what we’ve discussed so far history of psychology – modern approaches research methods the brain...
TRANSCRIPT
What we’ve Discussed so Far
• History of psychology– Modern approaches
• Research Methods• The Brain• Sensation & Perception• Altered States of
Consciousness• Learning
What We Have Today- Thinking- Memory- Intelligence- Language
AP PSYCHOLOGYReview for the AP Exam
Chapter 5-
MEMORY
Chapter 9
Memory*persistence of learning over time via the storage and retrieval of informationFlashbulb Memory*a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event
*where were you when Kennedy died?*where were you when 9-11 happened?
Memory
Storage– the retention of encoded information over time
Retrieval– process of getting information out of memory
Memory
TYPES OF MEMORYSensory Memory
– the immediate, initial recording of sensory information in the memory system
Short Term Memory– activated memory that holds a few items briefly– look up a phone number, then quickly dial before the
information is forgottenLong Term Memory
– the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system
Working Memory
*focuses more on the processing of briefly stored information*another term for Short Term Memory
Externalevents
Sensorymemory
Short-termmemory
Long-termmemory
Sensory input
Attention to importantor novel information
Encoding
Encoding
Retrieving
Encoding– the processing of information into the
memory system
Automatic Processing– unconscious encoding of incidental information
• space• time• frequency
– well-learned information• word meanings
– we can learn automatic processing• reading backwards
Encoding
Effortful Processing– requires attention and conscious effort
Rehearsal– conscious repetition of information
• to maintain it in consciousness • to encode it for storage
Hermann Ebbinghaus used nonsense syllables – TUV ZOF GEK WAV– the more times practiced on Day 1, the fewer repetitions to relearn on
Day 2Spacing Effect
– distributed practice yields better long term retention than massed practice
Encoding
Retentiondrops,
then levels off
1 3 5 9½ 14½ 25 35½ 49½Time spent learning list
100%
90
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Percentage of list retained
after relearning
Encoding
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15
10
5
08 16 24 32 42 53 64
Time in minutestaken to relearnlist on day 2
Number of repetitions of list on day 1
Encoding-Serial Position Effect
12
Percentage of
words recalled
0
90
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60
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Position of word in list1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Serial Position Effect--tendency to recall best the last items in a list
Immediate recall--last items best
Later recall--only first items recalled well
What Do We Encode?
Semantic Encoding– encoding of meaning– including meaning of words
Acoustic Encoding– encoding of sound– especially sound of words
Visual Encoding– encoding of picture images
Encoding
Imagery– mental pictures– a powerful aid to effortful processing, especially when
combined with semantic encodingMnemonics
– memory aids– especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and
organizational devices
Encoding
Chunking– organizing items into familiar, manageable units
• like horizontal organization- 1776149218121941– often occurs automatically– use of acronyms
• HOMES- Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior• ARITHMETIC- A Rat In Tom’s House Might Eat Tom’s Ice Cream
Hierarchiescomplex information broken down into broad concepts and further
subdivided into categories and subcategories
Encoding(automatic or effortful)
Imagery(visualEncoding)
Meaning(semanticEncoding)
Organization
Chunks Hierarchies
Encoding
Storage- Retaining Information
Sensory Memory– the immediate, initial recording of sensory information in the
memory system
Iconic Memory– a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli– a photographic or picture image memory lasting no more than a
few tenths of a second– Registration of exact representation of a scene
Echoic Memory– momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli
Storage-Short Term Memory
Short Term Memory
– limited in duration and capacity
– “magical” number 7+/-2
010
20
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90
3 6 9 12 15 18
Time in seconds between presentationof contestants and recall request
(no rehearsal allowed)
Percentagewho recalledconsonants
How does storage work?Karl Lashley (1950) began research on study of intelligence and the role of the frontal lobes.
Rats learn mazeRemove parts of brainRetest rats to see if they remember the
maze.
Storage--Long Term Memory
1890-1958
Storage--Long Term Memory
Synaptic changes– Long-term Potentiation
• increase in synapse’s firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation
Strong emotions make for stronger memories– some stress hormones boost learning and
retention
Storage- Long Term MemoryAmnesia- the loss of memoryExplicit Memory
– memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and declare
– Also called declarative memory– hippocampus- neural center in limbic
system that helps process explicit memories for storage
Implicit Memory– retention without conscious
recollection– motor and cognitive skills– dispositions- conditioning
Forgetting--Amnesia
Anterograde Amnesia*inability to form memories for new information because of brain trauma.*new experiences slip away from a person before they have a chance to store
them in long-term memory. (Clive Wearing or H.M.)
*H.M. (Initials for man with brain operation where hippocampus and amygdala removed…..crucial to laying down new episodic memories)
Retrograde Amnesia*the failure to remember events that occurred prior to physical trauma.
*causes include: blow to head, electric shock to the brain
MRI scan of hippocampus (in red)
Hippocampus
Storage-Long Term Memory
Recall*the ability to retrieve info learned earlier and not in conscious
awareness-like fill in the blank testRecognition
*the ability to identify previously learned items-like on a multiple choice test
Relearning*amount of time saved when relearning previously learned
informationPriming
*activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory
Retrieval Cues
0
10
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40
Water/land
Land/water
Water/water
Different contexts for hearing and recall
Same contexts for hearing and recall
Land/land
Percentage ofwords recalled
Retrieval Cues– Context Effects
• memory works better in the context of original learning
Mood Congruent Memory– tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one’s
current mood – memory, emotions or moods serve as retrieval cues
State Dependent Memory• what is learned in one state (while one is high, drunk or
depressed) can more easily be remembered when in same state
Retrieval Cues
Deja Vu- (French) already seen cues from the current situation may subconsciously trigger retrieval
of an earlier similar experience "I've experienced this before"
According to Daniel Schacter, most of our memory problems arise from the SEVEN SINS of MEMORY.
Three Sins of Forgetting
1) Transcience
2) Absent-mindedness
3) Blocking
Three Sins of Distortion
4) Misattribution
5) Suggestibility
6) Bias
One Sin of Intrusion
7) Persistence
Sin of forgetting
1) TRANSCIENCE
*Memories weaken with time
*Hermann Ebbinghaus (1908) learned lists of nonsense syllables and tried to recall them over time.
Ebbinghaus- forgetting curve over 30 days --initially rapid, then levels off with time12345 10 15 20 25 30
1020
30
405060
0
Time in days since learning list
Percentage oflist retainedwhen relearning
CONCLUSION:
For relatively meaningless material, there is a rapid initial loss of memory, followed by a declining rate of loss.
HOWEVER, some memories don’t follow the classic forgetting curve.
“Just like riding a bicycle”, is a phase which indicates that motor skill memories are often retained for many years.
Sin of forgetting
1) TRANSCIENCE
Forgetting as encoding failure*Information never enters the memory
system*Attention is selective
– we cannot attend to everything in our environment
*William James said that we would be as bad off if we remembered everything as we would be if we remembered nothing
Sin of forgetting
2) ABSENT-MINDEDNESS: Lapses of Attention
Retrieval failure caused by shifting your attention elsewhere. (ie) not paying attention when you laid your keys down
Sin of forgetting
3) BLOCKING: Interference Causes Forgetting
*Proactive Interference
*Retroactive Interference
*Serial Position Effect …first and last parts of a poem are easier to remember or you are more likely to remember the names of those people you meet first and last than those in between.
12
Percentage of
words recalled
0
908070605040302010
Position of word in list
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Learning some items may disrupt retrieval of other information
Proactive (forward acting) Interferencedisruptive effect of prior learning on recall of new information
Retroactive (backwards acting) Interferencedisruptive effect of new learning on recall of old information
Sin of forgetting
3) BLOCKING: Interference causes forgetting
Retroactive Interference
Without interferingevents, recall isbetter
After sleep
After remaining awake
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8Hours elapsed after learning syllables
90%
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Percentageof syllables
recalled
Sin of forgetting
3) BLOCKING: Interference causes forgetting
Forgetting--Interference
Motivated Forgetting*people unknowingly revise history
Repression*defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing
thoughts, feelings, and memoriesPositive Transfer
*sometimes old information facilitates our learning of new information
*knowledge of Latin may help us to learn French
Sin of Distortion
4) MISATTRIBUTION: Memories in Wrong Context
*sometimes memories are retrievable but are associated with the wrong time, place, or person.
CASE: Psychologist David Thompson was accused of rape, based on victim’s detailed description of her assailant.
Fortunately, Thompson had an indisputable alibi. At the time of the crime, he was being interviewed live on television--about
memory distortions. The victim had been watching the interview just before she was raped and had misattributed the
assault to Thompson.
Loftus & Palmer (1974) set out test their hypothesis that the language used in eyewitness testimony can alter memory. So they aimed to show that leading questions could distort accounts of events, therefore making them unreliable.
Sin of Distortion
5) SUGGESTIBILITY: External Cues Distort or Create
Witnesses to crimes may be interviewed by police, who might make suggestions about the facts of the case--deliberately or intentionally--which may impact the
testimony of the witness.
Participants were shown slides of a car accident involving a number of cars and were then asked to describe what had happened as if they were eyewitnesses.They were then asked specific questions, including the question "About how fast were the cars going when they (hit/smashed/ collided/bumped/contacted - the five conditions) each other?"
Estimating the speed of a car is generally something that people are poor at doing, suggesting that they may have been MORE OPEN TO SUGGESTION.
This distortion of memory is known as the
MISINFORMATION EFFECT.
This research would lead other researchers to discuss the RECOVERED MEMORY CONTROVERY, wherein some psychologists may use suggestion techniques to create false recovered memories.
Loftus then did research on FABRICATED MEMORY. She contacted parents of college students and gained TRUE information of childhood events, which the students were asked to recall. Loftus then added FALSE, but plausible, events.
After many recall attempts over a series of days, many students claimed to recall the contrived
events.
Sin of Distortion
5) SUGGESTIBILITY: External Cues Distort or Create
People fill in memory gaps with plausible guesses and assumptionsImagining events can create false memoriesChildren's eyewitness recall
– Child sexual abuse does occur– Some innocent people suffer false accusations– Some guilty cast doubt on true testimony
Sin of Distortion
5) SUGGESTIBILITY: External Cues Distort or Create
Memories of Abuse– Repressed or Constructed?
• Child sexual abuse does occur• Some adults do actually forget such episodes
False Memory Syndrome– condition in which a person’s identity and relationships center
around a false but strongly believed memory of traumatic experience
– sometimes induced by well-meaning therapists
Sin of Distortion
6) BIAS: Beliefs, Attitudes, and Opinions Distort Memories
Influence of personal beliefs, attitudes and experiences on memory:
*Expectancy Bias --unconscious tendency to remember events as being congruent with our expectations.
*Self-Consistency Bias --avoid inconsistency. Emotions can distort our memories.
Sin of Intrusion
7) PERSISTENCE: When We Can’t Forget
Sometimes memory works all too well when
*intense negative emotions are involved
*intrusive recollections of unpleasant events lie at the heart of several psychological disorders.
**interference--when memory blocks access or retrieval.
TOT (TIP OF THE TONGUE) occurs during a recall attempt, when there is a poor match between retrieval cues and the encoding of the word in long-
term memory.
Memory ConstructionWe filter information and fill in missing pieces
Misinformation Effect– incorporating misleading information into one's
memory of an event
Source Amnesia– attributing to the wrong source an event that we
experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined (misattribution)
The technical term for “photographic memory” is EIDETIC IMAGERY.
Eidetic Imagery portrays the most interesting and meaningful parts of the scene most accurately, as compared with a photograph which renders everything in complete detail.
*possessed by about 5% of children.
*very rare past adolescence.
To produce an eidetic image, a person must
*study a scene for some time
*actively concentrate on this scene
*images fade quickly when the attention is diverted to something else.
Improve Your Memory*Study repeatedly to boost recall*Spend more time rehearsing or actively
thinking about the material (SQ3R)(study, question, read, recite, review)
*Make material personally meaningful*Use mnemonic devices
– associate with peg words- something already stored
– make up story– chunk-acronyms
*Activate retrieval cues- mentally recreate situation and mood
*Recall events while they are fresh- write down before interference
*Minimize interference *Test your own knowledge
– rehearse– determine what you do not yet know
Improve Your Memory
MNEMONICS:
*Method of Loci (low-sye): Imagine a familiar sequence of places (bed, desk, chair)……to remember a grocery list, imagine tuna on the bed, shampoo spilled on the desk, and eggs open on the chair.
*Natural Language Mediators: make up a story using your list….(i..e.) The cat discovers I’m out of tuna so she interrupts me while I’m using shampoo and meows to egg me on.” OR
The teacher who used rhymes to remember (“i before e except after c”) (“thirty days hath September….)
*Remembering Names: You might visualize Bob’s face in a big “O” or Ann, you might visualize “Queen Ann sitting on a throne.”
*PEG System: Memorize a list of items and each time you have to organize a list, use a picture to illustrate the list in your mind.
THINKING and LANGUAGE
Chapter 10
Components of Thought
CONCEPTS: Mental representations of categories of items or ideas, based on experience.
*building blocks of thinking
*allow organization in systematic ways
CONCEPTS: Might be
*classes of objects (chairs, birds, birthday parties)
*properties (red, large)
*abstractions (truth, love)
*relations (smarter than….)
*procedures (how to tie your shoes)
*intentions (intention to break into a conversation)
CONCEPTS: TWO KINDS
Natural concepts: mental classifications that develop out of everyday experiences in the world. (birds, mother’s face, artichokes, Statue of Liberty)
Artificial concepts: defined by a set of rules or characteristics (dictionary definitions, mathematical formulas)
We organize much of our memory into CONCEPT HIERARCHIES.
Animal
Bird Fish
Canary Ostrich Shark Salmon
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Cognitive Maps Mental, visual representation of the layout of one’s environment
example- after exploring a maze, rats act as if they have learned a cognitive map of it Cognitive maps help you get to
psychology class or drive your mom to the theatre or help you walk around your house.
Schema: Cluster of related concepts that provides a general conceptual framework for thinking about a topic, an event, an object, people or a situation in one’s life. (Zimbardo)
*provide contexts
*provide expectations
*provide features likely to be found when encountering familiar people or situations.
For example, take the word, TERMINAL.
Are you in:
*an airport?
*a hospital?
*an auto shop?
How does the meaning change?
We also have SCHEMAS about persons, roles, and ourselves. An event schema is called a SCRIPT.
We have scripts for going to restaurant, going to church,
going to the library, or making love.
Culture influences our scripts. U.S. servicewomen in the middle east had to change many behaviors taken for granted at home, such as walking unescorted in public or driving a car or wearing clothing that showed their faces and legs, when they went into Arab countries.
Conflicting scripts can make people awkward and difficult to understand. Sometimes it can be so uncomfortable, they don’t want to play the scene again.
INDUCTIVE REASONING: form of thinking using individual cases or particular facts to reach a general conclusion.
The ice is cold = all ice is cold
DEDUCTIVE REASONING: form of thinking in which conclusions are inferred from premises, the conclusions are true if the premises are true (if this, then that)
All men are mortal & Socrates is a man = Socrates is mortal
Thinking
Cognition– mental activity associated with processing, understanding,
and communicating informationCognitive Psychology
– the study of these mental activities• concept formation• problem solving• decision making• judgement formation
– study of both logical and illogical thinking
ThinkingConcept
– mental grouping of similar objects, events, or people• address
– country, city, street, house– zip codes
Prototype– the best example of a category
• matching new items to the prototype provides a quick and easy method for including items in a category (as when comparing feathered creatures to a prototypical bird, such as a robin.)
Problem Solving
Algorithm– methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a
particular problem– contrasts with the usually speedier – but also more error-prone use
of heuristics
Heuristic rule-of-thumb strategy that often allows us to make
judgements and solve problems efficiently usually speedier than algorithms more error-prone than algorithms sometimes we’re unaware of using heuristics
Good problem solvers are skilled at (a) identifying the problem, and (b) selecting a strategy.
TWO strategy methods:
HEURISTICS: simple, basic rules or “rule of thumb”. (i.e.) “feed a cold, starve a fever” Heuristics do not guarantee a solution, but they give us a good start. Useful heuristics include:
a) Working backward
b) Searching for analogies. (if the new problem is similar to the one you’ve faced previously)
c) Breaking a big problem into smaller pieces
HeuristicsRepresentativeness Heuristic
– rule of thumb for judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes
– may lead one to ignore other relevant information
Availability Heuristic estimating the likelihood of events based on their
availability in memory if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because
of their vividness), we presume such events are common
Example: airplane crash
Obstacles to Thinking
Clearly
BIAS
a) Confirmation bias: finding fault with information that doesn’t confirm your belief.
b) Hindsight bias: people overestimate their ability to have predicted an event
c) Anchoring bias: faulty heuristic caused by basing an estimate on a completely unrelated quantity.
1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 x 6 x 7 x 8 = ?
8 x 7 x 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = ? When these equations are given to 2 separate groups of people to ESTIMATE, the average answer for #1 was 512, and #2 was 2250.
d) Representativeness bias: faulty heuristic strategy based on the presumption that once people or events are categorized, they share all the features of other members in that category.
e) Availability bias: faulty heuristic strategy that estimates probabilities based on information that can be recalled from personal experience.
Obstacles to Problem Solving
Mental Set– tendency to approach a problem in a particular way– especially a way that has been successful in the past but
may or may not be helpful in solving a new problem
Functional Fixedness tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual
functions impediment to problem solving
Self Imposed Limitations Low self-esteem
Lack of Knowledge Fatigue
Lack of Interest Drugs
ThinkingOverconfidence
– tendency to be more confident than correct – tendency to overestimate the accuracy of one’s
beliefs and judgements
Framing the way an issue is posed how an issue is framed can significantly
affect decisions and judgements Example: What is the best way to market
ground beef- As 25% fat or 75% lean?
ThinkingBelief Bias
– the tendency for one’s preexisting beliefs to distort logical reasoning– sometimes by making invalid conclusions seem valid, or valid
conclusions seem invalid
Belief Perseverance– clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were
formed has been discredited
Artificial Intelligence designing and programming computer systems
to do intelligent things to simulate human thought processes
• intuitive reasoning• learning• understanding language
HOW DO CHILDREN ACQUIRE
LANGUAGE?
LanguageLanguage
– our spoken, written, or gestured works and the way we combine them to communicate meaning
Phoneme– in a spoken language, the smallest distinctive sound unit
Morpheme– in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning– may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix)
Grammar– a system of rules in a language that enables us to
communicate with and understand others
LanguageSemantics
– the set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language
– also, the study of meaningSyntax
– the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language
LANGUAGE
INNATENESS THEORY OF LANGUAGE
*children acquire language not merely by imitating but also by inborn program of steps to acquire vocabulary and grammar in their environment.
Noam CHOMSKY, psycholinguist
*children born with mental structure, allows vocabulary & grammar of their environment
*LAD: Language Acquisition device
HUMAN GENOME PROJECT
*language is genetic
*Broca’s area (ch.2)
Professor emeritus, linguistics, MIT
LanguageWe are all born to recognize speech sounds from all the world’s
languages
100
90
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70
60
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Percentage ableto discriminateHindi t’s
Hindi-speaking
adults
6-8 months
8-10months
10-12months
English-speaking
adults
Infants from English-speaking homes
LanguageBabbling Stage
*beginning at 3 to 4 months*the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household languageOne-Word Stage (“mama”)*from about age 1 to 2*the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly in single wordsTwo-Word Stage (“mommy milk”) *beginning about age 2*the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly two-word statements*start to acquire grammarTelegraphic Speech (“ball hit mary cry”)*early speech stage in which the child speaks like a telegram – “go car” – using mostly nouns and verbs and omitting “auxiliary” words*acquire rules of grammar
also called “naming stage”
Starting at age 2, children also:
*acquire use of MORPHEMES, showing tense (walks, walked, walking)
*overgeneralization or overregularization: (ie. hitted, breaked)
*use words with abstract meanings (dream, forget, pretend, believe)
*use words that refer to emotions (happy, sad, angry)
After cognitive advances in later childhood, they understand highly abstract words (truth,
justice, idea)
• New language learning gets harder with age
Language
Linguistic Relativity (or Linguistic Determinism)–Whorf”s hypothesis that language
determines the way we think
INTELLIGENCE and TESTING
Chapter 11
……is a very general mental capability that, among other things, involves the ability to reason, plan, solve
problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly, and learn from experience.
What is Intelligence?
• Intelligence– *capacity for goal-directed and adaptive behavior– *involves certain abilities
• profit from experience• solve problems• reason effectively
*ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations
What is Intelligence?• Reification
– *viewing an abstract, immaterial concept as if it were a concrete thing.
– *reasoning error
– To reify is to invent a concept, give it a name, and then convince ourselves that such a thing objectively exists in the world.
– One SHOULD say “she has a score on the intelligence test of 120” NOT….”she has an IQ of 120.”
INTELLIGENCE THEORIES
PEOPLE TO KNOW IN THIS CHAPTER:
1) Binet: IQ test
2) Terman: Stanford-Binet IQ test (adapted)
3) Spearman: “g” and “s” (developed Factor Analysis)
4) Thurston: “Primary Mental Abilities”
5) Guilford: Operations, Contents, Products
6) Gardner: 9 Multiple Intelligences
7) Jansen: social intelligence
8) Cattell: fluid v. crystalized intelligence
9) Goleman: emotional intelligence
10)Wechsler: Adult Intelligence Scale
Origins of Intelligence Testing
Intelligence Test a method of assessing an individual’s mental
aptitudes and comparing them to those of others, using numerical scores
Binet
ALFRED BINET (1857-1911) French Psychologist
･ Received his law degree in 1878
･ Subsequently studied natural sciences at the Sorbonne
･ Self-taught in psychology
Origins of Intelligence
• Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale– *the widely used
American revision of Binet’s original intelligence test
• *revised by Terman at Stanford University
Purpose: to identify students needing special attention in school outside of a regular classroom (developed in France by Binet)
Lewis Madison Terman (1877-1956) Cognitive Psychologist
･ Central Normal College (B.S., B.P., B. A., 1894, 1898)
･ Indiana University at Bloomington (B.A., M.A., 1903)
･ Clark University (PH.D. in Psychology, 1905)
Origins of Intelligence Testing
Intelligence Quotient (IQ) defined originally the ratio of mental age (ma) to
chronological age (ca) multiplied by 100 IQ = ma/ca x 100
on contemporary tests, the average performance for a given age is assigned a score of 100
• Mental Age--a measure of intelligence test performance devised by Binet--chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level
of performance--child who does as well as the average 8-year-old is said to have a
mental age of 8--used in years and months
Are There Multiple Intelligences?• Factor Analysis (FACTOR THEORIES)
– statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items (called factors) on a test
– used to identify different dimensions of performance that underlie one’s total score
General Intelligence (g) factor that SPEARMAN and others believed underlies
specific mental abilities measured by every task on an intelligence test *performance of any intellectual act requires some combination of
"g” (general intelligence), which is available to the same individual to the same degree for all intellectual acts, and of "s" (specific factors) which are specific to that act and which varies in strength from one act to another.
In 1938, Louis L. Thurstone, an early researcher, rejected the ”g theory". He analyzed the scores of many research participants on 56 separate tests, Thurston identified SEVEN primary mental abilities:
• verbal comprehension,
• numerical ability,
• spatial relations,
• perceptual speed,
• word fluency,
• memory, and
• Reasoning
CONCLUSION: all intellectual activities involve one or more of these primary mental abilities.
He and his wife, Thelma G. Thurstone, developed their Primary Mental Abilities Tests to measure these seven abilities.
In J.P. Guilford's Structure of Intellect (SI) theory,
*intelligence is viewed as comprising operations, contents, and products.
** OPERATIONS (5) (cognition, memory, divergent production, convergent production, evaluation)
** PRODUCTS (6) (units, classes, relations, systems, transformations, and implications
** CONTENTS (5) (visual, auditory, symbolic, semantic, behavioral).
Since each of these dimensions is independent, there are theoretically 150 different components of intelligence.
Linguistic intelligence involves sensitivity to spoken and written language, the ability to learn languages, and the capacity to use language to accomplish certain goals. . . . Writers, poets, lawyers and speakers are seen as having high linguistic intelligence.
Logical-mathematical intelligence consists of the capacity to analyze problems logically, carry out mathematical operations, and investigate issues scientifically. . . . . . detect patterns, reason deductively and think logically. . . . scientific and mathematical thinking.
Musical intelligence involves skill in the performance, composition, and appreciation of musical patterns. . . . the capacity to recognize and compose musical pitches, tones, and rhythms. . .
Spatial intelligence involves the potential to recognize and use the patterns of wide space and more confined areas.
Howard Earl Gardner (1943- ) MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES
His work has been marked by a desire not to just describe the world but to help to create the conditions to change it. He initially formulated
a list of seven intelligences and later added two more:
Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence entails the potential of using one's whole body or parts of the body to solve problems. . . . the ability to use mental abilities to coordinate bodily movements.
Interpersonal intelligence is concerned with the capacity to understand the intentions, motivations and desires of other people. . . . allows people to work effectively with others. Educators, salespeople, religious and political leaders and counselors all need a well-developed interpersonal intelligence.
Intrapersonal intelligence entails the capacity to understand oneself, to appreciate one's feelings, fears and motivations. . . . . ability to use such information to regulate our lives.
Naturalist intelligence enables human beings to recognize, categorize and draw upon certain features of the environment. It 'combines a description of the core ability with a characterization of the role that many cultures value'
***Existential intelligence, a concern with 'ultimate issues', is, thus, the next possibility that Howard Gardner considers - and he argues that it 'scores reasonably well on the criteria. The final, and obvious, candidate for inclusion in
Howard Gardner's list is moral intelligence.
• COGNITIVE THEORIES– Intelligence depends on situation in which it
occurs--how information is processed
STERNBERG: “Triarchial Theory”
*didn’t think Gardner’s view went far enough
1) Practical (Contextual) -- learning within the environment in which you live (practical intelligence)
2) Analytical (Componential) -- problem solving; thinking abstractly (information processing intelligence)
3) Creative (Experiential) -- the ability to create new ideas (insight intelligence)
Arthur JENSEN: Social Class difference
Social Intelligencethe know-how involved in comprehending social
situations and managing oneself successfully
*1998, found convincing evidence for potent environmental effects on black IQs in a rural Georgia county where black SES was exceedingly low even relative to other blacks in the US.
*Older black siblings systematically scored worse on an IQ test than their younger sibs, indicating some environmental insult that accumulated over time.
*juvenile delinquents and adult criminals have lower IQ's, on average, than those of their own full siblings with whom they were reared
*correlation between IQ and socially undesirable behavior is not just mediated by differences in social class and cultural background
Upper-upper (Inherited wealth, Old money, blood relations)
Lower-upper (CEOs, investors, entrepreneurs, achievement)
Upper-middle (managers, professionals, owners of medium size businesses)
Middle-middle (semiprofessionals, craftspeople, foremen, non-retail salespeople, clerical, farms, small-town doctors & lawyers, teachers, police, clergy)
Lower-middle or Working-class (low-skill manual, clerical, retail sales, roofers, truck drivers, unstable employment, below average income)
Upper-lower or Working-poor (lowest-paid manual, retail, service workers, below poverty line)
Lower-lower or Underclass (unemployed, part-time menial jobs, public assistance, single mothers, generational welfare)
Social Stratification in U.S.
Some people in the lower-upper class may have more money than the upper-upper class, but they will not be accepted into the exclusive social clubs.
1% of population
14% of population
30% of population
30% of population
13% of population
12% of population
Raymond CATTELL (1905-1998)
*general intelligence ..conglomeration of +/- 100 abilities working together in various ways in different people to bring out different intelligences.
*fluid intelligence (information that fades with age) ability to think and act quickly, solve novel problems, and encode short-term memories
*crystalized intelligence (procedural information that never goes away) stems from learning and acculturation, reflected in tests of knowledge, general information, use of language (vocabulary) and a wide variety of acquired skills
*student of Spearman
*University College, London, B.S, chemistry (1921-1924)
*King ﾕ s College, Ph.D., psychology (1924-1929)
*University College, London, MA,education (1932); honorary doctor of science (1939)
EI is a type of social intelligence that involves the ability to:
*monitor one's own and others' emotions,
*discriminate among them, and to
*use the information to guide one's thinking and actions. (Mayer & Salovey, 1993: 433)
Dr. Goleman’s 1995 book, Emotional Intelligence, argues that human competencies like self-awareness, self-discipline, persistence and empathy are of greater consequence than IQ in much of life, that we ignore the decline in these competencies at our peril, and that children can and should be taught these abilities.
What about Emotional Intelligence?
GOLEMAN: Need both EQ and IQ to be successful.
Emotional Intelligence has 5 domains:
Self-awareness:Observing yourself and recognizing a feeling as it happens.
Managing emotions:Handling feelings so that they are appropriate; realizing what is behind a feeling; finding ways to handle fears and anxieties, anger, and sadness.
Motivating oneself:Channeling emotions in the service of a goal; emotional self control; delaying gratification and stifling impulses.
Empathy:Sensitivity to others' feelings and concerns and taking their perspective; appreciating the differences in how people feel about things.
Handling relationships:Managing emotions in others; social competence and social skills.
Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobsen (1968) asked psychology students to run rats through a maze. Some of the students were told their rats were “bright”; others were told their rats were “dull.” Incredibly, the rats that were believed to be “bright” performed better
than the “dull” rats. Expectations influenced performance.
Rosenthal and Jacobsen wondered if teachers’ expectations could influence student performance. They designed an experiment where they told grade school teachers that 20% of their students had been given a special test. Some of the students were identified as “spurters,” who would blossom academically during the coming year.
Actually, the test revealed nothing and the students had been randomly assigned by the design team.
Results: Those children whom the teachers expected to do well, did so. The teachers saw the spurters as more curious and having more potential. They saw the children as happier, more interesting, better adjusted.
When the spurters were given an IQ test a year later, the experimental group made substantial gains in IQ points.
The idea that students perform better when they are expected to is called the Pygmaleon Effect, the Rosenthal Effect, or the Teacher-Expectancy Effect.
It is a type of Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, as students with negative expectations internalize the label and those with positive labels succeed.
ASSESSING INTELLIGENCE
Brain Function and IntelligenceIs intelligence neurologically measureable?
1) Processing speed: Earl Hunt (1983) found that verbal intelligence scores are predictable from the speed with which people retrieve information from memory.
2) Perceptual speed: Those who perceive quickly tend to score somewhat higher on intelligence tests, particularly test based on perceptual rather than verbal problem solving.
3) Neurological speed: Evoked brain responses tend to be slightly faster when people with high rather than low intelligence scores perform a simple task.
The Multifactor Emotional Intelligence Scale (MEIS) developed by Mayer, Salovey and Caruso (2000), assess the test-takers ability to:
1) Perceive emotions by recognizing emotions conveyed by various faces, musical excerpts, graphic designs, and stories.
2) Understand emotions by recognizing how emotions change over time and apprehending how emotions blend.
3) Regulate emotions by rating alternative strategies that one could use when facing various real-life dilemmas.
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Assessing Intelligence• Aptitude Test
– a test designed to predict a person’s future performance– aptitude is the capacity to learn
• Achievement Test– a test designed to assess what a person has learned
• Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)– most widely used intelligence test– subtests
• verbal • performance (nonverbal)
WISC--Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children
WPPEI--Wechsler Preschool & Primary Scale of Intelligence
Assessing Intelligence- Sample Items from the WAIS
From Thorndike and Hagen, 1977
VERBAL
General Information Similarities Arithmetic ReasoningVocabularyComprehensionDigit Span
PERFORMANCE
Picture Completion Picture ArrangementBlock DesignObject AssemblyDigit-Symbol Substitution
Assessing IntelligenceStandardization
– defining meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested “standardization group”
Normal Curve – the symmetrical bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of
many physical and psychological attributes– most scores fall near the average, and fewer and fewer scores lie near
the extremes
Flynn Effect
American philosophy professor James Flynn discovered a remarkable trend:
Average IQ scores in every industrialized country on the planet had been increasing steadily for decades.
Despite concerns about the dumbing-down of society - the failing schools, the garbage on TV, the decline of reading - the overall population was getting smarter. Our brains are getting better at
problem-solving.
The Normal Curve
Ninety-five percent of all people fall within 30 points
of 100
Number of
scores
55 70 85 100 115 130 145
Wechsler intelligence score
Sixty-eight percentof people score within 15 points
above or below 100
• Reliability– the extent to which a test yields consistent results– assessed by consistency of scores on:
• two halves of the test• alternate forms of the test• retesting the same individual
• Validity– the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is suppose to
Content Validity– the extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest or knowledge
about subjectFace Validity or Predictive Validity or Criterion-Related Validity
– A test measures what it is supposed to measure.– assessed by computing the correlation between test scores and the criterion
behavior• driving test that samples driving tasks or a unit exam in biology
Criterion Validity– behavior (such as college grades) that a test (such as the SAT) is designed to predict.– measures against a specific learning goal.– the measure used in defining whether the test has predictive validity
• applicants for flight school have to pass a certain standard
Assessing Intelligence
Split-Half Reliabilty– exam split into 2 halves and scores compared.
• if your teacher checks to see if students are odd and even numbered correct
Test-Retest Reliability– individuals taking a test more than once tend to get
similar scores.• Taking ACT or SAT more than once and getting similar scores
The Dynamics of Intelligence
Degrees of Mental Retardation
Level Typical Intelligence Scores Percentage of the Retarded Adaptation to Demands of Life
Mild 50-70 85% May learn academic skills up to sixth-grade level. Adults may, with assistance, achieve self-supporting social and vocational skills.
Moderate 35-49 10 May progress to second-grade level. academically. Adults may contribute to their own support by labor in sheltered workshops.
Severe 20-34 3-4 May learn to talk and perform simple work tasks under close supervision but are generally unable to profit from vocational training.
Profound Below 20 1-2 Require constant aid and supervision.
Genetic Influences
• The most genetically similar people have the most similar scores
Similarity ofintelligence
scores(correlation)
Identicaltwinsreared together
Identicaltwinsreared apart
Fraternaltwinsreared together
Siblingsreared together
Unrelatedindividualsreared together
Genetic Influences
Heritability
the proportion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genes
variability depends on range of populations and environments studied
Genetic Influences
0.35
0.30
0.25
0.20
0.15
0.10
0.05
0.003 years 16 years
Child-parentcorrelation inverbal ability
scores
Children and theirbirth parents
Adopted childrenand their birthparents
Adopted childrenand their adoptiveparents
Autism
*moderately rare condition
*typically appears during the first three years of life
*neurological disorder (CNS injuries)
*affects the functioning of the developing brain, resulting in sometimes profound communicative, social interaction and cognitive deficits.
*hard to relate to outside world
*four times more prevalent in boys than girls
*estimated to occur in as many as 1 in 150 individuals and is on the rise
• Savant Syndrome– condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an
amazing specific skill• computation • drawing
autistic savant
*Although there is a strong association with autism, it is certainly not the case that all savants are autistic.
*estimated that about 50% of the cases of savant syndrome are autistic
*other 50% have developmental disabilities and CNS injuries.
Studies of intelligence and creativity suggest that a certain level of aptitude is necessary but not sufficient for creativity. Studies of creative people suggest 5 other components of creativity:
1) Expertise is a well-developed base of knowledge.
2) Imaginative thinking skills provide the ability to see things in new ways, to recognize patterns, to make connections.
3) A venturesome personality tolerates ambiguity and risk, perseveres in overcoming obstacles and seeks new experiences.
4) Intrinsic motivation--people are most creative when they feel motivated primarily by the interest, enjoyment, satisfaction, and challenge of the work itself.
5) A creative environment sparks, supports, and refines creative ideas.
Group Differences
Stereotype Threat A self-confirming concern that one
will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype
Why do intelligent people fail?
1) Lack of motivation
2) Lack of impulse control
3) Lack of perseverance and preservation.
4) Using the wrong abilities.
5) Inability to translate thought into action
6) Lack of product orientation
7) Inability to complete tasks
8) Failure to initiate
9) Fear of failure
10) Procrastination
Why do intelligent people fail?
11) Misattribution of blame
12) Excessive self-pity
13) Excessive dependency
14) Wallowing in personal difficulties
15) Distractability
16) Spreading oneself too thin
17) Inability to delay gratification
18) Inability to see the forest for the trees
19) Lack of balance between critical thinking and creative thinking
20) Too little or too much self-confidence
Questions still needing to be answered:
1) Genetic factors contribute substantially to individual differences but the pathway by which genes produce their effects is still unknown. Moreover, the impact of genetic differences increases with age, but we don’t know why.
2) Environmental factors also make a significant contribution to the development of intelligence. Schooling is important but we don’t know what aspects of schooling are critical
3) The effect of nutrition is unclear. Obviously, severe nutrition has negative effects but the notion that particular “micronutrients” may increase intelligence has not been convincingly demonstrated.
Questions still needing to be answered:
4) Measures of information-processing speed correlate with intelligence scores but there is no easy theoretical interpretation of these findings.
5) Mean scores on intelligence tests are rising steadily, going up a full standard deviation in the last half century. No one is certain why this is happening or what it means.
6) The difference between intelligence scores of blacks and whites does not result from any obvious biases in test construction. Nor does it reflect differences in socioeconomic status. There is no support for genetic interpretation.
7) Standardized tests do not sample all forms of intelligence. (creativity, wisdom, practical sense, social sensibility)
What is Intelligence?• Reification
– *viewing an abstract, immaterial concept as if it were a concrete thing.
– *reasoning error
– To reify is to invent a concept, give it a name, and then convince ourselves that such a thing objectively exists in the world.
– One SHOULD say “she has a score on the intelligence test of 120” NOT….”she has an IQ of 120.”