Thinking and Intelligence
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Thinking and Intelligence
Thought: Using What We Know
Reasoning Rationally
Barriers to Reasoning Rationally
Intelligence
The Origins of Intelligence
Animal Minds
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Thought: Using What We
Know
The Elements of Cognition
How Conscious is Thought?
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The Elements of Cognition
Concept: Mental category
that groups objects,
relations, activities,
abstractions, or qualities
having common properties.
Proposition: A unit of
meaning that is made up of
concepts and expresses a
single idea.
Mental Image:
Representation that mirrors
or resembles the thing it
represents.
• Cognitive Schema: An
integrated mental network
of knowledge, beliefs, and
expectations concerning a
particular topic or aspect
of the world.
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How Conscious is Thought?
Subconscious Processes: Mental
processes occurring outside of
conscious awareness but accessible to
consciousness when necessary.
Nonconscious Processes: Mental
processes occurring outside of and not
available to conscious awareness.
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Reasoning Rationally
Formal Reasoning: Algorithms and Logic
Informal Reasoning: Heuristics and
Dialectical Thinking
Reflective Judgment
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Formal Logic
Deductive Reasoning:
A tool of formal logic in
which a conclusion
necessarily follows from
a set of observations or
propositions (premises).
Inductive Reasoning:
A tool of formal logic in
which a conclusion
probably follows from a
set of observations or
propositions or premises,
but could be false.
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Informal Reasoning
Heuristic: A rule of thumb that
suggests a course of action or guides
problem solving but does not guarantee
an optimal solution.
Dialectical Reasoning: A process in
which opposing facts or ideas are
weighed and compared, with a view to
determining the best solution or
resolving differences.
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Barriers to Reasoning Rationally
Exaggerating the Improbable
Avoiding Loss
The Confirmation Bias
Biases Due to Mental Sets
The Hindsight Bias
The Need for Cognitive Consistency
Overcoming Our Cognitive Biases
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Exaggerating the Improbable
Availability Heuristic: The tendency to
judge the probability of an event by
how easy it is to think of examples or
instances.
For example, most people overestimate
the odds of dying in a plane crash.
Dying in an automobile accident is far more
likely
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Avoiding Loss
People try to minimize risks and losses when making
decisions.
Responses to the same choice will differ based on
whether outcome is framed as gain or loss.
In the example, outcomes are the same in Problems 1 & 2
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The Confirmation Bias
Confirmation Bias: The tendency to
look for or pay attention only to
information that confirms one’s own
beliefs.
E
J
6
7
Test this rule: If a card has a
vowel on one side, it has an
even number on the other
side.
Which 2 cards to turn over?
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Biases Due to Mental Sets
Mental Set: A tendency to solve
problems using procedures that worked
before on similar problems.
Mental sets help us solve most
problems efficiently
Not helpful when a problem calls for
fresh insights or a new approach
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The Nine-Dot Problem
Connect all 9 dots
Use only 4 lines
Do not lift your
pencil from the page
after you begin
drawing
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The Hindsight Bias
Hindsight Bias: The tendency to
overestimate one’s ability to have
predicted an event once the outcome is
known.
Also known as the “I knew it all along”
phenomenon.
“The older they get the better they
were when they were younger.”
Jim Bouton, professional baseball player
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Need for Cognitive Consistency
Cognitive Dissonance:
A state of tension that
occurs when a person
simultaneously holds two
cognitions that are
psychologically
inconsistent, or when a
person’s belief is
inconsistent with his or
her behavior.
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Intelligence
Measuring Intelligence: The Psychometric
Approach
Dissecting Intelligence: The Cognitive
Approach
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Intelligence
Intelligence: An inferred characteristic
of an individual, usually defined as the
ability to profit from experience, acquire
knowledge, think abstractly, act
purposefully, or adapt to changes in the
environment.
g factor: A general intellectual ability
assumed by many theorists to underlie
specific mental abilities and talents.
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The Psychometric Approach
IQ scores are
distributed “normally”
Bell-shaped curve
Very high and low
scores are rare
68% of people have
IQ between 85-115
99.7% between 55-145
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The Cognitive Approach
Metacognition: The knowledge or
awareness of one’s own cognitive
processes.
Tacit Knowledge: Strategies for
success that are not explicitly taught
but that instead must be inferred.
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Sternberg's Triarchic Theory
Components - a.k.a. “Analytic”
Comparing, analyzing, and evaluating.
This type of processes correlates best with IQ.
Experiential - a.k.a. “Creative”
Inventing or designing solutions to new problems.
Transfer skills to new situations.
Contextual - a.k.a. “Practical”
Using (i.e., applying) the things you know in
everyday contexts.
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The Origins of Intelligence
Genes and Intelligence
The Environment and Intelligence
Attitudes, Motivation, and Intellectual
Success
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Correlations in Siblings’ IQ Scores
IQ Scores of siblings
were highly
correlated, even
when they were
reared apart.
Identical twins have
higher correlations
than fraternal twins
Suggests a genetic
link
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Explaining Group Differences
Within a group with
all treated exactly
the same,
differences may
reflect genetics.
When one group
differs from another,
the differences may
reflect environmental
differences.
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Environment and Intelligence
Factors associated with reduced IQ:
Poor prenatal care
Malnutrition
Exposure to toxins
Stressful family circumstances
Healthy and stimulating environments
can raise IQ, sometimes dramatically
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Attitudes and Intellectual Success
Asian children score higher
on standard math tests than
American children.
Differences:
Americans are more likely than
Asians to believe that math
ability is innate
Americans have far lower
standards for their children
Asian children value education
more highly than Americans
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Animal Minds
Animal Intelligence
Animals and Language
Thinking About the Thinking of Animals
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Animal Intelligence
Cognitive Ethology: The study of
cognitive processes in nonhuman
animals.
Studies in cognitive ethology have
shown evidence that some animals can
Anticipate future events
Use numbers to label quantities
Coordinate activities with other animals
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Animals and Language
Language is a critical element of human
cognition
Many animal species can be taught to
communicate in ways that resemble language
Chimpanzees and bonobos converse using
American Sign Language and symbol board
systems
An African grey parrot has been taught to count,
classify, and compare objects using English words
Whether these behaviors are language
depends on how you define “language.”
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Thinking About Animal Thinking
Anthropomorphism: The tendency to
falsely attribute human qualities to
nonhuman beings.
Anthropocentrism: The tendency to
think, mistakenly, that human beings
have nothing in common with other
animals.
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