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Questions and Answers
What is cognition?
The way in which information is processed and manipulated in remembering, thinking, and knowing.
What does artificial intelligence (AI) focus on?
What is the prototype model in concepts?
It emphasizes comparing an item with the most typical item(s) in a category.
Which of the following is not a step in problem solving?
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What is fixated problem solving?
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What is intelligence generally defined as in the United States?
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Which test measures IQ?
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Eugenics is a scientifically supported theory for improving human species.
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What concept did Alfred Binet introduce?
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What defines a culture-fair intelligence test?
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What is the heritability of intelligence estimated to be?
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What phenomenon describes the preference to avoid losses compared to acquiring gains?
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What does creative thinking often involve?
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What is one important factor in gifted education?
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What IQ score is typically associated with intellectual disability?
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Which type of intellectual disability is caused by a genetic disorder or brain damage?
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Who proposed the triarchic theory of intelligence?
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How many 'frames of mind' does Howard Gardner suggest?
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What is one important factor in gifted education?
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What IQ score is generally considered a threshold for intellectual disability?
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What are the three forms of intelligence in Robert Sternberg's triarchic theory?
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Match Howard Gardner's frames of mind with their descriptions:
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Which of the following is characterized as a learning disability affecting reading fluency?
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What field focuses on creating machines capable of performing activities that require intelligence?
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What is a problem?
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What are the steps in problem solving?
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What is inductive reasoning?
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Deductive reasoning goes from specific to general.
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What is the primary characteristic of critical thinking?
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What does intelligence generally refer to in the United States?
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What is a culture-fair test?
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What is heritability?
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What influences IQ scores significantly?
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What kind of intervention can change IQ scores?
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Study Notes
Cognition
- Cognition is the way information is processed and manipulated in memory, thinking, and knowing
- The use of computers as analogies for the relationship between cognition and the brain became prevalent in the 1950s.
- The physical brain is analogous to computer hardware (like a computer's physical components) and cognition is analogous to computer software (like the programs and applications that run on a computer)
Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Robotics
- Artificial intelligence (AI) is a scientific field focused on creating machines capable of performing activities usually requiring human intelligence.
- Cognitive robotics focuses on giving robots intelligent behavior through AI.
- Cognitive psychology seeks to explain observable behavior by studying these mental processes and structures that can’t be directly observed.
Thinking
- Thinking is the mental manipulation of information which includes forming concepts, solving problems, making decisions, and reflecting critically or creatively.
Concepts
- Concepts are mental categories used to group objects, events, and characteristics.
- They allow us to generalize our experiences and observations.
- Concepts enhance our memory efficiency, preventing us from having to “reinvent the wheel” every time we encounter new information.
Prototype Model
- The Prototype Model emphasizes that people compare new items to a mental prototype (the most typical example) within a category when deciding if the item belongs.
Problem Solving
- A problem arises when a person has a goal but lacks a clear path to achieve it.
- Problem-solving involves the mental process of finding a way to reach a goal when it is not readily available.
Problem-Solving Strategies
- Subgoals are intermediate goals or problems that help get closer to the final solution.
- Algorithms are step-by-step strategies that guarantee a solution.
- Heuristics are shortcuts or guidelines that suggest solutions but don’t guarantee a solution.
Fixation
- Fixation is a barrier to problem-solving where a person gets stuck using a previous strategy, failing to see the problem from a new perspective.
- Functional fixedness is a specific type of fixation focusing on the usual function of an item.
Reasoning
- Reasoning is the mental process of transforming information to reach conclusions.
- Inductive reasoning draws generalizations from specific observations.
- Deductive reasoning applies general truths to specific instances.
Decision Making
- Decision Making involves evaluating alternatives and choosing among them.
- Automatic processing is quick, intuitive, and uses heuristics.
- Controlled processing is slower, more effortful, and analytical.
Biases and Heuristics
- Loss aversion is the tendency to strongly prefer avoiding losses over gaining.
- Confirmation bias involves seeking out information that supports one’s existing beliefs over information that may contradict them.
- Hindsight bias is the tendency to falsely claim that one accurately predicted an outcome after the fact.
- Availability heuristic is predicting the likelihood of an event based on how easily similar events are recalled.
- Base rate neglect involves ignoring general information in favor of specific but vivid information.
- Representativeness heuristic is making judgements about group membership based on appearance or stereotypes rather than considering relevant data.
Critical and Creative Thinking
- Critical thinking involves reflective thinking, evaluating evidence, and being productively mindful.
- Mindfulness is the awareness and presence in everyday activities.
- Open-mindedness is being receptive to alternative perspectives.
Creativity
- Creativity is the ability to think in novel ways and devise unconventional solutions.
- Divergent thinking generates many solutions to the same problem.
- Convergent thinking seeks the single best solution to a problem.
Characteristics of Creative People
- Flexibility and playful thinking.
- Inner motivation.
- Willingness to take risks.
- Objective evaluation of work.
Intelligence
- Intelligence is a general ability to excel at cognitive tasks, problem-solving, and learning from experience.
- Charles Spearman introduced cognitive tests based on the idea of general intelligence ("g").
Measuring Intelligence
- Tests used to measure intelligence produce an Intelligence Quotient (IQ).
- Validity how accurately a test measures what it intends to measure.
- Reliability how consistent and reproducible a test’s results are.
- Standardization uniform procedures for administering and scoring, along with norms established for performance standards.
- Mental age (MA) measures an individual's mental development relative to others.
- The Stanford-Binet test, developed by Alfred Binet, is still used today.
Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
- William Stern developed IQ, calculated by dividing mental age by chronological age and multiplying by 100.
- When a person’s mental age matches their chronological age, their IQ is 100.
- The Wechsler scales are the most popular modern intelligence measures.
Normal Distribution
- IQ scores, when examined across a large enough sample size, tend to follow a bell-shaped curve known as a normal distribution.
- The majority of scores fall in the middle of the distribution, while fewer scores fall at the extremes .
Bias in Testing
- Early intelligence tests often favored:
- Urban over rural populations
- Middle socioeconomic status over low socioeconomic status
- Non-Latino white over Black populations
- Men over women
- Culture-fair tests aim to be culturally unbiased.
Genetic and Environmental Influences on Intelligence
- Heritability is the proportion of individual differences within a group attributed to genetic differences.
- Twin studies indicate a heritability of intelligence around 50%.
- Heritability applies to groups, not individuals and can change across time and groups.
- Heredity is not deterministic.
- Polygenic trait means intelligence is influenced by a large number of genes.
Environmental Influence on Intelligence
- Despite a significant heritability, environment still plays a vital role.
- Environmental interventions can significantly alter IQ scores.
- Childhood experiences that influence intelligence include:
- Dietary supplements
- Educational interventions
- Interactive reading
- Preschool
Genes, Environment, and Intelligence
- Average IQ scores differ across populations, with Asians and Asian Americans scoring higher than Europeans and European Americans, who tend to score higher than Africans and African Americans.
- “Race” is not a valid indicator of genetics and is primarily a social category.
- Environmental factors, such as differences in wealth and access to educational opportunities, significantly contribute to these group differences.
Extremes of Intelligence
- Giftedness is characterized by exceptional cognitive abilities, often with an IQ of 130 or above, or talent in a specific area and is a combination of heredity and environment.
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Intellectual disability involves limited mental ability and a low IQ (typically below 70), along with difficulties adapting to daily life.
- Organic intellectual disability is caused by genetic disorders or brain damage.
- Cultural-familial intellectual disability has no known brain damage and is often linked to environmental factors.
Theories of Multiple Intelligences
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Robert Sternberg’s triarchic theory proposes three types of intelligence:
- Analytical intelligence refers to problem-solving and critical thinking.
- Creative intelligence involves generating novel and original ideas.
- Practical Intelligence is applied problem-solving in real-world situations.
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Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences theory suggests nine frames of mind:
- Verbal (language skills)
- Mathematical (logic and reasoning)
- Spatial (visualizing and manipulating objects)
- Bodily-kinesthetic (movement and coordination)
- Musical (rhythmic and melodic skills)
- Interpersonal (understanding and interacting with others)
- Intrapersonal (self-awareness and understanding)
- Naturalist (understanding natural systems)
- Existentialist (philosophical contemplation)
Language
- Language is a form of communication, whether spoken, written, or signed and is based on a system of symbols.
Language
- Language is how we communicate with each other as well as ourselves.
Basic Properties of Language
- Language has the ability to produce an endless number of meaningful sentences using five rule systems:
- Phonology: Rules for language sounds
- Morphology: Word formation rules
- Syntax: Combining words to form correct phrases and sentences
- Semantics: Word and sentence meaning
- Pragmatics: The practical use of language.
Language and Cognition
- The linguistic relativity hypothesis: language influences cognition.
- Research suggests that language could influence a person's own personality.
- The bilingual advantage is the association between fluency in more than one language and cognitive ability.
Cognition and Language
- Cognition is crucial for language.
- Humans can talk about objects that are not physically present.
- Dyslexia is a learning disability with difficulty in reading accurately and fluently despite normal intelligence.
Biological Influences on Language
- Language developed in humans due to changes in brain, nervous system, and vocal apparatus.
- Humans are biologically prewired to learn language.
Environmental Influences on Language
- Children's language acquisition is heavily influenced by their experiences.
- There is evidence that suggests a critical period for language development.
- Children are exposed to a considerable amount of language.
- Caregivers and teachers' support greatly facilitates language learning.
- Socioeconomic status impacts language learning.
Language Development Milestones
- 0-6 months: Cooing, vowel discrimination, babbling by 6 months
- 6-12 months: Babbling expands to include sounds of spoken language, object communication through gestures, first words at around 10-13 months.
- 12-18 months: Understanding 50+ words, use of gestures.
- 18-24 months: Vocabulary increases to 200+ words, two-word combinations.
- 2 years: Vocabulary rapidly increases, correct use of plurals, past tense, some prepositions.
- 3-4 years: Sentence length increases to 3-4 morphemes, use of yes/no and wh- questions, negatives and imperatives, increased awareness of pragmatics.
- 5-6 years: Vocabulary reaches 10,000 words, coordination of simple sentences.
- 6-8 years: Rapid vocabulary growth, advanced syntactical skills, improved conversational skills.
- 9-11 years: Synonym understanding, conversational strategies improvement.
- 11-14 years: Vocabulary increases with abstract words, understanding of complex grammar, understanding of word function in sentences, metaphor and satire.
- 15-20 years: Understanding of adult literary works.
Language Development Over the Life Span
- Language learning continues throughout life, although childhood is crucial.
- Different language systems have different sensitive periods.
- Learning new vocabulary is easier than new sounds and grammar for late second language learners.
- Learning a new language as an adult requires advanced cognitive effort.
Cognition
- Cognition is the process of information processing, manipulation, remembering, thinking, and knowing.
- The computer is used as an analogy for studying cognition, comparing it to the brain's hardware and software.
- Computers and the brain work differently, with the brain processing ambiguous information unlike computers.
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) focuses on developing machines capable of performing intelligent tasks performed by humans.
- Cognitive robotics seeks to endow robots with intelligent behavior.
- Cognitive psychology explains observable behavior by studying mental processes and structures.
Thinking
- Thinking involves mentally manipulating information.
- This includes forming concepts, solving problems, making decisions, and engaging in critical and creative reflection.
Concepts
- Concepts are mental categories for grouping objects, events, and characteristics.
- They generalize, associate experiences, aid memory, and provide clues for reaction.
- The prototype model focuses on comparing items to the most typical in their category to evaluate if they reflect a certain concept.
Problem Solving
- A problem exists when a goal lacks a clear path to achieve it.
- Problem solving is the mental process of finding a way to attain a goal.
- Steps include finding and framing problems, developing strategies, evaluating solutions, and rethinking.
- Strategies include subgoals, algorithms, and heuristics.
Problem-Solving Obstacles
- Fixation is an obstacle to problem solving, where a prior strategy prevents fresh perspectives.
- Functional fixedness is failing to solve a problem due to fixation on an object's usual functions.
Reasoning and Decision Making
- Reasoning is the mental activity of transforming information to reach conclusions.
- Inductive reasoning goes from specific observations to generalizations.
- Deductive reasoning goes from general truths to specific instances.
- Decision making involves evaluating alternatives and choosing among them.
- Reasoning and decision making can be automatic (rapid, intuitive) or controlled (slower, analytical).
- Mood is another factor affecting processing.
Biases and Heuristics
- Loss aversion favors avoiding losses over gaining.
- Confirmation bias favors information supporting ideas over refuting them.
- Hindsight bias falsely claims to have predicted outcomes after the fact.
- Availability heuristic predicts event probability based on ease of recalling similar events.
- Base rate neglect ignores general principles in favor of vivid information.
- Representativeness heuristic judges group membership on physical appearance or stereotypes, not base rate information.
Thinking Critically and Creatively
- Critical thinking involves reflective and productive thinking, evaluating evidence, and focusing on problem solving.
- Mindfulness is being mentally present for daily activities.
- Open-mindedness is receptive to different perspectives.
- Creativity involves novel and unconventional ways of thinking and problem solving.
- Divergent thinking produces multiple solutions, while convergent thinking provides the single best solution.
- Creative thinking characteristics include flexibility, playful thinking, inner motivation, risk-taking, and objective evaluation.
Intelligence
- Intelligence is an all-purpose ability for doing well on cognitive tasks, problem solving, and learning.
- Charles Spearman introduced "g" (general ability) to capture this common ability.
- The science of intelligence has a complex history, including racist elements like eugenics.
Measuring Intelligence
- Intelligence is measured using tests that produce an IQ score.
- Good intelligence tests are valid (measuring what they intend), reliable (consistent results), and standardized (uniform procedures and norms).
- Mental age (MA) reflects an individual's mental development relative to others.
- Alfred Binet developed the first intelligence test.
- IQ is calculated by dividing mental age by chronological age and multiplying by 100.
- The Wechsler scales are the most popular measures of intelligence, with the WAIS for adults aged 16+.
- Both Stanford-Binet and Wechsler scales measure Spearman's "g".
- IQ scores follow a normal distribution with most scores in the middle and few at the extremes.
Bias in Testing
- Early tests favored urban, middle-class, non-Latino white, and male individuals.
- Culture-fair tests are designed to be culturally unbiased.
Genetic and Environmental Influences on Intelligence
- Heritability measures the proportion of differences explained by genetic differences.
- Twin studies show intelligence heritability around 50 percent.
- Heritability is a statistic that changes over time across groups.
- Intelligence is a polygenic trait, involving many genetic characteristics.
- Environment matters even with high heritability, and interventions can influence IQ scores.
- Childhood experiences impacting IQ include dietary supplements, education, interactive reading, and preschool.
Genes, Environment, and Group Differences in IQ
- Large samples show average IQ differences between groups, with Asians scoring higher than Europeans, and Europeans higher than Africans.
- "Race" is not a reliable indicator of genetics, being a social category primarily based on physical features.
- Environment is critical, and IQ differences between groups are shrinking.
- Wealth is a key difference between Black and white Americans, affecting educational opportunities and IQ scores.
Extremes of Intelligence
- Gifted individuals have high intelligence (IQ 130+) and/or talent.
- Giftedness involves both heredity and environment.
- Identification of giftedness often depends on social perception, influenced by stereotypes.
- Intellectual disability involves limited mental ability, low IQ (below 70), and difficulty adapting to daily life.
- Organic intellectual disability is caused by genetic disorders or brain damage.
- Cultural-familial intellectual disability lacks brain damage, and adaptive behavior is assessed in conceptual, social, and practical skills.
Theories of Multiple Intelligences
- Robert Sternberg's triarchic theory proposes three types of intelligence: analytical, creative, and practical.
- Howard Gardner suggests nine frames of mind: verbal, mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalist, and existentialist.
- These theories encourage broader thinking about competency and needs in education.
- However, people excelling in one area tend to excel in others, raising doubts about distinct intelligences.
Language
- Language is a communication system using symbols, whether spoken, written, or signed.
Language Properties
- The ability to produce an endless number of meaningful sentences is called infinite generativity.
- Phonology is how language sounds.
- Morphology is how language is organized.
- Syntax is the rules for making acceptable phrases.
- Semantics is the meaning of language.
- Pragmatics is the practical nature of language.
Language and Cognition
- Language can influence our thoughts.
- Being bilingual can improve cognitive abilities.
- Cognition is important for language development.
- Humans are able to talk about things that are not present.
- Dyslexia is difficulty with reading despite normal intelligence.
Biological and Environmental Influences on Language
- Language skills are prewired in humans, but experience is critical for language development.
- A “critical period” for language development is thought to exist.
- Socioeconomic status plays a role in language development.
Language Development Milestones
- Infants begin cooing and babbling in their first year.
- Children start to use gestures around 6-12 months of age.
- By 18 months, children typically have a vocabulary of 200 words.
- Between 3-4 years old, children’s sentences become longer and more complex.
- By age 5, children have an average vocabulary of about 10,000 words.
- By 11-14 years, children understand complex grammar forms.
Language Development Across the Lifespan
- Language learning continues throughout life.
- Adults may find it easier to learn new vocabulary than new sounds or grammar when learning a new language.
- Learning another language is a great cognitive exercise.
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Description
Explore the relationship between cognition, artificial intelligence, and cognitive robotics. This quiz delves into how computers serve as analogies for human cognition, and how cognitive psychology informs our understanding of intelligent systems. Test your knowledge on the key concepts and theories that shape these fields.
