chapter 10: reasoning and intelligence Flashcards
analogy
the similarity in behavior, function, or relationship between entities or situations that are in other respects, such as their physical makeup, different from each other
example of an analogy
a baseball glove is analogous to a butterfly net, both are used to capture an object and have a funnel-like shape
what is A:B :: C:X
example of an analogy (man is to woman as boy is to what)
Raven’s progressive matrices test
measure of fluid intelligence, the items are visual patterns rather then words, knowledge of word meanings isn’t essential
Experiment with children and the genie - what is it and what is an example of
example of how children use analogies - children told to transfer balls from one bowl to another without standing up, in one condition told a story about a genie who used his staff to bring the bowl closer, in the other he used it as a tunnel
experiment with analogies and political viewpoints
students used analogies for both sides of the argument (the Canadian government should eliminate deficit spending even if that would require a sharp reduction in such social programs as health care and social support)
which brain structure is NOT involved in analogical reasoning
the prefrontal cortex - anterior left inferior prefrontal cortex
what did excessive training in analogical reasoning result in
changes in the distribution of white matter connecting frontal cortices and in the frontal and parietal lobes
by what age do children start using the same brain regions as adults to solve analogical reasoning problems
by age 6
what can an educator do to support students in making analogical comparisons
provide them with opportunities to make comparisons between newly learned concepts and previously learned ones, present source, and target analogies simultaneously so that the student may visualise ways in which they’re related, provide additional cues that move between the two contexts being compared in order to highlight analogical mappings, highlight the similarities and the differences between sources and targets, use relational language to facilitate attention to shared relationships
What is some evidence concerning the usefulness of analogies in scientific reasoning?
Darwin came up with the concept of natural selection as the mechanism of evolution partly by seeing the analogy between the selective breeding of plants and animals by humans and in nature
Kepler came up with the theory of the role of gravity in planetary motion by drawing analogies between gravity and light
How are analogies useful in judicial and political reasoning? What distinguishes a useful analogy from a misleading one?
In both contexts can convince people more easily, and simplify new or complicated issues by comparing them to more familiar or less complicated issues, where the answer seems clear
Can mislead in that way
Inductive reasoning
attempt to infer some new principle or proposition from observations or facts that serve as clues, reasoning that if founded on perceived analogies or other similarities
what is the other name for inductive reasoning and why
hypothesis construction, the inferred proposition is at best an educated guess
what are the three biases tm
the availability bias, the conformation bias, and the predictable-world bias
what is the availability bias?
when we reason, we tend to rely too strongly on information that is readily available to us and to ignore information that is less available
example of availability bias
students said that d is more likely to occur in the first position in a word, causes that have been emphasized in the media are overestimated, more frequent causes underestimated, and a doctor who just treated several cases of one thing may be predisposed to perceive something else as that disease
how is the confirmation bias dealt with in science
scientists design studies aimed at disconfirming their currently held hypothesis, can never prove something is absolutely correct, but can prove if it’s incorrect
sequencing numbers experiment
confirmation bias - only a few people discovered that it’s any increasing sequence of numbers
is availability bias related to intelligence
no
what is maximizing and what is matching
in a game of chance, maximizing is always going with the most likely option, matching is attempting to guess based on previous traials
do rats have the predictable world bias
no, they always maximise, not smart enough to see patterns
is predictable-world bias related to intelligence
yes, higher IQ people maximise
what are the two different ways in which people demonstrated the confirmation bias
number sequencing experiment and assessing personality introvert/extrovert experiment
how does a die-tossing game demonstrate the predictable world bias?
people believe they can guess
deductive reasoning
attempt to derive logically the consequences that must be true if certain premises are accepted as true
series problem
requires you to organize items into a series on the basis of a set of comparison statements and then arrive at a conclusion that was not contained in any single statement (A taller than B, A shorter than C, C is shorter than D, is D shorter than C
syllogism
presents a major premise, and a minor premise that you must combine mentally to see if a particular conclusion is true, false, or indeterminate (all chefs are violinists, Mary is a chef, is she a violinist?)
what did piaget say about deductive reasoning
people who’re around 13 years old or older reason deductively by applying abstract logical principles which can be expressed mathematically
what is abstract logic
problems are solved by a sort of mental algebra, in which the specific contents of the problem are mapped onto the Xs and Ys of logical equations
abstract logic - experiments
all living things need water - roses need water - roses are living things (30% of students got correct), all insects need oxygen - mice need oxygen - mice are insects (almost everybody) + nonsense terms (70% got it right)
bias for thinking inductively
natural tendency to reason by comparing the current information with previous experience
Wason’s selection task
four cards on the table (A, G, 2, 7) and given a rule “if a card has a vowel on one side, then it must have an even number on the other side” - fewer than 10% got it, A and 7
when presented as beer, coke, 16 years old, 25 years old - much easier
deontic reasoning
reasoning about what one may, should, or ought to do
why was beer easier than numbers
deontic reasoning
insight problems
problems that are specially designed to be unsolvable until one looks at them in a way that is different from the usual way, mix of inductive and deductive reasoning
mental set
well-established habit of perception of thought
functional fixedness
the failure to see an object as having a function other than its usual one
what is the candle problem?
people are given a candle, box of matches, a box of tacks and are asked to attach the candle to the bulletin board so it can be lit - easier if the tacks are placed next to the box, encouraging subjects not to fixate on distracting surface properties of the problem
design stance
people readily assume that tools are designed for an intended purpose, adaptation -
when is the design stance seen at the earliest and how
12- and 18-months-old with a light display and a small hole on its side - they watched as the experimenter grasped the round end of a spoon (35%) or a novel spoon-like (60%) object and inserted the object’s straight end into the box
is the design stance seen in other animals
no, chimps bonobos and gorillas don’t show it
