Thinking and Intelligence: Key Concepts in Cognitive Psychology

Thinking and Intelligence

Introduction

This chapter explores the fundamental processes of human cognition, including how we think, solve problems, and understand intelligence. It covers the elements of cognition, types of thinking, barriers to rational reasoning, and the measurement and nature of intelligence in both humans and animals.

The Elements of Cognition

Concepts, Prototypes, Schemas, and Mental Images

• Concepts: Mental categories that group objects, events, or ideas with common properties. For example, the concept of "bachelor" groups all unmarried men, though not all instances fit perfectly (e.g., Catholic priests).

• Prototypes: The most representative or typical example of a concept. Some instances are more prototypical than others.

• Schemas: Integrated mental frameworks that organize knowledge and guide cognitive processes and behavior. Schemas help us interpret new information based on prior experience.

• Mental Images: Mental representations that closely resemble the objects or events they represent. Visual images in the mind's eye play a role in thinking and constructing schemas.

Example: The concept of "bird" includes many species, but a robin may be a more prototypical bird than a penguin.

Language and Thought

• The words used to express concepts can influence how we think about them. This is known as the linguistic relativity hypothesis (Benjamin Whorf), which suggests that language molds cognition and perception.

How Conscious Is Thought?

Conscious, Subconscious, and Nonconscious Thinking

• Conscious Thinking: Deliberate, aware mental processing.

• Subconscious Processes: Occur outside of conscious awareness but can be brought into consciousness when needed (e.g., implicit learning).

• Nonconscious Processes: Mental activities that are not available to conscious awareness (e.g., automatic skills).

• Multitasking: Attempting to perform multiple tasks simultaneously, which is usually inefficient and can be dangerous.

Example: Learning to ride a bike involves conscious effort at first, but becomes nonconscious with practice.

Reasoning Rationally

Algorithms and Heuristics

• Algorithm: A step-by-step problem-solving strategy guaranteed to produce a correct solution, even if the user does not understand how it works.

• Heuristic: A rule-of-thumb strategy that simplifies problem solving but does not guarantee a correct solution.

Insight and Intuition

• Some problems are solved through sudden insight or intuition, which are often nonconscious processes.

• "Fast thinking" is rapid, intuitive, and emotional, while "slow thinking" is deliberate and effortful.

Barriers to Rational Reasoning

Exaggerating the Improbable

• Affect Heuristic: Relying on emotional responses rather than objective probabilities when making decisions.

• Availability Heuristic: Overestimating the likelihood of events that are easily recalled, often because they are dramatic or recent.

Example: Overestimating the risk of airplane crashes due to media coverage, while underestimating more common risks like car accidents.

Avoiding Loss and the Framing Effect

• Framing Effect: The way information is presented (framed) affects decision-making, often leading people to avoid losses rather than seek gains.

Biases and Mental Sets

• Fairness Bias: The tendency to forgo personal gain to ensure fairness, possibly rooted in evolution.

• Hindsight Bias: The tendency to believe, after an event has occurred, that one would have predicted or expected the outcome.

• Confirmation Bias: The tendency to seek, interpret, and remember information that confirms existing beliefs, while ignoring contradictory evidence.

• Mental Set: The tendency to approach problems using strategies that have worked in the past, which can hinder finding new solutions.

Overcoming Cognitive Biases

• Biases can sometimes be beneficial (e.g., promoting fairness), but often lead to errors in reasoning.

• Awareness, expertise, and training can help reduce irrationality and cognitive biases.

Measuring Intelligence

Defining Intelligence

• Intelligence: The ability to profit from experience, acquire knowledge, think abstractly, act purposefully, and adapt to changes in the environment.

• g factor: General intellectual ability underlying specific mental abilities.

• Crystallized Intelligence: Skills and knowledge acquired over a lifetime.

• Fluid Intelligence: The capacity to reason and solve new problems independently of previously acquired knowledge.

IQ Testing

• Mental Age (MA): A measure of intellectual development expressed in terms of the average mental ability at a given age.

• Intelligence Quotient (IQ): Originally calculated as $\text{IQ} = \frac{\text{Mental Age}}{\text{Chronological Age}} \times 100$, now derived from standardized norms.

• Modern IQ tests (e.g., Wechsler scales) assess verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning, and processing speed.

Fairness and Stereotypes in Testing

• Early intelligence tests were biased toward certain groups (urban, middle-class, White children).

• Stereotype Threat: The risk of confirming negative stereotypes about one's group, which can affect test performance.

Theories of Intelligence

Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory

• Analytical Intelligence: Information-processing strategies for academic problem-solving.

• Creative Intelligence: Ability to deal with novel situations and transfer skills to new contexts.

• Practical Intelligence: Application of intelligence to everyday life ("street smarts").

Type of Intelligence	Characteristics	Example
Analytical	Problem-solving, logical reasoning	Solving math problems
Creative	Adapting to new situations	Inventing a new use for an object
Practical	Applying knowledge to real-world tasks	Managing a budget

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences

• Proposes several independent intelligences (e.g., linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic).

Emotional Intelligence

• The ability to identify, express, and manage emotions in oneself and others.

Other Factors in Intellectual Achievement

• Motivation, hard work, self-discipline, and perseverance are important predictors of success, sometimes more so than IQ.

Animal Minds

Animal Intelligence

• Some nonhuman animals can anticipate events, coordinate activities, and use simple tools.

• Evidence suggests that great apes may possess a "theory of mind"—an understanding of their own and others' mental states.

Animal Language

• Primates have acquired basic linguistic skills using visual symbols or sign language, such as understanding words and simple sentences.

• Some animals (e.g., the bonobo Kanzi, the parrot Alex) have demonstrated remarkable communication abilities.

• Debate exists about whether these abilities reflect true language use or are the result of anthropomorphism.

Thinking About Animal Cognition

• Scientists are divided on the extent and nature of animal cognition, with concerns about attributing human-like qualities to animals.

Additional info: Some explanations and examples have been expanded for clarity and completeness based on standard academic sources in cognitive psychology.