Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Psychology: Unit 5-Intelligence, Language and Thought, and Thinking

Intelligence

Intelligence: The ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations

Factor Analysis: A statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items ona test

Howard Gardner came up with the concept of multiple intelligence

  • Visual/Spatial
  • Verbal/Linguistic
  • Logical/Mathematical
  • Bodily/Kinesthetic
  • Musical/Rhythmic
  • Interpersonal
  • Intrapersonal
  • Natural
Sternberg's 3 aspects of intelligence
  • Analytical: Academic problem solving
  • Creative: Generating novel ideas
  • Practical: Required for everyday tasks where multiple solutions exist
Emotional Intelligence: The ability to perceive, express, understand, and regulate emotions

Small +.15 correlation between head size and intelligence scores
+.44 correlation with brain size and IQ score

Higher performing brains use less glucose that lower performing brains, and their neurological speed is a bit quicker

Mental Age: What a person of a particular age should know

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS): Consists of 11 sub tests and cues us in to strengths  by using factor analysis

Aptitude Test: A test designed to predict a  person's future performance


Achievement Test: A test designed to assess what a person has learned

Tests must be standardized, reliable, and valid

Standardization: The test must be pre-tested to a representative sample of people and form a normal distribution or bell curve
Reliability: The extent to which a test yields consistent results over time
Validity: The extent to which a test measures what is is suppose to measure

  • Content Validity; does the test sample a behavior of interest
  • Predictive Validity; does the test predict future behavior







Language and Thought

Language: Our spoken, written or gestured words and the way we combine them to communicate meaning

Phonemes: The smallest distinctive sound unit

Morphemes: The smallest unit that carries meaning

Grammar: A system of rules in a language that enables us to communicate and understand others

Semantics: The set of rules by which we derive meaning in a language

Syntax: The rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences

Language Development
  • Babbling Stage: Starting at 3-4 months, the infant makes spontaneous sounds
  • One-word stage: 1-2 years, uses one word to communicate meanings
  • Two-word Stage: Age 2, uses two words to communicate meanings-called telegraphic speech

Skinner thought that we can explain language development through social learning theory

Chomsky-Inborn Universal Grammar
  • We have this learning box inside our heads that enable us to learn any human language

Worf's Linguistic Relativity: The idea that language determines that way we think

We think in words, but more often we think in mental pictures







Thinking

Concepts: A mental groouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people

Prototypes: A mental image or best example of a category





Algorithms: A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem

Heuristics: A rule-of-thumb strategy that often allows us to make judgement and solve problems efficiently

Insight: A sudden and often realization of the solution to a problem

Confirmation Bias: The tendency to search for information that confirms one's preconceptions

Fixation: The inability to see a problem from a new perspective

Mental Set: A tendency to approach a problem in a particular way, especially if it has worked in the past

Functional Fixedness: The tendency to think only in terms of their usual functions

Types of Heuristsics (That often lead to errors)
  • Representative Heuristics: A rule of thumb for judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they match our prototype; can cause us to ignore important information
  • Availability Heuristics: Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in our memory; we may presume it to be common
  • Overconfidence: The tendency to be more confident then correct
  • Framing: The way an issue is posed
  • Belief Bias: The tendency for one's preexisting belief's to distort logical reasoning; sometimes making invalid conclusion
  • Belief Perseverance: Clinging to your initial conceptions after the cases on which they were formed has been discredited


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