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Chapter 7
Thinking, Intelligence, and
Language

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Chapter Preview
• The Cognitive Revolution in Psychology
• Thinking
• Intelligence
• Language

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The Cognitive Revolution
• Cognition
• Way in which information is processed and
manipulated in remembering, thinking, and
knowing

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The Cognitive Revolution
• Computer used as an analogy to help explain
the relationship between cognition and the
brain
• Cognitive psychology
• Approaches seeking to explain observable
behavior by investigating mental processes and
structures that cannot be directly observed

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Figure 7.1 - Computers and
Human Cognition

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Thinking
• Involves manipulating information mentally
by:
• Forming concepts
• Solving problems
• Making decisions
• Reflecting in a critical or creative manner

7. Key terms
• Concepts
• Prototypes
• Cognitive schemas
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Key terms in this idea
• Concept
• Mental categories used to group objects, events,
and characteristics
• *look at the things around you and consider the
category “concept” you would place it into

9. Key terms in this idea
• Prototype
• Iconic representation of a group (the mental
picture that first comes to mind when you think of
a concept)
• Dog (what mental picture came to mind?)
• Fruit (what mental picture came to mind?)
• Derived from our experiences
9

10. Key terms in this idea
• Cognitive Schema
• Physical and behavioral EXPECTATIONS for a
concept
• A dog will likely have how many legs?
• A fruit will taste _______
• Derived from our experiences – which means your
cognitive schema might be different from
someone else’s cognitive schema
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11. Placing something into a Concept
• Artificial Concept formation
• Use rules and definitions
• For a square to be a square it must have what
characteristics?
• Natural concept formation
• Use prototypes and cognitive schemas
• (4) legged, (2) eared, tail, fury thing running around
outside meowing must be a …..
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Problem Solving
• Finding appropriate way to attain goal which
is not readily available
• The problem-solving process:
• Find and frame problems
• Develop good problem-solving strategies
• Subgoaling
• Algorithms
• Heuristics

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Problem Solving
• Evaluate solutions
• Rethink and redefine problems and solutions over
time

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Obstacles to Problem Solving
• Poorly defined problem
• “Mental set” or Fixation - Using prior strategy
and failing to look at problem from fresh, new
perspective
• Functional fixedness - Failure to solve problem
due to fixedness on usual function of
something
• Effective problem solving necessitates trying
something new

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Reasoning and Decision Making
• Reasoning - Mental activity of transforming
information to reach conclusions
• Inductive reasoning - Reasoning from specific
observations to make generalizations
• Deductive reasoning - Reasoning from a general
case that we know to be true to a specific instance

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Reasoning and Decision Making
• Decision making - Evaluating alternatives and
choosing among them
• Reasoning uses established rules to draw
conclusions
• In decision making rules are not established
and consequences of the decisions are
unknown

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Reasoning and Decision Making
• Two systems of reasoning and decision
making
• Automatic - Involves processing that is rapid,
heuristic, and intuitive
• Entails following one’s hunches or gut feelings
• Controlled - Involves conscious reflection about an
issue
• Is slower, effortful, and analytical

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Biases in Decision Making
• Confirmation bias - The tendency to search for
and use information that supports ideas
rather than refutes them
• Hindsight bias - The tendency to report falsely,
after the fact, that outcome was accurately
predicted

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Heuristics in Decision Making
• Availability heuristic - Prediction about
possibility of event based on recalling or
imagining similar events
• Base rate fallacy - Tendency to ignore information
about general principles in favor of very specific
but vivid information
• Representativeness heuristic - Tendency to
make judgments about group membership
based on match to group stereotype

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Thinking Critically
• Thinking reflectively and productively
• Evaluating evidence
• Cultivation of two mental habits
• Mindfulness - Being alert and mentally present for
everyday activities
• Open-mindedness - Being receptive to other ways
of looking at things

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Thinking Creatively
• To think about something in unusual ways
• To devise unconventional solutions to
problems
• Divergent thinking - Producing many solutions to
same problem
• Brainstorming
• Convergent thinking - Producing single best
solution to problem
• Creative thinkers do both

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Thinking Creatively
• Characteristics of individuals who think
creatively
• Flexibility and playful thinking
• Inner motivation
• Willingness to face risk
• Objective evaluation of work

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Intelligence
• Cultures vary in ways they define intelligence
• An all-purpose ability to:
• Do well on cognitive tasks
• Solve problems
• Learn from experience

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Measuring Intelligence
• Criteria for a good intelligence test
• Validity - Extent to which test measures what it is
intended to measure
• Reliability - Extent to which test yields consistent,
reproducible measure of performance
• Standardization – Involves:
• Developing uniform procedures for administering and
scoring a test
• Creating norms—performance standards—for the test

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IQ Tests
• Mental age, developed by Binet - Individual’s
level of mental development relative to that
of others
• Intelligence quotient, developed by Stern
• IQ = (MA/CA) x 100, where:
• MA - Mental age
• CA - Chronological age

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IQ Tests
• Normal distribution
• Symmetrical, bell-shaped curve
• A majority of the scores falling in the middle of
the possible range
• Few scores appear toward the extremes of the range

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Figure 7.9

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Cultural Bias in IQ Testing
• Culturally biased tests have favored people
• From urban, rather than rural, environments
• Of middle, rather than low, socioeconomic status
• Who are White, rather than African American
• Culture-fair tests - Two types
• Intelligence tests intended to be culturally
unbiased
• Includes no verbal questions - Raven progressive
matrices

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Genetic Influences on Intelligence
• Heritability - Proportion of observable
differences explained by genes
• Can change over time and across groups
• Environmental factors have an impact on
heritability

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Environmental Influences on
Intelligence
• Effect of education on intelligence evident in
rapidly increasing IQ test scores around the
world
• Called the Flynn effect
• The word intelligent describes not only people
but also behaviors

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Extremes of Intelligence
• Giftedness - High intelligence and/or superior
talent in a particular area
• Product of heredity and environment
• Intellectual disability - Condition of limited
mental ability in which an individual has a low
IQ
• Difficulty adapting to everyday life
• Characteristics exhibited by age 18

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Intellectual Disability
• Organic intellectual disability - Caused by a
genetic disorder or brain damage
• Cultural-familial intellectual disability - A
mental deficit with no evidence of organic
brain damage

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Intellectual Disability
• Levels of adaptive behavior:
• Conceptual skills - Understanding of numbers,
money, and time
• Social skills - Interpersonal skills, responsibility,
self-esteem, and ability to follow rules and obey
• Practical skills - Activities of daily living such as
personal care, occupational skills, health care,
travel/transportation, and use of the telephone

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Theories of Multiple Intelligences
• Sternberg’s triarchic theory - Intelligence
comes in three forms:
• Analytical intelligence - The ability to analyze,
judge, evaluate, compare, and contrast
• Creative intelligence - The ability to create, design,
invent, originate, and imagine
• Practical intelligence - The ability to use, apply,
implement, and put ideas into practice

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Theories of Multiple Intelligences
– Verbal
– Occupations
– Mathematical
– Spatial
– Bodily-kinesthetic
– Musical
– Interpersonal
– Intrapersonal
– Naturalist
– Existentialist
Howard Gardner’s frames of mind

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Language
• Form of communication, whether spoken,
written, or signed
• Based on a system of symbols

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Basic Properties of Language
• Phonology
• Morphology
• Syntax
• Semantics
• Pragmatics

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Language and Cognition
• Connection between language and thought
has been of considerable interest to
psychologists
• Is thought dependent on language, or is language
dependent on thought?
• Intellectual disability often, but not always,
accompanied by reduced language proficiency
• Language and thought not part of single system

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Biological Influences on Language
• Biological evolution that occurred long before
language emerged undeniably shaped humans
into linguistic creatures
• Language universals - Human came into the world
biologically prewired to learn language
• Strongest evidence - Children all over the world reach
language milestones at about the same time and in
about the same order
• Language and the brain - Brain contains particular
regions that are predisposed to language

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Environmental Influences on
Language
• Language represents nothing more than
chains of responses acquired through
reinforcement
• Language is a complex learned skill
• Not tenable, given rapid language development
• Critical period - Special time in a child’s life
during which language must develop
• Biology and environment interact when children
learn language

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Figure 7.13 - Language Milestones

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Language Development
Over the Life Span
• Milestones of language development
• Babbling
• Sorting through sounds for ones with meaning
• First words
• Two-word statements
• For adults, learning a new language requires a
special kind of cognitive exercise