Cognitive Building Blocks ­ mental images, concepts, and language

  • Images­ nonverbal mental representations of a sensory experience o Can be exceptionally powerful
    • Allow us to think in non­verbal ways that give us insights we couldn’t get otherwise  Einstein picture EX
  • Concepts­ mental categories for classifying specific people, things, or events (think labels) o Provide a way of grouping/categorizing experiences so that encounters with something new need not be surprising
    • Basic idea of how we deal with situation
    • Concept of dog includes properties that re common to most/all dogs but vary individually
  • Become more varied and detailed with more experiences
  • Organized into hierarchies with narrowest, most specific category at the bottom and most general at the top
  • Fuzzy­ overlap each other and are often poorly defined
    • Have common characteristics with different aspects
    • Mouse and Rat EX
  • Prototypes­ mental model containing the most typical features of a concept
    • 1 individual that hast most typical features­ Lab EX
    • Rosch­ researcher that developed idea of prototype
    • Seldom perfect models/exclusive representations
    • Degree of Category Membership­ how we decide what is most probably or most sensible to put in category
  • Language­ flexible system of symbols that enables us to communicate our thoughts, ideas, and feelings o Long been considered a defining feature of human cognition o All animals communicate in one way or another
    • Communicate primarily through signs­ general or global stereotyped communications about the animal’s current state

 Calls they use that do not change

 Humans not limited to just signs like animals are

  • Displacement­ communicating about something beyond here and there  Underlies analytical thinking­ enables us to image consequences to modify our behavior
  • Productivity­ ability to add new communications

 Animals are limited to what they are born with

  • Structure of Language­
    • Sound and Meaning

Phonemes­ basic sound units of a language that indicate changes in meaning

  • All different letters in alphabet
  • ~ 45 in US
  • which sounds are meaningful depend on language o Z and S are different in other cultures o Lose ability to differentiate meaningful/nonmeaningful with age

Morphemes­ smallest meaningful units of speech, such as simple words, prefixes, and suffixes

  • A, An, The, Ed
  • Can use phonemes to produce different morphemes
  • Car/Cars EX
  • Grammar­ language rules that determine how sounds and words can be combined and used to communicate meaning within a language

Syntax­ rules for arranging words into grammatical phrases and sentences

Semantics­ criteria for assigning meaning to morphemes

Noam Chomsky: influenced understanding

  • Surface structure­ particular words/phrases used to make up a sentence
  • Deep structure­ the underlying meaning of a sentence
  • Stages of Language Development
    • Pre­linguistic stage­ communicate through crying

 Hunger

 Anger

 Pain

  • Cooing Stage­ vowel like sounds produced around 2­3 months of age
  • Babbling­ vowel and consonant combinations around the age of 4­6 months
  • Linguistic stage­ babbling sounds more like child’s native language

 Baby understand sound is related to meaning

 Develops around the end of the baby’s 1st year

Overextension­ overly broad use of a word to include  objects that do not fit word’s meaning

  • Dog and Dad EX

Telegraphic speech­ 2­3 word sentences of young children that contain only most necessary words

  • Develops around age 2
  • Does not contain nice, smaller words

Overgeneralization­ applying rules of grammar to cases that are exceptions to the rule

  • Mans/Men EX
  • Intelligence­ general capacity to profit from experiences, acquire knowledge and adapt to changes in the environment o Spearman’s 2­factor Theory: general intelligence factor (g)

 Test scores included measurement error and (s)­ specific factor related to tests

  • Thrustong and group factors­ aspects of intelligence at least partly independent of (g)­ group factors
    • Verbal comprehension­ hw good you are with language
    • Word fluency­ ability to quickly generate/manipulate a large number of words with specific characteristics
    • Number­ quickly perform math
    • Space­ spatial ability with maps, navigation…
    • Associative memory­ quickly memorize things
    • Perceptual speed­ quickly process visual information
    • Reasoning­ ability for rational scientific thought o RB Cattell and Fluid VS Crystallized Intelligence­ different aspects of (g)
    • Fluid Intelligence­ ability to see relationships and connections

 Reflects inherent capacity to learn

  • Crystallized intelligence­ store of knowledge

 What you actually know

  • Both are highly related and build on each other

 

Vernon’s Hierarchical Model­ (g) broken down into 2 major group factors

  • Verbal­educational­ language abilities
  • Spatial­Motor­ control body
  • 2 major group factors are broken into 7 minor gropu factors o Guildord’s Structure of Intellect Model­ does not accept (g); Intelligence has 3D cubic model
  • X­dimension­ Operations­ thinking and evaluating
  • Y­dimension­ Contents­ visual, auditory, symbolic information
  • Z­dimension­ Products­ units, classes, relations o Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences­ dissatisfied with traditional IQ tests that only measured 2 types
  • Independent neural existence for each intelligence
  • Believed in Savants­ separate levels (Rainman EX)  Linguistic intelligence­ verbal ability

Logical­mathematical intelligence­ math ability

Spatial intelligence­ spatial ability to think in 3D

  • Wii brain academy EX

Musical intelligence­ ability to perceive/create pitch and rhythm

Body­kinesthetic intelligence­ fine motor movements

  • Surgeon, dancer EX

Naturalist Intelligence­ understand natural phenomenon

  • Farmers EX

Interpersonal Intelligence­ understand/manipulate other people

Intrapersonal Intelligence­ ability to know yourself/own levels of motivation

  • Sternberg’s Triarchic (ruled by 3) Model­dissatisfied with traditional IQ tests
    • All aspects are separate

Analytical intelligence­ general learning and comprehension abilities

Creative intelligence­ ability to select, encode, compare, combine information into meaningful ways to create new insights, theories, ideas

  • See things in different way than others
  • Think outside the box

Practical intelligence­ adaptive behavior in the real world

 History of Intelligence testing

  • Use of tests to decide job placement in 2200 BC in China
  • Brass Instrument Era­ late 1800s­ machines used to measure sensory thresholds/RT o Sir Francis Galton­ father of mental testing

 Thought measures of sensorimotor activity indicate intelligence o Cattell­ 1st to use the term “mental test”

o Wissler­ sensorimotor scores were unrelated to academic achievement

 RT does not translate into grades

  • Classification of developmentally delayed­ before the 19th century, dealt with the developmentally delayed/insane by warehousing them o 19th century­ people began to push for reforms
    • Esquirol­ pointed out many different levels of retardation
    • Seguin­ showed mentally handicapped could benefit from sensorimotor training
  • Early 1900s­ Ministry of Public Instruction in Paris wanted to provide extensive education for all intelligent children and more practical, less academic kinds of schooling for less intelligent children­ more tailored education o Alfred Binet­ devised a test to sort out children according to intelligence
    • Set of questions for each age
    • Take test until cannot answer questions anymore
    • Binet­Simon o Lewis Terman­ revised the Binet Simon
    • Stanford­Binet became the gold standard
    • Intelligence Quotient­ IQ­ calculated by dividing mental age by chronological age and multiplying by 100

 Easy to interpret and understand

 Binet­Stanford was the 1st to use IQ

 Problem­ suggests people get less intelligent with age

  • Group Intelligence testing­ started in WW1

APA appointed a committee headed by Yerkes to come up with a simple way to classify soldiers

  • Army Alpha­ written test give to large groups

 Provided rough estimate of intelligence

  • Army Beta­ nonverbal test for illiterate and non­English speaking

 Could be administered to groups

 Characteristics of Good intelligence tests

  • Includes a broad sampling of tasks­ more than just verbal and math
  • Measure Amplitude, not achievement o Amplitude­ cumulative knowledge, skills, abilities o Achievement­ what you know about a specific area
  • Indifference of the indicator­ Spearman
    • Can change individual test questions without changing overall score
  • Reliability­ same test scores over different trials gives you more faith in the results Validity­ measure what it claims ot measure • Standardization:
    • Norms­ given to vast numbers of other people o Procedures­ same testing experience

 ACT EX

 Intelligence Testing and Cultural Bias

  • Cultural bias­ differences in the extent to which the person being tested has had the opportunity to know and become familiar with the specific subject matter or specific processes required by the test item o Everyone does not have the same educational background
  • Assumed white middle­class have more exposure to cultural activities than do minority children
  • Black Intelligence Test for Cultural homogeneity­

Running game EX