Thinking, Language, and Intelligence

Horse-trading

A woman bought a horse for $60 and sold it for $70. Then she bought the same horse back for $80 and again sold it, for $90. How much money did she make in the horse business?

How do we reason correctly? How do we solve problems?

Insight (in problem-solving)

Wolfgang Kohler’s experiment on insight by a chimpanzee

(PBS video)

Problems in Problem-solving

Each card has a letter on one side and a number on the other. Which 2 cards should you turn over to determine if the following hypothesis is true?

“If a card has a vowel on one side, it has an even number on the other side.”

Confirmation bias

tendency to search for information that confirms one’s preconceptions

Nine-dot problem

Your challenge is to draw four straight lines which go through the middle of all of the dots without taking the pencil off the paper. You must start from any position and draw the lines one after the other without taking your pencil off the page. Each line starts where the last line finishes.

The Matchstick Problem

How would you arrange six matches to form four equilateral triangles?

The Matchstick Problem

Solution to the matchstick problem

Fixation

inability to see a problem from a new perspective

Availability Heuristic

estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability to us – e.g., instances that readily come to mind -- like plane crashes

may lead one to ignore other relevant information (e.g., anthrax and antibiotics)

Overconfidence

Bay of Pigs Pearl Harbor Post-Iraq peace

More problems…

Do you prefer ground beef that is 20% fat or 80% lean?

Discounts/sales Survey questions

“Framing”the way an issue is posed (framed) can

significantly affect decisions and judgments

Belief Perseverance

clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited

e.g., the effect of labeling people with psychological disorders

Have you ever noticed this?

Opposites attractBirds of a feather

flock togetherHe who hesitates is lostLook before you leapOut of sight, out of mindAbsence makes the

heart grow fonder

Problems in reasoning

Confirmation biasFixationAvailability heuristicOverconfidence & GroupThinkFraming issuesBelief perseveranceOver-reliance on “folk wisdom”

By understanding these impediments to reasoning, we can make decisions better –think more clearly…

LanguageSummary of Language Development

Month(approximate)

Stage

4

10

12

24

24+

Babbles many speech sounds.

Babbling reveals household language.

One-word stage.

Two-word, telegraphic speech.

Language develops rapidly intocomplete sentences.

Language Acquisition

• “Talkin’ babies” – Sci Amer segment 18 (nature-nurture influences in language acquisition; babbling)

“Born to talk” – Sci Amer, Segment 21

(Grammar acquisition as a function of brain/environment interaction)

“Language centers in the brain” – Psych DVD

Segment 16 (A look at brain surgery that tries to spare language)

Gene-Environment interaction

Genes design the mechanisms for a language, and experience activates them as it modifies the brain

Genes

Environment --spoken language

heard

Brain --Mechanisms for

understanding andproducing language

Behavior – Mastery of native

language

provides input to

design

Intelligence

What is IntelligenceIntelligence?

Your definition?Components?

Multiple Intelligences

Gardner’s eight types (e.g., linguistic, musical, naturalist…)

Sternberg’s three types: Analytical Creative Practical

Multiple Intelligences

Emotional Intelligence -- ability to perceive, express, understand, and regulate emotions

Social Intelligence Social awareness – primal empathy,

attunement, social cognition Social facility – synchrony, self-

presentation, concern for others’ needs

Origins of Intelligence Testing

Alfred Binet His goals… Idea of “mental age”

IQ test

Stanford-Binet American revision of

Binet’s intelligence test Introduced IQ

Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

the ratio of mental age (ma) to chronological age (ca) multiplied by 100

IQ = ma/ca x 100) Now, the average performance

for a given age is assigned a score of 100

Assessing Intelligence

Reliability -- the extent to which a test yields consistent results

Validity -- the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed toMost criticisms of IQ tests are based on

validity. Biases?

Assessing Intelligence

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) widely used intelligence test Examples of items…

The Normal Curve

Ninety-five percent of all people fall within 30 points

of 100

Number of

scores

55 70 85 100 115 130 145 Wechsler intelligence score

Sixty-eight percentof people score within 15 points

above or below 100

IQ extremes

Low scores on the IQ test can indicate Mental Retardation

(scores below 70) and adaptation problems

Down Syndromeretardation and associated physical

disorders caused by _______________? Savant Syndrome

condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an amazing specific skill (see figure 22.1 on Stephen Wiltshire)

Nature-nurture questionHow heritable is “intelligence?”Heritability

the proportion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genes

IQ Influences

Genetic Influences

The most genetically similar people have the most similar scores

0.0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1.0Similarity ofintelligence

scores(correlation)

Identicaltwinsreared together

Identicaltwinsreared apart

Fraternaltwinsreared together

Siblingsreared together

Unrelatedindividualsreared together

Genetic Influences

Group differences and environmental impact

Variation within group

Variation within group

Difference between groups

Poor soil Fertile soil

Seeds