Unit 5:

Cognition

5.1 Introduction to Memory

5.2 Encoding

5.3 Storing

5.4 Retrieving

5.5 Forgetting and Memory Distortion

5.6 Biological Bases for Memory

5.7 Introduction to Thinking and Problem Solving

5.8 Biases and Errors in Thinking

5.9 Introduction to Intelligence

5.10 Psychometric Principles and Intelligence Testing

5.11 Components of Language and Language Acquisition

MrGalusha.org

5.1 Introduction to Memory

Encoding

Storage

Retrieval

Parallel/Dual Processing

Automatic vs. Effortful Processing

Selective vs. Divided Attention

Deep vs. Shallow Processing

Information Processing Model

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Memory

• The ability to remember things we have experienced, imagined, or learned
• Memory is often seen as steps in an information-processing model
• Encoding – (The process of putting information into digital format.)
• Storage – Hard Drive
• Retrieval – Accessing the Hard Drive

Drag the red heart to the point of the IPM that involves working memory

Information Processing Model

Step 1: Encoding (Blue)

Step 2: Storage (Green)

Step 3: Retrieval (Red)

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How do psychologists describe the �human memory system?

Psychologists propose an information-processing model which likens human memory to computer operations. To remember any event, we must…

Encode (put in) the new information…

store (organize) the information….

retrieve (pull out) the information.

IPM

• The IPM works really well to describe effortful processing.
• It falls apart a bit with things we automatically process.
• Automatic skills (riding a bike)
• Classically Conditioned associations (bell to get you to go to your next class).
• Time, space, and frequency.
• Parallel Processing – brain can work on both at the same time.

Write down the names of the seven dwarves. Write down everything that comes to your mind, even if you don’t think it is correct.

Recognition is easier than recall

• Grouchy, Gabby, Fearful, Sleepy, Smiley, Jumpy, Hopeful, Horney, Shy, Droopy, Dopey, Sniffy, Wishful, Puffy, Dumpy, Sneezy, Lazy, Pop, Grumpy, Bashful, Cheerful, Teach, Shorty, Nifty, Happy, Doc, Wheezy, and Stubby.

What is parallel processing?

• Our brain processes information at different levels at the same time.
• Some of those levels we are conscious of and some we are not.

How does parallel processing function?

Recall from our Perception unit that when a person sees an object, they don't see just one thing, but rather many specific aspects that combined, allow the person to identify the

object in its entirety.

Effortful vs. Automatic Processing

Two different systems of thinking/processing information

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Automatic System: is the unconscious processing of well-learned material. It is much like the term “muscle memory,” because you can do something without much thought. An example could be knitting a scarf🧣 while your mind goes elsewhere. You have knitted scarves many times before, so you don’t need to put much attention into knitting the scarf. You are able to think about other things while simultaneously doing it.

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Effortful Processing is the active processing of information that needs sustained effort. It's simply that learning requires both effort and attention ⚠️ Practice and rehearsal are often needed to learn new things, such as learning a new musical instrument.

Selective vs. Divided Attention

Selective Attention - Process one stimuli while ignoring the other

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Divided Attention - Process both stimuli while giving some attention to both.

Want to save time and get better grades?

Put your phone away.

1. Dividing attention between an electronic device and the classroom lecture did not reduce comprehension of the lecture, as measured by within-class quiz questions. Instead, divided attention reduced long-term retention of the classroom lecture, which impaired subsequent unit exam and final exam performance (Glass and Kang 2017)
2. In the presence of distractor stimuli during a sustained attention task, frequent media multitaskers perform worse and exhibit more right prefrontal activity (Wilmer et al 2017).
3. Texting, Facebook, and conducting internet searches unrelated to academic activity concurrent with homework completion all

negatively correlate with GPA (Junco and Cotten 2012).

Deep vs. Shallow Processing

Deep Processing - Processing for meaning. Relating it to past experiences. This is effortful and requires one’s attention.

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Shallow Processing - Processing just for the appearance or sound of the word. Memorizing something without meaning. Reading something without thinking. Being in class, but not mentally present.

Why should I make material meaningful?

From his experiments on himself, Ebbinghaus estimated that, compared with learning nonsense syllables, learning meaningful material required 1/10^th the effort.

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As memory researcher Wayne Wickelgren noted, “The time you spend thinking about material you are reading and relating it to previously stored material is about the most useful thing you can do in learning any new subject matter.”

What is the self-reference effect?

Most people excel at remembering personally relevant information.

Asked how well certain adjectives describe someone else, we often forget them; asked how well the adjectives describe us, we often remember them.

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This tendency, called the self-reference

effect, is especially strong in members of individualist Western cultures.

(Symons & Johnson, 1997; Wagar & Cohen, 2003)

5.2 Encoding

Sensory Memory

Iconic Memory

Echoic Memory

Short-term Memory

Working Memory

Rote Rehearsal

Mnemonics

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Sensory registers/Sensory memory

• Sensory memory/registers are the first stop for all sensory information
• The sensory registers are very large, but information stays for only a very short time

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Visual and Auditory Registers

• Iconic Memory - the visual register holds images, or icons, that represent all aspects of a visual image
• Icons normally last about ¼ second in the visual register
• Echoic Memory - the auditory register holds echoes of sound
• Echoes can last up to several seconds in the auditory register
• This lasts longer allowing you to understand

What is iconic memory?

Sperling’s sensory memory experiment demonstrated iconic memory, a fleeting sensory memory of visual stimuli.

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For a few tenths of a second, our eyes register a picture-image memory of a scene, and

we can recall any part of it in amazing detail.

What was George Sperling’s sensory memory experiment?

When George Sperling (1960)

flashed a group of letters similar to this for 1/20^th of a second, people could recall only about half the letters.

But when signaled to recall a particular row immediately after the letters had disappeared, they could do so with near-perfect accuracy.

What is echoic memory?

We also have an impeccable, though

fleeting, sensory memory for auditory stimuli, called

echoic memory (Cowan, 1988; Lu et al., 1992).

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Picture yourself in class, as your attention drifts to thoughts of the weekend. If your mildly irked

teacher tests you by asking, “What did I just say?” you can recover the last few words from your

mind’s echo chamber.

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Auditory echoes tend to linger for 3 or 4 seconds.

Now let us test your visual registers

• I will flash the next picture for just ¼ of a second.
• DON’T BLINK
• After the image flashes we’ll return to a white screen and you can tell me everything you saw.

• DON’T BLINK

Did you pay attention to everything?

Here is another image

• DON’T BLINK

Did you pay attention to everything?

Selective Attention

• You select only certain bits of information for further processing from your sensory registers.
• We normally pay attention to only a SMALL ^{(PLEASE ENJOY THE IRONIC FONT SELECTION)} portion of incoming information

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Reticular Formation

Outline

Short-term Memory

• Short-term memory holds information we are aware of or thinking about at any given moment
• BUT it is much more. It is also working memory!
• the part of short-term memory that is concerned with immediate conscious perceptual and linguistic processing.
• It’s an active desktop where your brain processes info, makes sense of new inputs, and links it to LTM.

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Capacity of Short-Term Memory

• Research indicates that STM can hold 7+/- 2 bits of information
• Current research has demonstrated that STM can hold whatever is rehearsed in 1.5 to 2 seconds
• Larger amounts of information can be held by using the process of chunking

What is our short-term �memory capacity?

George Miller (1956) proposed that we can store somewhere between 5 and 9 pieces of information (often referred to as 7 +/- 2) in short-term memory.

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Other researchers have confirmed that we can, if nothing distracts us, recall about seven digits.

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But the number varies by task; we tend to remember about six letters and only about five words.

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(Baddeley et al., 1975; Cowan, 2015)

How fast do short-term memories disappear?

Psychologists Peterson and Peterson asked subjects to remember three-consonant groups, such as CHJ.

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Without rehearsal, after 3 seconds, people recalled the letters only about half the time; after 12 seconds, they seldom recalled them at all.

Let’s see how good your STM is!

Short Term Memory

• 9 7 5 4
• 6 8 2 5 9
• 9 1 3 8 2 5
• 5 9 6 3 8 2 7
• 8 6 9 5 1 3 7 2
• 7 1 9 3 8 4 2 7 3
• 9 1 5 2 4 3 8 1 6 2
• 1 5 2 8 4 6 7 3 1 8 9

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Chunking Helps

• 423-19
• 267-198
• 390-675-2
• 573-291-43
• 721-354-456
• 245-619-832-2
• 141-384-515-89
• 201-315-426-762
• This is why I assign the concept maps – creates chunks

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Encoding in Short-Term Memory

• Much information is stored in STM phonologically (according to how it sounds)
• Some information is stored visually
• Research has shown that memory for visually encoded information is better than phonologically encoded information

5.3 Storing

Long-Term Memory

Explicit Memories (Declarative)

Episodic Memories

Semantic Memories

Implicit Memories (Nondeclarative)

Procedural Memories

Emotional Memories

Prospective Memory

Maintenance Rehearsal

Elaborative Rehearsal

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Long-term Memory

• Everything that is learned is stored in long-term memory
• Capacity of long-term memory
• Vast amounts of information may be stored for many years
• No known limits to capacity

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Encoding in Long-term Memory

• Most information is encoded in terms of meaning
• Some information is stored verbatim
• Some information is coded in terms of nonverbal images
• Research has shown that memory for visually encoded information is better than phonologically encoded information

CONCEPT MAPS CREATE A VISUAL!!!!

Types of Long Term Memory

• Explicit memory
• Episodic Memory
• Semantic Memory

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• Implicit memory
• Procedural Memory
• Emotional Memory

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@#$!&

@#$!&

Types of Long Term Memory

• Explicit memory
• Memory for information we can readily express and are aware of having
• This information can be intentionally recalled
• Episodic Memories - Memories for personal events in a specific time and place
• Semantic Memories - Memory for general facts and concepts not linked to a specific time

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Types of Long Term Memory

• Implicit memory
• Memory for information that we cannot readily express and may not be aware of having
• Cannot be intentionally retrieved
• Procedural memories: Motor skills and habits
• Emotional memories: Learned emotional responses to various stimuli

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Prospective Memory

• Prospective memory is a form of memory that involves remembering to perform a planned action or recall a planned intention at some future point in time.
• Prospective memory tasks are common in daily life.
• Examples - I need to remember to charge my phone. I need to remember to pick up eggs on the way home.

Better Storage? - You Must Chunk it

• Chunking is a term referring to the process of taking individual pieces of information (chunks) and grouping them into larger units.
• Chunking allows people to take smaller bits of information and combine them into more meaningful, and therefore more memorable, wholes.
• Deeper processing

Elaborative Rehearsal

• Rehearsing information by relating new information to information already stored in long-term memory
• Contrasts with maintenance rehearsal (i.e., the repetitive cycling of information in short term memory)
• Elaborative rehearsal provides more retrieval cues to facilitate retrieval
• A good way to elaborate on new material is to relate the material to yourself
• The self-reference effect says it is easier to remember information that you have related to yourself because such connections improve more retrieval cues and lend more meaning to the new information.

Distributed Practice

• Distributing rehearsal (spacing effect) is better than practicing all at once (massed practice). You can memorize a poem a lot easier if you break it down into 5 parts over 5 days instead of all at once.
• Use the Testing effect – repeated self-testing. Hence the questions at the end of our readings.

5.4 Retrieving

Recognition

Recall

Priming

Retrieval Cues

Context Dependent Memories

State-Dependent Memories

Mood Congruent Memories

Flashbulb Memories

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Retrieval

• Retrieval is the process in which information in your memory can be recalled back to your STM.
• Information concerning events, images and feelings are all stored in our memory.
• Just because you cannot remember something doesn't mean that it is not in your memory.
• It maybe a problem with being able to locate it for retrieval.

Recognition vs. Recall

• Recall - retrieval without any cues (essay test)
• Recognition - retrieval aided by cues (multiple choice test)
• What makes recognition easier?

Retrieval Cues

• Retrieval cues are words or other stimuli that can help us retrieve information that is stored in our memories

How do cues help with memory retrieval?

• When you encode a memory, such as the name of the person sitting next to you in class, you associate with it other bits of information about your surroundings, mood, seating position, the picture on the wall.
• These bits can serve as retrieval cues that you can later use to access the information. The more retrieval cues you have, the better your chances of finding a route to the suspended memory.

What are the best retrieval cues?

The best retrieval cues come from associations we form at the time we encode a memory—smells, tastes, and sights that can evoke our memory of the associated person or event.

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To call up visual cues when trying to recall something, we may mentally place ourselves in the original context.

What is priming?

the activation, often

unconsciously, of particular

associations in long-term implicit memory

What is an example of priming?

If, walking down a hallway, you see a poster of a missing child, you may then unconsciously be primed to interpret an ambiguous adult-child interaction

as a possible kidnapping.

(James, 1986)

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Although you no longer have the poster in mind, it predisposes your interpretation. Implicit memory of the poster impacts your later response to the situation.

AP^® Exam Tip

perceptual set

a tendency to perceive or notice some aspects of the available sensory data and ignore others due to a bias

priming

the implicit memory effect in which exposure to a stimulus influences response to a later stimulus

What is context-dependent memory?

Putting yourself back in the physical place where you earlier experienced something can prime your memory retrieval.

Remembering, in many ways, depends on

our environment. (Palmer, 1989)

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When you visit your childhood home or neighborhood, old memories surface.

How does context enable recall?

When scuba divers listened to a word list in two different settings (either 10 feet underwater or sitting on the beach), they recalled more words if tested in the same place.

(Godden & Baddeley, 1975)

2. What Would You Answer?

John noticed that he did better on his chemistry exams when he takes them in the same seat that he sits in during class. If he is properly prepared for each exam, then _____ may explain his difference in scores.

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A. recall

B. context effects

C. explicit memory

D. the serial position effect

E. flashbulb memory

Has this happened to you?

Have you ever run into a former teacher in an unusual place, such as at the store or park?

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Perhaps you recognized the person but struggled to figure out who it was and how you were acquainted.

Experiencing something outside the usual setting

can be confusing.

What is the encoding specificity principle?

the idea that cues and

contexts specific to a particular

memory will be most effective in

helping us recall it

What is state-dependent memory?

What we learn in one physiological state—be it drunk or sober—may be more easily recalled when we are again in that state.

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What people learn when drunk they don’t recall well in any state (alcohol disrupts memory storage).

But they recall it slightly better when again drunk.

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If you study while on the treadmill, increasing your heart rate, you will likely have better recall of the material when your heart rate is accelerated again.

What is mood-congruent memory?

the

tendency to recall experiences that

are consistent with one’s current

good or bad emotional state (mood)

How does mood-congruency impact the duration of our moods?

Mood effects on retrieval help explain

why our moods persist.

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When happy, we recall happy events and therefore see the world as a happy place, which helps prolong our good mood.

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When depressed, we recall sad events, which darkens our interpretations of current events.

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For those of us predisposed to depression, this process can help maintain a vicious, dark cycle.

Flashbulb Memories

• Flashbulb memories
• Vivid memories of dramatic event
• May occur because of strong emotional content

5.5 Forgetting and Memory Distortion

Retrieval Failure*

Decay Theory

Serial Position Effect

Primacy Effect

Recency Effect

Interference

Retroactive Interference

Proactive Interference

Tip of the Tongue Effect

Misinformation Effect

Source Amnesia

Eyewitness Testimony

Eidetic Memory

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Retrieval

• Retrieval is the process in which information in your memory can be recalled back to your STM.
• Retrieval failure of is the inability to recall information stored in LTM

Decay Theory

• The decay theory argues that the passage of time causes forgetting.
• The longer information is not accessed, increases the chances of forgetting it.

Forgetting Curve

• Hermann Ebbinghaus
• Combat this with distributed practice
• Sleep
• Elaborative rehearsal
• Deep processing

Serial Positioning Effect

• People tend to recall the first items (primacy effect) and last items (recency effect) in a list
• Demonstrates how short- and long-term memory work together
• Primacy effect reflects long-term memory
• Recency effect reflects short-term memory

Serial Position Effect

How could the serial positioning effect HINDER your performance on an AP Exam.

Old Information

New information

Interference

What is being tested?

Retroactive Interference

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Example - You call your ex by your current person’s name.

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You were getting tested on old information.

Proactive Interference

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Example. You type your old password into your phone.

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You were getting tested on new information.

I need a volunteer that knows their colors.

• Don’t read the words, just say the colors they’re printed in and as fast as you can
• This is called the stroop effect

Red

Yellow

Green

Blue

Red

Blue

Yellow

Green

Blue

Red

______ Interference

• When you look at the words you see both its color and meaning.
• When they are in conflict you must make a choice
• Experience has taught you that word meaning is more important than color so you retrieve that information.
• You are not always in complete control of what you pay attention to.
• Now, ask yourself, what is being tested? In this case it’s the new directions I gave you. So the answer is …..

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Try remembering the following number

• 8132163
• Ok that was easy because nothing interfered with you.

Now let’s try some interference

• 4982631
• First, consistent with cognitive dissonance theories, we are able to induce optimism or pessimism with the initial (random) wage assignment. With respect to the first-stage task, this implies that we can successfully manipulate one’s ability-beliefs in the lab. Secondly, subjects who received this low piece-rate in stage one were willing to accept significantly lower offers in a second-stage ultimatum game. This finding is striking, demonstrating the presence of both belief manipulation and spillovers of those beliefs into behavioral outcomes in an unrelated and distinct experimental environment.

Try remembering the following number

• 5614982

Retroactive Interference

• The last two were examples of retroactive interference
• In each one, it was the OLD (retro) information that was being tested.
• The last trial was the hardest because it was the same type of information.
• What type of music should you listen to when you write an essay?

Retroactive Interference

• Retroactive interference - Occurs when you are being tested on old information (hint retro means old) and new information interferes with proper retrieval.
• I know this seems reversed. It sounds like the old information is doing the interference. It is not. To get this correct you must first ask yourself. . . “What is being tested?”
• If the answer is old information the term you use is RETROactive Interference

Retroactive Interference

Sleep helps prevent retroactive interference. Therefore, it leads to better recall.

Proactive interference

• Occurs when you are being tested on NEW information (Latin route for pro meaning in front of as in proceed ) and old information interferes proper retrieval.
• I know this seems reversed. To get this correct you must first ask yourself. . . “What is being tested?”
• If the answer is NEW information the term you use is PROactive Interference
• Psychologists have found that recall of later items can be improved by making them distinctive from early items. For example, people being fed groups of numbers to remember did much better when they were suddenly fed a group of words instead. This is called release from proactive interference

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Which is which?

• You are trying to type in your new password, but instead you accidentally type in the old password.
• You are trying to remember your old address, but all you can think of is your current address.

Old Information

New information

Interference

What is being tested?

Retroactive Interference

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Example - You call your ex by your current person’s name.

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You were getting tested on old information.

Proactive Interference

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Example. You type your old password into your phone.

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You were getting tested on new information.

How could proactive interference HINDER your performance on an AP Exam.

Tip of the Tongue

• Tip of the tongue (also known as TOT) is the phenomenon of failing to retrieve a word or term from memory, combined with partial recall and the feeling that retrieval is almost there.
• You recall many of the cues, just not the memory itself.
• You feel like the answer is on the tip of your tongue
• Example - Forgetting an actress’ name but feeling like you are about to remember it.

Memory is a construct!

• “Memory works like a wikipedia page. You can go in and change and . . . but so can other people.” Loftus
• When we remember something, we're taking bits and pieces of experience - sometimes from different times and places - and bringing it all together to construct what might feel like a recollection but is actually a construction. The process of calling it into conscious awareness can change it, and now you're storing something that's different. We all do this, for example, by inadvertently adopting a story we've heard.” Loftus

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Misinformation Effect

• Critics protested that Loftus still hadn't proved the memories were fake. So she raised the ante. She persuaded 16 percent of a study population that they had met Bugs Bunny at Disneyland. In a follow-up experiment, researchers sold the same memory to 36 percent of subjects.   This was impossible, since Bugs belonged to Warner Bros., not Disney. When critics complained that the Bugs memory wasn't abusive, Loftus obliged them again. Her team convinced 30 percent of another group of subjects that on a visit to Disneyland, a drug-addled Pluto character had licked their ears.

False memory is the product

Misinformation could be the cause

• The misinformation effect: When our memory for past events is altered after exposure to misleading information.
• False memory: A memory of an event that is entirely false or partially distorted.

Eyewitness testimony

• Shown to be unreliable
• People’s recall for events may be influenced by what they heard or constructed after the incident
• Memory is reconstructed
• Memories are not stored like snapshots, but are instead like sketches that are altered and added to every time they are called up

Eyewitness testimony cont’d

• Elizabeth Loftus has shown subjects who are given false information about an event or scene tend to incorporate it into their memories, and "recall" the false information as a part of their original memory even two weeks later.
• Loftus gives the example of the sniper attacks in the fall of 2002. "Everybody was looking for a white van even though the bad guys ended up having a dark Chevy Caprice." That's because some people reported seeing a white van at the scene of the crime. "Witnesses overhear each other," says Loftus, and police may also unintentionally influence people's memories when they talk about a crime.

Eyewitness testimony

• Study after study has shown that there is no correlation between the subjective feeling of certainty one has about a memory, and the memory’s accuracy

Source Amnesia

• When we attribute a memory to the wrong source.
• Thinking that something happened to you instead of reading it in a story.
• Thinking that something you imagined really happened.
• déjà vu – When your temporal lobe identifies familiarity but our hippocampus and frontal lobe can’t come up with specific source.

How could source amnesia HINDER your performance on an AP Exam.

Autobiographical memory

• Recollection of events in our life
• More recent events are easier to recall
• Hyperthymesia is the condition of possessing an extremely detailed autobiographical memory. Hyperthymesiacs remember an abnormally vast number of their life experiences.

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Eidetic Memory

• Pop culture calls this a photographic memory
• Usually due to well developed memory techniques

Recovered memories

• Involved the recall of long-forgotten dramatic event
• May be the result of suggestion
• Some evidence that memories can be repressed and recalled later

5.6 Biological Bases for Memory

Long-Term Potentiation

Hippocampus, Amygdala, Cerebellum

Amnesia

Retrograde Amnesia

Anterograde Amnesia

Forgetting Curve

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Explicit Memory System

• Hippocampus: turns STM into LTM
• The hippocampus (named after its resemblance to the seahorse, from the Greek hippos meaning "horse" and kampos meaning "sea monster")
• It works as the brain’s “SAVE” button. Holding onto memories and then permanently storing them in other brain regions.

Explicit Memory System

• Frontal lobe is your working memory
• Left frontal deals with Language and Logic
• Right frontal is your spatial reasoning

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Implicit Memory System

• Cerebellum – storage location for procedural memories and conditioning

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• Basal Ganglia – save button for IMS

Emotions and memory

• Stress hormones provoke the Amygdala – fear processing center of the brain
• It creates a memory trace in the frontal lobe and basal ganglia
• Bakes in emotional memories but blocks neutral ones.
• Think of it like a memory turbo button but only for important things.

Stress Hormones & Memory

• Heightened emotions (stress-related or otherwise) make for stronger memories.
• But . . . extreme stress undermines learning and later recall
• How does this apply to an exam?

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Where Are Memories Stored?

How are the Memories Stored?�Synaptic Changes caused by

Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)

a persistent strengthening of synapses based on recent patterns of activity.

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Biological Forgetting Factors

• Damage to the Hippocampus
• Difficulty forming new memories
• Diminished in Alzheimer’s patients
• Neurotransmitters play a role
• Acetylcholine
• Alzheimer’s patients show low levels of this
• Decay theory
• Memories deteriorate because of the passage of time
• Distractor Studies – information fades from STM

Amnesia

• Retrograde Amnesia is when you can’t recall OLD OR RETRO memories stored in LTM prior to the incident but can recall the after. (Alzheimer's)
• Anterograde Amnesia – you can’t form new memories. You can recall the before, but not the AFTER. (Concussions)

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Childhood Amnesia

• Generally poor memory for events prior to age 2-3
• May occur because brain is not fully developed at birth
• Hippocampus not fully formed until age 2
• May be due to a lack of a clear sense-of-self in young children
• May be the absence of language

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5.7 Introduction to Thinking and Problem Solving

5.7 Introduction to Thinking and Problem Solving- Skill: Define and /or apply concepts.

8. Identify problem solving strategies as well as factors that influence their effectiveness.
9. List the characteristics of creative thought and creative thinkers.

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Schema

Prototype

Metacognition

Algorithm

Heuristics

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Creativity

Convergent Thinking

Divergent Thinking

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Cognition Definition

Cognition, or thinking, refers to a process that involves knowing, understanding, remembering, problem solving and communicating.

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Purposeful!

Cognitive Psychology

Cognition involves a number of mental activities, which are listed below.

1. Concepts
2. Problem solving
3. Decision making
4. Judgment formation
5. Language
6. Memory

Schema

- mental grouping

- formed from experience

- We use it to organize our mental world

Chair Schema Characteristics?

• Furniture
• Seat
• Four Legs
• Back
• Arms
• Sits one person
• Cushioned
• Made of wood

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Schema Hierarchies

We organize schema into category hierarchies.

Schemata can get fuzzy

• Is a whale a mammal?
• Are penguins and kiwis birds?
• Are 17 year old people children or adults
• People more easily detect male prejudice against females than female against males or female against female

Can I read your mind?

1. Name a color
2. Something a mom drives
3. Write a sentence
4. Give me a hero.
5. Pop star
6. Board Game

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WHY?

1. blue
2. A minivan
3. a short declarative statement, e.g., “The boy an home.”
4. Superman or Batman
5. Taylor Swift
6. monopoly or some other board game

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Prototypes

A prototype is the BEST example or cognitive representation of something within a certain schema.�

Dog�

Schemata (plural) alters memory

Once we place an item in a category, our memory shifts toward the category prototype.

A computer generated face that was 70 percent

Caucasian led people to classify it as Caucasian.

Courtesy of Oliver Corneille

Creativity

1. Original thought (it can’t just be an obvious extension of another’s work)
2. That is functional / valuable

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Convergent vs. Divergent Thinking

• Divergent Thinking - Proposing many possible solutions in an attempt to suggest one that may work.
• Convergent thinking - bringing together different ideas from different participants or fields to determine a single best solution to a problem.

Metacognition

• Thinking about your own thinking
• It can improve the application of knowledge, skills, and character qualities in realms beyond the immediate context in which they were learned. This can result in the transfer of competencies across disciplines—important for students preparing for real-life situations where clear-cut divisions of disciplines fall away and one must select competencies from the entire gamut of their experience to effectively apply them to the challenges at hand.

4 Problem Solving Steps

1. Define the Problem
2. Use that definition to decide what category a problem belongs to and then based on that
3. Select a solution strategy that would solve a problem in that category
4. Always evaluate progress toward goal

Possible Solution Strategies

• Algorithms
• Step-by-step methods that guarantees a solution
• Methodical, logical rules or procedures that guarantee solving a particular problem.
• Math problems are an example of the type best solved using an algorithm
• Heuristics
• Rules of thumb that may help simplify a problem, but do not guarantee a solution.
• They are quicker than algorithms

Algorithms

Algorithms, which are very time consuming, exhaust all possibilities before arriving at a solution. Computers use algorithms.

S P L O Y O C H Y G

If we were to unscramble these letters to form a word

using an algorithmic approach, we would face

907,208 possibilities.

Heuristics

• In psychology, heuristics are simple, efficient rules, learned from experience, that people use to make decisions, come to judgments, and solve problems typically when facing complex problems or incomplete information.

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Heuristics

Heuristics make it easier for us to use simple principles to arrive at solutions to problems.

S P L O Y O C H Y G

S P L O Y O C H G Y

P S L O Y O C H G Y

P S Y C H O L O G Y

Heuristic at work: Y’s usually go at the end of a word.

Insight

Insight occurs when a solution to a problem presents itself quickly and without warning.

It is the sudden discovery of the correct solution following incorrect attempts based on trial and error.

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Why the shower?

Heuristic Methods

• Hill climbing
• Move progressively closer to goal without moving backward
• Sub-goals
• Break large problem into smaller, more manageable ones, each of which is easier to solve than the whole problem

• Means-end analysis
• Aims to reduce the discrepancy between the current situation and the desired goal – subgoals not immediately in the solution direction are considered
• Working backward
• Work backward from the desired goal to the existing condition

Hill Climbing Heuristic

• Move progressively closer to goal without moving backward

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Sub-goals

• Break large problem into smaller, more manageable ones, each of which is easier to solve than the whole problem

Means-end analysis

• Aims to reduce the discrepancy between the current situation and the desired goal – subgoals not immediately in the solution direction are considered

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Working backward

• Work backward from the desired goal to the existing condition

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Schema

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• Developmental Psychologist Jean Piaget believed that children develop and modify schema by two processes:

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• Assimilation

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• Accommodation

Assimilation

• Assimilation incorporates new experiences into existing mental structures and behaviors
• Example: a toddler who has a chocolate lab at home would also incorporate Dalmatians into her schema of dog.

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Accommodation

• Accommodation occurs when a child’s theories are modified based on an experience. CHANGE
• Example- The baby with a theory of dogs is surprised the first time she sees a cat- it resembles a dog, but meows instead of barks and rubs up against her rather thank licking
• The baby must REVISE her previous theory to include this new kind of animal

Why is this process important?

• As adaptation continues, the child organizes his/her schemata into more complex mental representations, linking one schema with another.

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5.8 Biases and Errors in Thinking

Fixation

-Mental Set

-Functional Fixedness

Representativeness Heuristic

Availability Heuristic

Overconfidence

Confirmation Bias

Belief Perseverance

Belief Bias

Framing

Anchoring Effect

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Obstacles to Solving Problems

• Motivation
• Desire to solve a problem
• Fixation: An inability to see a problem from a fresh perspective. This impedes problem solving.
• Two examples of fixation are mental set and functional fixedness.

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Motivation

• If you don’t attempt to solve a problem you won’t.

Mental Set

• a tendency to only see solutions that have worked in the past.
• Doesn’t work well with new problems
• “We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” Albert Einstein

Functional Fixedness

• A cognitive bias that limits a person to use an object only in the way it is traditionally used.
• “I can only use it for this one thing!”

Problems and Decisions

• Problem solving – the task is to come up with new solutions
• Decision making – a type of problem solving in which we already know the possible options.

What do we use to make our decisions?

Our Schemata - mental groupings formed from experience that we use to organize our entire world.

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In fact out entire mental life is about

Grouping things to make it easier for us

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Which causes more deaths per 100,000?

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1. Suicide or Nephritis
2. Homicide or diabetes
3. Motor vehicle accidents or alzheimer’s
4. All Drownings or leukemia

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Which city has the higher violent crime index?

• Chicago or St. Louis
• Philadelphia or Memphis
• New York or Kansas City
• New Orleans or Anchorage Alaska
• Houston or Milwaukee

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Heuristics in Decision Making

• Short-cuts learned from experience, that people use to make decisions typically when facing complex problems or incomplete information
• Assumptions made from grouping
• Two Types
• Availability heuristic
• Representativeness Heuristic.

Representativeness Heuristic

You make a decision based upon how much something represents, or matches up, with characteristics from your schema, or the typical case.

Can I put it in this box?

Representativeness Heuristic in action.

Decide where they are from.

Which city has the higher violent crime index?

• Chicago or St. Louis
• Philadelphia or Memphis
• New York or Kansas City
• New Orleans or Anchorage Alaska
• Houston or Milwaukee

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Representativeness Heuristic in action.

• Susan is very shy and withdrawn, invariably helpful, but with little interest in people, or in the world of reality. A meek and tidy soul, she has a need for order and structure, and a passion for detail.
• Is Susan a Librarian, a Teacher, or a Lawyer?

Representativeness Heuristic in action.

• Linda is 31 years old, single, outspoken, and very bright. She majored in philosophy. As a student, she was deeply concerned with issues of discrimination and social justice, and also participated in anti-nuclear demonstrations.
• Is Linda a Bank Teller? Or Is Linda a feminist Bank Teller?

Truth or Lie

1. My favorite meal – Sushi at the California Grill
2. My earliest memory – 4^th birthday party
3. My favorite vacation trip - Disney
4. A high point of my high school days – Band
5. The most influential person in my life - Dad
6. My favorite teacher – Mr. Day my ELA
7. In 5th grade I got into a fight and my teacher walked in and didn’t break it up because the other kid had it coming.
8. The part of the country in which I’d most like to live – Pacific Northwest
9. A surprising talent that I have - Cook
10. Something interesting about a member of my family – My sister turned down being the pianist for a Toy Story

Schema about people is a …..

• over generalized belief about a particular group or class of people
• WHY? Because we are trying to group our world
• And we do it based on no experience or just the first things that come to mind.

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Microaggressions show someone’s

Availability Heuristic

Operates when we make decisions on how available information is. The faster people can remember an instance of some event the more they expect it to occur.

Availability Heuristic

Why does our availability heuristic lead us astray? Whatever increases the ease of retrieving information increases its perceived availability.

How is retrieval facilitated?

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1. How recently we have heard about the event.
2. How distinct it is.

Which causes more deaths per 100,000?

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• Suicide or Nephritis
• Homicide or diabetes
• Motor vehicle accidents or alzheimer’s
• All Drownings or leukemia

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Availability Heuristic in Action

• Which household chores do you do more frequently than your partner? (e.g. washing dishes, taking out the trash, etc.)
• - wives report 16/20 chores
• - husbands report 16/20 chores

Ross and Sicoly (1979)

• Why? Availability!
• - I remember lots of instances of taking out the trash, washing dishes, but I do not remember lots of instance of my wife doing it

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Exaggerated Fear

The opposite of having overconfidence is having an exaggerated fear about what may happen. Such fears may be unfounded.

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The 9/11 attacks led to a 20% decline in air travel due to fear. 800 more people would die if they drove just half those miles

Overconfidence

Overconfidence is a tendency to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments.

At a stock market, both the seller and the buyer may be confident about their decisions on a stock.

Confirmation Bias

• While we make a decision, we actively look for information that confirms our ideas

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Framing

• The framing effect is when someone reacts to a choice or concept based on how it is framed or presented to them
• Defund the police vs. fund social workers and mental health care
• Global Warming vs. Global Climate change
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Anchoring Effect

• The anchoring effect is a cognitive bias that describes the common human tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information offered.

Belief Perseverance

Belief perseverance is the tendency to cling to our beliefs in the face of contrary evidence.

Belief Bias

The tendency of one’s preexisting beliefs to distort logical reasoning by making invalid conclusions.

Bias after the process

Hindsight Bias

• a tendency to think that one would have known actual events were coming before they happened, had one been present then or had reason to pay attention.
• a.k.a Monday morning quarterback.
• ‘I-knew-it-all-along’ effect, reflecting a common response to surprise.

Decision Making and Judgements

• Decision making/judgments are special cases of problem solving in which possible solutions or choices are already known
• Logical decision making
• Compensatory model
• Rational decision-making model in which choices are systematically evaluated on various criteria
• Example: buying a car
• Good when issues are well-defined

5.9 Introduction to Intelligence

Intelligence

General Intelligence

Factor Analysis

Savant Syndrome

Multiple Intelligences

Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

Crystallized vs. Fluid Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence (EQ)

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5.9 Introduction to Intelligence - Key Takeaways

• There is a lot of debate on the definition of intelligence
• There are cultural differences in that definition. The Western emphasis of intelligence focuses on verbal abilities and speed of mental processing, a view not

necessarily shared by other cultures

• Because there is debate on the defintion , there is debate on the tools used to measure intelligence.
• Because the western definition of intelligence may be too narrow, tests constructed from this definition may fail to test key aspects of intelligence.

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What is Intelligence?

Intelligence (in all cultures) is the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use our knowledge to adapt to new situations.

In research studies, intelligence is whatever the intelligence test measures. This tends to be “school smarts.”

What does it mean to be intelligent?

In many studies, intelligence has been defined as whatever intelligence tests measure, which has tended to be school smarts.

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But intelligence is not a quality like

height or weight, which have the same meaning to

everyone worldwide.

People assign this term to the

qualities that enable success in their own time and culture

(Sternberg & Kaufman, 1998).

So, how is intelligence defined?

the ability to learn from experience, solve problems,

and use knowledge to adapt to new situations

Some people have talents in science, others excel in the humanities, and still others are gifted in athletics, art, music, or dance.

A talented artist may be stumped by the simplest math problem, or a brilliant math student may struggle

when discussing literature.

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Are all these people intelligent?

Controversies About Intelligence

Despite general agreement among psychologists about the nature of intelligence, controversies remain:

1. Is it more nature or more nurture?
2. Is it general or multiple?
3. Can it be measured?

Intelligence: Ability or Abilities?

Have you ever thought that since people’s mental abilities are so diverse, it may not be justifiable to label those abilities with only one word, intelligence?

You may speculate that diverse abilities represent different kinds of intelligences. How can you test this idea?

Cultural Influences on Intelligence Definitions

• People in Western cultures tend to view intelligence as a means for individuals to devise categories and to engage in rational debate
• People in Eastern cultures see it as a way for members of a community to recognize contradiction and complexity and to play their social roles successfully.

General Intelligence

• Theorist: Charles Spearman (1904)
• Also called g factor
• According to Spearman, this g factor was responsible for overall performance on mental ability tests.

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g=

What is general intelligence (g)?

According to Charles Spearman and others,

general intelligence, or “g”, underlies all mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test.

General intelligence is at the heart of all our intelligent behavior, from navigating the sea to excelling in school. Spearman believed people often have special, outstanding abilities, or “s” as well.

He noted that those who score high in one area, such as verbal intelligence, typically score higher than average in other areas, such as spatial or reasoning ability.

What is factor analysis?

a statistical procedure that identifies clusters

of related items (called factors) on a test;

used to identify different dimensions of performance that underlie a person’s total score

Charles Spearman utilized factor analysis in creating his theory of “g” and “s”.

General Intelligence

• How did he prove it? Spearman used factor analysis to find correlations among tests of different cognitive tasks.
• Technical definition: The g factor is a variable that summarizes positive correlations among different cognitive tasks, reflecting the fact that an individual's performance at one type of cognitive task tends to be comparable to his or her performance at other kinds of cognitive tasks.
• Huh? If you are good at intelligent you will be good at many things.

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How important is “g”?

Research using factor analysis confirms that there is a general intelligence factor: “g” matters

(Johnson et al., 2008)

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It predicts performance on various complex

tasks and in various jobs.

(Gottfredson, 2002a,b, 2003a,b)

And extremely high cognitive ability scores predict

exceptional achievements, such as doctoral degrees and publications. (Kuncel & Hezlett, 2010)

Scatterplot analysis.

Use your understanding of scatterplots to interpret the data above.

Does intelligence correlate with income?

Jay Zagorsky tracked 7403 participants in the U.S. National Longitudinal Survey of Youth across 25 years. As shown at right, their intelligence scores correlated +.30, a moderate positive

correlation, with their later income.

Savant Syndrome

• a rare condition in which someone with significant mental disabilities demonstrates certain abilities far in excess of average. The skills that savants excel at are generally related to memory. This may include rapid calculation, artistic ability, map making, or musical ability.

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Multiple Intelligences

• Theorist: Howard Gardner – 1980s
• the extent to which humans possess different kinds of minds and therefore learn, remember, perform, and understand in different ways,“
• 9 Intelligences

Multiple Intelligences

• 1. Naturalist Intelligence (“Nature Smart”)
• 2. Musical Intelligence (“Musical Smart”)
• 3. Logical-Mathematical Intelligence (Number/Reasoning Smart)
• 4. Existential Intelligence (Phil Smart)
• 5. Interpersonal Intelligence (People Smart”)
• 6. Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence (“Body Smart”)
• 7. Linguistic Intelligence (Word Smart)
• 8. Intra-personal Intelligence (Self Smart”)
• 9. Spatial Intelligence (“Picture Smart”)

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Triarchic theory

• Theorirst – Robert J. Sternberg (1985)
• More of a cognitive look at intelligence rather than a psychometric focus.
• Sternberg’s theory of intelligence is made up of three parts
• Analytic
• Creative
• Practical

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Triarchic Theory: Analytic

• Academic problem solving skills
• similar to the standard psychometric definition of intelligence e.g. as measured by Academic problem solving: analogies and puzzles, and corresponds to his earlier componential intelligence.
• Sternberg considers this reflects how an individual relates to his internal world.

Triarchic Theory: Creative

• insights, synthesis and the ability to react to novel situations and stimuli.
• Sternberg considers this the Experiential aspect of intelligence and reflects how an individual connects the internal world to external reality.

Triarchic Theory: Practical Intelligence

• (a) adaptation to the environment in order to have goals met
• (b) changing the environment in order to have goals met
• (c) or, if (a) and (b) don't work moving to a new environment In which goals can be met
•  People with this type of intelligence can adapt to, or shape their environment.

Crystallized vs. Fluid Intelligence

• Theorist: R. B. Cattell (1971)
• Identified two clusters of mental abilities
• Crystallized intelligence one’s lifetime of intellectual achievement, as demonstrated largely through one's vocabulary and general knowledge
• Fluid intelligence the capacity to think logically and solve problems in novel situations, independent of acquired knowledge.
• Crystalized intelligence increases with age while fluid intelligence decreases in old age.

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

• 1990 – Salovey & Mayer coin term “emotional intelligence
• “it is an intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and action.”
• 1995 - Daniel Goleman publishes “Emotional Intelligence.”

GOLMAN’S THEORY

• THE BRAIN HAS EMOTIONAL ARCHITECTURE
• Limbic structures generate feelings & emotions
• Reptilian brain downshift

as the amygdala performs

“neural hijacking”

COMPONENTS OF E.I.

• Self-Awareness
• Self-Management or trustworthiness
• Motivation or resilience
• Empathy or recognizing emotions in others
• Social skills or handling relationships

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COMPONENTS OF E. I.

• FIRST THREE ARE PERSONAL
• SELF-AWARENESS
• SELF-REGULATION
• MOTIVATION
• LAST TWO ARE SOCIAL
• EMPATHY
• SOCIAL SKILL

SELF-AWARENESS

• “THE ABILITY TO RECOGNIZE AND UNDERSTAND YOUR MOODS, EMOTIONS, AND DRIVES, AS WELL AS THEIR EFFECTS ON OTHERS
• Do I know how I’m coming off in this

situation?

SELF-REGULATION

• “THE ABILITY TO CONTROL OR REDIRECT DISRUPTING IMPULSES AND MOODS OR THE ABILITY TO SUSPEND JUDGMENT TO THINK BEFORE ACTING.”
• Can I stop the

R brain downshifting?

SELF-REGULATION

• ABILITY TO RELAX
• ABILITY TO MANAGE STRESS
• ABILITY TO CONTROL MOODS
• ABILITY TO RECOVER FROM EMOTIONAL UPSET MORE QUICKLY
• ABILITY TO EMPLOY THE 6 SECOND PAUSE

SELF-REGULATION

• PEOPLE WHO SELF-REGULATE
• CREATE AN ATMOSPHERE OF TRUST AND FAIRNESS
• REDUCE EMOTIONAL REACTIVITY IN ENVIRONMENT

MOTIVATION

• “A PASSION TO WORK FOR REASONS THAT GO BEYOND MONEY OR STATUS”

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• JOB CAPABILITIES
• Achievement drive
• Commitment
• Initiative
• Optimism

EMPATHY

• “THE ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND THE EMOTIONAL MAKE-UP OF OTHER PEOPLE.”

EMPATHY

• ABILITY TO TAKE OTHER’S PERSPECTIVE
• CARING ATTITUDE
• CAN BETTER READ VERBAL & NONVERBAL CUES
• ATTUNED TO NEEDS & EMOTIONS OF OTHERS

EMPATHY

• EMPATHY BUILDS ON SELF-AWARENESS.

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• THE MORE OPEN WE ARE TO OUR OWN EMOTIONS, THE MORE SKILLED WE ARE IN READING OTHERS’ EMOTIONS

SOCIAL SKILLS

• “PROFICIENCY IN MANAGING RELATIONSHIPS AND BUILDING NETWORKS.”
• Using your empathetic knowledge

5.10 Psychometric Principles and Intelligence Testing

Achievement Tests

Aptitude Tests

Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test

Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

Mental Age

Wechsler Intelligence Scale

Standardization

Stereotype Threat

Flynn Effect

Standardization

Reliability

Split-half Reliability

Test-Retest Reliability

Validity

Content Validity

Predictive Validity

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Assessing the Range

Intellectual Disability

Down Syndrome

Gifted

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5.10 Psychometric Principles and Intelligence Testing

Key Takeaways

• For a psychology test (personality, intelligence etc) to be good it needs to be standardized, reliable, and valid.
• Tests are standardized so that you can compare an individual’s performance to that of a group.

Can I?

• Figure out percentile when given the mean and standard deviation
• Tell the difference between reliability and validity

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What is the difference between an achievement test and an aptitude test?

achievement test

Exams covering what you have learned in this course are achievement tests.

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Examples include the AP^® exam, chapter or unit tests in your courses, final exams in college, etc.

aptitude test

Measures a student's potential or ability to learn - aptitude test.

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Examples include the SAT or ACT or career tests that help predict what future job might best fit your interests.

Interpret the graph.

Use your understanding of statistics to explain the data on the graph above.

Thinking critically.

Research indicates that there is a strong positive correlation between SAT scores and intelligence scores. Many consider the modern SAT to be more of an achievement test, measuring the rigor of courses taken in high school, the access to preparation courses, and other social factors.

Aptitude and achievement tests.

What achievement or aptitude tests have you taken?

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In your opinion, how well did these tests reflect what you’d learned or predict what you were capable of learning?

Talk with your partner.

What is an intelligence test?

a method for assessing an individual’s

mental aptitudes and comparing

them with those of others, using

numerical scores

Psychologists classify intelligence tests as either achievement tests, intended to reflect what you have learned, or aptitude tests, intended to predict your ability to learn a new skill.

How did Alfred Binet contribute �to the field?

French psychologist Alfred Binet was commissioned by the French government to design fair and unbiased intelligence tests to administer to French schoolchildren.

Alfred Binet

(1857-1911)

What was Binet’s assumption about intellectual development?

Binet and his student, Théodore Simon, began by assuming that all children follow the same course of intellectual development but that some develop more rapidly.

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A “dull” child should score much like a typical younger child, and a “bright” child like a typical older child.

Thus, their goal became measuring each child’s mental age, the level of performance typically associated with a certain chronological age.

What is meant by mental age?

Binet assumed the average 9-year-old,has a

mental age of 9.

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Children with below-average mental ages, such as

9-year-olds who perform at the level of typical

7-year-olds, would struggle

with age-appropriate schoolwork.

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Although the child had a chronological age of 9,

Binet would say they have a mental age of 7.

How did Binet test for mental age?

To measure mental age, Binet and Simon theorized that mental aptitude, like athletic aptitude, is a general capacity that shows up in various ways.

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They tested a variety of reasoning and problem-solving questions on Binet’s two daughters, and then on “bright” and “backward” Parisian schoolchildren.

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Items answered correctly could then predict how well

other French children would handle their schoolwork.

How were Binet’s tests modified by �Lewis Terman?

Stanford University professor Lewis Terman, modified Binet’s tests for use as a numerical measure of inherited intelligence. Adapting some of Binet’s original items, adding others, and establishing new age norms, Terman extended the upper end of the test’s range from teenagers to “superior adults.”

Terman also gave his revision the name today’s version retains—the Stanford-Binet.

For Terman, intelligence tests revealed the intelligence with which a person was born.

What is the intelligence quotient (IQ) and how was it derived?

From such tests, German psychologist William Stern derived the famous term intelligence quotient, or IQ. The IQ was simply a person’s mental age divided by

chronological age and multiplied by 100 to get rid of the decimal point.

IQ was defined as the ratio of mental age (ma) to chronological age (ca) multiplied by 100

(thus, IQ = ma/ca × 100).

On contemporary intelligence tests, the average performance for a given age is assigned a score of 100.

What were the limits of IQ calculating?

The original IQ formula worked fairly well for children but not for adults.

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Most current intelligence tests, including the

Stanford-Binet, no longer compute an IQ in this manner.

How did the Army utilize the intelligence tests?

With Terman’s help, the U.S. government developed new tests to evaluate both newly arriving immigrants and World War I army recruits—the world’s first mass

administration of an intelligence test.

The Army Alpha and Beta (the version for illiterate or non-English speaking recruits) tests were intended to measure verbal and numerical abilities, following directions and general knowledge.

To some psychologists, the results indicated the inferiority

of people not sharing their Anglo-Saxon heritage

What were the problems with the early intelligence tests?

Sweeping judgments based on intelligence test scores became an embarrassment to most of those who championed testing.

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Lewis Terman came to appreciate that test scores

reflected not only people’s innate mental abilities but also their education, native language, and familiarity with the culture assumed by the test.

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Abuses of the early intelligence tests, such as in immigrant screening, remind us that science can be value-laden.

What intelligence test did David Wechsler design?

Psychologist David Wechsler created what is now the most widely used individual intelligence test, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), together with a version

for school-age children (the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children [WISC]) and another

for preschool children (the WPPSI).�(Evers et al., 2012)

What are some of the subtests of the WAIS?

• Recognizing similarities
• Vocabulary
• Letter-number sequencing
• Block design

(use four blocks to make the image shown)

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What information does a WAIS provide?

The WAIS yields not only an overall intelligence score, as does the Stanford-Binet, but also individual scores for verbal comprehension, perceptual organization, working memory, and processing speed.

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Striking differences among these individual scores can provide clues to cognitive strengths or weaknesses.

For example, a low verbal comprehension score

combined with high scores on other subtests could indicate a reading or language disability.

What is the Flynn effect?

It turns out that intelligence test performance has improved.

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This worldwide phenomenon is called the Flynn effect, in honor of New Zealand researcher James Flynn who first calculated its magnitude.

The average person’s intelligence test score in 1920 was—by today’s standard— only a 76.

How do the tests remain standardized?

To keep the average score near 100, the Stanford-Binet and Wechsler scales are periodically restandardized.

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The WAIS, 4^th ed., was standardized on a sample who took the test during 2007, not to David Wechsler’s initial 1930’s sample.

Normal Distribution

Standard Deviation

• a statistic that measures the dispersion of a dataset relative to its mean and is calculated as the square root of the variance.
• It measures how spread out the data is. The larger the SD the more spread out the data is around the mean.
• Z-score
• a statistical measurement that describes a value's relationship to the mean. Z-score is measured in terms of standard deviations from the mean. If a Z-score is 0, it indicates that the data point's score is identical to the mean score. If it is 1 it indicates that it is 1 standard deviation above the mean. If it is -1 it is one standard deviation below the mean.

• Symmetrical data distribution
• Mean, median and mode are all the same
• Formed by naturally occurring variables like the roll of dice, height and INTELLIGENCE.

Mean of 100, SD of 15. What is the z-score of Sam who got an 85? What about Pat who got a 115? What percentage of test takers get a score between 85 and 115?

Mean of 100, SD of 15. What percentage of test takers get a score between 70 and 130?

Mean of 100, SD of 15, Bob gets a 115. What’s his z-score and what’s his percentile?

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Mean of 100, SD of 15, Pat gets an 85. What’s his z-score and what’s his percentile?

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Principles of Test Construction

For a psychological test to be acceptable it must fulfill the following three criteria:

1. Standardization
2. Reliability
3. Validity

Standardization

Standardizing a test involves administering the test to a representative sample of future test takers in order to establish a basis for meaningful comparison.

Normal Curve

Standardized tests establish a normal distribution of scores on a tested population in a bell-shaped pattern called the normal curve.

What is the normal curve?

If a graph is constructed of test-takers’ scores, the scores typically form a bell-shaped pattern called the bell curve, or normal curve.

How is the normal curve defined?

the bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution

of many physical and psychological attributes

Most scores fall near the average, and fewer and fewer scores lie near the extremes.

What is a characteristic of a normal curve distribution?

Remember that in a normal distribution the mean, median, and mode are all the same and at the center.

What is another characteristic of the �normal curve?

~68% of scores fall 1 standard deviation from the mean

~95% of scores fall 2 standard deviations from the mean

~99% of scores fall 3 standard deviations from the mean

What does the test score indicate?

For both the Stanford-Binet and Wechsler scales, a score indicates whether that person’s performance fell above or below the average.

How is an intelligence score derived using the normal curve?

A performance higher than all but 2.5% of all scores earns an intelligence score of 130.

A performance lower than 97.5% of all scores earns an intelligence score of 70.

Reliability

A test is reliable when it yields consistent results. To establish reliability researchers establish different procedures:

1. Split-half Reliability: Dividing the test into two equal halves and assessing how consistent the scores are.
2. Reliability using different tests: Using different forms of the test to measure consistency between them.
3. Test-Retest Reliability: Using the same test on two occasions to measure consistency.

What is reliability and how �is it determined?

Reliability is the extent to which a test yields consistent results and can be assessed three ways:

• Split-half: scores on two halves of the test (even items v. odd items) are compared.
• Alternative form: varying versions of the test are given and results are compared.
• Test-retest: the same test is readministered and results are compared.

The higher the correlation between the two scores, the higher the test’s reliability

What is validity?

the extent to which a test measures or predicts

what it is supposed to

For example, if your environmental science teacher spent several weeks discussing global warming trends, then gave an assessment on that subject, the test would be valid if it contained questions on global warming trends.

What is the difference between content validity and predictive validity?

content validity

the extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest

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For example, the road test

for a driver’s license has content validity because it samples the tasks a driver routinely faces.

predictive validity

the success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict

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For example, some academic aptitude tests can predict success in school at certain ages.

When can predictive validity yield little information?

Consider a correlation

between football linemen’s body weight and their success on the field.

Note how insignificant the relationship becomes when the range of weight is narrowed to 280 to 320 pounds.

The limits of prediction.

As the range of

data under consideration narrows,

its predictive power diminishes.

5.11 Components of Language and Language Acquisition

Morpheme

Phoneme

Grammar

Semantics

Syntax

Holophrastic Speech

Telegraphic Speech

Universal Inborn Grammar

Critical Period

Linguistic Determinism

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Building Blocks of Thought

Images

• Nonverbal mental representations of sensory experiences

Language

• A flexible system of symbols that enables us to communicate our ideas, thoughts, and feelings
• Non Humans communicate primarily through signs

Universal Characteristics of Language

• Semanticity - language carries meaning.
• Naming  - language name things
• Displacement - language allows you talk about things that are not immediately present
• Arbitrariness - symbols of language are chosen at random
• Generativity - meanings can be created
• Flexibility of symbols  - meanings will change

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Naming?

Arbitrary

Think of the word Dog

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It doesn’t look like a dog or sound like a dog or have anything to do with a dog.

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The only reason we call dogs dogs is because we’ve agreed to do that. Language is a social agreement. You alone do not own the meaning of a word. It only exists in the agreement between us.

Generativity

• Dictionary.com broke its own record with 15,000 updates to existing entries and 650 new words added to keep up with the rapid pace of 2020.

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• Amirite
• Ish
• Janky
• Nothingburger
• Sharent
• Swole
• Zhuzh
• Doomscrolling

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Flexibility of SYMBOLS

I want you to think about the meaning of these sentences today vs. decades or centuries years ago.

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• You’re the GOAT.
• You look nervous
• Are you flirting with him?
• My mind is blown, like literally.
• What a cute little girl
• You are so naughty
• He’s my bully

Thinking in Images

To a large extent cognition is language-based. When alone, we may talk to ourselves. However, we also think in images.

Mirror Neurons

Watching a physical activity activates the same brain regions as when actually performing the activity.

Language Structure

Phonemes: The smallest distinctive sound unit in a spoken language. For example:

bat, has three phonemes b · a · t

chat, has three phonemes ch · a · t

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How many meanings can you make by varying the vowel phoneme between B and T?

Generally _____________ phonemes carry more information.

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Answers

• Bait, bat, beat/beet, bet bit, bite, boat, boot, bought, bout, and but.

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• The consonant phonemes. The treth ef thes stetement shed be evedent frem thes bref demenstretien.

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Language Structure

Morpheme: The smallest unit that carries a meaning. It may be a word or part of a word. For example:

Milk = milk

Pumpkin = pump . kin

Unforgettable = un · for · get · table

Structuring Language

Phrase

Sentence

Meaningful units (290,500) … meat, pumpkin.

Words

Smallest meaningful units (100,000) … un, for.

Morphemes

Basic sounds (about 40) … ea, sh.

Phonemes

Composed of two or more words (326,000) … meat eater.

Composed of many words (infinite) … She opened the jewelry box.

Grammar

Grammar is the system of rules in a language that enable us to communicate with and understand others.

Grammar

Syntax

Semantics

Semantics

Semantics is the set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences. For example:

Semantic rule tells us that adding –ed to the word laugh means that it happened in the past.

Syntax

Syntax consists of the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences. For example:

In English, syntactic rule says that adjectives come before nouns; white house. In Spanish, it is reversed; casa blanca.

Structure of Language

• Surface structure
• How we order the sentence
• English “She at an apple”
• Japanese “She an apple ate”
• Deep structure
• Underlying meaning of a sentence

Language Development

Children learn their native languages much before learning to add 2+2.

We learn, on average (after age 1), 3,500 words a year, amassing 60,000 words by the time we graduate from high school.

When do we learn language?

Babbling Stage: Beginning at 4 months, the infant spontaneously utters various sounds, like ah-goo. Babbling is not imitation of adult speech.

When do we learn language?

One-Word Stage: Beginning at or around his first birthday, a child starts to speak one word at a time and is able to make family members understand him. The word doggy may mean look at the dog out there.

When do we learn language?

Two-Word Stage: Before the 2nd year a child starts to speak in two-word sentences. This form of speech is called telegraphic speech because the child speaks like a telegram: “Go car,” means I would like to go for a ride in the car.

When do we learn language?

Longer phrases: After telegraphic speech, children begin uttering longer phrases (Mommy get ball) with syntactical sense, and by early elementary school they are employing humor.

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You never starve in the desert because of all the sand-which-is there.

When do we learn language?

Theories of Language Development

• Imitation
• Operant Learning
• Inborn Universal Grammar (Critical Period)

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Imitation

• Don’t they just listen to what is said around them and then repeat it?
• But, sentences produced by children are very different from adult sentences
• Cat stand up table
• A my pencil
• What the boy hit?
• Other one pants
• And children who can’t speak for physiological reasons learn the language spoken to them.
• When they overcome their speech impairment they immediately use the language for speaking.

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Operant Learning

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• Language acquisition is governed by operant learning principles.
• Association of the sight of things with sounds of words
• Imitation of the words/syntax modeled by others
• Reinforcement by the caregiver
• This assumes that children are being constantly reinforced for using good grammar and corrected when they use bad grammar. (Seldom occurs)
• Cute mistakes?

Inborn Universal Grammar

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• Linguist Noam Chomsky
• Language is almost entirely inborn
• Language will naturally occur
• We are hardwired to learn language
• Children acquire untaught words and grammar at a rate too high to be explained through learning
• Productivity? “I hate you daddy”
• Many of the mistakes children make are from overgeneralizing grammar rules they picked up on
• Universal Grammar
• But children do learn their environment’s language

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Universal Grammar

• All human languages have the same grammatical building blocks, such as nouns and verbs, subjects and objects, negations and questions.
• We all start speaking mostly in nouns
• We all follow language development stages

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Critical period

• Language Machines - A one year old’s brain is statistically analyzing which syllables most often go together to discern word breaks
• Can we keep it up?
• No, childhood seems to represent a critical period for mastering certain aspects of language
• Once the critical period is over mastering the grammar of another language is very difficult
• When a young brain does not learn language its language-learning capacity never develops.