CHAPTER 7:

THINKING AND INTELLIGENCE

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WHAT IS COGNITION?

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 COGNITION

• Cognition - thinking,
including perception,
learning, problem
solving, judgment, and
memory
• Sensations and
information are received
by our brains, filtered
through emotions and
memories, and
processed to become
thoughts.

Cognition, most simply, is

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thinking.
 • Cognition encompasses the processes associated with:
• Perception
• Knowledge
• Problem-solving
• Judgement
• Language

COGNITIVE • Memory

PSYCHOLOGY

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CONCEPTS &
PROTOTYPES

• Concepts – categories of linguistic

information, images, ideas, or memories.
• Used to see relationships among
different elements of experience.
• Can be complex and abstract (e.g.
the idea of justice) or concrete
(types of birds).
• Prototype – the best example or
representation of a concept.
• Example: Mahatma Gandhi could
be a prototype for the category of
civil disobedience.
 NATURAL & ARTIFICIAL CONCEPTS

Natural Artificial
concepts:
Created “naturally” through either
direct or indirect experience.
concepts:
Defined by a specific set of
characteristics.
Example: Our concept of snow. Example: Properties of geometric
shapes

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 SCHEMATA

Schema Role schema Event schema

• Mental construct • Makes assumptions • A set of routine or
consisting of a about how automatic
collection of related individuals in certain behaviors.
concepts. roles will behave. • Dictate behavior.
• When a schema is • Can vary widely
activated, we among different
automatically make cultures and
assumptions about countries.
the
person/object/situati
on. 7
 EVENT SCHEMA

• Event schemas are difficult to change because they

are automatic.
• When we receive a text, our event schema is to pick up
our phone and reply.
• Problem
• This automatic reaction will arise even in situations
when it is not safe to reply.
• Texting while driving is dangerous, but it is a
difficult event schema for some people to resist.
• Research suggests that just the event schema of
regularly checking our phone makes it increasingly
difficult to resist picking it up while driving.

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LANGUAGE

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 L ANGUAGE

• Language – a communication system that

involves using words and systematic rules to
organize those words to transmit information
from one individual to another.

Components of Language
• Lexicon – the words of a given language.
• Grammar – the set of rules that are used to
convey meaning through the use of the lexicon.
• Phoneme – a basic sound unit (ah, eh,).

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 LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

• Noam Chomsky – proposed that the mechanisms

underlying language acquisition are biologically
determined.

• Language develops in the absence of formal instruction.

• Language acquisition follows similar patterns in children
from different cultures/backgrounds.

• Critical period – proficiency at acquiring language

is maximal early in life.
• Being deprived of language during the critical period
impedes the ability to fully acquire and use language.

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PROBLEM SOLVING

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 PROBLEM SOLVING STRATEGIES

• Trial and error – continue trying different

solutions until problem is solved.
• Algorithm – step-by-step problem-solving
formula.
• Heuristic – general problem-solving framework.
• Short-cuts.
• A “rule of thumb”.
• Working-backwards – begin solving the problem by
focusing on the end result.
• Breaking large tasks into a series of smaller steps.

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Method Description Example
Restarting phone, turning off WiFi,
Continue trying different
turning off bluetooth in order to
Trial and error solutions until problem is
determine why your phone is
solved
malfunctioning
Step-by-step problem-solving Instruction manual for installing new
Algorithm
formula software on your computer
General problem-solving Working backwards; breaking a task
Heuristic
framework into steps

PROBLEM-SOLVING STRATEGIES

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 • Mental sets
• Persistence in approaching a problem in a way that has
worked in the past.
• A set way of looking at a problem
• Becomes a problem when that way is no longer working.
• Functional fixedness
PITFALLS TO • Inability to perceive an object being used for something other
than what it was designed for.
PROBLEM
• Example: candle problem
SOLVING

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 BIASES

Confirmation Representativ Availability

Anchoring bias Hindsight bias
bias e bias heuristic
• Tendency to • Tendency to • Leads you to • Tendency to • Tendency to
focus on one focus on believe that the unintentionally make a
piece of information event you just stereotype decision based
information that confirms experienced someone or on an example,
when making a your existing was something. information, or
decision or beliefs. predictable, recent
solving a even though it experience that
problem. wasn’t. is readily
available to
you, even
though it may
not be the best
example to
inform your
decision. 17
WHAT ARE INTELLIGENCE
AND CREATIVITY?

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 WHAT IS
INTELLIGENCE?

• There is no single
definition of
intelligence
• Psychologists have
come up with many
different ways to
define intelligence.

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 RAYMOND CATTELL

• Intelligence is divided intelligence

into two components.

• Crystalized intelligence –
acquired knowledge and the ability
to retrieve it.
• Knowing facts.
• Fluid intelligence – the ability to
see complex relationships and
solve problems.
• Knowing how to do something. 20
 ROBERT STERNBERG
(TRIARCHIC THEORY OF INTELLIGENCE)

Practical intelligence – you find solutions that

work in your everyday life by applying knowledge
based on your experiences
• ”Street smart”
Analytical intelligence - demonstrated by an
ability to analyze, evaluate, judge, compare, and
contrast
• Academic problem solving

Creative intelligence is marked by inventing or

imagining a solution to a problem or situation.
• Novel solution to an unexpected problem
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 H OWAR D GAR D N E R
(M U LTIP L E IN T E L L IGE N C E S
T H E ORY )

• Proposed that each person possesses at

least 8 intelligences:
• Linguistic , logical-mathematical ,
musical, bodily kinesthetic, spatial,
interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalist
• Inter and intrapersonal intelligences are
often combined and called emotional
intelligence.
• Emotional intelligence – the ability to
understand the emotions of yourself and
others, show empathy, understand social
relationships and cues, and regulate your
own emotions and respond in culturally
appropriate ways.

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 CATTELL-HORN-CARROLL
(THEORY OF COGNITIVE
ABILITIES)

• Abilities are related and arranged in a

hierarchy with general abilities at the top,
broad abilities in the middle, and narrow
(specific) abilities at the bottom

• General abilities – general intelligence

• Broad abilities – general abilities (such

as fluid reasoning, short-term memory,
and processing speed)

• Narrow abilities - specific forms of

cognitive abilities.
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 INTELLIGENCE AND CULTURE

• Intelligence can also have different

meanings and values in different
cultures.
• Example: If you live on a small island, where
most people get their food by fishing from
boats, it would be important to know how to
fish and how to repair a boat.

• Cultural intelligence - how well you

relate to the values of that culture

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 CREATIVITY

• Creativity – the ability to generate, create, or discover

new ideas, solutions, and possibilities.
• Creative people usually:
• Have intense knowledge about something, work on it for
years, look at novel solutions, seek out the advice and
help of other experts., take risks.
• Creativity is often thought of as ones ability to engage in
divergent thinking.
• Divergent thinking – thinking “outside the box”.
•Used when more than one possibility exists on a situation.
• Convergent thinking – ability to provide a correct or
well-established answer or solution to a problem.

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WHAT ARE INTELLIGENCE
AND CREATIVITY?

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 THE SOURCE OF INTELLIGENCE

Nature Nurture Range of

perspective perspective reaction
• Intelligence is • Intelligence is • Theory that
inherited from a shaped by a each person
person’s child’s responds to the
parents. developmental environment in
environment. a unique way
based on his or
her genetic
makeup.
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