Chapter 9: Thinking and Intelligence

Question 1

Concepts

Answer 1

A mental category that groups objects, relations, activiites, abstractions, or qualities having common properties.

Question 2

Basic Concepts

Answer 2

concepts that have a moderate number of instances and that are easier to acquire than those having few or many instances.

Question 3

Prototype

Answer 3

an especially representative example of a concept.

Question 4

Proposition

Answer 4

A unit of meaning that is made up of concepts and expresses a single idea (e.g., “apples are red”).

Question 5

Cognitive Schemas

Answer 5

Integrated mental network of knowledge, beliefs, and expectations concerning a particular topic or aspect of the world (e.g., self-schemas, social schemas).

Question 6

Mental Images

Answer 6

Mental representation that mirrors or resembles the thing it represents (occur in most sensory modalities)

Question 7

Subconscious processes

Answer 7

Mental processes occuring outside of conscious awareness but accesible to consciousness when necessary (e.g., driving a car).

Question 8

Non conscious processes

Answer 8

Mental processes occurring outside of and not available to conscious awareness.

Types of on conscious processes: Implicit learning, mindlessness

Question 9

Implicit learning

Answer 9

Learning that occurs when you acquire knowledge about something without being aware of how you did so and without being able to state exactly what it is you have learned.

Question 10

Mindlessness

Answer 10

Mental inflexibility, inertia and obliviousness to the present context.

Question 11

Reasoning

Answer 11

Drawing conclusions or inferences from observations, facts, or assumptions.

Formal reasoning problems: problems solved using established methods (algorithms and logic); usually a single correct solution.

Informal reasoning problems: there is often no clearly correct solution.

Question 12

Deductive Reasoning

Answer 12

When a conclusion follows necessarily from certain premises. If premises true, conclusion must be true.

Examples:
- All men are mortal. Joe is a man. Therefore, Joe is mortal.
- Bachelor’s are unmarried men. Bill is unmarried. Therefore, Bill is a bachelor.

Question 13

Inductive Reasoning

Answer 13

When the premises provide support for a conclusion, but it’s still possible for conclusion to be false.

Examples:
- Suzy is a doctor. Doctors are smart. Suzy is assumed to be smart.
- All observed brown dogs are small dogs. Therefore, all small dogs are brown.

Question 14

Informal Reasoning - Heuristic

Answer 14

Mental short-cut that suggests a course of action or guides problem-solcing but does not guarantee and optimal solution.

Question 15

Informal Reasoning - Dialectical Reasoning

Answer 15

Process in which opposing facts and evidence are weighed and compared in order to determine the most reasonable conclusion based on evidence, reasoning, and logic.

Question 16

Critical Thinking (Reflective Judgement)

Answer 16

• Pre-reflective stages: assumption that correct answers can be obtained through the senses of from the authorities
• Quasi-reflective stages: recognize limits to absolute certainty, realize judgements should be supported by reasons, yet pay attention to evidence that confirms beliefs.
• Reflective stages: consider eveidence from a variety of sources and reason dialectically.

Question 17

Affect Heuristic

Answer 17

tendency to consult one’s emotions instead of estimating probabilities objectively.

Question 18

Exaggerating The Improbable

Answer 18

Common bias to exaggerate the probability of rare events (e.g., getting in a plane crash)

Question 19

Availability Heuristic

Answer 19

tendency to judge the probability of a type of event by how easy it is to think of examples or instances.

Question 20

Avoiding Loss

Answer 20

We respond more cautiously when choices are framed in terms of the risk of losing something than if same choice framed in terms of gain

Question 21

Framing Effect

Answer 21

The tendency for people’s choices to be affected by how a choice is presented or framed.

Question 22

Fairness Bias

Answer 22

A sense of fairness often takes precedence over rational self-interest when people make economic choices.

Question 23

Hindsight Bias

Answer 23

The tendency to overestimate one’s ability to have predicted an event once the outcome is known; the “i knew it all along” phenomenon.

Question 24

Confirmation Bias

Answer 24

The tendency to look for or pay attention to only information that confirms one’s own belief.

Question 25

Mental Sets

Answer 25

A tendency to solve problems using procedures that worked before on similar problems.

Question 26

Cognitive Disonance

Answer 26

a state of tension that occurs when a person holds two cognitions that are psychologically inconsistent, or when a person’s belief is incongruent with his or her behaviour.

Question 27

Intelligence

Answer 27

• An inferred characteristic of an individual, usually defined as the ability to profit from experience, acquire knowledge, think abstractly, act purposefully, or adapt to changes in the environment.
• Measured using either psychometric or cognitive approaches to understanding.

Question 28

Mental age (MA) of a child

Answer 28

their skills and knowledge based on an IQ test.

Question 29

Chronological age (CA)

Answer 29

actual age of the child

Question 30

What intelligence test is used for children

Answer 30

Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC*)

Question 31

IQ scores

Answer 31

• IQ scores are distributed “normally”
• Bell-shaped curve
• Very high and low scores are rare
• 68% of people have IQ between 85-115
• 99.7% between 55-145

Question 32

Culture and IQ tests

Answer 32

• Intelligence has a cultural element.
• Cultural values and experiences influence a person’s outcomes.
• IQ is important, but motivation and persistence might be even more important than IQ.
• Intelligence testing

Question 33

Cognitive Views on Intelligence

Answer 33

• Assumes there are many kinds of intelligence and empathizes the strategies people use when thinking about a problem and arriving at a solution.
• Reject the g (general intelligence) factor as resulting from abilities taught and emphasized in school/society rather than how we think and problem-solve.

Question 34

Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory

Answer 34

Emphasizes information processing strategies, the ability to creatively transfer skills to new sitatuions, and the practical application of intelligence.

Question 35

Domains of Intelligence

Answer 35

Gardner argues that the domains of intelligence should be expanded to include:
Musical aptitude, kinesthetics intelligence, and capacity for into oneself, others or the natural world.

Question 36

Emotional Intelligence

Answer 36

ability to indentify your own and other people’s emotions accurately, express your emotions clearly, and regulate emotions in yourself and others.

Question 37

What is “g” factor?

Answer 37

General Intelligence factor

Question 38

Cognitive Ethology

Answer 38

The study of cognitive processes in nonhuman animals

Anticipate future events, make plans, coordinate activities with others (e.g., Kohler (1925) and chimpanzee Sultan

Question 39

Theory of Mind

Answer 39

• A system of beliefs about the way one’s mind and the minds of others work.
• Knowledge of how individuals are affected by their beliefs and feelings.

Question 40

Qualifications of Language

Answer 40

• Combinations must be meaningful
• Must permit displacement
• Must have grammar that permits productivity

Question 41

Anthropomorphism

Answer 41

The tendency to falsely attribute human qualities to nonhuman beings.

Question 42

Anthropodenial

Answer 42

The tendency to think, mistakenly that human beings have nothig in common with other animals.