Title: Cognition: Thinking, Intelligence, and Language
1Cognition Thinking, Intelligence, and Language
2What is Cognition?
- Another word for thinking
- The mental activity of processing information.
- One way we think is by using mental images.
- Mental representations that have a picture-like
quality to them.
3Concepts
- Another way we think is in concepts.
- Ideas that represent a class or category.
- Are organized at different levelsfrom more
general to more specific. - Superordinate concepte.g., vegetable
- Basic level typee.g., potato
- Subordinate concepte.g., orange sweet potato
- We have prototypes of our most common concepts.
- E.g., to us, a carrot is a prototypical vegetable.
4Confirmation Bias
- A barrier to logical thinking.
- We tend to search for evidence that confirms or
fits with beliefs that we already have, and
sometimes ignore things that dont confirm our
beliefs.
5What is Intelligence?
- Intelligenceability to learn from experience,
solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new
situations. - Intelligencea concept. Can we measure it
directly? - We make decisions about intelligence levels based
on intelligence tests, which give us numerical
scores.
6Origins of Intelligence Testing
- Intelligence testing began with Alfred Binet, a
French psychologist, late 1800s. - Set out to measure mental age, compare it to
chronological age. Average 9 year-old has mental
age of 9, above average 9 year-old would have
mental age of 11, for example.
7Origins of Intelligence Testing
- Terman, a Stanford University professor,
re-normed Binets test for American kids, created
the Stanford-Binet (still used). - Terman promoted the use of testing in support of
the eugenics movement, wanted to discourage
mentally dull people from reproducing. - Also began the first mass use of such tests,
evaluating recruits in WWI and immigrants.
8Concept of IQ
- IQ means intelligence quotient
-
- Most tests today dont compute IQ in this sense.
Instead, score on an intelligence test is
calculated by comparing test-taker to others
their own age. - The average is still 100, with standard deviation
of 15. This means that most people achieve
scores between 85 and 115.
9Modern Tests of Intelligence
- Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) is the
most commonly used test of intelligence today. - Consists of 11 subtests that test both verbal and
performance abilities. - There is also a Wechsler Intelligence Scale for
Children (WISC).
10Test ConstructionValidity
- Validity is the extent to which a test measures
what it is supposed to measure this can be
assessed in variety of ways. - Content validity is the extent to which test
samples the behavior that is of interest (driving
test samples driving behavior). - Predictive validity is the extent to which a test
predicts the behavior it is designed to predict
a correlation b/w the test (SAT) and a given
criterion (college grades).
11Test ConstructionReliability
- Reliabilityextent to which a test yields
consistent results. - Can be assessed by looking at consistency on two
halves of the tests, alternate forms of the test,
or people taking the test two different times. - On something like a WAIS, the reliability is high
(.90 or so) test-retest reliability should be
high, because intelligence should not change
dramatically.
12Test Construction Standardization
- Standardizationprocess of making scores
meaningful by comparing them to the scores of a
standardization group or norm group. - Your score on an intelligence test doesnt mean
much unless we can compare it to the scores of
others your age and see whether you are average,
above average, or below average.
13Test Construction Standardization
- Standardized test results usually form a normal
distribution, or normal curve. Most scores
cluster around the mean, fewer scores as you move
out to extremes. - On intelligence tests, mean is 100 and standard
deviation is 15. This means that 68 of people
are between 85 and 115, 96 between 70 and 130.
14Flynn Effect
- Tests such as the WAIS are periodically
restandardized, so when you take it today you are
compared to a norm group from a few years ago,
not the 1930s. - Each time test is restandardized and compared to
the original sample from 30s, we find that
intelligence test performance is improving
steadily. - This is called Flynn effect after man who
discovered it. Causes?
15Bias in Testing?
- To determine if intelligence tests are biased,
you have to define what type of bias you are
talking about. - Intelligence tests do detect not only innate
differences, but those differences caused by
differing cultural experiences. - Often, when people ask if tests are biased, they
are asking if the test is less valid for use with
some groups than with others.
16Bias in Testing? (continued)
- In this sense, intelligence tests and other
aptitude tests (like the SAT) are not biased
they do not have better predictive validity for
one group than for another. - In other words, if an intelligence test score of
95 or an SAT score of 900 predicts a C
grade-point average, that prediction holds true
across groups.
17Bias in Testing? (continued)
- In both testing and school performance, negative
beliefs about ones performance can have a
self-fulfilling prophecy effect. - Research suggests that, if you believe that
members of your group often do poorly (on testing
or in class), you are less likely to succeed than
if you believe that members of your group often
do well.
18Extremes of IntelligenceMental Retardation
- Mental retardation diagnosis involves
intelligence test score of below 70 and some
difficulty in everyday functioning. - About 85 of those diagnosed with retardation
have Mild Mental Retardation WAIS score of 50-70
and can often live somewhat independently, work,
etc.
19Extremes of IntelligenceGifted Individuals
- A WAIS score of gt130 puts one in the top 2 of
individuals, but note that there is no set
criteria for terms like gifted or genius. - Some long-term studies of people with very high
intelligence suggests that they are generally
well-adjusted and successful across many areas of
functioning stereotype of the maladjusted nerd
is usually not accurate.
20IntelligenceOne General Ability or Several
Specific Abilities
- Spearman proposed the idea of a general
intelligence (g), that underlies all specific
mental abilities. - Those who do well in one area (such as verbal
skills) tend to score above avg. in other areas
as well (such as reasoning ability), suggesting
that g underlies all of these abilities.
21IntelligenceOne General Ability or Several
Specific Abilities
- Gardener proposed a theory of multiple
intelligences, which are relatively independent
from one another. - He believed that those who are weak in some areas
often make up for it with strengths in other
areas. - Others have argued against the accuracy of his
theory and have questioned the use of the term
intelligence for things like physical ability.
22IntelligenceOne General Ability or Several
Specific Abilities
- Sternberg simplified the concept of multiple
intelligences down to three basic aspects
analytical, creative, and practical. - Traditional intelligence testswhat type do they
measure?
23Emotional Intelligence
- Emotional intelligence is the ability to
perceive, express, understand, and regulate
emotions. - Emotionally intelligent peopleempathic and
socially aware able to regulate emotions, delay
gratification. - But, is this intelligence? Or a skill, talent?
24Genetic Influences
- There does seem to be a heritable component of
intelligence. - Identical twins (same genes) have more highly
correlated (similar) intelligence scores than
fraternal twins (different genes)
Genetic - Identical twins raised together have more highly
correlated scores than those raised apart
Environmental
25Genetic Influences (continued)
- Variation in test scores attributable to genetic
factors anywhere from 50 to 70. - This means that we can attribute to heredity
about 50 of the variation in intelligence within
a group of people - Cant say what percentage of an individuals
intelligence is inherited! - Also, remember that genes and environment
interact in various ways.
26Environmental InfluencesEarly Intervention
- There is ample evidence that childrens
environments have an impact on their
intelligence, to an extent. - There appears to be a sort of genetically
determined range, and the environment affects
where you fall in that range. - E.g., kids in a very poor-quality environment
might fall at the lower end of their range.