©2002 Prentice Hall Thinking and Intelligence. ©2002 Prentice Hall Thinking and Intelligence...

©2002 Prentice Hall

Thinking and Intelligence


Thinking and IntelligenceThought: Using What We KnowReasoning RationallyBarriers to Reasoning RationallyIntelligenceThe Origins of IntelligenceAnimal Minds


Thought: Using What We Know

The Elements of CognitionHow Conscious is Thought?


The Elements of CognitionConcept: Mental category that groups objects, relations, activities, abstractions, or qualities having common properties.Proposition: A unit of meaning that is made up of concepts and expresses a single idea.Mental Image: Representation that mirrors or resembles the thing it represents.

• Cognitive Schema: An integrated mental network of knowledge, beliefs, and expectations concerning a particular topic or aspect of the world.


How Conscious is Thought?

Subconscious Processes: Mental processes occurring outside of conscious awareness but accessible to consciousness when necessary.Nonconscious Processes: Mental processes occurring outside of and not available to conscious awareness.


Reasoning Rationally

Formal Reasoning: Algorithms and Logic

Informal Reasoning: Heuristics and Dialectical ThinkingReflective Judgment


Formal LogicDeductive Reasoning: A tool of formal logic in which a conclusion necessarily follows from a set of observations or propositions (premises).Inductive Reasoning: A tool of formal logic in which a conclusion probably follows from a set of observations or propositions or premises, but could be false.


Informal ReasoningHeuristic: A rule of thumb that suggests a course of action or guides problem solving but does not guarantee an optimal solution.Dialectical Reasoning: A process in which opposing facts or ideas are weighed and compared, with a view to determining the best solution or resolving differences.


Barriers to Reasoning Rationally

Exaggerating the ImprobableAvoiding Loss

The Confirmation BiasBiases Due to Mental Sets

The Hindsight BiasThe Need for Cognitive ConsistencyOvercoming Our Cognitive Biases


Exaggerating the Improbable

Availability Heuristic: The tendency to judge the probability of an event by how easy it is to think of examples or instances.For example, most people overestimate the odds of dying in a plane crash.

Dying in an automobile accident is far more likely


Avoiding Loss

People try to minimize risks and losses when making decisions.Responses to the same choice will differ based on whether outcome is framed as gain or loss.

In the example, outcomes are the same in Problems 1 & 2


The Confirmation BiasConfirmation Bias: The tendency to look for or pay attention only to information that confirms one’s own beliefs.

E J 6 7

Test this rule: If a card has a vowel on one side, it has an even number on the other side.

Which 2 cards to turn over?


Biases Due to Mental SetsMental Set: A tendency to solve problems using procedures that worked before on similar problems.Mental sets help us solve most problems efficientlyNot helpful when a problem calls for fresh insights or a new approach


The Nine-Dot ProblemConnect all 9 dotsUse only 4 linesDo not lift your pencil from the page after you begin drawing


The Hindsight BiasHindsight Bias: The tendency to overestimate one’s ability to have predicted an event once the outcome is known.

Also known as the “I knew it all along” phenomenon.

“The older they get the better they were when they were younger.”

Jim Bouton, professional baseball player


Need for Cognitive Consistency

Cognitive Dissonance: A state of tension that occurs when a person simultaneously holds two cognitions that are psychologically inconsistent, or when a person’s belief is inconsistent with his or her behavior.


Intelligence

Measuring Intelligence: The Psychometric Approach

Dissecting Intelligence: The Cognitive Approach


IntelligenceIntelligence: 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.g factor: A general intellectual ability assumed by many theorists to underlie specific mental abilities and talents.


The Psychometric ApproachIQ scores are distributed “normally”

Bell-shaped curve

Very high and low scores are rare68% of people have IQ between 85-115

99.7% between 55-145


The Cognitive ApproachMetacognition: The knowledge or awareness of one’s own cognitive processes.Tacit Knowledge: Strategies for success that are not explicitly taught but that instead must be inferred.


Sternberg's Triarchic Theory

Components - a.k.a. “Analytic”Comparing, analyzing, and evaluating.This type of processes correlates best with IQ.

Experiential - a.k.a. “Creative”Inventing or designing solutions to new problems.Transfer skills to new situations.

Contextual - a.k.a. “Practical” Using (i.e., applying) the things you know in everyday contexts.


The Origins of Intelligence

Genes and IntelligenceThe Environment and Intelligence

Attitudes, Motivation, and Intellectual Success


Correlations in Siblings’ IQ Scores

IQ Scores of siblings were highly correlated, even when they were reared apart.Identical twins have higher correlations than fraternal twins

Suggests a genetic link


Explaining Group Differences

Within a group with all treated exactly the same, differences may reflect genetics.When one group differs from another, the differences may reflect environmental differences.


Environment and Intelligence

Factors associated with reduced IQ:Poor prenatal careMalnutritionExposure to toxinsStressful family circumstances

Healthy and stimulating environments can raise IQ, sometimes dramatically


Attitudes and Intellectual Success

Asian children score higher on standard math tests than American children.Differences:

Americans are more likely than Asians to believe that math ability is innateAmericans have far lower standards for their childrenAsian children value education more highly than Americans


Animal Minds

Animal IntelligenceAnimals and Language

Thinking About the Thinking of Animals


Animal IntelligenceCognitive Ethology: The study of cognitive processes in nonhuman animals.Studies in cognitive ethology have shown evidence that some animals can

Anticipate future eventsUse numbers to label quantitiesCoordinate activities with other animals


Animals and LanguageLanguage is a critical element of human cognitionMany animal species can be taught to communicate in ways that resemble language

Chimpanzees and bonobos converse using American Sign Language and symbol board systemsAn African grey parrot has been taught to count, classify, and compare objects using English words

Whether these behaviors are language depends on how you define “language.”


Thinking About Animal Thinking

Anthropomorphism: The tendency to falsely attribute human qualities to nonhuman beings.Anthropocentrism: The tendency to think, mistakenly, that human beings have nothing in common with other animals.

©2002 Prentice Hall Thinking and Intelligence. ©2002 Prentice Hall Thinking and Intelligence...

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