Chapter 8- Thinking & Intelligence Flashcards
(34 cards)
What is an algorithm?
A methodical, logical rule of procedure that guarantees you will solve a particular problem.
What is heuristic?
A simple thinking strategy that often allows you to make judgments and solve problems efficiently.
What is insight?
A sudden realization of the solution to a problem; it contrasts with strategy-based solutions
What is confirmation bias?
A tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort evidence that contradicts them.
What is fixation?
Obstacle to problem-solving. Once we get hung up on a problem it’s hard to approach it from a different angle.
What is intelligence?
A mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations.
What is general intelligence (g)?
A general intelligence factor that, according to Spearman and others, underlies specific mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test.
What is creativity?
The ability to produce new and valuable ideas.
What is emotional intelligence?
The ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions.
What is standardization?
Defining uniform testing procedures and meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested group.
What is an intelligence test?
A method for assessing an individual’s mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores.
What is an aptitude test?
A test designed to predict a person’s future performance.
What is an achievement test?
A test designed to assess what a person has learned.
What is normal curve?
A symmetrical, bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many types of data.
What is reliability?
The extent to which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test, on alternative forms of the test, or on retesting.
What is validity?
The extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to.
What is mental age?
A measure of intelligence test performance devised by Binet; the chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance.
What is Standford-Binet?
The widely used American revision (by Terman at Stanford University) of Binet’s original intelligence test.
What is intelligence quotient (IQ)?
Defined originally as the ratio of mental age to chronological age multiplied by 100. On contemporary intelligence tests, the average performance for a given age is assigned a score of 100.
What is Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)?
The most widely used intelligence test; contains verbal and perfrormance (nonverbal) subtests.
Why can news be described as “something that hardly ever happens”?
If a tragic event such as a plane crash makes the news, it is noteworthy and unusual, unlike much more common events such as traffic accidents.
What is the difference between receptive and productive language, and when do children normally hit their milestones in language development?
Infants normally start developing receptive language skills (ability to understand what is said to and about them) around 4 moths of age. Then, starting with babbling at 4 months, and beyond, infants normally start building productive language skills (ability to produce sounds and eventually words).
What was Noam Chomsky’s explanation of language development?
Chomsky maintained that all languages share a universal grammar, and humans are biologically predisposed to learn the grammar rules of language.
Why is it so difficult to learn a new language in adulthood?
Our brain’s critical period for language learning is in childhood, when we can absorb language structure almost effortlessly. As we move past that stage in our brain’s development, our ability to learn a new language drops dramatically.
