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Thinking, Language, and Intelligence

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1 Thinking, Language, and Intelligence
Chapter 9 Thinking, Language, and Intelligence PowerPoint® Presentation by Jim Foley

2 Thinking and language are two talents that are
part of being human. But... how unique are these talents to humans? in what ways are these talents better suited for survival than for thinking like a scientist? Click to reveal textbox.

3 Thinking and Language Questions
How do we form concepts, make judgments, solve problems, and make decisions? How does our intuitive thinking style, though it may help us survive, lead us astray? How does language work in words and in the brain, and how unique is human language? How do thought and language work together? Click to reveal all bullets.

4 Thinking Topics to Think About Concepts: Categories and Prototypes
Problem Solving: Algorithms, Insights, heuristics Judgment errors: Availability Heuristic, Overconfidence, Belief Perseverance The effects of Framing on judgment Cognitive skills in other species No animation.

5 Thinking, a.k.a. Cognition
Cognition refers to mental activities and processes associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating information. Cognition can include reasoning, judgment, and assembling new information into knowledge. Cognition also supports these other psychological processes: attention, emotion, consciousness, perception, learning, memory, language, mental health, and social interaction. Click to reveal additional bullets. The first box states the definition used in the book. The last two bullet points are: 1) optional details/examples, and 2) connections to other topics in this course.

6 Thinking: Topics Problem solving strategies and
obstacles to effective problem solving Concepts: the building blocks of thinking Do other animals have thinking skills like humans do? Automatic animation. More detail on the second point: these obstacles include tendencies that derail scientific thinking, as well as reasons that we fear the wrong things.

7 Pieces of Cognition: Concepts
A concept can be represented and communicated by an image, or by a word such as “chair,” “party,” or “democracy.” A concept is a mental grouping of similar objects, events, states, ideas, and/or people, etc. Click to reveal second text box and graphic. In this case, “states” refers to a “state of being,” such as “happiness.” Instructor: you could ask students, “what concept is suggested by the picture on the slide?”... Beach? Vacation? Waves? Tropics? Chair? Emptiness? Happiness? See how many concepts students can come up with.

8 How do we form/learn concepts?
We think we form concepts by definitions. For example, we define a triangle as an object with three sides. But is this how we actually form concepts? Often, we form concepts by developing prototypes, that is, mental images of the best example of a concept. What does your prototype of the triangle look like? Click to reveal bullets. Then ask students to draw their triangle prototype when prompted. Click to show examples. Draw the triangle that you imagine; that is, draw your prototype of a triangle.

9 Conceptualizing a Chair
What is your definition of “chair”? What is your prototype of “chair”? Which of these fit the “chair” concept? Automatic animation. These examples are more varied than the ones in the text that clearly fit. I suggest challenging students when they say that one of the objects here does not fit, since they all are a place you can sit upright. Students may figure out that many of these examples, while they fit the definition of “chair,” are a better fit for some other concept such as bench, swing, lounge, etc. This brings out another function of concepts; they are categories for observations, mental boxes to put things in.

10 The Urge to Categorize What was the percentage Asian in this blended Caucasian/Asian face? We tend to mold our memories and perceptions to fit pre-existing categories/ concepts. What was the percentage Caucasian in the second blended face? Scale of faces flies by on the bottom automatically and the first question appears immediately after. Click to reveal second question/face and again for a final note. Instructor: Let your students know that these categories are difficult to define and the terms and categories may even be offensive to some.  Ask your students if they think these categories problematic (which may render the study invalid). The answer in the first case is 60 percent Asian. In the second, it is 70 percent Caucasian. The average answer among students might be higher in both cases unless they adjust because they know the point of the exercise...that we tend to push things into categories. This is even more true if the question is delayed, our memory shoves experiences even more toward pre-existing categories/concepts. It is important to remind students here that ‘concepts’ such as ‘Asian’ or ‘Caucasian’ are culturally determined—by definition, anyone born in Asia is Asian, but ethnic Saudis do not look like ethnic Tibetans, who do not look like Filipinos. “Caucasian, on the other hand,” is an outmoded racial category; does it refer to looks? ‘Blood’? Birthplace?

11 When Prototypes Fail Us
Prototypes fail us when examples stretch our definitions, as in considering whether a stool is a chair. Prototypes fail us when the boundary between concepts is fuzzy, as in judging blue- green colors or computer-blended faces. Prototypes fail us when examples contradict our prototypes, such as considering whether a whale is a mammal, or a penguin is a bird. Click to reveal bullets.

12 Strategies for arriving at solutions include:
Problem Solving Strategies for arriving at solutions include: Problem solving refers to the thinking we do in order to answer a complex question or to figure out how to resolve an unfavorable situation. Trial and error involves trying various possible solutions, and if that fails, trying others. When it’s useful: perfecting an invention like the light bulb by trying a thousand filaments When it fails: when there is a clear solution but trial and error might miss it forever trial and error algorithms An algorithm is a step by step strategy for solving a problem, methodically leading to a specific solution. Click to reveal strategies and text. There is no definition of problem solving stated in the text, but the definition above is implied. You can clarify that problem solving does not just pertain to math problems; it also involves figuring out the punch line of a joke, solving mysteries, or resolving a conflict. [If you have time, you could insert your favorite joke, and/or a brain teaser, or mystery.] Trial and error: examples of the third point include guessing the square root of an unusual number, or guessing how to drive to a specific address in another state. An example coming up is the word jumble. Another (not essential) point you can make is that trial and error is tempting when you don’t know what else to do, or you’re in a hurry, although often it ends up taking longer. More about algorithms: --You could substitute “strategy” or “logical procedure” for “method.” --Algorithms are generally guaranteed to generate a solution, either because they are systematic or because they have been previously proven to work (this applies more to mathematics). You could mention that beyond the realm of problem-solving, there are other heuristics we’ll be encountering (which we use in making decisions or forming judgments), such as the availability heuristic. A heuristic is a short-cut, step-saving thinking strategy or principle which generates a solution quickly (but possibly in error). heuristics insight Insight refers to a sudden realization, a leap forward in thinking, that leads to a solution.

13 Clarifying Problem Solving Examples
Where’s the apple juice? Do I look on every shelf in the store, or do I search where there is similar stuff? To find a specific item in a supermarket Trial and error Wander around a supermarket randomly to find it. Create a methodical path to make sure you check every single aisle. Algorithms Click to reveal bullets. The text’s examples of algorithms might seem to students like examples of trial and error, so these slides aim to clarify these examples. There are also other slides to supplement or replace the text’s examples. Heuristics Check only related aisles.

14 Trial and Error vs. Algorithms
To solve a word jumble, you can use: Trial and error--randomly trying different combinations in no particular order An algorithm (below)--carefully checking every single combination beginning with the letter “C” before moving on to a different starting letter. 1. C L O O Y S P H Y G 2. C O L O Y S P H Y G No animation. The text’s examples of algorithms might seem to students like examples of trial and error, so these slides aim to clarify those examples. There are also other slides to supplement or replace the text’s examples. 3. C O O L Y S P H Y G… The problem with using trial and error to solve a word jumble is that there are 782,200 (10!/(2!*2!)) different ways to combine those letters. At least with the algorithm method, you are sure to get through them all without counting any of them twice.

15 To solve a word jumble, you can try a heuristic.
To solve the jumbled word more quickly, It would help to use heuristics, shortcuts that save steps, to reduce the options we need to try, such as: putting a “Y” at the end. thinking about where the other “Y” could go. trying the “H” preceded by “C” and “S” and “P” before trying other combinations. speculating that with so few vowels, the “O”s will probably not be together. Click to start animation of solution. The text’s examples of algorithms might seem to students like examples of trial and error, so these slides aim to clarify those examples. There are also other slides to supplement or replace the text’s examples. 1. C L O O Y S P H Y G S P L O Y O C H G Y P S L O Y O C H G Y P S Y C H O L O G Y

16 Algorithms: Not Just Thoroughness
A father and a son are currently 40 and 10; when will the son be half the father’s age? It might be tempting to use trial and error, but algebra gives us an algorithm, a single, certain, systematic path to the answer: x = ½ (x + 30) 2x = x + 30 x = 30 Click to show second bullet and again to show the answer. If any students question how you arrived at the 782,200 figure: following the algorithm, 10 different letters will start the word, and for each of those, 9 other letters could go next, and for each of those, 8 others are left to go next…. In the end: 10x9x8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1 or 10 “factorial”, written 10! But then we divide by 2 (actually 2!) because of the two ‘O’s, and divide again by 2 for the two ‘Y’s. Answer: when the son is 30, the father will be 60.

17 Three Methods of Problem Solving
Problem: given 100 one-foot lengths of fence, construct a rectangle that encloses the biggest area. Trial and error approach: make a lot of rectangles ½ (100-2W) W Algorithm approach: rectangle of unknown width Different values for Width For each width: Total Area Area = Width times length = W times half of what’s left after making the widths, or ½ (100-2W). We could graph all the different W’s and all the areas produced by different values for W, but instead of trial and area we graphed a function, Area = W x ½(100-2W), or Area = 50x – x2,, which makes a parabola, shown at the left. Notice that at W = 25, the area is at a maximum, and length = ½(100-2(25)) = 25 also. Maximum area is when width is 25, which means all sides are 25 Click to reveal three examples. Don’t bother going through the math on this one; the fact that the math algorithm is laboriously complex is exactly the point. After we have shown when algorithms are better than trial and error, now this slide shows that heuristics can be better, or at least faster, than algorithms. We can take this example one step further through the text and credit the power of insight: if thin rectangles waste fence, and the skinniest rectangle has almost no area at all, then a square is best. In fact, corners waste fence; a circle would be even better. I devised this math problem and the solution on my own, but got help drawing the curve; it was graph generated at webgraphing.com from my formula: y axis = x times 0.5(100-2x), or y = 50x – x2. Heuristic: a square encloses the most area

18 Insight: The “Aha” Moment
Insight and the Brain In one study, participants monitored by fMRI and EEG were asked, “which word will form a compound word with the words pine, crab, and sauce?” What the brains did along with the “aha!” of getting the answer: Insight refers to a sudden realization, a leap forward in thinking, that leads to a solution. We say “aha” and feel a sense of satisfaction when an answer seems to pop into our minds. We also may laugh; joke punchlines rely on sudden insight. extra frontal lobe activity experiencing the “aha!” moment and stating the answer a burst of activity in right temporal lobe (shown here) Click to reveal bullets. Final click will flash an apple, which is the answer to the question in the study. Previous editions of the book have noted that animals, especially primates, show sudden leaps in solution-making when confronted with complex problems. For example, they can realize that fruit can be reached by using a short stick to reach a longer stick that in turn can reach the fruit, or realize that boxes can be stacked and climbed. We don’t know if the animals feel the same sense of satisfaction as humans when they solve a problem.

19 A Use of Insight to Find the Right Heuristic
Problem: can the 62 squares of this clipped chess-board be tiled with 2-square dominoes? How did you arrive at your solution? No animation. Clarification: “tiled” means covered with a flat layer of dominoes, only going to the current edge, not filling the area of the two missing squares. Insight: because each domino will cover one black and one pink square, it is not possible for it to work. Even though 62 is divisible by 2, there are now two more black squares than pink squares. This problem is attributed to Martin Gardner.

20 Obstacles to Effective Problem Solving
There are certain tendencies in human cognition which make it more difficult to find correct solutions to problems. Confirmation bias Fixation/ mental set Automatic animation. Heuristics (which help solve problems quickly but can lead to mistaken conclusions)

21 Studying Confirmation Bias:
Peter Wason’s Selection Test He gave the sequence of numbers “2, 4, 6.” He asked students to guess his rule, and ask him whether other certain numbers fit the rule. The problem was not the students’ theory, but their strategy. If you think the rule is “even numbers,” what numbers would you need to ask him about to TEST rather that CONFIRM your theory? Confirmation bias refers to our tendency to search for information which confirms our current theory, disregarding contradictory evidence. Natural tendency: “If I’m right, then fact “C” will confirm my theory. I must look for fact “C.” Scientific practice: “If I’m right, then fact “D” will disprove or at least disconfirm my theory. I must search for fact “D.” Click to reveal bullets on left. The upcoming section on decision-making/judgment will help clarify that last bullet point. Click to reveal sidebar about Peter Wason’s test. To test the “even numbers” theory, students should try out NON-even numbers (odd numbers, fractions, negative numbers) to find examples which would disprove their theory. Finding that these numbers did not fit the rule would make them more scientifically sure that their theory was correct. However, it is our tendency to add to our confidence by trying out information which would confirm our theory (in this case, more even numbers). Next: tests not in the book. This is one of the hardest yet more important concepts in the course, in my opinion, so we’ll try it in up to three more ways.

22 Confirmation Bias Test
Hypothesized rule/fact: everyone who drinks alcohol at this party is at least 21 years of age. You meet four people about whom you know limited information: Holding a beer Holding a cola Age is 25 Age is 18 Click to reveal example. Hint: to test this theory, instead of just finding people who confirm the rule (they are over 21 and drinking), you want to find violators. This was the easy test; people do better when the test is concrete and also here when it mentions a law that sets us up to look for violators. The next slide presents a more difficult test. If your class seems confident, give them just the hard test. If you could find out more about just two of these people, which two would you investigate to help find out whether your hypothesis is true?

23 Confirmation Bias Test
You are given the cards below, that have a letter on one side and a numeral on the other side. Claim: if a card has a vowel on one side, then it has an odd number on the other side. A D 6 7 No animation. This test is harder for most people than the real-life situation. Flipping over the A could confirm or disprove the claim. Flipping over the D tells us nothing; we have no claim about cards with consonants on one side. Flipping over the 6 is crucial, but often missed because even numbers are not mentioned in the claim; if there is a vowel on the other side, then the claim is not true, because flipping it back over, there is NOT an odd number on the other side of the vowel. Flipping over the 7 is a chance to confirm the claim, but it cannot be used to really test the claim; if there is a consonant on the other side, then the card is irrelevant, because we have no claim about cards with consonants, only a claim about cards with vowels. So…. the answer is the first and third cards. Which two cards would you turn over to find out if the claim is true?

24 Confirmation Bias Test: Research
The ultimate test of our mastery of confirmation bias in psychology might be our ability to avoid confirmation bias in research. Kids who: eat a lot of sugar. do not eat candy. have ADHD. do not have ADHD. If we believe that overeating candy is the main cause of ADHD symptoms, what types of people do we need to look for to really test our theory? Click to reveal text boxes. “Good” science is about challenging our theories to see if they hold up under a search for disconfirming evidence. To do this, we need to find cases of kids who do NOT eat candy. If any of them have ADHD anyway, this would disprove our hypothesis. This slide fits the text here, but you could hit this important concept twice by using this slide (and others) to introduce this concept earlier when talking about research methods, or when talking about hindsight bias and the overconfidence error. Note that almost all claims regarding evolutionary psychology (such as, “it may have had survival value”) do not meet this high standard.

25 Other Problem-Solving Habits
Mental set The tendency to approach problems using a mindset (procedures and methods) that has worked previously. Fixation The tendency to get stuck in one way of thinking; an inability to see a problem from a new perspective. Automatic animation. The text refers initially to fixation and mental set as “obstacles” to problem solving, but later implies that these two related concepts have their good and bad sides. Mental set and fixation, like heuristics, are useful in solving problems more quickly. The downside is that these tendencies keep us from being able to come up with new approaches to solving new kinds of problems. A good quotation from the text: “As a perceptual set predisposes what we perceive, a mental set predisposes how we think.”

26 Mental Set: Demonstration
What is next in these sequences? O, T, T, F, F, ___, ___, J, F, M, A, M, ___, ___, S, M, T, N, U, ___, ___, W, I, N, I, T, ___? O,T,T,F,F, S, S (numbers) J,F,M,A,M, J, J (months) S,M,T,N,U,O,V,P,W,Q,X,R W, I, N, I, T, S ? Click to reveal each sequence and then the answer. Instructor: The first two lines are a test of whether they have done the reading, though I have added one extra in each line. The last two would be easier if the others had not been done first. The third one might be tempting to see as days of the week at first. The last one might be seen as another sequence, when it’s just the first initials of the first bullet point. Another point to make in the middle of the last paragraph: priming that establishes a mental set can occur by going through several problems that can be solved with similar methods. This can be demonstrated with math, but enough math for today, let’s use the examples from the book. Answers: O, T, T, F, F, S, S (numbers) J, F, M, A, M, J, J (months) S, M, T, N, U, O, V, P, W, Q, X, R, Y, S, Z (alternating alphabet) W, I, N, I, T, S ? (initial letters of the words in the question at top) If you are “primed” to use a certain problem-solving strategy, you can form a mental set that makes it harder to solve a new, similar problem.

27 Fixation Problem: how can you arrange six matches to form four equilateral triangles? When people struggle with this, what fixation is going on? Hint: what assumption might be fixed in their minds? Our mental set, perhaps from our past experiences with matchsticks, assumes we are arranging them in two dimensions. Click to reveal answer. This type of fixation has been called functional fixedness. The assumption which makes this problem difficult is that the problem must be solved in two dimensions.

28 Fixation: The Nine-dot Problem
Use four straight lines to connect the nine dots. Solving this requires escaping fixation by thinking outside the box. Literally. On click, a solution will appear on screen. There is still fixation here: seeing the dots as points rather than as discs.

29 Fixation: The Nine-dot Problem
Use four straight lines to connect the nine dots. Solving this requires escaping fixation by thinking outside the box. Literally. On click, a solution will appear on screen. There is still fixation here: seeing the dots as points rather than as discs.

30 Nine-dot Problem: The Sequel
Can you use only THREE straight lines to connect these nine dots? On click, a solution will appear on screen.

31 Making Quick Judgments and Decisions
Intuition Making Quick Judgments and Decisions As with problem-solving, there are mental habits which make intuition-style judgments simpler and quicker, but may lead to errors: the availability heuristic overconfidence belief perseverance framing The human cognitive style of making judgments and decisions is more efficient than logical. The quick-acting, automatic source of ideas we use instead of careful reasoning is known as intuition. Using intuition to make a decision has some downsides, as we’ll soon see, but it also has some benefits. Click to reveal bullets on left. Click to reveal sidebar about making quick judgments. All of these habits enable us to quickly make hundreds of small “gut” decisions each day without bothering with systematic reasoning.

32 The Availability Heuristic
We use the availability heuristic when we estimate the likelihood of an event based on how much it stands out in our mind, that is, how much it’s available as a mental reference. Example: thinking that winning at a slot machine is likely because we vividly recall the times we’ve won before (thanks to bells, lights, and flowing coins) Click through to reveal text boxes. A good quote from the text: “Dramatic outcomes make us gasp; probabilities, we hardly grasp.”

33 Weighted Attention: Why We Fear the Wrong Things
The availability heuristic misleads us about whether a plane ride or a motorcycle ride is more dangerous. Of the many experiences available to us in forming our judgments, we tend to give more weight to some experiences than others. We know of both plane crashes and motorcycle crashes, but the plane crashes scare us more, and stand out more in the news and in memory. Why do some dangers stand out more? Perhaps biology or natural selection predisposes us to fear heights, lack of control, and confinement… all of which are part of our image of a plane ride. Click to reveal bullets. Regarding the last bullet point: we may not be predisposed to fear a deadly activity with no confinement or heights such as riding a motorcycle.

34 The Overconfidence Error
Overconfidence in judgments refers to our tendency to be more confident than correct. We overestimate the accuracy of our estimates, predictions, and knowledge. Examples: thinking you can put off work and still get it done well thinking you have test material mastered when you scan it and it feels familiar. Click to reveal examples. Instructor: please clarify from the beginning that we are talking about a thinking error--a prediction/judgment mistake--and not an emotion or personality trait of “confidence”, although the two may tend to occur together in the same person. Ask students to give examples to test their overconfidence in having mastered this concept. In some studies, confidence in our guesses seems to be inversely correlated with accuracy. Suggest an application: simply scanning through the textbook before a test, you may make a judgment that you know the material well. Test for the overconfidence error by having someone ask you to define and give an example of the concepts.

35 The Overconfidence Error
Preventing the Overconfidence Error Question: Why do we tend to be overconfident even though it leads to false convictions, bad investments, and disappointing test scores? Answer: It may have had survival value: overconfidence allows quick decisions feeling certainty reduces stress and anxiety overconfident people may gain social power When you plan to state an opinion, prediction, or judgment, say “I think” rather than “I know.” Be open to feedback and to correction. ASK for other opinions, predictions, and factors you have not considered. Keep track of when you were wrong. Click to reveal all bullets in each column. Overconfident people may gain social power--other people are more likely to follow someone who sounds sure of themselves than someone who sounds unsure but turns out to be accurate. Keep track of when you were wrong--you might become more realistic in your judgments, and people might want to be around someone who respects their opinions.

36 Belief Perseverance Error
Overcoming Belief Perseverance “My mind is made up; do not confuse me with the facts.” Belief perseverance is the tendency to hold onto our beliefs when facing contrary evidence. We interpret information in a way that fits our beliefs. We might claim that the new information is wrong, biased, or just “doesn’t make sense.” You can’t cure someone else of belief perseverance. Just telling someone the “right” information won’t override it. Instead, watch for this in yourself. Take opposing views and information seriously, always assuming that you could be wrong. Click to reveal all bullets in each column. The definition of belief perseverance is from the text. A restatement of the definition you can use: “we tend to defend our current ideas, our sense of what is true, when given information that doesn’t fit our ideas.” Why do I say “we”?...because these are common human tendencies. Why do I add the word “error” to these titles?...because the traits here lead to errors in judgment, such as choosing confidence or mental comfort over a search for the truth. Stereotypes are maintained by this error; people often disregard examples contradicting stereotypes by treating the new information as merely an exception, and not a challenge to the rule.

37 Confirmation Bias vs. Belief Perseverance
Definition: not bothering to seek out information that contradicts your ideas Definition: holding on to your ideas over time, and actively rejecting information that contradicts your ideas Benefits and downsides: enables quick solutions, but misses finding out when first guesses are wrong Benefits and downsides: less internal mental conflict, but more social conflict No animation. Instructor: belief perseverance might sound like confirmation bias to some students. They both sound like “not being open minded.” This is an optional slide to help make the distinction, since students may get them mixed up if both are options in a multiple choice test question.

38 fail 5 percent of the time? work 95 percent of the time?
Framing Framing is the focus, emphasis, or perspective that affects our judgments and decisions. Example: are condoms effective if they… fail 5 percent of the time? work 95 percent of the time? Click to play out first and second animations. Thinking about the five percent failure rate is more likely to get us thinking about what happens if the condom fails; the moving frame represents the shift in where our attention is focused depending on how the issue (here, the condom reliability) is described/framed. Do you want to go to a store today if prices are: an average of $6 off? everyday low prices? 20 percent off?

39 How it may have been adaptive
Intuition How to use it well When it’s effective How it may have been adaptive We have seen that in complex situations, it helps to use careful reasoning to avoid mistakes made by intuitive judgments. However, research supports the idea that sometimes we need to let our unconscious mind do some work. Incubation refers to the power of taking a break from careful thinking, even to “sleep on it,” to allow leaps in cognition. Intuition is effective when it is a product of expertise built up from trial and error; this hones one’s judgment to the point of being more accurate than logical analysis. Examples: knowing the sex of a chick, making a diagnosis, speed chess, quarterback decisions The mind’s ability to judge a situation from experience is more efficient than any step-by-step analysis. Judging quickly what to eat and what might kill us might have helped our ancestors survive long enough to reproduce. The times that our intuition was incorrect may not have been fatal; if humans avoided all red plants instead of poisonous berries, they might have been hungry, but still alive. Click through examples and answers. How to use it well: You can connect past slides to this one by noting, “We have examined some of the pitfalls to watch out for in using intuitive, quick style of making decisions and forming judgments. In general, careful reasoning is better for complex decisions and judgments.” “Is intuition all bad? Let’s talk about the good aspects of intuition, starting with some research about an unconscious process that makes our decision better: incubation.” Editor’s note: note how the explanations under “How it may have been adaptive” are purely speculative guesswork and meet none of the standards of “good science” given a few slides earlier.

40 Creativity Creativity refers to the ability to produce ideas that are novel and valuable. [Creative intelligence involves using those ideas to adapt to novel situations.] Convergent thinking is a left-brain activity involving zeroing in on a single correct answer. Click to reveal definitions of convergent and divergent thinking. How do people produce something new? Do some people have more creative ability than others? Note that this definition of creativity is slightly different than the definition for creative intelligence, which is not just concerned with the production of ideas but also with the function of those ideas. Creative intelligence involves using creativity to adapt to novel situations. There is no correct answer to the question about chess. Some might say that playing well is more about expertise and practice, while others might note that at the highest levels, someone has to be generating new options, new strategies, and counterstrategies. See if students can come up with examples of creativity beyond the artistic vocations. Possible answers include entrepreneurship, generating hypotheses and explanations in science, generating and proving theorems in mathematics, and inventive problem solving in any form of engineering. One last example familiar to most college students that may generate debate: is it creative, or just derivative/rip-off, when people do mashups (videos, music, images) involving sampling of the work of others? Creativity uses divergent thinking, the ability to generate new ideas, new actions, and multiple options and answers. Does chess involve creativity?

41 Robert Sternberg’s Five Components of Creativity
Creative environment: having support, feedback, encouragement, and time and space to think Venturesome personality: tending to seek out new experiences despite risk, ambiguity, and obstacles Intrinsic motivation: enjoying the pursuit of interests and challenge, without needing external direction or rewards Click to show blocks. These are ideas of Robert Sternberg (b. 1949), the same researcher who wrote about three general areas of intelligence. These “components” are really contributing factors that help foster creative production. You can add comments to each of these, using the analogy of playing with blocks. For example, expertise: the building blocks we use to build new ideas. imagination: the ability to see new ways that the blocks could fit together. venturesome personality: the willingness to manipulate the blocks and try combinations that might not work. intrinsic motivation: the desire to build with the blocks just because it’s fun, even when no one is watching or suggesting it. creative environment: having a place you can play and build with the blocks as much as you want, with help available if you want it. Expertise: possessing a well-developed base of knowledge Imaginative thinking: having the ability to see new perspectives, combinations, and connections

42 To Boost Creativity: Four Strategies
Pursue an interest until you develop expertise. Allow time for incubation (“sleeping on it”) with your attention away from projects, during which unconscious connections can form. Allow time for mental wandering and aimless daydreaming with no distractions. Improve mental flexibility by experiencing other cultures and ways of thinking. Click to reveal bullets. These strategies may work especially well for creative problem-solving, but also may work for creative artistic expression.

43 Do Other Species Think? If thinking consists of understanding concepts, including words, numbers, and qualities, then... many creatures can memorize the names of many objects. Parrots can speak the names. birds can sort objects by shape, color, and type. Alex the African parrot could add numbers, and answer complex questions such as “what color bigger”? [“Tell me the color of the object that is the bigger of these two.”] Click to reveal bullets. Seeing Alex the parrot answer questions like “what color bigger” and “what shape 4” (what color is the item that is bigger, and what shape is the item of which there are four) certainly gets the observer thinking about thinking. In the videos hosted by Alan Alda, there is an image of seals or sea lions being able to deduce that a symbol they’ve never seen before fits in the category of ‘number’ based on logical deductions from rules and information they’ve established. It’s amazing seeing the seal get rewarded for choosing “#” in one session and then NOT choose it the next moment, choosing something different because the category is different. Ideas that this is simply operant conditioning get really stretched here, though the strictest behaviorists will never be convinced that thinking meaningfully exists in any species.

44 Do Other Species Think? If thinking consists of solving problems with insight, devising behaviors that were not trained or rewarded, and putting strategies together in new combinations, then... chimpanzees do not say, “Aha,” but one showed sudden leaps in problem-solving. After putting down a short stick that could not reach a fruit, he jumped up suddenly to use that short stick to reach a longer stick. Click to reveal bullets.

45 Do Other Species Think? If thinking consists of using and passing on cultural (learned, not instinctual) practices such as tool use, then... chimpanzees have local customs for tool use, grooming, communication, hunting, and courtship. These are “customs”, not instincts, because: they vary not by family, but by group. they are learned/acquired by observation. they involve varied tools and strategies, such as crafting a flexible stick to “fish” for termites. Click to reveal bullets.

46 Animal Socio-cognitive Skills
Baboons can recognize 80 individual voices; sheep can recognize individual faces. Chimpanzees and some monkeys can read intention in your facial expression and actions. Dolphins, apes, elephants, and social birds appear to recognize themselves in a mirror. Click to reveal bullets. How do they know that dolphins, apes, elephants, and social birds can recognize themselves in a mirror, while dogs and cat cannot (which is why they’ll fight with a reflection)? This can be determined because these animals and birds were shown to use the mirror to help see as they rubbed off a substance such as some chalk they could not see without the mirror. The “social birds” (corvids, such as magpies and crows) have other amazing social skills such as apparent deception. They hide something when another bird is watching and then move it when the other bird is gone. Nature, Wildlife and the Environment 2 WL002385 Sheep Elephant:

47 Language and Thought Topics to talk about
Structure, and Use of Language Stages of Language Development How Language Develops: Nature, Nurture, and Critical Periods Language and the Brian Language in other Species? Thinking and language influence each other Thinking in images, not verbal language

48 LANGUAGE: Definitions
Language consists of the use of symbols to represent, transmit, and store meaning/information. Symbols include organized patterns of sounds, visual representations, and movements. Meaning includes concepts, quantities, plans, identity, feelings, ideas, facts, and customs. Click to reveal bullets. Ѭ

49 Language: Uses and Structure
We can hear about and understand phenomena we have never experienced. We can connect to people far away. We can make plans and have others carry them out. We can know what another person is thinking more directly than just by observing their behavior. We can store information. What is language made of? Phonemes are the smallest units of sound (vowels and consonants). Morphemes are the units of meaning, i.e. words and meaningful parts of words such as suffixes, prefixes). Grammar refers to the rules for using words, including semantics, definitions, connotations, and syntax (how the order of words makes meaning). Click to reveal bullets on left. Click to reveal sidebar and bullets. What is language made of? In a spoken language, we have phonemes, the smallest units of sound (vowels and consonants), which combine in various ways to form meaningful patterns. For alphabet-based written languages, in place of phonemes but roughly corresponding to them, we have graphemes such as letters. English uses only about 40 of a possible 869 different phonemes used in speech across the 500+ languages of the world.

50 How do we learn language? Language Development
abbreviate absorbent accept access accessible accessory acoustics accumulate adjust aerial affects alien allotment allotted already altercation amass amendment amorous ancestor anecdote angular anonymous antidote antique antiseptic architect arrangement asphalt assignment asterisk attorneys audible aviator bachelor bankruptcy barbaric bask battery behavior benefited berserk besieged bicycle blanch brilliance budget bulletin business cachet callus cancellation canvas canvass capricious carburetor cashier catastrophe centripetal characteristic chaste irksome irresistible irrevocable issuing itemized jewelry judicious juror justifiable landslide legitimate leisure liaison library license lieutenant loophole lunar luncheon magnify malefactor malicious markup mattress mesmerize meteor metric mischievous misgiving modern modicum mystery negligence neon neutral newsstand nineteenth nonentity noticeable notoriety nuisance numerator nylon obesity oblique obstinate obsolete officious opposite optimism oregano overrate pageant parliament passable paucity penalty perseverance personality picnicking plaintiff cinnamon classic collateral colleague college comedy commerce commercial committee communicate commuter compel compensation competent consider contiguous corporal council counsel country creator critique customary customer daybreak deceive defendant deficient deficit depreciation desirable desolate detain devour diagnosis diffidence diminish disappeared disapproval disbursement discernible discrepancy disinterested disoblige dissociate distress diurnal divine domestic domesticate dominance easier ecstasy effect eject eligible eliminate erroneous especially exceptional excessive existence exotic expression extremity extricate facsimile familiar fantastic faulty federal feud flexible flout fluorescent folklore forcible fortunately franchise frivolous frostbitten further galaxy galling genuine gesture geology gigantic gnawing gorgeous grotesque gymnasium handicapped handling handsome haphazard harness hazardous headquarters homogenize horrific humidor idiosyncrasy impatience impinge incandescent inconsolable indelible inept influence innocence innumerable insistent insoluble integrity intensify poignant potential preceding precipice preoccupy prospectus quest questionnaire quixotic radioactive rapacious rayon raze recently reconcile relevant relief repulse revive rhyme rhythm roommate roster sanctuary sandwich scarcely schedule schism scholar schooner sedition semester seminary session shrine sieve signal sincerely soccer solitary subvert statutory terrific thieves tragedy transient transmutation turpitude tyranny unacceptable unique unmoved usher utopia vengeance vocal voucher withhold wrestle writtenative invariable How do we learn language? Language Development Language Development is an Amazing Process We acquire the use of 10 new words per day (on average) between ages 2 and 18. Children learn the basic grammar of language before they can add Most kids can recall words and meanings, and assemble words into sentences, while simultaneously following social rules for speaking and listening. Pause after the first bullet to let the word list go by. This is intended to depict the rapid rate of word acquisition of children.

51 Talent/Behavior/Stage
How do we learn language? Language Talents and Stages Age (months) Talent/Behavior/Stage 0-4 months In fantis (“not speaking”) Receptive language: associating sounds with facial movements, and recognizing when sounds are broken into words 4 months Productive language: babbling in multilingual sounds and gestures 10 months Babbling sounds more like the parents’/household’s language 12 months One-word stage: understanding and beginning to say many nouns 18-24 months Two-word, “telegraphic”/tweet speech: adding verbs, and making sentences but missing words (“See bird! Ree book? Go park!”) 24+ months, 2+ years Speaking full sentences and understanding complex sentences No animation. I have not made the definitions for “receptive” and “productive” explicit, but in case it’s not intuitive: “Receptive” means understanding the language you hear and see (and later, read), while“productive” means creating meaningful communication (speaking/signing, and later, writing). About the babbling transition by 10 months: for a discussion question, you can ask students if the loss of production of non-household language sounds by the infants reminds them of anything. We’re probing here for the idea of pruning, the withering of neural connections that aren’t being used. Not producing non-native sounds is useful because it allows the development of speech that accurately fits the language being used at home. We may have to replace the term “telegraphic” one of these decades; analogies are supposed to have explanatory power and are not supposed to require explanation. How about “Tweet”? Although unlike telegraphs, tweets are not billed by the word, there is a premium on not wasting characters, so words are more likely to be missing.  See if students can guess the meaning of “Go park,” in toddler speak: it’s not about going to park the car, but instead a request/demand to go to the park. “Ree book” is a request to read a book. If these seem obvious to your students, how about: “Green now!”…. an exclamation that the stoplight has changed.

52 Explaining Language Acquisition: Nature and Nurture
ABA GACT The Role of Genes We seem to have an inborn (genetic) talent for acquiring language, though no particular kind of language is in the genes. The Role of Experience We also seem to have a “statistical” pattern recognition talent. Infants quickly recognize patterns in syllable frequency and sequence, preparing them to later learn words and syntax. NAV PER MID Click to reveal bullets. You can add to the first bullet point: Noam Chomsky (b. 1928) believed that even syntax and grammar seem to be inborn. This is still a matter of debate. However, there are some universal word order preferences, and nouns do tend to be learned before verbs and adjectives. Trivia: which of the “syllables” on the left relates to genes?...GACT, Guanine Adenine Cytosine Thymine, the four bases forming the main components of DNA. CAN TION

53 Critical Periods According to one study with immigrants, beginning a language later made it harder to learn the pronunciation and the grammar of the second language. It is important to begin appropriate language exposure/education early so that language centers of the brain continue to develop. Language might never develop if not begun by age seven. Click to reveal bullets.

54 Deaf and Blind Children
Deaf and blind children can use complex adapted languages by using other senses that are heightened. Sign language has the syntax, grammar, and complex meaning of any spoken language. “Blindness cuts people off from things; deafness cuts people off from people.”—Helen Keller Click to reveal bullets. You may want to see if students agree with this quotation or can picture what is meant by each part of the quote. Or, you can talk about why Helen Keller ( ) might have a unique perspective on these issues since she lacked the use of both senses. Regarding the second and third bullet points, you can give it some impact by saying, “Imagine being brought up without exposure to language, with no one ever speaking to you. This would prevent language from developing, perhaps ever, and you would feel cut off. This would be considered child maltreatment. Yet this is what happens if a deaf child is brought up with family and classmates who do not use sign language. What happens if a deaf infant’s parents don’t use sign language? Hint: critical period

55 Brain and Language: Lessons from damage
Aphasia: an impairment in the ability to produce or understand language, usually caused by damage to the brain Examples of aphasia: having the ability to speak but not read, to produce words in song but not in conversation, and to speak but not repeat; or producing words in jumbled order Wernicke’s area, left temporal lobe Broca’s area, in the left temporal lobe Click to reveal pictures and descriptions. Before clicking to reveal the brain pictures, see if students can guess/recall which hemisphere of the brain is more likely to be damaged if there are problems with language. Answer: the left hemisphere, the one that can express itself verbally in split-brain patients. French physician Pierre Paul Broca ( ) and German neurologist Carl Wernicke ( ) learned about the function of their respective eponymous parts of the brain by studying the language difficulties of patients who had those parts damaged. Why can someone with Broca’s aphasia sing a song?...perhaps because it is reproduced as one string of sounds, not assembled from many bits of meaning. Comprehension test: why would people with both types of aphasia have difficulty repeating someone else’s spoken words? Someone with Broca’s aphasia is able to understand what the other person said but not put the words together to say it back; Someone with Wernicke’s aphasia is able to speak but not able to understand what was said, which prevents being able to say it back. Damage to Wernicke’s area leads to difficulty comprehending speech and producing coherent speech (not easily monitoring one’s own speech to make sure it makes sense). Damage to Broca’s area leads to difficulty in putting words together in sentences or even speaking single words, although a person can sing a song.

56 Language and the Brain How to read a word, steps 1 to 5
No animation. Instructor: this image is from an older edition of the book, not in the current edition, and thus there won’t be questions about it in the test banks. It is included here as an illustration of all the complex process that go on below our conscious awareness in order to do something as “simple” as reading a word. Remember: language functions are divided in the brain.

57 Do Other Species Use Language?
Can other species communicate with us through language? Washoe the chimpanzee learned to use 245 signs to express what she wanted or noticed. Fellow chimpanzees learned signs from each other without training and without rewards. A deaf N.Y. Times reporter visited Washoe and said, “I realized I was conversing with a member of another species in my native tongue.” Receptive language for individual human words seems to exist for a few species; dogs can follow hundreds of commands. Productive language: many animals have “words”: sounds, gestures, dances (bees) to communicate information, including different “words” for different objects, states, and places Click to reveal bullets and sidebar bullets. Fleshing out first bullet point: some would say that dogs are trained by rewards to respond to a pattern of sounds (same with humans, maybe?), but this doesn’t explain why a dog can retrieve a named object it’s never heard before, by process of elimination from the ones it does know, without a reward. Second bullet point: is this language? It certainly involves sounds representing objects and other concepts, but it does not involve grammar, i.e. meaning derived from word order.

58 Is the chimp signing really language?
Washoe seemed to combine words in new ways to convey meaning; Washoe used the phrase “apple which is orange” for an orange (fruit). Chimps do not pick up words as easily as human children. Chimp word production lacks syntax, but a bonobo correctly understood “make the dog bite the snake.” Signing “baby” Click to reveal bullets.

59 Thinking and Language, Language and Thinking
How does our style of thinking shape our use of language? How does language shape the way we think? Can we think without language by using images? Automatic animation.

60 Language Influencing Thought
Linguistic determinism: the idea that our specific language determines how we think Click to reveal bullets. Extreme forms of linguistic determinism are in disfavor, but a more moderate version remains controversial. The reality about the Hopi may have been that they are not able to demonstrate how they think about the past, or perhaps, although their memory is intact, they do not think about the past in the same way. About the last question: I suggest looking up and finding some of your favorites from a list of “sniglets”: words for objects, actions, and states that our language does not seem to have a name for (but should). For example, Benjamin Whorf ( ) proposed that because the Hopi do not have past tense forms for verbs, it is hard for them to think about the past. Can you think about something that you do not have a name for? If so, does that disprove linguistic determinism?

61 Language’s Influence on Thought
Does language shape emotions or reflect them? Speaking in Japanese provides many extra words for interpersonal emotions such as sympathy and empathy, which Americans might have trouble differentiating. Speaking English gives us many words for self-focused emotions, such as sadness. Do language differences shape personality differences? Bilingual people appear to have different personality profiles when describing themselves in different languages. “Learn a new language and get a new soul.”--Czech proverb. Color Perception We use our native language to classify and to remember colors. Different languages may vary in where they put the separation between “blue” and “green,” or they may not have separate words for these colors. Which squares are green? teal? blue? Click to reveal text boxes. Is language the cause or the effect of this difference in self vs. other emphasis? We know that these cultures differ, with American/English culture being more self-focused. This may explain the language differences. But then, does the language shape our thinking if we learn the language? However, does this demonstrate a difference in personality or a difference in how it is expressed? Over time, in speaking a different language, would we begin to behave differently to fit the new way we are describing ourselves? The Tarahumara people of Mexico do not have different words for blue and green. The book talks about separations at A or B. I wonder if students will see the blue/green separation after the very leftmost square. Maybe students could be asked about where they consider the split to be between blue and turquoise, or blue and teal.

62 Language Influences Thought
Gender neutral vs. male-based usage Even if “he” and “mankind” are meant at times to be gender- inclusive, people do create a male image in their mind when they hear these terms. Instead of replacing “he” with “he/she” or “their”, we can rewrite sentences without pronouns and possessives; for example, “his” can become “the.” Click to reveal all text. “When a lawyer shops for a watch, he should choose it to fit his personal preferences and his workplace” could become “A lawyer should choose a watch to fit personal preferences and the workplace.” People’s main protests to gender neutral language is that it is cumbersome (which it doesn’t need to be; in fact, sentences can be streamlined without all the pronouns) and that it’s unnecessary (that “everyone knows that “man” means “humans”). This is where the example from the book comes in: “man, like other mammals, nurses his young.” Wasn’t there a glitch in imagery upon hearing/reading that sentence?

63 Languages Improve Thinking The Bilingual Advantage
People who are bilingual have numerous brain connections and neural networks. They also have a hidden talent, the ability to suppress one language while learning another. This ability tends to go along with other forms of executive control, such as resisting distraction and inhibiting impulses. Click to reveal bullets. Does this partly explain the lower ADHD rates in Europe compared to the United States--that bilingualism improves executive functioning, self-control, impulse inhibition, and resisting giving attention to irrelevant information? Or is it just that the genetically impulsive populations of Europe are the ones who chose to get on a boat and go to the United States?

64 Thinking in Images Without Words Using Imagery to Improve Learning
Image rehearsal can help us improve behavior, even skilled performance such as playing piano or playing sports. If you imagine getting an A (outcome simulation), it may shift your mood up or down but will not improve your grade. Imagining the detailed actions of studying (process simulation), though, does improve grades. Think about the road, not the destination. Is there conscious thinking that goes on without being formed as words? Some everyday decisions, such as which turn to take while driving, are certainly made based on images or other nonverbal content such as mental maps. Click to reveal all bullets.

65 Conclusions Thinking affects our language, which then affects our thought. Thinking in a culture affects the formation of a language, especially its vocabulary. Thinking and language develop together in an individual as they grow. Learning a language and using a language as an adult can affect one’s style and content of thinking. Click to reveal bullets. Points 1-3 are Jim Foley’s conclusions based on the text, for you to present if you agree; students should know they won’t be tested on this material.

66 Intelligence Overview
Overall question to consider: does each of us have an inborn level of talent, a general mental capacity or set of abilities, and can that level be measured and represented by a score on a test? Definitions of intelligence One ability or many? The role of creativity and emotional intelligence How to construct tests to try to assess intelligence Intelligence stability, change, and extremes Genetic vs. environmental influences Group differences in ability Racial difference or cultural test bias? Click to reveal all bullets.

67 Intelligence: An Introduction
Topics: What do we mean by intelligence? Defining intelligence Types and components of intelligence: Spearman’s g, Gardner’s 8, Sternberg’s 3 Intelligence and creativity Emotional Intelligence No animation.

68 “Definition” of Intelligence
Intelligence tests are a series of questions and other exercises which attempt to assess people’s mental abilities in a way that generates a numerical score, so that one person can be compared to another. Intelligence can be defined as “whatever intelligence tests measure.” Your college entrance test measures how good you are at scoring well on that test. Click to reveal bullets. It is hard to argue with this definition of intelligence other than to point out that it’s pretty much a tautology (a circular reasoning statement that really doesn’t say much). However, the text goes out on a limb and puts a little meaning into the concept (next slide).

69 Definition of Intelligence: Beyond the Test?
The text defines intelligence, whether it’s math ability or a rainforest dweller’s understanding of plants, as the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations. No animation Note that this definition from the text makes reference to knowledge, and correlates with it, but is focused on ability, especially adaptability. Not surprisingly, psychologists tend to define “intelligence” in a way that allows psychologists to fit the definition. The picture from the text is meant to represent the “understanding of plants.”

70 General Intelligence, also known as g
Charles Spearman ( ) performed a factor analysis* of different skills and found that people who did well in one area also did well in another. Spearman speculated that these people had a high “g” (general intelligence). *Factor analysis refers to a statistical technique that determines how different variables relate to each other; for example whether they form clusters that tend to vary together. Click to reveal bullets. Instructor: see if students can guess what is not clearly stated in the text, that “g” stands for “general.” This may be a good demonstration of hindsight bias; it will seem obvious if told, but not so obvious if you right away ask, “why did he call this ‘g’?” Factor analysis is a statistical technique to determine how different variables relate to each other, for example whether they form clusters that tend to vary together (correlate).

71 Multiple Intelligences
The “savant syndrome” refers to having isolated “islands” of high ability amidst a sea of below-average cognitive and social functioning. This suggest that there can be isolated pieces of intelligence. Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Howard Gardner (b. 1943) noted that different people have intelligence/abilities in different areas. He felt that levels of these “intelligences” could vary independent of each other. Factor analysis suggests, though, that for most people there may be a correlation among these intelligences. Click to reveal bullets. The last bullet can be deleted if you’re going to use the slide “Critique of Multiple Intelligence Theories.” Stephen Wiltshire (b. 1974) is limited in his social and overall cognitive skills by autism, but has extraordinary visual memory. Wiltshire was able to draw this picture of the Tokyo skyline from memory after a 30-minute helicopter ride and a view from the top of a skyscraper. The existence of the savant syndrome suggests that intelligence can exist in parts. Click to reveal Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences. Narrative linking to above: “Howard Gardner feels that even discounting the “savant syndrome,” different people have different strengths.” Acknowledging all of these abilities means honoring strengths and success in areas other than verbal and math ability.

72 Howard Gardner’s Eight Intelligences
No animation. In case a student asks, Howard Gardner has considered adding “moral” intelligence and “spiritual”/”existential” intelligence to his list, but does not consider them to have adequate empirical support.

73 Sternberg’s Intelligence Triarchy
Robert Sternberg (b. 1949) proposed that “success” in life is related to three types of ability. Analytical intelligence: solving a well-defined problem with a single answer Creative intelligence: generating new ideas to help adapt to novel situations Practical intelligence: expertise and talent that help to complete the tasks and manage the complex challenges of everyday life Click to show three types. This is referred to as the “triarchic” (three-part) model. The first type of intelligence is the best fit for the early definition we encountered in this chapter: intelligence is what intelligence tests measure. The definition of “practical” intelligence, like the example earlier of the rainforest resident who understands plants, is hard to separate from the concept of expertise. This intelligence may include expertise but also include the ability to handle situations that do not draw just upon previous experience. Some people are skilled with fixing machines or managing people, even when it’s a situation they have never seen before.

74 Critique of Multiple Intelligence theories
The different intelligence factors tend to correlate with each other, and with a general level of intelligence. Success, financial and otherwise, correlates with overall intelligence  Success also correlates with hard work, connections, and the development of expertise (The 10 year Rule regarding intensive daily practice). Click to reveal bullets. Optional slide: this critique is suggested on the first slide about multiple intelligences.

75 Social and Emotional Intelligence Emotional intelligence
Social intelligence refers to the ability to understand and navigate social situations. Emotional intelligence involves processing and managing the emotional component of those social situations, including one’s own emotions. Automatic animation. Note that these definitions link emotional intelligence to social intelligence. The four components of emotional intelligence on the next slide also correlate with social success. This means that other emotional skills, such as modulating extreme emotions (e.g. staying mentally healthy) are less central to this definition, except as they relate to social success.

76 Emotional Intelligence: Components
Benefits of Emotional Intelligence People with high emotional intelligence often have other beneficial traits, such as the ability to delay gratification while pursuing long-term goals. The level of emotional intelligence, including the skill of reading the emotions of others, correlates with success in career and other social situations. Recognizing emotions in facial expressions, stories, and even in music Perceiving emotions Being able to see blended emotions, and to predict emotional states and changes in self and others Understanding emotions Modulating and expressing emotions in various situations Managing emotions Click to reveal more about each component. Introducing this slide: “emotional intelligence can be defined by four components identified on a test by Mayer, Salovey, and Caruso (2002, 2008):” In this case, “modulating” means not allowing emotions get out of control; having one’s emotions be a connective rather than a disruptive force in social situations. Click to reveal sidebar. The second bullet point relates to the struggles of people on the autism spectrum who have difficulty in this area and sometimes in all areas of emotional intelligence, even if overall intelligence test scores are in the normal range. Using emotions Using emotions as fuel and motivation for creative, adaptive thinking

77 Assessing Intelligence
Binet’s mental age test: Predicting school learning challenges Terman and the Stanford-Binet IQ test: Innate intelligence Wechsler tests Standardization, Reliability, and Validity Is intelligence stable over the lifespan? Cross-sectional vs. longitudinal studies Extremes of Intelligence No animation.

78 Alfred Binet’s intelligence testing: to predict school achievement
In the late 1800s, a new law in France required universal education. Alfred Binet knew that some new students would need help to succeed. Binet develop tests to predict a child’s level of success in regular education. Goal: to determine which students would need support. Click to reveal bullets. The plan, and the hope of France’s minister of public education, was to assess children in a systematic way rather than relying on teacher judgment (which might be biased, but was also not “scientific” even if it was more accurate).

79 Intelligence: a place on the path of development?
Alfred Binet assumed that all children follow the same course of development, some going more quickly, and others more slowly. Binet’s tests attempted to measure mental age--how far the child had come along on the “normal” developmental pathway. The implication was that children with lower ability were delayed (with a mental age below their chronological age), and not disabled; with help, they could improve. Others saw intelligence as innate and fixed, including: Lewis Terman, who turned Binet’s test into the Stanford- Binet Intelligence Test. Click to reveal bullets. Alfred Binet’s assumed that all children follow the same course of development, some going more quickly, others more slowly. This implied that children with lower ability were mainly delayed, not disabled. Tests attempted to measure “mental age”--how far the child had come along on the “normal” developmental pathway.

80 Binet  Terman  Stanford-Binet  IQ
Lewis Terman, of Stanford University, adapted Alfred Binet’s test, adding new test items and extending the age range into adulthood. Terman also tested many California residents to develop new norms, that is, new information about how people typically performed on the test. The result was the Stanford-Binet intelligence test. William Stern added a way of scoring of the Stanford-Binet test known as the Intelligence Quotient. Binet reported scores as simply one’s mental age; a 10 year old with below average intelligence might have a mental age of 8. Stern described Intelligence as a Quotient, a ratio comparing mental age to chronological age. Click to reveal bullets. Answer to the question on the slide: the 10-year-old is scored as 8/10 x 100 = 80. You can now ask students: “Is William Stern’s calculation of IQ a better way of presenting a score than “mental age?” Lets test it by seeing if it works with adults, as Terman hoped. What IQ do you get if a 16 year old scores as well as a 20 year old (20/16 = 5/4 = IQ 125). Now try it with a 50 year old scoring as well as a typical 20 year old. Oops…IQ would be 20/50... IQ = 40. Coming up soon, under the topic of standardization, is a new way of calculating IQ by simply comparing your raw score to the general population of adults who took the test. We will soon see why the book says here, “about 2/3 of people fall between 85 and 115 [in IQ].” Terman proposed using IQ tests to classify children; he believed IQ was inherited and was the strongest predictor of one's ultimate success in life. Terman was a prominent member of the Human Betterment Foundation, which supported the promotion and enforcement of compulsory and involuntary sterilization laws in California. Q: What IQ score do we get for

81 What do scores mean? What to do if you score low on an IQ test?
Lewis Terman, of Stanford University, began with a different assumption than Binet; Terman felt that intelligence was unchanging and innate (genetic). Later, Terman saw how scores can be affected by people’s level of education and their familiarity with the language and culture used in the test. Binet Study, and develop self-discipline and attention span. Terman Click to reveal bullets. Eugenics is the idea that society can be improved by deliberate selection, that is, keeping people with undesired traits from reproducing. Thus, Terman’s hypothetical comment about removing inferior genes from the population. It is not clear whether Terman’s changing views about influences on test scores changed his views of whether people could be improved or still had “inferior” genes. Eugenics has been making a comeback in recent years with the development of new reproductive technologies. Once again, it is supported by many researchers and psychologists. Distinguished scientists, including several Nobel Prize-winners, have supported genetic screening bordering on eugenics. James Watson, the American biologist who helped discover DNA in 1953, said in 2003 that he backed genetic manipulation to make people more intelligent and better looking. “If you really are stupid, I would call that a disease,” he said. “The lower 10 percent who really have difficulty, even in elementary school, what's the cause of it? A lot of people would like to say, ‘Well, poverty, things like that.’ It probably isn't. So I'd like to get rid of that, to help the lower 10 percent.”--Richard Ingram, “EUGENICS: Stupidity should be cured—Watson,” DarwinAwards, 19 June 2003, at Remind students that attitudes like this were prevalent in Germany during World War II. Remove your genes from the population

82 Aptitude vs. Achievement
Achievement tests measure what you already have learned. Examples include a literacy test, a driver’s license exam, and a final exam in a psychology course. Aptitude tests attempt to predict your ability to learn new skills. The SAT, ACT, and GRE are supposed to predict your ability to do well in future academic work. IQ SAT scores (verbal + quantitative) If the SAT is an aptitude test, should it correlate with IQ? Click to reveal bullets and graphic. Why do we say that aptitude should correlate with intelligence? Because according to one definition, intelligence refers to an ability to adapt and handle challenges, and is not a measure of existing knowledge. By this definition, “intelligence” would give one more aptitude, more likelihood of performing well in the future. Remind students that this is a scatterplot; it’s as if each blue dot is a person positioned by that person’s SAT and IQ scores. Notice that although there is a strong correlation (+.82) in this sample of 14- to 21- year olds, the SAT separates out some above-average IQ people from others. In other words, IQ scores do not do a good job of distinguishing among people with IQ’s over 120 (presuming the SATs measure anything meaningful at all). You can remind students that men typically do better than women on SATs, yet women have a greater success rate in college; why do they think this is?

83 Wechsler’s Tests: Intelligence PLUS
The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) measure “g”/IQ. Challenges include: Describing similarities and differences Timed math problems Vocabulary knowledge Re-sequencing and recall of letters and numbers Arranging blocks to produce designs No animation. WAIS and WISC Tests measure intelligence, but the results include subscores for: verbal comprehension, processing speed, perceptual organization, and working memory (the resequencing and recall of letters and numbers). items include: describing similarities and differences between objects or between concepts. doing math problems, presented as story problems, while being timed. being tested on speed of decoding, translating symbols to numerals. assembling blocks into prescribed patterns while being timed (pictured in the text and on this slide). digit span retention and re-ordering (working memory). vocabulary knowledge and general knowledge. question and sentence comprehension and expression. arranging related pictures in chronological/story sequence. picture completion.

84 Principles of Test Construction
In order for intelligence or other psychological tests to generate results that are considered useful, the tests (and their scores) must be: standardized. reliable. No animation. valid.

85 Standardization: How we know whether your IQ score is average.
Many intelligence tests generate a raw score based on the number of answers correct. Can we turn this into a number that tells us how smart/capable a person is compared to the general population? Yes: by Standardizing. Standardization: defining the meaning of scores based on a comparison with the performance of others who have taken the test before. Click to reveal bullets. Standardization, in the form described here, has also been called “norming” a test. ‘Norming” refers to determining what the “norm” is for typical, randomly selected people taking the test, so that you can compare an individual score to the norm. This norm is described by the normal curve, which we’ll see again on the next slide. The current method for generating an IQ score is to determine where your raw score falls on a distribution of scores by people of your chronological age. (Next slide).

86 Standardization: How “Normal” is Your Score?
If we stacked a bunch of intelligence tests in piles ordered by raw score (#of test items correct), there would be a few very high scores and a few low scores, and a big pile in the middle; this bell- shaped set of scores is called the normal curve. Standardization: Calling the average raw score “IQ 100.”  Number of people with this score  If your score is higher than 98 percent of the population, your IQ is around what number? Comparing your score to this standard set of scores: if you score higher than 50 percent of people, you your IQ is 100. Click to highlight the curve and again for the next question. The answer to the question on the slide: if your raw score was higher than 98 percent of the people, your IQ would be around 130, the score at which about 2.1 percent of the population scored higher.

87 Reliability and Validity of Measures
A test or other measuring tool is reliable when it generates consistent results. A test or measure has validity if it accurately measures what it is supposed to measure. Split-half reliability: two halves of the test yield the same results. Test-retest reliability: the test gives the same result if administered again. Content validity: the test correlates well with the actual trait being measured Predictive validity: the test accurately predicts future performance . Click to reveal bullets about reliability. Question at the bottom: If your height was measured with a ruler made of stretchy material, it would not be a reliable ruler, you would not get a consistent number when measuring height. Question for understanding: how does this stretchy ruler fail the two tests of reliability? Click to reveal bullets about validity. The yardstick, though reliable, would not be a valid measure of height. Example: If your height was measured with a ruler made of stretchy dough. Example: If your height was measured with a yardstick on which the “inches” varied in size.

88 Stability of Intelligence during Aging:
Based on this chart, at what age might you do best at completing a crossword puzzle completely? Quickly? No animation. Even though younger people have faster processing speed, the better vocabulary of older people allows them to complete crossword puzzles more quickly. It looks like people at about age 63 might do best. Note that this slide presupposes that there are different kinds of intelligence; does this imply the single-number IQ score is problematic?

89 Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence
Fluid intelligence: the ability to think quickly and abstractly. This type of intelligence tends to be strongest in youth. Click to reveal bullets. The wisdom that comes with age may include social understanding, humility, and expert knowledge about life in general. Our thinking may become less distorted by emotional factors. Fluid intelligence allows the young to make great contributions in mathematics; crystallized intelligence allows the old to make great contributions in literature. Crystallized intelligence: accumulated wisdom, knowledge, expertise, and vocabulary. These stay strong into old age.

90 Extremes of Intelligence
The Wechsler Intelligence Scale is set so that about 2 percent of the population is above 130 and about 2 percent of the population is below 70. No animation. Very High Intelligence, Gifted Intellectual Disability

91 Extremes of Intelligence
“Intellectual disability” refers to people who have an IQ around 70 or below. have difficulty with adaptive skills, such as: conceptual skills (literacy and calculation). social skills, including making safe social choices. practical daily living skills such as hygiene, occupational skills, and using transportation. Although some people with high intelligence test scores can seem socially delayed or withdrawn, most are “successful.” “Gifted” children, like any children, learn best with an appropriate level of challenge. Segregated, “tracked” programs, however, often unfairly widen achievement gaps. Click to reveal bullets. The child in the picture at the top left has Down syndrome. He is shown happily painting in a classroom with children of varying abilities. The child in the picture at bottom right is in a college statistics class; he is 10 years old. At both ends of the intellectual aptitude spectrum, labeling and tracking children has the danger of becoming a self fulfilling prophecy because of the power of expectations and the availability of educational opportunities. Education of all children in an integrated classroom can prevent these problems, although they require greater individualization to assure appropriate levels of challenge.

92 Influences on Intelligence: Genes and Environment
What we are born with, what we can change Heritability Results from Twin and Adoption Studies Environmental Influences: Early Childhood and School Group Differences in Intelligence Scores: Due to Genes or Environment? Gender Similarities and Differences in IQ scores Racial/Ethnic Similarities and Differences in IQ scores The Effect of Stereotype threat on IQ scores Two Meanings of “Bias” in test design: group harm vs. predictive effectiveness No animation.

93 Genetic and Environmental Influences on Intelligence (Nature and Nurture)
Even if we agree for argument’s sake that “success” in life is caused in part by some kind of intelligence, there is still a debate over the origin of that intelligence. Are people “successful” because of inborn talents? Or are they “successful” because of their unequal access to better nurture? Information to tease out the answers can be found in some twin and adoption studies. Click to reveal bullets. Note that no commonly accepted definition of “successful” exists so that the entire question is probably better suited to philosophy than psychology. You might ask students to try to define “success”—socioeconomic status? self-reported claims to happiness? achievement (another difficult word to define)? celebrity status? public acclaim?

94 Genetic and Environmental Influences on Intelligence Studies of Twins Raised Apart
What explains this difference? What explains this difference? Findings from these studies indicate that both nature and nurture affect intelligence test scores. Click to show questions and answers about the graph. The first two bars differ because of differences in rearing/environment, since the genetics did not change; rearing the twins apart reduced the similarity. The first and third bar may differ because of genetics, since they were reared together in both cases; having more identical genes increased the similarity of intelligence scores.

95 Heritability Clarifying Heritability
If three people had exactly the same education, nutrition, and experiences, some psychologists speculate that genes might be responsible for perhaps 40 percent of their intelligence; nurture certainly made a big impact. However, such identical nurturing (which is actually impossible) could not create differences in intelligence. With identical nurture, the heritability of intelligence would be virtually 100 percent. When you see variation in intelligence between two or more people, the heritability of that trait is the amount of variation that is apparently explained by genetic factors. This does NOT tell us the proportion that genes contribute to the trait for any one person. Click to reveal bullets. The slide has appeared before in the chapter on nature and nurture. The heritability of a trait also does NOT tell us whether genetics explain differences between groups/populations. Height is 90 percent heritable in general, but as a group, people are taller in this century than last, or in South Korea compared to North Korea. This is probably not caused by genetics but by nurture (nutrition). Click to reveal sidebar bullets. Note: there is a similar slide in the “Nature-Nurture” chapter which originally used intelligence as the example and now has been revised to discuss sociability. Of course identical nurture is not possible; tiny differences, even in utero, can begin the epigenetic process of turning genes on and off.

96 Genetic Influences on Intelligence
Identical twins seem to show similarity in specific talents such as music, math and sports. The brains of twins show similar structure and functioning. There are specific genes which may have a small influence on ability. Click to reveal bullets.

97 Adoption Studies With age, the intelligence test scores of adoptees looks more and more like that of their ____________ parents. (adoptive? birth/biological?) In another study, heritability of intelligence test scores continued to increase beyond age 16. Click to reveal chart. Answer: birth/biological parents. This will seem counterintuitive to many students. Suggest that they notice that their parents may be having increasingly less influence on their talents. You may want to restate this result in a way that ties back to the heritability concept; the heritability of intelligence test scores increases with age.

98 Environmental Influences on Intelligence
Environment has more influence on intelligence under extreme conditions such as abuse, neglect, or extreme poverty. Tutored human enrichment has a larger impact on compensating for deprivation than on boosting intelligence under normal conditions. Click to reveal bullets. When environment/nurture varies more, its influence on intelligence increases. Pictured in the slide is a Romanian orphan who suffered from deprivation of human interaction. The impact of tutored enrichment can be compared to the impact of multi-vitamins, which make a bigger difference for those who were malnourished than for those who eat healthy meals. The impact of educational videos does not seem to be great for any group, especially when it substitutes for face to face interaction.

99 Schooling and Intelligence
Preschool and elementary school clearly have at least a temporary impact on intelligence test scores. College can have a positive impact on intelligence test scores if students have: motivation and incentives. belief that people can improve. study skills, especially the willingness to practice. Click to reveal bullets. Instructor: you might ask students, “What might it imply about intelligence test scores if they can be affected by schooling and attitude?”

100 Understanding Group Differences in Test Scores
Now, let’s look at: gender differences. “racial” differences. understanding the impact of environment. within-group differences and between-group differences. the impact of test bias and stereotype threat on performance. Click to reveal bullets.

101 Male-Female Ability Differences
Male/female difference related to overall intelligence test score. No animation. Instructor: clarify for students that this graph of scores by IQ level does not replace the normal curve. It IS the same people in the normal curve, but split into percentage male and percentage female. Males with IQ ‘x’ plus females at IQ ‘x’ equals 100 percent of the people at IQ ‘x’. You can ask students, then, what they can say about boys and girls and their ranges of IQ scores? A final click reveals an answer at the bottom of the slide. Boys are more likely than girls to be at the high or low end of the intelligence test score spectrum.

102 Male-Female Ability Differences
Girls tend to be better at spelling, locating objects, and detecting emotions. Girls tend to be more verbally fluent, and more sensitive to touch, taste, and color. Boys tend to be better at handling spatial reasoning and complex math problems. It is a myth that boys generally do better in math than girls. Girls do at least as well as boys in overall math performance and especially in math computation. Click to reveal bullets. Question to raise with students: do you think that these differences are caused by genetics and strengths developed through natural selection, or because boys and girls are raised differently?

103 Tests of Male and Female Strengths
Standard After you have clicked and the classroom picture and moving rock have disappeared, have students do the “male” block configuration test first. Please practice using this slide in slide show mode. [Answer: the two right most circles. I moved and rotated some of the ones from the text to make it harder to simply look at the book for answers] Then do the “female” object location memory test: ask who can remember where the rock started and where it ended up.

104 Ethnic/Racial Differences in Intelligence Test Scores
White Americans, on average, have in past decades scored higher on intelligence tests than other groups. Still, as we can see below, it is incorrect to use race as a basis to prejudge the intelligence of an individual. If Blacks scored at IQ 100 on average and members of the Green race scored 85 on average, there are still lots of Greens with higher IQ than the average Black. There are issues test bias and other factors affecting scores for people who are part of minority ethnic and racial groups. Click to animate graph. Click to reveal remaining bullets. The following statement perhaps gives too much away before seeing if students can figure out the concept on the next slide, but I included here as material for explaining the next slide: “But first we must train ourselves to see that differences between groups can be caused by environmental factors (even identical twins can have differences in height, sexuality, and ability). Remind students that even the term “African American” has little or no meaning; is it self-defined or can someone determine who fits in this category? Do Egyptians and Algerians count? Are Bantu peoples to be lumped in with Khoisan? Is the American “one drop of blood” rule to be used to determine “African American-ness,” or a different standard from Brazil or Trinidad? Remind students that a future slide notes that racial categories are not distinct genetically. But first…

105 Understanding Group Differences: Within-group vs. Between-group
Group differences, including intelligence test score differences between racial groups, can be caused by environmental factors. Below: the difference between groups is caused by poor soil (environment). No animation. Instructor: have students think about what they assume causes the difference between the two groups of flowers. After you ask this question and hear some answers, click to reveal that both groups of flowers are from the same seed packet. Again, even identical twins can have differences in height, sexuality, and ability.

106 The “Racial” Intelligence Test Score Gap
Racial categories are not distinct genetically and are unscientific. Both “whites” and “blacks” have higher intelligence test scores than “whites” of the 1930s. “Whites” may have more access to “fertile soil” for developing their potential, such as: schools and educational opportunities. wealth, nutrition, support, and educated mentors. relative freedom from discrimination. Click to reveal bullets.

107 Two Problems Called “Bias”
Are Tests Biased? Let’s use the two definitions: Bias #1: In the popular sense of the word, intelligence tests are often biased. Often, tests have questions which rely on knowledge of “mainstream” culture, which not everyone will be equally familiar with. Bias #2: Aptitude tests seem to predict future achievement equally well for various ethnic groups, and for men and women. Test makers must prevent “bias” in the popular sense of the word: making it easier for one group than another to score high on a test. Test makers also strive to prevent the scientific form of bias: making it easier for one group than for another to have their abilities accurately assessed, and their future performance predicted. Click to reveal bullets. Click to reveal sidebar bullets. A question to ask students to test their learning: “what quality of good tests have we just identified in the last sentence?”...predictive validity. Angela Garcia, executive director of the SAT program, defended the prompt: “It’s really about pop culture as a reference point that they would certainly have an opinion on.” You might ask students if they agree. Note: “racial” differences persist on skills such as repeating digits backward. Do these skills also depend on cultural experience?

108 The Effect of Stereotype Threat
Study result: Blacks/African-Americans scored higher when tested by Blacks rather than being tested by Whites. Why? Study result: Blacks/African-Americans did worse on intelligence tests when reminded of their racial/ethnic identification right before the test. Why? Click to reveal three questions. Instructor:  Simple answer to all three questions:  They fell victim to the effect known in psychology as Stereotype Threat (explained next slide). You can change the title of the slide if you just want to test students on the name of the concept, or you can ask them to explain how it works before you go to the next slide. NOTE:  Some students may be uncomfortable with the way the terms "Black" and even "race" are used in the study cited by the text. Although we can't make an exact determination of someone's race, we can determine whether someone identifies themselves as being part of a stereotypically lower-status group, and that's what's relevant in this study, that's what apparently triggered the effects on performance, as we'll see on the next slide. Study result: Women did worse on math tests than men, except when they are told first that women usually do as well as men on the test. Why?

109 The Power of Expectations
Stereotype threat: a feeling that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype. Stereotype threat may interfere with performance by making people use their working memory for worrying instead of thinking. This worry, then, is self- confirming/fulfilling: worrying about a negative evaluation leads to a negative evaluation. Click to reveal bullets. A self fulfilling prophecy occurs when the act of making a prediction about the future leads to that prediction coming true. Is stereotype threat an example of a self fulfilling prophecy? The book’s definition of stereotype threat includes “self-confirming” as part of the definition. One possible implication of the stereotype threat is that programs to support members of minority groups may hurt people’s performance when they imply that minorities need more help than others, especially when it is implied that help is needed inherently rather than situationally (the fundamental attribution error). Of course, this implication needs to be measured versus other factors (such as ongoing discrimination or socio-economic disadvantage).

110 Issues Related to Intelligence Tests
Is discriminating among college or job applicants based on test scores better than discriminating based on appearance? Can test scores be used as Alfred Binet suggested: to identify those who would benefit from educational interventions? Can a person’s worth and potential be summed up in one intelligence test score? No animation.


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