Chapter 7

Cognition

The mental processes involved in acquiring, storing, retrieving, and using information — these include sensation, perception, imagery, concept formation, reasoning, decision making, problem solving, and language

Reasoning

• A form of thinking where conclusions are drawn from a set of facts

n Deductive reasoning

• Reasoning from general to specific,

• Drawing particular conclusions from general principles

n Inductive reasoning

• General conclusions are drawn from particular facts

n Imagery

• Representation in the mind of sensory experience

n Visual, auditory, gustatory, motor, olfactory, or tactile

n Useful in learning or maintaining motor skills

Concepts

A mental category used to represent a class or group of objects, people, organizations, events, situations, or relations that share common characteristics or attributes

• Examples of concepts

n Furniture

n College

n Tree

• Concepts help us order our world and to think and communicate with speed and efficiency

n Formal concept

• A concept clearly defined by a set of rules, a formal definition, or a classification system; also known as an artificial concept

n Natural concept

• Acquired through everyday perceptions and experiences

Concepts

Cognition

n Exemplars

• The individual instances, or examples, of a concept that are stored in memory from personal experience

n If you work with penguins in a zoo your exemplar of a bird would be a penguin

n Someone who doesn’t work in a zoo may use the bird they see, a robin as their exemplar of a bird

Decision-Making

The process of considering alternatives and choosing among them

n Systematic decision making

• Process of considering alternatives and choosing among them

n Bounded rationality

• Boundaries or limitations around the decision making process prevent if from being entirely logical.

• Size of working memory

n Elimination by aspects

• A decision-making approach in which alternatives are evaluated against criteria that have been ranked according to importance

• Usual ranking, from most important to least important

• Spend only $800 for rent monthly

n Choices in apartments are limited by first $800 figure.

Decision-Making

n Heuristics

• A rule of thumb that is derived from experience and used in decision-making and problem solving, even though there is no guarantee of its accuracy or usefulness

n A decision to leave home early to avoid getting stuck in a traffic jam though you don’t know if there will be one

n Availability heuristic

• A cognitive rule of thumb that says that the probability of an event or the importance assigned to it is based on its availability in memory

n Decision to leave home early to avoid traffic jam came because you were stuck in one recently.

Representativeness Heuristic

Decision-Making

n Representative heuristic

• Thinking strategy based on how closely a new object or situation is judged to resemble or match an existing prototype of that object or situation

n A decision to go out with someone may be based on how much that person looks like someone you know.

n Recognition heuristic

• Strategy in which decision-making stops as soon as a factor that moves one toward a decision has been recognized

n You vote for a woman candidate simply because you see a female name on the ballot and you want a woman to win the election.

Decision-Making

n Framing

• The way information is presented so as to emphasize either a potential gain or loss as the outcome

• Positive framing leads people to prefer an option

n Describing a “cure” as saving 300 people will cause it to be favored over one that lists how many will die.

n Intuition

• Rapidly formed judgments based on “gut feelings” or “instincts”

• Usually based on a mental representation of the gist of a body of information rather than on its factual details

• Can lead to errors in reasoning about decisions

n Physicians overestimated the degree to which condoms reduce the risk of sexually transmitted diseases.

Problem-Solving

Thoughts and actions required to achieve a desired goal that is not readily attainable.

n Analogy heuristic

• Applies a solution that solved a problem in the past to a current problem that shares many features with the past problem

n Working backward

• Heuristic strategy in which a person discovers the steps needed to solve a problem by defining the desired goal and working backward to the current condition

Problem-Solving

n Means-end analysis

• The current position is compared with a desired goal, and a series of steps is formulated and then taken to close the gap between the two

n Writing a term paper involves picking a topic, researching, and writing outlines, rough drafts, and a final draft in order to get an A.

n Algorithm

• Systematic, step-by-step procedure that guarantees a solution to a problem of a certain type if applied appropriately and executed properly

n Using a mathematical formula to solve a problem on a test

Impediments to Problem-Solving

n Functional fixedness

• Failure to use familiar objects in novel ways to solve problems because of a tendency to view objects only in terms of their customary functions

n The dryer is broken and you can’t think of another way to dry the clothes.

n Mental set

• Tendency to apply a familiar strategy to the solution of a problem without carefully considering the special requirements of that problem

n Yelling worked once to help you get service in a restaurant so you yell whenever you want something, but don’t recognize it is making others angry.

Water Lily Problem

Water lilies double the area they cover every 24 hours.

At the beginning of the summer there is one water lily on a pond.

It takes 60 days for the pond to become covered with water lilies.

On what day is the pond half covered? (from Fix, 1978)

Artificial Intelligence

The programming of computer systems to simulate human thinking in solving problems and in making judgments and decisions

n Artificial neural networks

• Computer systems intended to mimic human brains

• Deep Blue and Deep Junior played chess against Kasparov

n Expert systems

• Computer programs designed to carry out highly specific functions within a limited domain

n Work best when assisting a human

n MYCIN a program used to diagnose blood diseases and meningitis

n Generates possible hypotheses that doctors may not consider

Language

A means of communicating thoughts and feelings using a system of socially shared but arbitrary symbols (sounds signs or written symbols) arranged according to rules of grammar

Structure of Language

n Psycholinguistics: the study of how language is acquired, produced, and used and how the sounds and symbols of language are translated into meaning

n Phonemes: the smallest units of sound in a spoken language

n Morphemes: are the smallest units of meaning in language

n Syntax: the aspect of grammar that specifies the rules for arranging and combining words to form phrases and sentences

n Semantics: the meaning or study of meaning derived from morphemes, words, and sentences

n Pragmatics: the patterns of intonation and social roles associated with a language

Language

n Surface structure

• The literal words of a sentence, spoken or written

n Deep structure

• The underlying meaning of a sentence

n Linguistic hypothesis

• The notion that the language a person speaks determines the nature of their thoughts

n Bilingualism

• Fluency in more than one language

• Associated with metalinguistic skills

n The capacity to think about language

English Proficiency in Chinese- and Spanish- Speaking Immigrants to the U.S.

Research results based on 2 million individuals suggest it’s never too late to learn a second language.

Animal Language

n Humans are the only animal capable of speech

• Vocals tracts in chimpanzees and other apes not adapted to human speech

n Washoe, a 1-year-old chimp, learned sign language

• By the end of the fifth year had mastered 160 signs

n Sarah, a chimp, learned an artificial language

• Magnetized chips of various shapes and sizes represent words; if she puts the right chip in front of a fruit, she receives it.

Animal Language

n Lana pressed keys imprinted with symbols that represented words.

• Location, color, and brightness of the keys were varied

• When no symbol for an orange was available she improvised, indicating “give apple which is orange”

n Herbert Terrace believes it was not language.

• These chimps are simply imitating their trainers to receive reinforcers according to classical conditioning

• Experimenter bias with chimp’s efforts believed to be language

n Kanzi, a pygmy chimp, communicated with trainers without any formal training.

• Observed his mother learning symbols and surpassed her ability

• Demonstrated an advanced understanding of spoken English by responding correctly to commands “throw you ball to the river”

• By 6 years old, was using 200 symbols and more than 13,000 utterances

Animal Language

n Chimpanzees may be able to learn numerical symbols.

• Two chimps used a joystick to move dots on a screen to match Arabic numerals

n Retested 6 months later, and again 3 years later, and maintained skill

n Alex, a parrot, mimics human speech intelligently.

• Recognizes colors, shapes, and objects by answering questions

• Answers counting questions correctly 80% of the time

n Whales and dolphins use grunts, whistles, clicks, and other sounds t o communicate within their species.

• Dolphins will respond to complex commands

n Directional and relational concepts and picking out objects

Intelligence

An individual’s ability to understand complex ideas, to adapt effectively to the environment, to learn from experience, to engage in various forms of reasoning, and to overcome obstacles through mental effort

n g Factor

• Spearman’s term for a general intellectual ability that underlies all mental operations to some degree

n People who are bright in one area tend to be bright in others

n s factor

• Specific intellectual abilities

n Spearman’s influence seen in intelligence tests, such as Stanford-Binet, that yield one IQ score to indicate the level of general intelligence

Intelligence

n Primary mental abilities

• Thurstone’s seven relatively distinct capabilities that, singly or in combination, are involved in all intellectual activities

n Verbal comprehension

n Numerical ability

n Spatial relations

n Perceptual speed

n Word fluency

n Memory

n Reasoning

• All intellectual activities involve one or more of these areas

• Believes a single IQ score obscures more than it reveals

• Suggests a profile indicating strong and weak areas

Howard Gardner’s Eight
Frames of Mind

Gardner’s Study’s of Intelligence

n Developed theory by studying patients with different types of brain damage affecting some forms of intelligence but leaving others intact

n Studied savant syndrome

• A combination of mental retardation and unusual talent and abilities

n Believes all forms of intelligence are equally important

• Cultures assign varying degrees of importance to types of intelligence

• Various abilities and skills have been valued differently in other cultures and periods of history

Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

Sternberg

Measuring Intelligence

n Binet-Simon Test

• The first IQ test

n Developed to aid schools in France

• Used a scored called mental age

n Based on number of items a child got right compared with the number right of various ages

n If number right equaled the average of 8 year olds, was assigned the mental age of 8 regardless of chronological age

n Flaws with scale

• A 40-year-old with the same IQ as a 20-year-old would be considered mentally retarded

Measuring Intelligence

• Stern devised Intelligence Quotient

n A simple formula for calculating an index of intelligence

• Terman perfected Intelligence Quotient and published Binet-Simon Scale with items adapted for American children

• Norms

n Standards based on the range of test scores of a large group of people who are selected to provide the bases of comparison for those who take the test later

• Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

n An index of intelligence, originally derived by dividing mental age by chronological age and then multiplying by 100; now derived by comparing an individual’s score with the scores of others of the same age

Measuring Intelligence

n Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale

• An individually administered IQ test for ages 2-23 with an overall IQ score

• Four subscales:

n Verbal reasoning

n Quantitative reasoning

n Abstract visual reasoning

n Short term memory

• Could not be applied to adults

Measuring Intelligence

n Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-R)

• First successful individual intelligence test for adults

• Most widely used psychological test

• Scores based on how much an individual deviates from the average score for adults, not on mental and chronological ages

• Compares verbal and performance (nonverbal) subtests

n Overall IQ score and IQ score for each subtest area

• Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, third edition, published for ages 6-17

• Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence published for children ages 4-6 ½ .

• Administered to one person at a time by a psychologist or educational diagnostician

Measuring Intelligence

n Group intelligence tests

• Large numbers of people in a short period of time

n California Test of Mental Maturity

n Cognitive Abilities Test

n Otis-Lennon Mental Ability Test

Requirements of Good Tests

n Reliability

• Ability of a test to yield nearly the same score when the same people are tested and then retested on the same test or an alternative form of the test

n Validity

• Ability of a test to measure what it is intended to measure

n Aptitude test

• Designed to predict a person’s achievement or performance at some future time

n Standardization

• Establishes norms for comparing score of people who take a test in the future and a set procedure for administration

n Culture-fair intelligence test

• The use of questions that will not penalize those whose culture differs from the mainstream or dominant culture

Culture-Fair Test Example Item

Test takers select the patch that completes the pattern

The Range of Intelligence

n Bell curve: the “normal curve”

• The majority of scores cluster around the mean

• The further away from the mean score, the fewer there are

n Less than 2% are classified as genius or mentally retarded

Mental Retardation

Subnormal intelligence is reflected by an IQ below 70 and by adaptive functioning severely deficient for one’s age

• Mildly retarded: IQ 55-70

• Moderately retarded: IQ 40-55

• Severely retarded: IQ 25-40

• Profoundly retarded: IQ below 25

• Inclusion or Mainstreaming

n Educating mentally retarded students in regular rather than special schools

n Placing them in regular classes for part of the day

n Having special classrooms in regular schools

n Rely heavily on behavior modification techniques

The IQ Controversy

To what degree can genetics, biology, and inheritance account for variations in intelligence?

• Nature-nurture controversy

n The debate over whether intelligence and other traits are primarily the result of heredity or environment

n Sir Francis Galton initiated the debate and concluded that intelligence was inherited

n Environmentalists insist that intelligence is influenced primarily by one’s environment

• The results of nurturing by parents, teachers, friends, etc.

Nature-Nurture Controversy

Nature-Nurture Controversy

Nature-Nurture Controversy

Creativity

n The ability to produce original, appropriate, and valuable ideas and/or solutions to problems.

n Snow: genuine creativity “is an accomplishment born of intensive study, long reflection, persistence, and interest.”

n Weak to moderate correlation between creativity and IQ

• High intelligence does not necessarily mean high creativity

n Genuine creativity rarely appears in sudden flashes

n Four stages in creative problem-solving process:

v Preparation – searching for information to help solve the problem

v Incubation - letting the problem “sit” while the relevant information is digested

v Illumination - being suddenly struck by the right solution

v Translation - transforming the insight into useful action

Creativity

n Divergent thinking: the ability to produce multiple ideas, answers, or solutions to a problem for which there is no agreed-upon solution

• Is novel, original, and involves the synthesis of an unusual association of ideas

• Is flexible, switching quickly and smoothly from one stream of thought or set of ideas to another

• Requires fluency, the ability to formulate an abundance of ideas

• High degree of divergent thinking demonstrated by creative thinkers

• Both brain hemispheres highly active during creative thinking

n Convergent thinking

• The type of mental activity measured by IQ and achievement tests

• Consists of solving precisely defined, logical problems for which there is a known correct answer

• Demonstrated by greater activity in the left frontal cortex

Creativity

Highly creative thinking is associated with activity in both hemispheres, but with significantly higher levels in the right hemisphere (a).

During thinking that is not creative, activity is largely restricted to the left hemisphere (b).

Creativity

n Measuring individual differences in creativity

• Tests emphasize original approaches to arriving at solutions for open ended problems or for producing artistic works

• Unusual Uses Test

n Asks respondents to name as many uses as possible for an ordinary object (such as a brick)

• Consequences Test

n Asks test takers to list as many consequences as they can that would be likely to follow some basic change in the world (gravity being reduced by 50%)

• Remote Associations Test

n The essence of creativity is the thinker’s ability to fit together ideas that, to the noncreative thinker, might appear remote or unrelated

Creativity

n Exceptionally creative individuals

• Have a great deal of expertise in a specific area built up by years of discipline and practice

• Open to new experiences and ideas – even those that seem odd to others

• Inherently curious and inquisitive

• Independent thinkers less influenced by the ideas of others

• More likely to be motivated by the anticipation, excitement, and enjoyment of their work than by a desire to please others.

• Creative endeavor requires hard work and persistence in the face of failure

n Albert Einstein published 248 papers on theory of relativity

n Mozart created 609 musical compositions before his death at 35 years of age