5.24.12THINKIN, REASONING, AND INTELLIGENCETHINKING AND REASONINGProblem solving, perceiving, Memory, language etc.. is part of thinking and cognition is also called thinkingCognitive economy/ - we have limited resources/ we don’t want to think unless we have to/ we try to save our resources and think about things that are important/ we try to use our resources wellEx of cognitive economyHeuristics: rule of thumb/ the way we do a snap judgment about things/ make a decisionquickly without having to do too much/ if we’re not careful of how we limit our resources then we can make errorsEx: if it’s more expensive it must be betterAnchor and adjust heuristic:The anchor is what changes between the two groups (44 or 84) and ask whether it is above or below this anchor/ making a snapjudgment using the anchor/ the higher the anchor the higher the estimate of what the real number is? So a lower anchor is a better number?/ if it were perfect it wouldn’t be a heuristicThe second group will have a higher anchor than the other group because the second groups number is higherTop-down processingConcepts come from prior learning and we use concepts to save mental resources and the same thing is true for schemas (mental script for common behavior/ ex: ordering from a restaurantyou already know why the waiter is walking toward you etc..)Decision making: affected by cognitive economy/ the little decisions we make we often to unconsciously because we don’t give them a lot of thought driven by cognitive economy (going to save resources)/ larger decisions you think about cognitively and involves more analysis of pros and consFraming: the way questions are formulated can influence the choices you make about itGenerating a cognitive strategy to accomplish a goal: Problem SolvingIt’s very easy for us to think inside a box which makes us get stumped by the problemAlgorithm: step-by-step learned procedure used to solve a problembut sometimes we have to come up with a new way to solve a problem and we have to think/ once you solve the problem you will have an Algorithm you have to learn a new AlgorithmGet in the way of problem solvingMental set gets in the way of problem solving: we get stuck in the idea of how to solve a problem/ we can’t think of it in a different wayFunctional fixedness: can’t unfix yourself from thinking that a certain object can only be used for one purposeImplying assumptions that may not be trueEx: can only stay in the square when solving the connect the dot problem/ using a mathematical set to solve the number problem but it is an alphabetical solution why are these numbers in this order 8 5 4 1 7 6 3 2 0INTELLIGENCEAbove average affect: more people believe that they are above average than they actual are Sir Francis Galton proposed that intelligence stems from sensory capacity/ people who are smarter have better sensesoriginal thinking in psycology but it doesn’t hold water and in later research there is no relation between senses and having great senses is not correlated with intelligenceBinet and Simon:Developed the first intelligence testArgued that intelligence consists of higher mental processesreasoning, understanding, judgmentnot about having great sensesMost experts:Agree that intelligence has something to do with abstract thinking, or the capacity to understand hypothetical conceptsIntelligence as general versus specific abilities created by Charles SpearmanGeneral intelligence: hypothetical factor that accounts for overall differences in intellect among peopleSpecific abilities: particular ability level in a narrow domainFluid intelligence: important for doing new things/ capacity to learn new ways of solvingCrystalized: more of what you know/ accumulated knowledge of the world acquired over time/ open to new experiences so you’ll do more things and you’ll know about more thingsGardner says there are multiple intelligencesThis is arbitrary/ you can say that there are multiple intelligences but where do you drawthe lineSternber’s Triarchic Model of Intelligence: more generalPractical, analytical(more G relatedoverall intelligence), and creative/ practical and creative intelligence predict new behavior whereas the overall intelligence doesn’t(ex: predicts better intelligence on the job)Both men’s ideas of intelligence are controversial no one is really sure but we still test intelligenceModerate correlation between the size of the brain and intelligenceThe pre-frontal cortex is active when people are solving problems/ working memory is associated with intelligenceG is a term for general intelligence coined by SpermanIntelligence testingTerman established a set of norms, baseline scores in the general population from which we can compare each individual’s scoreWilhelm invented the formula for intelligence quotientDivide mental age by chronological age there’s a problem in adulthood because the denominator gets bigger and the numerator stays the same so they use standard deviations and controls for the chronological issueEx: a 10 yr as smart as a 12 yr= 120multiply the resulting number by 100Misuse and abuses of IQ testing-1935Most U.S states had mandatory sterilization laws, a legacy of the eugenics movement, either on the books or pending/ if your not intelligent enough then you’re sterilized/problems with determining intelligencehave to know the language to answer the questions and how is intelligence testedWAIS Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale commonly used adult IQ tests todayCulture-fair IQ testsReliability IQ scores over time: reasonably stable in adulthood, not especially stable in infancy or early childhoodValidityIQ scores predict a variety of important real-world outcomes including job performance and physical health/ lower IQ is correlated to criminal involvement even when you control for social classTerman’s study of gifted school children helped to debunk widespread ideas that child prodigies burn outin adulthood and genius often leads to insanity/ they actual became very successful and were very happy / he also pointed out that being brilliant and not trying leads to nowhere so motivation is importantEven janitors can have high IQ’s just like doctor’s / there is overlapGenetic influence on IQAt least some of the tendency for IQ to run in families is genetically influencedNature and nurture are both important/ neither is enough for intelligenceResearch suggests that poverty and