Define thinking Describe several ways in which we represent information in our minds
1. Define thinking.
2. Describe several ways in which we represent information in our minds.
3. Explain the difference between logical and natural concepts.
4. Identify and describe mental strategies we can use to solve problems more effectively.
5. Identify and describe mental roadblocks that impede problem-solving and decision-making.
6. Describe the basic processes of creative thought and explain the difference between divergent and convergent thinking.
7. How can you apply skills of problem-solving to become a creative problem solver in everyday life? (Please give at least 3 examples)
8. Identify and describe the basic components of language and the milestones in language development and describe the roles of nature and nurture in language development.
9. Evaluate the linguistic relativity hypothesis and whether language is unique to humans.
10. Define intelligence, identify different tests of intelligence, and evaluate the characteristics of a good test of intelligence
11. Evaluate gender differences in cognitive abilities.
12. Describe the characteristics of the two extremes of intelligence and the misuse of intelligence tests.
13. Describe the major theories of intelligence and evaluate the roles of heredity and environment in intelligence.
Essentials of Psychology: Concepts and Applications, 6e Chapter 7: Thinking, Language, and Intelligence
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©2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Icebreaker
Each student is asked to reflect upon the following questions to begin thinking about concepts related to thinking, language, and intelligence.
To what extent have you found brainstorming to be useful?
Do you think brainstorming inspires creativity or squelches it? Why?
What are alternative ways to generate novel ideas and solutions?
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Nevid, Essentials of Psychology, 6th Edition. © 2022 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
©2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Chapter Objectives (1 of 3)
By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:
07.01 Define thinking.
07.02 Describe several ways in which we represent information in our minds.
07.03 Explain the difference between logical and natural concepts.
07.04 Identify and describe mental strategies we can use to solve problems more effectively.
07.05 Identify and describe mental roadblocks that impede problem solving and decision making.
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Nevid, Essentials of Psychology, 6th Edition. © 2022 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
©2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Chapter Objectives (2 of 3)
By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:
07.06 Describe the basic processes of creative thought and explain the difference between divergent and convergent thinking.
07.07 Apply skills of problem solving to become a creative problem solver.
07.08 Identify and describe the basic components of language and the milestones in language development, and describe the roles of nature and nurture in language development.
07.09 Evaluate the linguistic relativity hypothesis and whether language is unique to humans.
‹#›
Nevid, Essentials of Psychology, 6th Edition. © 2022 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
©2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Chapter Objectives (2 of 3)
By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:
07.10 Define intelligence, identify different tests of intelligence, and evaluate the characteristics of a good test of intelligence.
07.11 Evaluate gender differences in cognitive abilities.
07.12 Describe the characteristics of the two extremes of intelligence and the misuses of intelligence tests.
07.13 Describe the major theories of intelligence and evaluate the roles of heredity and environment in intelligence.
‹#›
Nevid, Essentials of Psychology, 6th Edition. © 2022 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
©2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Module 7.1
Thinking
Nevid, Essentials of Psychology, 6th Edition. © 2022 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
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Nevid, Essentials of Psychology, 6th Edition. © 2022 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
6
©2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Mental Images: In Your Mind’s Eye
Cognitive psychology is the branch of psychology that focuses on processes such as perception, thinking, problem-solving, decision making, and language.
Thinking is the process of mentally representing and manipulating information.
Mental images help us perform various cognitive functions, such as remembering directions and seeking creative solutions to problems.
Think about the route you take when traveling from your home to the grocery store.
What mental images are going through your mind?
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Nevid, Essentials of Psychology, 6th Edition. © 2022 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
©2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Discussion Activity 1
Top athletes frequently use mental imagery as a means to build on their strengths and reduce their weaknesses.
What are the cognitive processes by which mental imagery results in improved sports performance?
Have you used mental imagery to improve your athletic skills? How did it affect your performance?
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Nevid, Essentials of Psychology, 6th Edition. © 2022 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
©2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Think-Pair-Share Activity 1
Students pair up and answer the following questions:
Cognitive psychology is a branch of psychology that explores processes such as perception, thinking, problem-solving, decision-making, and language.
Is “thinking” integral to all of these processes? Why or why not?
Can a person engage in any of these processes without also engaging in thinking? Why or why not?
Student pairs should then share their answers with the class.
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Nevid, Essentials of Psychology, 6th Edition. © 2022 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
©2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Concepts: What Makes a Bird a Bird?
Concepts are mental categories for classifying events, objects, and ideas on the basis of their common features or properties.
There are two major types of concepts:
Logical concepts are concepts with clearly defined roles for membership.
We know these concepts by a specific set of characteristics they always exhibit, such as what defines basic shapes.
Natural concepts are concepts with poorly defined or fuzzy rules for membership.
For example, what makes a fruit a fruit? Is a pumpkin a fruit?
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Nevid, Essentials of Psychology, 6th Edition. © 2022 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
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©2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Knowledge Check Activity 1
Which of the following is an example of a logical concept?
Dogs
Vegetables
Snow
Triangle
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Nevid, Essentials of Psychology, 6th Edition. © 2022 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
©2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Knowledge Check Activity 1: Answer
Which of the following is an example of a logical concept?
Answer: d. Triangle
The concept “triangle” is used to describe any three-sided form or figure. Dogs, vegetables, and snow are all examples of natural concepts, as they all are poorly defined concepts. For example, the concept of ”vegetable” includes items such as green beans, carrots, beetroot, and lettuce, which are dissimilar in color, shape, texture, and size.
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Nevid, Essentials of Psychology, 6th Edition. © 2022 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
©2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Problem Solving: Applying Mental Strategies to Solving Problems
Problem solving is a form of thinking focused on finding a solution to a particular problem.
Strategies for problem solving include trial-and-error, insight, algorithms, and heuristics.
An algorithm is a step-by-step set of rules that will always lead to a correct solution to a problem.
Mathematical formulas are examples of algorithms.
A heuristic is a rule of thumb for solving problems or making decisions.
Heuristics do not guarantee a solution, but may help you make a decision more quickly.
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Nevid, Essentials of Psychology, 6th Edition. © 2022 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
©2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Mental Roadblocks to Problem Solving
We have a tendency to rely on strategies that previously worked well in similar situations, which is called a mental set.
While a mental set can aid in reaching an appropriate solution more quickly, it can also impede problem-solving when the new situation requires a different solution.
Another barrier to problem-solving is functional fixedness, the tendency to perceive objects as limited to the customary functions they serve.
We also tend to allow irrelevant information to distract our attention from the relevant information needed to solve a problem.
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Nevid, Essentials of Psychology, 6th Edition. © 2022 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
©2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Why It Matters: Mental Roadblocks in Decision Making (1 of 2)
We are constantly making decisions, whether they are simple everyday ones such as what to wear, or important life decisions such as what to major in.
Decision making is a form of problem solving in which we must select a course of action from among the available alternatives.
Our decision making is often influenced by underlying cognitive biases.
For example, the confirmation bias is the tendency to stick with an initial hypothesis despite strong evidence to the contrary.
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Nevid, Essentials of Psychology, 6th Edition. © 2022 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
©2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Why It Matters: Mental Roadblocks in Decision Making (2 of 2)
Heuristics can help us solve problems but they can also lead to bad decisions.
The representative heuristic is a rule of thumb for making a judgement that assumes a given sample is representative of the larger population from which it is drawn.
For example, we may assume an individual dressed in unconventional clothes with facial piercings to be an artist rather than an accountant.
The availability heuristic is the tendency to judge events as more likely to occur when information pertaining to them comes readily to mind.
We might purchase a particular brand of ice cream because we recall seeing it advertised.
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Nevid, Essentials of Psychology, 6th Edition. © 2022 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
©2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Discussion Activity 2
News outlets provide information – even the same news – differently from each other, frequently using sensational headlines and images.
People tend to read news or social media posts that align with their perspectives.
What are implications of this confirmation bias?
What are ways that confirmation bias can be mitigated?
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Nevid, Essentials of Psychology, 6th Edition. © 2022 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
©2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Creativity: Are You Tapping Your Creative Potential? (1 of 2)
Creativity refers to originality of thought associated with the development of new, workable products or solutions to problems.
We all have the ability to think creatively.
Creativity can be measured via divergent thinking. Divergent thinking is the ability to conceive of new ways of viewing situations and new uses for familiar objects.
Conversely, convergent thinking is the attempt to narrow down a range of alternatives to ‘converge’ on the one correct answer to a problem.
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Nevid, Essentials of Psychology, 6th Edition. © 2022 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
©2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Creativity: Are You Tapping Your Creative Potential? (2 of 2)
When we think creatively we use several cognitive processes:
Mental imaging, the forming of mental representations of objects or events.
Concept formation, the grouping of objects, events, and ideas on the basis of their common features.
Problem-solving, the process of arriving at a solution to a given problem.
Decision making, the process of deciding which of two or more courses of action to take.
Creativity, the generation of novel, workable products or ideas. Creativity involves the use of analogy, conceptual combination, and conceptual expansion.
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Nevid, Essentials of Psychology, 6th Edition. © 2022 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
©2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Discussion Activity 3
Students should form groups of 4-5.
Each group is provided the following materials: a piece of string several meters long, scissors, paper bucket, piece of cloth, rock, spoon, duct tape, and a plastic bottle filled with water.
Each group should spend 20 minutes making as many things as they can using the materials provided. They don’t have to use all of the materials, just what is needed.
Each group should then select the most interesting designs for presentation and state why they thought their design was interesting.
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©2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Discussion Activity 3: Debrief
What approach did you use to come up with ideas on how to use the objects?
Did you observe a difference in contribution by team members in terms of divergent and convergent thinking?
Which process did you find more difficult, divergent or convergent thinking? Why?
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Nevid, Essentials of Psychology, 6th Edition. © 2022 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
©2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Written Assignment Activity 1
Why do you think some people are better at solving problems than others?
Do you think this a learned skill, or are some people just more talented in this area?
What types of mental strategies do you think people who are good at solving problems tend to use? Why?
How can you improve your own problem-solving abilities?
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Nevid, Essentials of Psychology, 6th Edition. © 2022 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
©2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Module 7.2
Language
Nevid, Essentials of Psychology, 6th Edition. © 2022 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
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Nevid, Essentials of Psychology, 6th Edition. © 2022 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
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©2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Components of Language
Language refers to a system of communication consisting of symbols arranged according to a set of rules, called grammar, to express meaning.
Language consists of four basic components:
Phonemes, the basic units of sound in a spoken language.
Morphemes, the smallest units of meaning in a language; phonemes are combined to form morphemes.
Syntax, the rules of grammar that determine how words are ordered within sentences and phrases to form meaningful expressions.
Semantics, the set of rules governing the meaning of words.
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Nevid, Essentials of Psychology, 6th Edition. © 2022 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
©2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Language Development
Language development appears to be universal: children all over the world develop language in basically the same stages, which unfold at similar ages.
Noam Chomsky proposed humans have an innate, prewired mechanism in the brain that allows children to acquire language naturally. Chomsky called this concept the language acquisition device.
This is an abstract concept of how language centers in the brain work, not an actual structure in the brain.
While this does not explain the mechanisms by which language is produced, scientists are identifying specialized neural networks responsible for speech and language processing.
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Nevid, Essentials of Psychology, 6th Edition. © 2022 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
©2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Culture and Language: Does the Language We Use Determine How We Think?
The linguistic relativity hypothesis (or Whorfian hypothesis ) proposes that the language we use determines how we think and how we perceive the world.
Some cultures have many different words for colors, while other cultures have only a few words. Yet, people have the capacity to recognize colors regardless of differences in the words they use to describe them.
Overall, the linguistic relativity hypothesis is a controversial viewpoint and has not been supported by scientific evidence.
However, a weaker version of this hypothesis proposes that the culture in which we are raised and the language we use are important influences that shape how we think and perceive the world.
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Nevid, Essentials of Psychology, 6th Edition. © 2022 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
©2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Written Assignment Activity 2
Assume you overheard a parent tell their young child “That’s right. That’s a dog.”
To what extent is reinforcement, like praise, important in learning language?
Do you think language acquisition can be explained by behaviorist theories? Why or why not?
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Nevid, Essentials of Psychology, 6th Edition. © 2022 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
©2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Discussion Activity 4
Suppose you are adopting a child who has been raised in a large group facility and as a result, has had very little interaction with adults other than essential care such as feeding. The child is now 4 years old and has very limited language skills but is believed to have normal intelligence.
What are steps you can do to help your child acquire language?
Do you think the child will be able to catch up with their language abilities? Why or why not?
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Nevid, Essentials of Psychology, 6th Edition. © 2022 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
©2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Is Language Unique to Humans?
Whether apes can acquire and use language is controversial.
Koko, a gorilla, and Washoe, a chimpanzee, were trained to use American Sign Language to communicate with researchers.
Psychologist David Premack developed an artificial language in which plastic chips of different sizes, colors, and shapes symbolized different words. He trained a chimpanzee named Sarah to use these chips to communicate with researchers.
However, critics claim that these apes only learn to imitate gestures and other responses for which they were reinforced and did not learn complex syntax of a true language.
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Nevid, Essentials of Psychology, 6th Edition. © 2022 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
©2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Discussion Activity 5
Chaser is a border collie that “knows” 1,000 words. Chaser’s owner, a psychologist, claims that he understands language, as evidenced by Chaser’s ability to understand novel linguistic stimuli, such as the names of unknown toys. Critics state the Chaser has been conditioned or trained to discriminate certain sounds.
Does Chaser understand language? Why or why not?
W
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