PSYCH 11B Chapter 8 Review Questions
Describe several ways that languages can differ?
A language may lack a word that other languages have or refer to it in a different way. They can also differ in grammatical rules that say how words are put together.
Describe the difference between Achievement and Aptitude tests. How do the ACT and SAT map onto this distinction?
Achievement tests are used to asses how much you learned over a period of time. Aptitude tests are made to show the potential to learn new skills. The ACT is the achievement test and the SAT is the aptitude test.
What do case studies such as those of Isabelle and Genie suggest about language learning?
Because genie was found after she had reached puberty and Isabelle was found at only 6 years old, scientists found a sensitive period for learning language. Isabelle was able to learn within a year how to speak and have normal levels of intelligence. Genie was able to learn basics of language and could put together phrases, but never learned to produce elaborate sentences. This shows that language is learned better and faster when at a young age.
What about the heritability of intelligence suggests that it might make sense to ask about the effects of an enriched environment on intelligence? Summarize the experiment that explores this question in rats, which is described in the text. What do correlational studies in humans show?
Because half of how intelligence is influenced in people is by genetics, then the other half has to do with differences in the environment. One way is by giving good nutrition and exercise to keep the brain and body healthy. Another is through enrichment. The test included rats that were bred to be the best at doing mazes and the worst. In this study, they were both raised in a normal environment; cage and toys. Another group of rats were raised in a restricted environment (no toys and gray panels so they couldn't see out. A third group had an enriched environment. In the normal cage, the bright rats were superior to the dull. rats in the maze, restricted cage all rats performed poorly, enriched cage the dull rats performed as well as the bright rats. They found in humans that impoverished places have slower intellectual rates and that having more enriched environments leads to higher IQs in children.
How can definitions and prototypes be used to define categories?
Categories are a collection of similar things. Without these, we would treat it as a new thing and with these we can predict, communicate, and think abstractly. Prototypes are the general or good example of something in a category that explains what everything else should look or act like. Prototypes define categories by giving them an example or reference to what something should look or act like. Definitions define what should be in that category.
Summarize the history of the development of the intelligence test. What role was played by Galton, Simon, Binet, and Terman? What did these different researchers see as the goal of intelligence tests?
First Galton wanted to assess intellectual strengths of people with tests like reaction time and sensory tests. His findings did not correlate with each other and those highest achieving in life scored the same as the lowest achieving. Binet and Simon then designed a test including copying a drawing, repeating a string of digits, understanding a story, and arithmetic reasoning. This helped establish the mental age idea. They wanted to find the weaker students so they could be offered special help. Then this test was adopted by Terman at Stanford and revised the test to measure which students were the most intelligent and keeping them prioritized.
Describe the difference between fixed- and growth-mindsets.
Fixed mindset people think that their intelligence cannot be changed. Growth mindset people think their intelligence can be developed.
Describe the distinction between fluid and crystalized intelligence. Which is more strongly associated with general intelligence, g?
Fluid intelligence is the ability to handle new and unusual situations. Crystalized is taking accumulated knowledge and using it to deal with similar problems. General intelligence is more correlated with g(C).
What are framing effects? Given an example? How do reference points or default options play a role in framing a problem? Describe evidence that supports the importance of these effects in our daily lives.
Framing effects are putting a question or statement a certain way to get someone to answer a certain way. One way is posing a question in terms of losses instead of gains; people will choose the outcome that has the smallest amount of loss (loss aversion). Reference points are when compared with the worst possible outcome, anything is good (salesman says big price first and then drops it making you think its a good deal). Default options are when people choose options that are the most popular or the "status quo" (organ donor is the desalt option in other countries so thats what people choose).
Summarize and contrast Sternberg's three-intelligence theory with Gardner's eight-intelligence theory. What kinds of evidence have these researchers used to support their claim? What is the "modern" conception of the structure of intelligence proposed by the text?
HIs three theory is that there are types of intelligence. There is analytical intelligence (ability to break down problem and solve), creative (deal with new problems and come up with new ideas), and practical (reason skillfully in daily life). His collared research the the US College board says that these types of intelligences should be recognized; and these can predict college performance better than an SAT or high school GPA. Gardner said that there are eight intelligences; verbal linguistic (ability to use language), logical mathematical (use math in complex problems and see patterns in numbers), visual spatial (see the visual spatial world and present it in the mind), bodily kinesthetic (use body or parts to solve problems and communicate through a performance), musical (produce music ), naturalistic (see diff amount natural things and sensitive to patterns in the world), interpersonal (understand people), and interpersonal (understand ones self). His evidence is from people with savant syndrome, they have unusual talents when they are mentally disabled. Modern thought is that intelligence is a combo of separate and specific abilities.
Describe Whorf's linguistic determinism hypothesis. What are some ways that it has been tested? What is the modern understanding of how language and thought are interrelated?
He hypothesizes that different languages lead people to think different ways. An example is how languages describe color. In Russian, a light blue and normal blue have different name. Having two words for similar colors allows people to see them differently and makes them faster to recognize. This is also used in numbers. One tribe in the Amazon does not use numbers; when asked to count items they seemed to not be able to keep track of 4 or more; this means that language may open new ways of thinking. This leads also to say that language may contain thinking. Whorf believed that thought and language were the same, but modern thought is that language doesnt define thinking all the way, but language guides thinking to fit cultures we live in.
What are examples of negative effects of confirmation bias in the criminal justice system? In science? In everyday life?
In criminal justice, confirmation bias influences judges, jurors, eyewitnesses; the belief that someone is guilty leads to investigators seeking or favoring evidence that they are guilty. In science, they favor research that confirms their findings.
What is meant by intelligence? If there is a single, core intelligence, how can it be measured?
Intelligence is the capability to think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, reason, plan, solve problems, learn from experience, and acquire new knowledge. It implies that it is a single ability that supports many mental tasks. One way is by giving people three tests (x,y,z). X is puzzle solving, y is paper writing, and z is math techniques. It intelligence is one capability, then a person should do well on all 3 tests.
What is the WAIS? How is it structured and used?
It is a long test. that have subtests that test general knowledge, vocab, comprehension. These tests are useful for therapists and educators because it helps see where there is cognitive issues. Scores on the subtests are combined to see overall ability and help see weaknesses and strengths.
What is language? Why is it an amazing "technology" for humans?
It is a shared system of symbols (spoken, written, and signed) and includes a set of rules on how to combine these symbols to communicate meaning. This is amazing because we are able to change another human's thinking. We transfer knowledge from one person to another and through generations.
What is standardization? How is it done?
It is when you make test scores more meaningful by putting them in relation to a pretested group. If I take a test, then before me there has to be another group who had a new test and the tester would compare results and we would get a normal curfew (bell shape) usually.
Discuss how the standard ways of assessing intelligence may be culturally limited.
Its limited because intelligence studies come from people of Western Cultural contexts. This is where schooling and academic abilities are valued. This could show in stats that general intelligence is higher and when compared to other countries, the kids look dumb.
What is loss aversion? How do the effects of loss aversion depend on the reference point that determines what is a gain or a loss?
Loss aversion is when you choose the option that has the least amount of losses. Because reference points say the worst possible option, people will then choose anything that doesnt have the worst possible option, just like they wont choose anything with lots of losses. In both terms, the less damage or negativity, the better option and likelihood of people accepting or choosing something.
Outline the sequence of challenges that infants must overcome to learn language. What are some major developmental milestones in this process?
One challenge is learning both to understand and produce the phonemes of speech (they learn this around 1 to 2 months, they show a difference between b and p). Around 6 to 7 months that start practicing phonemes by babbling. By 10 months, the babbling starts to sound like actual language. Next challenge is to group these phonemes into words. Before babies' first birthdays, they can determine where words in speech start and end. Around 6 to 9 months, the children know some nouns. Around 1 they know a lot of words and by age 2 they are putting two words together to make a sentence. By age 3 their sentences include nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. By age 5 they speak similarly to adults and are mastering the grammar.
Summarize the evidence that humans have evolved to be able to produce speech.
One piece of evidence is because speech is produced in the larynx; in most mammals it sits higher in the throat and in humans it sits lower, which allows more vocal range.
Summarize the evidence that suggests that what teachers believe about the intelligence of students can have large effects on the intellectual development of those students.
One study was when researchers gave intelligence tests to kids in the beginning of the year. Teachers were told that some students were very smart and some not so smart. Later on in the year they did another intelligence test and saw that they all had higher IQs but the IQs of the students who were labeled as smarter has bigger IQ gains than the ones labeled not so smart.
What is mean by bounded rationality? What are some of the bounding factors?
Rational decision making is constrained by our cognitive abilities, limited time and info. The bounding factors are limited time, info, and limited resources.
Summarize and compare the positions of Skinner and Chomsky about how children learn language. What is some of the evidence that supports Chomsky's position?
Skinner said that learning language is not special in children, its the same as teaching a dog commands. Chomsky disagreed and said that children learn language by genetically allowing themselves to with specialized learning mechanisms. He said that children learn the rate of words to fast to be learned associations and reinforcement. He said that children are pre wired with language acquisition device that gets turned on when they are exposed to language and guides language automatically; with no direct teaching. Some evidence is when children create their own language without any help.
How good are standardized tests at predicting performance in college or various jobs?
The correlation isn't perfect. The kids who may test poorly do well in school and those who test highly do poorly in school. The predictions are not that sound.
What cues do infants use to help them learn the meanings of words?
The cues that infants use are patterns in the phonemes. Another one is when they are learning, the people talking look and point at the objects, giving the kids hints as to what the words mean.
Anxiety can lead to underperformance. Identify two aspects of anxiety; what are their mechanisms? Which of these aspects of anxiety can actually be helpful, and which is the aspect that causes poorer performance? What intervention can help reduce the effects of test anxiety?
The two aspects are emotionality and worry. Emotionality is actual feeling of anxiety (sweaty palms, heart racing). This part does not hurt performance on tests. It actually should help you perform well. Worry is when they feel that they will fail and the consequences. The emotionality part will help by mobilizing action, help them perform well, body increases sources for muscles and brain and reduces actions that aren't needed. Worry is bad because it eats at your mental resources to do well. One way to reduce worry is telling people about this fact and having them know about it and that their anxiety could help them.
Describe the assumption made by Simon and Binet that justified their use of mental age as a measure of intelligence.
Their assumption was the children who were "dull" preformed like kids lower in age and this who were "bright" performed higher than their age.
What is pragmatics?
These are rules on the social aspect of language; it is when you not to talk, taking turns, how to talk when associated with different people. It also applies to when certain words mean different things in certain situations.
How can prior experience either help or hinder problem-solving efforts? What factors influence which effects prior experiences have? What is a reasonable strategy to overcome the ill effects of prior experience?
They are usually helpful by giving us hints and clues from prior experience, which is a mental set. But can also hurt us. Sometimes it makes it harder to obtain new info for solving a problem. The factors that influence which effects prior experiences have is functional fixedness and a mental set. A mental set can also detain us from seeing better solutions. The best way to use prior experiences to help is by restructuring, reorganizing your perception of the problem.
How does similarity in IQ among genetically similar people change with age? Why is this surprising? What are two possible explanations?
They have similar IQs as they age. This is surprising because usually twins life experiences become different from each other and should make it less similar between each other. One possible explanation is that children inherit a gene from their parents that is a learning capacity or potential. Their potential might resemble their parents' or twins', but we have to wait till they are older to measure it because they need some experience. Another possibility is that as people get older, they can change their environment and experiences due to. their genetic preferences.
Describe two ways that psychologists can study what infants know about language or how much of language they understand.
They use operant conditioning by having the infants listen to phonemes played over a speaker while playing with toys. Then the phoneme changes from "la" to "da". The child is trained to look right when there is a change and if they do it they get a reward. This shows what phonemes the children know or don't know. Later in the research, they tested to see if the babies had picked up patterns by having them listen to new audio recordings. Within the audio they assigned certain sequences of syllables to create words. This shows that babies learned the made up language without anything to go on, but the pattern of sounds and how they happened together.
What things appear to help reduce confirmation bias? What are some intuitively plausible things that do not?
This can be reduced by encouraging them to actively imagine and consider the opposite view. By actively doing research only on your viewpoint, not talking to others about different opinions, and always discrediting their opinions.
How can the heritability of intelligence be studied? What do these studies show? What is genomewide complex-trait analysis (GCTA)? What level of heritability of intelligence does GCTA reveal?
This can be studied by testing kids and connecting it to their biological parents or if there are adoptive parents involved (this shows a 50% rate of genetics involved in intelligence). They can now test DNA sequences from large samples of unrelated people and see their similarities in intelligence (GCTA). It reveals that heritability is about 34% vs 50%.
What is dual-process theory? What are the advantages/disadvantages of controlled and automatic processing? What factors increase the probability that we will use the automatic system?
This explains how we make decisions based off types of thinking. The controlled processing is slower and takes more effort, resulting in a rational decision. The advantages are that we use it for engaging discussions that really matter when it doesn't rely on time pressure, but it does take more time and energy. Automatic processing is fast and effortless, but leads to decent outcomes. The advantage is that its quick , but may not lead to the best decision. The factors of laziness, being tired, or overwhelmed will increase the chances of using the automatic system.
What is meant by a sensitive period for language learning? Summarize the evidence supporting this hypothesis from the acquisition of ASL by deaf children. Summarize the data on second language learning. How does it also support the sensitive period hypothesis?
This is a limited window where learning language before hand is crucial and after ward, language learning is limited. When children are exposed to sign language from birth, they develop their language just like hearing children. Adults who differed in the time when they learned SL showed diff results. The adults who learned later they were more accurate in recognizing correct and incorrect grammar. This supports the hypothesis. Children learning a second language also learn it more easily than adults. Adults are more efficient when it comes to learning a second language because they know more vocab, but children learn more deeply and faster. The younger kids came to the US from China and Korea, the better they performed as native american speakers.
What is the availability heuristic? Illustrate your answer with an example.
This is a mental judgment for judging the likelihood of something based off of what comes to mind first. Saying guns kill people more than car accidents.
What is the representativeness heuristic? Illustrate your answer with an example.
This is a mental shortcut for judging the likelihood of something based off how well they are an example of a prototype. Judging blondes to be dumb.
What is the affect heuristic? Illustrate your answer with an example. What part of the brain is associated with using affect to make decisions? What can happen when this area is damaged?
This is a mental shortcut for making judgments and decisions based off of the "good for me or bad for me" feelings we associate with things. The ventromedial frontal cortex is responsible. When this area is damaged, it takes it more difficult to know the emotional consequences of their actions.
What is the tendency to overestimate the accuracy of one's knowledge and judgments is called? How has this been demonstrated in the lab? What are some more practical examples? What are some possible reasons for this kind of bias?
This is called overconfidence bias. This was demonstrated by pope answering general knowledge questions. They guessed at the most likely answer and then were asked to rate how confident they were in the answer. The ones who thought they were wrong were usually right and the ones that were for sure they were correct were usually wrong. Some practical examples are students taking tests. Some possible reasons as to why this happens is people have to rely on imperfect info (how easily it comes to mind) and by being confident leads to popularity, also gives people an advantage in the dating world.
What is meant by a problem-solving insight? What leads to insight solutions?
This is the "ah ha" moment; there is a sudden and conscious change in how the person views a problem. This is done through unconscious cognitive work and sometimes comes from when we pick up on useful info from our environment without being aware of it. Also being in a good mood broadens your attention scope and allows more info to be retained. The brain also shows activity in the temporal lobes before insight problem solving, which means the brain also aids insight solving.
What is confirmation bias? How does this contribute to the difficulty people have to change their beliefs?
This is the tendency to look for evidence that supports your viewpoint rather than evidence that discredits your belief or viewpoint. This contributes to people having the difficulty of changing their beliefs by creating belief perseverance, this is even when given evidence that discredits their beliefs they still think they are correct.
What is the nature-nurture distinction? What are examples of behaviors that depend primarily on each?
This is used to describe how intelligence is influenced by nature (genetics) and nuture (environment). For nature, IQ of twins are very correlated and these twins. This is contrasted to fraternal twins who do not have a higher correlation; thus this depends on genetics (both were raised in the same environment). If twins were adopted into different homes, then their IQs aren't as correlated; thus shows environment influence. Also when people get older, their intelligence is influenced more by genetics. Another genetic example if that adopted children have more correlation in intelligence as they grow older with their biological parents and decrease in correlation with their adoptive parents.
What is meant by test reliability? How can it be assessed? How reliable is a test such as the WAIS?
This is when a test produces consistent results. The way to asses it is to give it twice to the same people. Another way is to split the test in half and see if the performance is the same for both halves. The WAIS has a good retest rate of 0.96 and a good plot half reliability of 0.98.
What is stereotype threat and what role does it play in creating achievement gaps? What does this relation suggest about how these gaps could be reduced or eliminated?
This is when people are concerned about doing actions that will solidify their stereotype and makes people do poorly. Achievement gaps are common differences in groups of people's performance, usually based on characteristics like race or gender. Threat contributes to this by having people being stereotyped not performing well, and then their group has these gaps in how well their intellect is being tested. If the stereotypes were eliminated, so would the gap.
What is meant by test validity? Compare two kinds of validity.
This is when the test measures or predicts what it is supposed to. The content validity is when the test samples whatever behavior is of interest. Predictive validity is when the test can predict how well a person will do I settings that require intelligence. This is done through comparing the test result and maybe a college GPA.
Discuss how affective responses can underlie moral judgements. Why might this be a problem?
This means we lack the emotion needed for some decisions; which could lead to very bad choices. This is a problem because we won't be able to react and solve problems in challenging situations were they are emotionally driven. This is also bad because pope won't know the consequences of their actions and think its okay to do bad things.
What is a category hierarchy? How are superordinate, basic level, and subordinate categories identified?
This show how the mind organizes concepts. Superordinate is the most general concept (things have fewer definitions in common) and have the least amount of family resemblance. Basic level is what we are usually taught first and have clearly defined prototypes. Subordinate is the most specific concept. This is tied to semantic networks.
What does it mean to say that children are "universal listeners and producers of speech sounds"?
This supports the idea of babbling because around 6 to 7 months, they produce phonemes that adults in their language cannot distinguish.
Characterize the difference between the trial-and-error, heuristic, and algorithmic approaches to problem solving. When might each be appropriate?
Trial and error is using random strategies until you find something that works; this may be used when someone is lazy or does not know how to reach an end goal just yet. Heuristic problem solving is part of the automatic system that is a mental shortcut that allows people to solve problems and make decisions. You would use this unconsciously to judge and make decisions quickly. Algorithmic problem solving is when you use a step by step process that guarantees a solution. This is used in math.
Why is the "thinking" that we can describe, "just the tip of the iceberg"?
We usually think that our thinking is something that we are aware of and we can talk about it. This is thought this way because people don't actually know what they are thinking about, because a lot of their thinking involves mental activities that take place outside of conscious awareness.
What distinguishes well-defined and ill-defined problems? Why might this distinction matter?
Well defined problems are ones that have a clear goal and a clear set of available options for reaching that goal. Ill defined goals are ones with hazy goals and indistinct paths for reaching the goals. This distinction matters because this allows you to narrow your goals. For well defined problems, you know what is not relevant to solving a problem, so you do not waste time. In ill defined problems, adding constraints and assumptions narrows the scope of options and defines a problem more clearly, but also hides some of the best solutions.
How do the number of choices available affect our experience and our ability to make a decision?
When we have a number of choices, we become flustered and decrease our chances of making a decision. Because we have limited attention, memory capabilities, and processing power, they limit our chance of making a decision and if we make one, it is not logical or reasonable.
Identify five levels of language structure. How are these levels organized? What is grammar? How does your grammatical knowledge differ from the "proper" grammar that you learned in school?
it goes form top sentence, phrase, word, morpheme, phoneme. Grammar tells how language parts should be put together so people can understand each other. "Proper" grammar is the one taught in school and this is the most reasonable way to talk; they teach the rules behind talking. My grammar knowledge is mostly implicit, I listened to others talk and practiced speaking myself.
What are morphemes and phonemes? Give examples of each. How are they related to words?
phonemes are the individual sound the letters make. (d, short o, and hard g). Then these are organized into morphemes, which are the actual words and the prefixes and suffixes, and have meaning.
What are mental representations?
they are mental symbols that stand for events or objects we have encountered. They allow people to think about things when they are absent and expand our knowledge.
What is hindsight bias? How is it related to, but different from overconfidence bias? What are some more important, practical examples of hindsight bias? What is a manipulation that can help counteract this bias?
this is when an outcome is predicted and a result is told, they say that they knew it was that all along and they would have predicted the outcome. This is related to overconfidence bias by both involving confidence but differ by hindsight happening after an event. This is used by doctors, it suggests that physicians that give a "second opinion" after a patient Is diagnosed may be bias to the first opinion by the doctor. One way to manipulate it is by giving reasons as to why each possible outcome could happen.
