Invitation To Psychology Carol Wade and Carol Tavris PowerPoint Presentation by H. Lynn Bradman Metropolitan Community College-Omaha Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

Thinking and Intelligence Prepared by Michael J. Renner, Ph.D. These slides ©2002 Prentice Hall Psychology Publishing. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

Thinking and Intelligence Thought: Using What We Know Reasoning Rationally Barriers to Reasoning Rationally Intelligence The Origins of Intelligence Animal Minds Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

Thought: Using What We Know The Elements of Cognition How Conscious Is Thought? Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

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. Figures from page 191 of Wade, C., & Tavris, C. (2002). Invitation to Psychology, 2nd Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

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. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall Reasoning Rationally Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall Reasoning Rationally Formal Reasoning: Algorithms and Logic Informal Reasoning: Heuristics and Dialectical Thinking Reflective Judgment Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall Formal Logic Deductive Reasoning: A tool of formal logic in which a conclusion necessarily follows from a set of observations or propositions (premises). Figures from pages 193-194 of Wade, C., & Tavris, C. (2002). Invitation to Psychology, 2nd Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall Formal Logic 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. Figures from pages 193-194 of Wade, C., & Tavris, C. (2002). Invitation to Psychology, 2nd Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 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. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

Barriers to Reasoning Rationally Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

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 Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

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. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 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 and 2. Figure 6.01 from Wade, C., & Tavris, C. (2002). Invitation to Psychology, 2nd Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall The Confirmation Bias Confirmation Bias: The tendency to look for or pay attention only to information that confirms one’s own beliefs. 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? E J 6 7 Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

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. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall The Nine-Dot Problem Connect all 9 dots Use only 4 lines Do not lift your pencil from the page after you begin drawing Figure 7.9a from: Kassin, S. (2001). Psychology, third edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 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 Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

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. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall Intelligence Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall Intelligence Measuring Intelligence: The Psychometric Approach Dissecting Intelligence: The Cognitive Approach Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 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. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

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 Figure 6.02 from Wade, C., & Tavris, C. (2002). Invitation to Psychology, 2nd Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

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. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

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. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

The Origins of Intelligence Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

The Origins of Intelligence Genes and Intelligence The Environment and Intelligence Attitudes, Motivation, and Intellectual Success Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

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 Figure 6.04 from Wade, C., & Tavris, C. (2002). Invitation to Psychology, 2nd Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

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. Figure 12.12 from: Kassin, S. (1998). Psychology, second edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Source: Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

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. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

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. Figure 6.07 from Wade, C., & Tavris, C. (2002). Invitation to Psychology, 2nd Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall Animal Minds Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall Animal Minds Animal Intelligence Animals and Language Thinking About the Thinking of Animals Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 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 Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall 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.” Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall

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. Wade and Tavris © 2005 Prentice Hall