence •Musical Intelligence •Intrapersonal Intelligence •Naturalistic Intelligence

antecedent

SOMETHING THAT COMES BEFORE A preceding event; a forerunner; a precursor

Tautology

Tautologies in Logic - "In common parlance, an utterance is usually said to be tautologous if it contains a redundancy and says the same thing twice over in different words--e.g., ' John is the father of Charles and Charles is a son of John.' In logic, however, a tautology is defined as a statement that excludes no logical possibilities--'Either it is raining or it is not raining.' Another way of putting this is to say that a tautology is 'true in all possible worlds.' No one will doubt that, irrespective of the actual state of the weather (i.e., regardless of whether the statement that it is raining is true or false), the statement 'Either it is raining or it is not raining' is necessarily true." (E. Nagel and J. R. Newman, Gödel's Proof, 1958) - "A tautology is a statement that is logically, or necessarily, true or is so devoid of content as to be practically empty (and thus true because completely empty statements, making no claim, cannot be false). Example: 'Scott Peterson did it or he didn't.'" (Howard Kahane and Nancy Cavender, Logic and Contemporary Rhetoric, 10th ed. Thomson Wadsworth, 2006) - "Tautology. Yes, I know, it's an ugly word. But so is the thing. Tautology is this verbal device which consists in defining like by like . . .. Since it is magical, it can of course only take refuge behind the argument of authority: thus do parents at the end of their tether reply to the child who keeps on asking for explanations: 'because that's how it is,' or even better: 'just because, that's all.'" (Roland Barthes, Mythologies. Macmillan, 1972)

Wason card selection task

You are shown these four green cards and given the following prompt: You are told these four cards have a letter on one side and a number on the other. You are given a rule about the four cards: If a card has a vowel on one side, then it has an even number on the other side. You are asked, which card(s) do you need to turn over in order to determine if the rule is true or false? A D 4 7 The shocking thing about Wason's results is that the logically correct (normative) answer is only chosen by about 4% of subjects (Wason & Shapiro, 1971). Although subjects clearly recognize the importance of selecting the A card, it is logical to select the 7 card as well, because in the event that it has a vowel on the other side, the rule would be violated (thus falsified). Conversely, there is no logical reason to select the 4 card because it is not possible for it to falsify the rule--whether there is a vowel or a consonant on the other side is irrelevant as there is no restriction on an even-consonant pair.

representativeness heuristic

a belief that outcomes will always reflect characteristics of the process that generated them, e.g. an expectation that the outcome of a series of coin flips will always look random a mental shortcut whereby people classify something according to how similar it is to a typical case

need for cognition

a dimension of individual differences in which people differ in their motivation to take on intellectual challenges or tasks

generate-and-test

a problem solving strategy in which the solver enumerates (generates) possible solutions ad then tries each to see if it constitutes a solution

availability heuristic

a strategy in which one estimates the frequency of probability of an event by the ease with which mental operations, such as retrieval of examples or construction of examples, can be carried out Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind, we presume such events are common

confirmation bias

a tendency to seek only information consistent with one's hypothesis a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence

mastery orientation

an approach to challenges in which the individual sets challenging goals in order to increase competence, understanding , or mastery of something new

connected learning

an approach to knowledge and learning emphasizing the relevance of context and personal experience

creativity

cognitive process that employ appropriate novelty, originality that suits some purpose

Contradiction

compound proposition is always false

deductive reasoning

drawing conclusions from only the given premises reasoning in which a conclusion is reached by stating a general principle and then applying that principle to a specific case (The sun rises every morning; therefore, the sun will rise on Tuesday morning.)

propositional reasoning

drawing conclusions from premises that are in the form of true or false assertions if the antecedent (P) is true then the consequent (Q) is true; if it's raining, then the frog is carrying an umbrella P: antecedent: proposition of this is true then Q: is also true

Spearman's g

general intelligence or the g factor. After using a technique known as factor analysis to examine some mental aptitude tests, Spearman concluded that scores on these tests were remarkably similar. People who performed well on one cognitive test tended to perform well on other tests while those who scored badly on one test tended to score badly on others. He concluded that intelligence is general cognitive ability that could be measured and numerically expressed.

base rate

how common a characteristic or behavior is in the general population

categorization

identifying similarities of and differences among pieces of environmental information

content effect

performance variability on reasoning tasks that require identical kinds of formal reasoning but are dissimilar in superficial content How you feel ( the content of your feelings) have implications for the content of your thoughts.

syllogistic reasoning

reasoning with problems concerning relationships among categories; e.g. "All A are B; some B are C; therefore some A are C" logic A form of deductive reasoning consisting of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion; for example: all humans are mortal, the major premise, i am a human, the minor premise, therefore i am mortal, the conclusion

anchoring effect

tendency to be influenced by a suggested reference point, pulling our response toward that point

insight problem

the problem initially seems impossible to solve, but then an alternative approach suddenly bursts into your consciousness.

mental set

the tendency to adopt a certain framework, strategy, or procedure based on immediate experience or context

critical thinking

thinking that does not blindly accept arguments or conclusions. Rather, it examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions

incubation

unconscious processing that works on a specific problem while the mind is otherwise occupied