CHAPTER SEVEN Higher-Order Cognitive Functions

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CHAPTER SEVEN Higher-Order Cognitive Functions
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Describe an Intelligent Person

• Form a group consisting of 3 or 4 students.
• Imagine your group is looking for one more member
  who will give your group the best chance at
  winning an intelligence competition.
• Create a list of the characteristics you are
  looking for in your new member.

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Intelligence Test Build a bridge over the creek
with the materials provided
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Intelligence Test Make a profit at the PCC
flea market
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Intelligence Test Survive 3 days in the desert
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Intelligence

• An individuals mental ability
• Traditional g or general factor (Spearman, 1904)
  the ability to infer and apply relationships on
  the basis of experience

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Fluid-crystallized theory (Cattel Horn, 1960s)

• Fluid Reasoning includes
• flexible and adaptive thinking
• ability to draw inferences
• ability to see relationships between concepts
• Crystallized Intelligence includes
• knowledge acquired through life experience
• education in a particular culture

• the view that intelligence is divided into two
  factors

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Defining Intelligence

• A Life-Span View of Intelligence includes four
  concepts
• 1. Multidimensionality There are many domains
  of intellectual abilities

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Defining Intelligence

• 2. Multidirectionality Abilities change over
  life span, but the pattern of change depends on
  each ability

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Defining Intelligence

• Plasticity The ability to modify cognitive
  functioning and skills over time
• -Reserve capacity abilities that are there to
  be used but are currently untapped
• 4. Interindividual variability Adults differ
  in the direction of their intellectual development

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Research Approaches to Intelligence

• The psychometric approach
• Measuring intelligence as a score on a
  standardized test
• Focus is on getting correct answers on math
  verbal visuospatial questions
• The cognitive-structural approach
• Ways in which people conceptualize and solve
  problems emphasizing developmental changes in
  modes and styles of thinking

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A Cognitive-Structural Approach to Intelligence

• Gardners Theory of Multiple Intelligences
  includes
• traditional abilities
• math
• verbal
• visuospatial
• nontraditional abilities
• kinesthetic
• music
• nature
• interpersonal
• intrapersonal (self smarts)

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Psychometric Measurement of Intelligence

• Primary mental abilities - intellectual abilities
  that are focused on in the psychometric approach
• Numerical facilitybasic math skills and
  reasoning
• Word fluencyproduction of verbal descriptions
• Verbal Meaningsvocabulary
• Inductive reasoningextrapolating from facts to
  general concepts
• Spatial orientationability to reason
  3-dimensionally
• Perceptual Speedrapid visual processing
• Verbal memoryability to recall language

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Age-Related Changes in Primary Abilities

• Data from Schaies Seattle Longitudinal Study of
  more than 5,000 individuals from 1956 to 1998 in
  six testing cycles
• People tend to improve on primary abilities until
  late 30s or early 40s.
• Scores stabilize until mid-50s and early 60s.
• By late 60s consistent declines are seen.
• Nearly everyone shows a decline in one ability,
  but few show decline on four or five abilities.

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Moderators of Intellectual Change

• Information processing
• Perceptual speed may account for age-related
  decline.
• Working memory decline may account for poor
  performance of older adults if coordination
  between old and new information is required.
• Health
• A connection between
• disease and intelligence
• has been established in
• general and for
• cardiovascular disease
• in particular.

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Moderators of Intellectual Change

• Social and lifestyle variables
• Slower rates in intellectual decline are related
  to
• Gaining skills needed in different occupations
• Higher education and socioeconomic status
• A cognitively engaging lifestyle
• Personality
• High levels of fluid abilities and a high sense
  of internal control lead to positive changes in
  peoples perception of their abilities.

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Social elements of language involve the
Communication Predicament Model
Appearance and physical changes that lead young
to treat person as old
Infantilizing and patronizing speech (honey,
dear, cute)
Lack of stimulation from being treated as
dependent child
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Neuropsychological Assessment

• Involves administering several standardized
  cognitive tests
• tailored to the client
• gather information about a clients brain
  functioning
• Trail Making Test (Trails)
• Assesses executive functions, or
• frontal lobe functioning
• attention
• scanning visual stimuli
• following sequence of numbers

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Training studies

• Project ADEPT and Project ACTIVE
• Seven year follow-up to the original Project
  ADEPT showed significant training effects.
• 64 of trained groups performance was above the
  pre-training level compared to 33 of the control
  group.
• Project ACTIVE training slows declines and has
  reversed 14-year declines in some abilities

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Going Beyond Piaget

• Postformal Thoughtcognition that is
  characterized by dialectical thinking
• truth varies from situation to situation
• solutions must be realistic to be reasonable
• ambiguity and contradiction are the rule rather
  than the exception
• emotion and subjective factors usually play a
  role in thinking
• understanding is negotiated give and take
• interest in engaging in dialogues

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Wisdom

• Involves practical knowledge
• Is given altruistically
• Involves psychological insights
• Based on life experience
• Implicit conceptions of wisdom are widely shared
  within a culture and include
• Exceptional level of functioning
• A dynamic balance between intellect, emotion, and
  motivation
• A high degree of personal and interpersonal
  competence
• Good intentions

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Pragmatics of Intelligence

• Wise people are experts who are able to apply
  their abilities to the solution of real-life
  problems.