General Psychology 2301

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General Psychology 2301

• Thinking and Intelligence

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Basic Elements of Cognition

• Concept ? mental category that groups objects,
  activities or abstraction by similarity
• Prototype ? the best exemplar of a concept
• Language may affect the categorys formation
  (Key in Spanish (F) and German (M)
• Propositions ? combinations of concepts to
  express an idea (Raccoons are smart)
• Schemas constructed from propositions
• Mental images ? mental representations of objects

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Algorithms and Logic

• Algorithm ? set of procedures to produce a
  solution a formula
• Types of reasoning
• Deductive ? conclusion must be true from
  premise(s)
• Inductive ? conclusion is probably true from
  premises(s)

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Think Critically

• Linda is 31, single, outspoken, and very bright.
  She majored in philosophy in college. As a
  student, she was deeply concerned with
  discrimination and other social issues, and
  participated in anti-nuclear demonstrations.
  Which statement is more likely?
• Linda is a bank teller
• Linda is a bank teller and active in the feminist
  movement.

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Think Critically

• Linda is 31, single, outspoken, and very bright.
  She majored in philosophy in college. As a
  student, she was deeply concerned with
  discrimination and other social issues, and
  participated in anti-nuclear demonstrations.
  Which statement is more likely?
• Linda is a bank teller
• Linda is a bank teller and active in the feminist
  movement.

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Think Critically

• A certain town is served by two hospitals. In the
  larger hospital about 45 babies are born each
  day, and in the smaller hospital about 15 babies
  are born each day. Although the overall
  proportion of boys is about 50, that actual
  proportion at either hospital may be greater or
  less that 50 on any given day. At the end of the
  year, which hospital will have the greater number
  of days on which more that 60 of the babies born
  were boys?

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Think Critically
A certain town is served by two hospitals. In the
larger hospital about 45 babies are born each
day, and in the smaller hospital about 15 babies
are born each day. Although the overall
proportion of boys is about 50, that actual
proportion at either hospital may be greater or
less that 50 on any given day. At the end of the
year, which hospital will have the greater number
of days on which more that 60 of the babies born
were boys?
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Think Critically

• Which is a more likely cause of death in the
  United States a) being killed by falling
  airplane parts or b) being killed by a shark?
• Do more Americans die from a) homicide and car
  accidents, or b) diabetes and stomach cancer?
• Which claims more lives in the United States a)
  lightning or b) tornadoes?

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Think Critically

• Being killed by falling airplane parts (about 30
  to 1)
• Diabetes and stomach cancer (about 2 to 1)
• Lightning (by about 41)

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Think Critically

• Is the Mississippi River longer or shorter than
  1,000 miles?
• Guess the length of the river.

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Think Critically

• Is the Mississippi River longer or shorter than
  5,000 miles?
• Guess the length of the river.

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Heuristics

• Heuristic ? rule of thumb that suggests a certain
  course of action may not be the best one
• Representativeness heuristic ? ignoring base rate
  probabilities
• Availability heuristic ? probabilities of event
  biased by ease of recollection
• Loss aversion ? we are affected by the frame of
  the problem (in terms of loss or in terms of
  gain)
• Anchoring heuristic ? overweighting of known
  information to affect estimate of unknown
  information

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More Problems

• Hindsight bias ? inflated estimates about whether
  we would have predicted X after X occurs
• Confirmation bias ? attending only to information
  that confirms preexisting beliefs
• Mental set ? tendency to solve new problems with
  old solutions

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What Would You Do?

• Imagine that your country is preparing for an
  outbreak of a disease which is expected to kill
  600 people. There are two vaccination schedules
  Program A will certainly save 200 and Program B
  has a 33 chance of saving all 600. Choose one.

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What Would You Do?

• Imagine that your country is preparing for an
  outbreak of a disease which is expected to kill
  600 people. There are two vaccination schedules
  under Program C, 400 people will not be saved,
  and under Program D, there is a 66 chance no
  one will be saved. Choose one.

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Cognitive Dissonance

• Occurs when we hold
• Two inconsistent beliefs at the same time, or
• A belief and an action that are inconsistent
• Dissonance most likely to trigger behavior when
• We must justify a freely-made decision
• We must justify a decision that contradicts our
  self-view
• We must justify effort expended

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Intelligence

• What is it?
• One factor? (g)
• Many factors? (Three or even 11)
• Common scientific name today cognitive ability
• Some history
• Galton and eugenics
• Binets test
• Termans adaptation
• Goddard and the Immigration Act of 1920

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Wow
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Measuring Intelligence

• IQ (intelligence quotient)
• MA (mental age) / CA (chronological age) 100
• 100 is average 95 between 70 and 130
• Not used now why?
• Wechsler test (WAIS, WISC)
• Verbal and performance scores
• Current standard of testing, but others exist as
  well, i.e., Slosson, Wonderlic, K-BIT, etc.

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Theories

• Triarchic theory (Sternberg)
• Componential (academic) intelligence
• Experiential (creative) intelligence
• Contextual (practical) intelligence
• Tacit knowledge ? practical, action-oriented
  strategies learned by observation

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Where Does It Come From?

• Heritability is estimated at somewhere between
  50 and 80
• Group differences can be found (i.e., white v.
  black children (blacks -12)
• BUT genetic variability is almost always
  greater WITHIN groups than between
• BUT environmental differences can enhance or
  suppress genetic CA
• The Flynn effect

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Environment and Culture

• Poor prenatal care/exposure to teratogens
• Malnutrition
• Stressful familial circumstances
• Asians v. Americans
• Americans tend to believe mathematical ability is
  innate
• American parents tend to have lower minimum
  standards
• Differences in values (60 of Asian children
  would wish for something educationally-related)