Transcript Thinking and Language - Hensley

Review of Memory
Mrs. Hensley
AP Psychology
Q1
How
do
psychologists
describe the
human memory
system?
Q1 Answer

Atkinson-Shiffrin Model

Three stages
 Encoding
 Storing
 Retrieval
 Some
psychologists prefer the term,
“working memory” rather than
short term memory to emphasize
the active processing in the 2nd
stage.
Q2
How
do we get
information out of
memory?
Q2 Answer
Recall
Recognition
Relearning
Priming
Q3
Why
do we
forget?
Q3 Answer

Fail to encode information

Memories may fade after storage

Retrieval failure (old and new material compete)

Proactive interference (something in the past interferes
with our ability to recall something recently learned)

Retroactive interference (something new interferes with
something learned in the past)
Q4
 Explain
the following terms:
Flashbulb memory
Amnesia
Déjà vu
Mood congruent memory
Q4 Answer

Flashbulb Memory: clear memory of an emotionally
significant moment or event

Ex: first kiss, learning of family member’s death, 9/11 attack
Amnesia: loss of memory, unable to form new memories
déjà vu: “I’ve experienced this before.” Subconsciously trigger
retrieval of an earlier experience
Mood congruent memory: recall experiences that are consistent
with one’s current good or bad mood
Thinking,
Language, &
Intelligence
“The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.”
Lines Pauling
Thinking

What is it?


Mental activity involved in understanding, processing and
communicating information
Cognitive psychology

Studies how the mind does all that!
Concept Formation

Concept

A mental grouping of persons, places, ideas, events, or objects that share
common properties

People organize concepts into hierarchies
Dog, horse, elephant, sparrows, goldfish
mammal
animal
Concept Formation
 Prototype
 Best
representative of a
concept
 Ex: Sport
Football
Basketball
Golf
Chess
NASCAR
Assignment:

Create a list of the different concepts that are
represented in the classroom. Try to narrow down all
the objects into the simplest concept possible.
Problem Solving – Trial & Error

Identify problem


Gather information


Outta gas? Dead battery?
Try a solution


Car won’t start
Not outta gas, so I’ll dry off the wires
Evaluate results

Car starts - yeah!

Car doesn’t start - try another solution
Problem Solving Strategies

Algorithm


A systematic, step-by-step problem-solving strategy, guaranteed to
provide a solution
Heuristic

A rule of thumb that allows one to make judgments that are quick
but often in error
Heuristics
Who would you trust to
baby-sit your child?
•A short cut (that
can be prone to
errors). Narrows
your problem space
•We use heuristics
when making
decisions
Your answer is based on your heuristic
of their appearances.
Availability Heuristic

Although diseases kill many more
people than accidents, it has been
shown that people will judge
accidents and diseases to be
equally fatal. This is because
accidents are more dramatic and
are often written up in the paper or
seen on the news on t.v., and are
more available in memory than
diseases.
Estimating the likelihood of events
based on their availability in our
memory.
•If it comes to mind
easily (maybe a vivid
event) we presume
it is common.
Representativeness Heuristic

A rule of thumb for judging the
likelihood of things in terms of how
well they match our prototype.

Can cause us to ignore important
information.
Below is Linda. She loves
books and hates loud
noises. Is Linda a librarian
or a beautician?
Chances are, she is a beautician!!!
Problem Solving Strategies

Insight (insight examples – pg. 387)

Mean-end analysis


determining difference between current situation and goal and
then reducing the difference by means – What can I do?
Difference Reduction - What direction do I move?
Decision Making

Try to make best choice from alternatives
Utility: value of given outcome
 Probability: likelihood you’ll achieve it


Representativeness Heuristic


A tendency to estimate the likelihood of an event
in terms of how typical (how similar to the
prototype) it seems
Availability Heuristic

A tendency to estimate the
likelihood of an event in terms of
how easily instances of it can be
recalled
Problems with Problem
Solving

Mental set


The tendency to use a strategy that has worked in the past
Functional Fixedness

A tendency to think of objects only in terms of their usual
functions, a limitation that disrupts problem solving
Problems with Problem
Solving

Confirmation Bias


The inclination to search only for evidence that will verify
one’s beliefs
Belief Perseverance

The tendency to cling to beliefs even after they have been
discredited

Anderson (1980)
Overconfidence
 The
tendency to
be more
confident than
correct.
 To
overestimate
the accuracy of
your beliefs and
judgments.
Considering “overconfidence” would you
want to risk 1 million dollars on an
audience poll?
Framing
 The
way an
issued is posed.
 It can have
drastic effects
on your
How do you think
decisions and
framing plays a part in
judgments.
the Health Care Reform
debate?
Intelligence

How is it defined?

How is it measured?

What can intelligence be attributed to?

Levels of intelligence
Language

Formal system of communication


Spoken,written, and/or gestures
Between 5,000 and 6,000 languages, worldwide

Most languages also have many dialects
Structure of Language

Grammar

The rules of a language

Syntax


Specifies how words can be arranged
Semantics

Specifies how meaning is
understood & communicated
Properties of Language

Semantic
 There
are separate units in a language and these
units have meaning
 Phoneme:
basic building block of spoken language
 Morpheme:

Generative
 Combing

smallest unit that carries meaning
language in novel ways
Displacement
 The
property of language that accounts for the
capacity to communicate about matters that are not
in the here-and-now
Language Acquisition

Birth


4-6 months


Babbling
12 months


Cooing, crying, gurgling
First words
2 yrs & up

Telegraphic speech

Overextension
Language Acquisition

No one disputes the stages of language development

But there are two main questions in terms of what it all means

Is language acquisition a product of nature or nurture?

Which comes first – language or thought?
…the answers…

Is it nature or nurture?


Skinner vs. Chomsky

Skinner: Children learn language the way animals learn mazes

Chomsky: The brain is hard-wired for learning lang.
Critical period


During the first few years of life, we are most receptive to language learning
What comes first – thought or language?
 Both:
sometimes children use words to communicate
what they already know and sometimes they form
concepts to fit the words they hear
Linguistic Relativity
The hypothesis that language determines,
or at least influences, the way we think
Eyeglasses

Dumbbell
Hyde, 1984
 Wudgemaker
 Males
story: “he” “she” “he or she” “they”
equally good regardless
 Females better in “she” stories, worse in “he”
version
Intelligence
…the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed
ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to
function…
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Intelligence

What is intelligence?

The capacity to learn from experience and adapt successfully to one’s
environment

Reflects how well we function
Video

http://learner.org/resources/series138.html
History of Intelligence
Francis Galton

Believed that intelligence was inherited

Based intelligence on:

Muscular strength

Size of your head

Speed at reacting to signals

Your ability to detect slight differences
Solve the riddle:

A hunter sees a bear 1 mile due south. He
shoots and misses, and the bear runs off. The
hunter walks the 1 mile south to where the
bear had been, then 1 mile due east, then 1
mile due north-at which point the hunter is
standing again at exactly the same spot from
which the gun had been fired. Question:
What color was the bear? Where on the globe
is the hunter? Where can one go,
successively, 1 mile due south, then 1 mile
due east, then 1 mile due north, and end up
at the same place one started?
Theories of Intelligence

Spearman’s G factor (1904)
 Proposed
that general intelligence (g) underlies all
mental abilities
 Specific intelligence (s)
 Factor analysis
A
statistical technique used to identify clusters of test items
that correlate with another

Thurstone’s Primary Mental Abilities
7
factors which correlate but not enough to represent
1 underlying factor
 Verbal
comprehension, word fluency, number facility (math),
associative memory, perceptual speed for stimulus
recognition, reasoning, and spatial visualization
Theories of Intelligence

Triarchic theory of intelligence

Robert Sternberg

Analytical


The mental steps of ‘components’ used to solve problems

This is what traditional IQ tests assess
Creative


Intellectual and motivational processes that lead to novel solutions, ideas, artistic forms,
or products
Practical

The ability to size up new situations and adapt to real-life demands
Gardner’s ‘Frames of Mind’
 Multiple
 There
intelligences
are seven (9)types of intelligence
Linguistic:
verbal aptitude
Logical-mathematical:
Spatial:
mathematical aptitude
ability to visualize objects
Musical:
ability to appreciate the tonal qualities
of sound, compose, and play
Bodily-kinesthetic:
ability to control movement
Interpersonal:
ability to understand people
Intrapersonal:
ability to understand oneself
EQ (Emotional Intelligence)
Salovey and Mayer (1990)

Self-awareness

Mood management

Self-motivation

Inpulse control

People skills
Reading ‘The EQ Factor’

Take the Emotional Intelligence Survey

Read the article and prepare for a socratic seminar

To prepare…

Create a summary

Identify 3 sentences/paragraphs that highlight something
you found interesting, powerful, puzzling…

Create 3 Q’s for class discussion
Binet-Simon & Stanford-Binet Scales

Binet-Simon scale (1905)


Assigned mental age based on # items correct
Stanford-Binet

Lewis Terman at Stanford (1916)

Added items suitable to adults

Converted scale to a single score

IQ =
mental age
x 100
chronological age

This doesn’t work for adults & was adjusted
Problems with the IQ Formula

It does not really work well on adults, why?
If a 60 year old man does as well as an average
30 year old then his IQ would be 50!!!!!!
That makes no sense!!!!!
The Wechsler Scales

David Weschler

Intelligence is

The global capacity to act purposefully, to think rationally, and to deal effectively with
the environment

IQ ratio breaks down as we get older

Deviation IQ


WAIS (pg 279)


Compares scores to the mean of peer group
Measures intelligence for late adolescence through adulthood
Two parts: verbal & performance subtests
Issues to Consider in IQ Testing

Standardization


Reliability


The procedure by which existing norms are used to interpret an individual’s test
score
Degree to which test gives consistent results
Validity

Does the test measure what it
claims to measure
Distribution of IQ scores
68%
Mental
Retardation
Mentally
Gifted
95%
70
85
100
115
130
Extremes in Intelligence

Mental Giftedness

IQ above 130

MENSA
 Limits
membership to top 2% of population

Take test…. Are you Mensa quality?

Watch clip on Daniel Tannet
Extremes in Intelligence

Mental retardation

IQ below 70

Difficulties with:


Self-care

School / work

Social relationships
Four categories

Mild, Moderate, Severe, Profound
Causes of Mental Retardation

Cultural-familial
Inadequate
Poor

diet, little or no medical care
Genetic defects
Down

mental stimulation
syndrome
Brain damage
Fetal
alcohol syndrome
Hypoxia
The Nature & Nurture Debate


Nature’s influence on IQ

Identical twins reared together are more similar than
fraternal twins reared together

Siblings who grow up together are more similar than
unrelated individuals who grow up in the same house

Children are more similar to their biological parents than to
adoptive parents
Nurture’s influence on IQ

Prenatal care, exposure to alcohol and other toxins, birth
complications, malnutrition in the first few months of life,
intellectual stimulation at home, stress, high-quality
education, the amount of time spent in school

Head Start programs (and those like it)