Discussion 7: Piaget’s Conservation Experiments99 unread replies.2626 replies.Please watch this brief video illustrating Piaget’s Conservation Tasks:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtLEWVu815o (Links to an external site.)What did Piaget discover about the thinking of young children? Using the terminology introduced in our textbook, what changes cognitively as children move into middle childhood?
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CHAPTER 6
THINKING AND INTELLIGENCE
6.1 Key Question: What are the Components of Thought?
6.1 CORE CONCEPT
Thinking is a cognitive process in which the brain uses information from the senses,
emotions, and memory to create and manipulate mental representations such as concepts, images,
schemas, and scripts.
I. Concepts
➢ Déjà vu, French for “seen before”, is an experience in which the individual has the
feeling of repeating having experienced a current event sometime in the past.
➢ The process of déjà vu reflects the brain’s ability to match a present experience to a
previous experience, even though the explicit memory is not retrieved.
➢ These categories are called concepts.
o Concepts are mental structures and cannot be observed directly.
o Cognitive scientists infer concepts from their influence on brain activity or
behavior; Individuals, using the same process, cannot be sure that another person
shares their same concepts.
A. Two Kinds of Concepts
➢ Natural concepts are imprecise mental categories that develop out of everyday
experiences in the world.
➢ A natural concept, such as “bird”, invokes a mental prototype, or mental image,
representing a typical bird from your experience.
➢ Artificial concepts are defined by a set of rules or characteristics, such as dictionary
definitions or mathematical formulas.
B. Concept Hierarchies
➢ Much of the individual’s knowledge is organized into concept hierarchies, arranged
from general to specific.
C. Culture, Concepts and Thought
➢ Concepts carry vastly different meanings in different cultures.
II. Imagery and Cognitive Maps
➢ We think in words, but we also think in images, spatial relationships, and other sensory
images.
➢ A cognitive representation of physical space is a special form of visual concept called a
cognitive map.
III. Thought and the Brain
➢ Scientists can now connect certain thoughts, with specific electrical wave patterns in the
brain by presenting a stimulus and viewing brain responses and pathways. Over many
trials, responses can be averaged into a pattern.
➢ PET, MRI, and FMRI neuroscientists have identified brain regions that become active
during various mental tasks.
➢ Thus, thinking is an activity involving widely distributed areas of the brain – not just a
single “thinking center.”
➢ Neuroscientists now see the brain as a community of highly specialized modules, each of
which deals with different components of thought.
➢ Moreover, the brain generates many of the images used in thought with the same circuitry
it uses for sensation.
IV. Intuition
➢ Intuition is the ability to make judgments without conscious reasoning, using feelings as
well as reason.
➢ Intuition may be more reliable in complex situations when time is limited; conscious
processing skills, located in working memory, may not be capable of handling the
complexity or the number of factors that have to be quickly weighed.
6.2 Key Question: What Abilities Do Good Thinkers Possess?
6.2 CORE CONCEPT
Good thinkers not only have a repertoire of effective strategies, called algorithms and
heuristics, they also know how to avoid the common impediments to problem solving and
decision-making.
I. Problem Solving
➢ Effective problem solvers have several things in common: requisite knowledge for
solving the problem being faced; skill in identifying the problem; skill in selecting the
strategy to solve the problem.
A. Identifying the Problem
➢ The good problem solver learns to consider all relevant possibilities without leaping
to conclusions prematurely.
➢ The good problem solver considers all relevant possibilities before committing to one
solution.
B. Selecting a Strategy
➢ The good problem solver selects a strategy that fits the problem at hand.
➢ The expert expert problem solvers may use heuristics, more intuitive and less precise
strategies.
1. Algorithms
➢ Algorithms are procedures and formulas that guarantee success if properly
applied.
2. Heuristics
➢ Heuristics are rules of thumb that are accumulated through life experience and
act as shortcuts to solve complex mental tasks.
➢ They do not guarantee a correct solution to a problem, but they are often useful
for starting off in the right direction.
3. Working Backward
➢ The strategy of starting at the end of a problem can often be effective in cutting
down on the number of possible pathways to a solution of a problem.
4. Searching for Analogies
➢ If a new problem is similar to an old one, it may be possible to employ a strategy
that was previously used successfully.
5. Breaking a Big Problem into Smaller Problems
➢ Breaking a problem into parts, or subgoals, may make it more manageable.
C. Obstacles to Problem Solving
➢ While having a good repertoire of problem solving strategies is essential problem
solving, it is important to recognize and let go of an ineffective strategy.
1. Mental Set
➢ Mental set refers to the tendency to respond to a new problem in the manner
used for an old one.
2. Functional Fixedness
➢ This type of mental set is the inability to perceive a new use for an object
associated with a different purpose.
3. Self-Imposed Limitations
➢ There are many instances in which people impose limitations upon themselves.
4. Other Obstacles
➢ These include lack of specific knowledge required to solve the problem; lack of
interest; and low esteem.
➢ Fatigue, drugs (legal and illegal), arousal and its stress create stumbling blocks,
as well.
II. Judging and Making Decisions
A. Confirmation Bias
➢ Confirmation bias makes us pay attention to events that confirm our beliefs and
ignore evidence that contradicts them.
B. Hindsight Bias
➢ Hindsight bias, the “I knew it all along” response, is the tendency, after learning
about an event, to “second guess” or believe that one could have predicted the event
in advance.
C. Anchoring Bias
➢ Anchoring bias is a faulty heuristic caused by basing (anchoring) an estimate on a
completely irrelevant quantity.
➢ In a series of numbers, people base their estimate on whether the first number is
higher or lower than the ones that follow.
D. Representativeness Bias
➢ Representativeness bias is a faulty heuristic strategy based on the presumption that,
once people and events are categorized, they share all the features of other members
in the same category.
➢ Base rate information is the probability of a characteristic occurring in the general
population, and by ignoring this information, representativeness bias judgments are
made.
E. Availability Bias
➢ The availability bias reflects our tendency to judge probabilities of events by how
readily examples come to mind; for example, detailed coverage of plane crashes in
the media obscure the statistical fact that car crashes are more probable than plane
crashes.
F. The Tyranny of Choice
➢ Too many choices can be overwhelming and can interfere with decision-making.
➢ The tyranny of choice, the impairment of effective decision making when
confronted with too many choices, can create stress.
➢ Satisficing, finding a choice that is merely good enough, rather than perfect, can be a
useful strategy.
G. Decision Making and Critical Thinking
➢ The impediments to effective decision-making described above are related to lapses
in critical thinking, especially the identification of bias.
➢ Critical thinkers should know how to identify a problem; select a strategy; apply the
most common algorithms and heuristics; and identify biases and work to correct
them.
III. Becoming a Creative Genius
➢ Although experts cannot agree on an exact definition of creativity, it is generally agreed
that creativity is a process that produces novel responses to the solutions of problems.
➢ Experts generally agree that a genius is someone whose insight and creativity are greater
than that of the general population.
A. Creative Genius as Not So Superhuman
➢ There is little evidence to show that people with extreme creativity and genius are
superhuman–a breed apart.
➢ Weisberg attributes extraordinary creativity to extensive knowledge, high motivation,
and certain personality characteristics, not superhuman talents.
B. Knowledge and Understanding
➢ The most highly creative individuals have expertise, or highly developed knowledge
in their fields.
➢ Such mastery requires a high level of motivation to sustain years of intense training
and practice.
➢ Studies indicate that it takes about ten years of work, or 10,000 hours to become fully
competent in virtually every field.
C. Aptitudes, Personality Characteristics and Creativity
➢ Opposing Weisberg’s views, the psychologist Howard Gardner argues that the
extraordinary creativity seen in the work of Freud, Einstein, Picasso, and others
results not only from expertise and motivation but also from certain patterns of
abilities and personality characteristics.
➢ In Gardner’s view, highly creative people have aptitudes, or largely innate
potentialities (as contrasted with abilities acquired by learning).
➢ In addition to aptitudes, creative people usually posses a common cluster of
personality traits, including:
o Independence: the ability to resist social pressures to conform to conventional
ways of thinking;
o Intense interest in a problem: an all-consuming interest in their subject matter;
o Willingness to restructure a problem: not only struggling with a problem, but
also questioning the way the problem is presented;
o Preference for complexity: creative people like to work with seemingly chaotic
or messy problems, finding it challenging to look for simplicity in complexity;
o A need for stimulating interaction: creativity almost always grows out of an
interaction of highly creative individuals.
D. The Role of Intelligence in Creativity
➢ While low intelligence inhibits creativity, having high intelligence does not
necessarily produce creativity.
➢ Among those with low intelligence, some special cases – individuals called savants –
may have a highly developed skill despite their handicaps.
➢ Thus, intelligence and creativity are distinct abilities.
➢ The psychologist Robert Sternberg argues that creativity requires a decision to go
against the expectations of the crowd.
o This makes creativity potentially achievable for anyone who chooses to adopt a
creative attitude.
o Sternberg says that most people will not do so, being unwilling to take the
necessary risks.
6.3 Key Question: How Is Intelligence Measured?
➢ Intelligence, the mental capacity to acquire knowledge, reason and solve problems
effectively, has long fascinated psychologists, and mental testing has been used for
thousands of years.
➢ Intelligence is a hypothetical construct, a characteristic that is not directly observable
but which must be inferred from behavior.
6.3 CORE CONCEPT
Intelligence testing has a history of controversy, but most psychologists now view
intelligence as normally distributed and measurable by performance on a variety of tasks.
I. Binet and Simon Invent a School Abilities Test
➢ Binet and Simon assessed French children of various ages with the test and first
computed an average score for children at each age. That comparison yielded a score for
each child, expressed in terms of a mental age (MA). Mental age is thus the average age
at which normal (average) individuals achieve a particular score.
➢ For example, when a 5-year old child’s score was the same as the average score for the
group of 5-year olds, the child was said to have a mental age of 5 years, regardless of his
or her chronological age (CA), or age since birth.
➢ Binet and Simon determined that students most needing remedial help were those whose
MA score was two years behind their CA score.
II. American Psychologists Borrow Binet and Simon’s Idea
➢ With ten years after Binet and Simon began testing schoolchildren, American
psychologists imported the Binet-Simon test and turned it into what we now think of as
an IQ test.
➢ They modified the scoring procedure, expanded the test’s content and obtained scores
from a large normative group of people including adults.
A. The Appeal of Intelligence Testing in America
➢ Intelligence was seen not only as a means of bringing order to the turbulence of rapid
social change but also as an inexpensive and democratic was to separate those who
could benefit from education or military leadership training from those who could
not.
➢ The American public came to accept the idea that intelligence tests could accurately
differentiate people in terms of their mental abilities; this acceptance led to
widespread use of tests in schools and industry.
B. The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale
➢ The Stanford University professor Lewis Terman adapted the Binet-Simon test for
American schoolchildren by standardizing its administration and its age-level norms.
➢ The result was the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, which became the standard by
which other tests were compared.
➢ The test introduced the concept of the intelligence quotient, or IQ, which was the
ratio of mental age (MA) to chronological age (CA), multiplied by 100 to eliminate
decimals.
➢ Terman accompanied the test with his belief that intelligence is large innate and
measurable and that the IQ score reflected something fundamental and unchanging
about people.
III. Problems with the IQ Formula
➢ People do not grow less intelligent as they become adults; they develop in different
directions, which IQ scores do not necessarily reflect.
➢ The original formula for IQ was abandoned and grading “on the curve” was adopted as
the replacement.
IV. Calculating IQs “on the Curve”
➢ Behind the new calculation of IQ is the assumption that intelligence is normally
distributed throughout the population, that it is spread throughout the population so that
only a few people fall into the high or low ranges while most cluster around a central
average.
➢ The normal distribution, or normal curve, is the bell-shaped curve describing the
spread of a characteristic throughout the population.
➢ Scores are statistically adjusted so that the average for each age group is set at 100.
➢ Scores near the middle of each group, between 90-110, are determined to be in the
normal range, whereas at the extreme ends of the distribution, scores below 70 are often
said to be in the mentally retarded range, while those above 130 are said to indicate
giftedness.
➢ Psychologist James Flynn has noticed that the average IQ score has gradually increased
at the rate of three points per decade, ever since the tests were invented – the Flynn
effect.
➢ The gradual increase probably results from a combination of factors, including better testtaking skills, greater complexity and mental stimulation in society, more schooling and
better nutrition.
➢ Close examination of the Flynn effect is the result of increases at the lower end of the
intelligence scale, not at the higher end, suggesting that the effect may be the result of
better education, nutrition and cognitive stimulation.
V. IQ Testing Today
➢ The success of the Stanford-Binet encouraged development of other IQ tests.
➢ Psychologist David Wechsler has developed the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale
(WAIS), the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) and the Wechsler
Preschool and Primary Scale of intelligence (WPPSI).
➢ This family of tests measures many skills presumed to be components of intelligence,
including vocabulary, verbal comprehension, arithmetic ability, similarities, digit span,
and block design.
6.4 LECTURE OUTLINE: Is Intelligence One or Many Abilities?
6.4 CORE CONCEPT
Some psychologists believe that intelligence comprises one general factor, g, while others
believe that intelligence is a collection of distinct abilities.
I. Psychometric Theories of Intelligence
➢ Psychometrics is the field of mental measurements.
➢ The psychologist Charles Spearman used psychometric technique to advance his theory
of intelligence as a single factor.
A. Spearman’s g Factor
➢ In 1927 Spearman observed that individuals’ scores on different tests tend to be
highly correlated; those who score high on one test tend to score high on others.
➢ These correlations point to a single common factor of general intelligence underlying
performance in several intellectual domains, which Spearman called g.
B. Cattell’s Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence
➢ Psychologist Raymond Cattell determined that general intelligence can be broken
down into two relatively independent components: crystallized and fluid.
➢ Crystallized intelligence consists of the knowledge a person has acquired, plus the
ability to access that knowledge.
➢ Fluid intelligence is the ability to see complex relationships and solve problems –
abilities that involve using algorithms and heuristics.
II. Cognitive Theories of Intelligence
➢ Cognitive psychologists say that intelligence includes cognitive processes underlying
success in many areas of life, not just school, and thus is broader than the psychometric
view of intelligence.
A. Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory
➢ Psychologist Robert Sternberg has proposed a three-part – triarchic – theory of
intelligence that three different types of intelligence, each independent of the other.
➢ Practical intelligence is the ability of individuals to cope with people and events in
their environment, sometimes called “street smarts.”
➢ Analytical intelligence, the abilities measured by most IQ tests, relies on problem
solving, rational judgment and the ability to compare and contrast ideas to analyze
problems and find solutions.
➢ Creative intelligence helps people develop new ideas and see new relationships
among concepts.
➢ Recently, Sternberg and his colleagues added another element of intelligence,
wisdom, using one’s intelligence toward a common good, rather than a selfish
pursuit.
➢ Studies show that wisdom is one predictor of well being later in life.
B. Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences
➢ Psychologist Howard Gardner views traditional IQ tests as limited measures of
human abilities.
➢ Gardner argues that we have at least eight separate mental abilities, which he calls
multiple intelligences:
o Linguistic intelligence – measured by vocabulary tests and tests of reading
comprehension;
o Logical-mathematical intelligence – measured with analogies, math problems
and logic problems;
o Spatial intelligence – the ability to form and manipulate mental images of
objects and to think about their relationships in space;
o Musical intelligence – the ability to perform, compose and appreciate musical
patterns, including patterns of rhythms and pitches;
o Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence – the ability for controlled movement and
coordination, such as that needed by an athlete or a surgeon;
o Naturalistic intelligence – the ability to classify living things as members of
diverse groups and recognize subtle changes in one’s environment;
o Intrapersonal intelligence – the ability to know oneself, to develop a
satisfactory sense of identity and to regulate one’s life.
➢ Gardner claims that each of these intelligences arises from a separate module in the
brain.
➢ The latter two are similar to what some psychologists call emotional intelligence
(EQ).
➢ People who are high on emotional intelligence are good at reading other people’s
emotional states as well as their own.
C. Assessing Cognitive Theories of Intelligence
➢ For cognitive psychologists, there are many ways to excel, and one way is not
necessarily superior to others.
III. Cultural Definitions of Intelligence
➢ The value of each component of intelligence is culturally determined according to what is
needed by, useful to, and prized by a given society.
A. African Concepts of Intelligence
➢ In Kenya, Sternberg found that children who scored highest on t …
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