CHAPTER 8: THINKING, INTELLIGENCE AND LEARNING:

Cognition: The way in which information is processed an manipulated in remembering,

thinking and knowing.
Cognitive Psychology: Approaches that seek to explain observable behavior by
investigating mental processes and structures that we cannot directly observe.

HUMAN CO
Input —> Brain, mind, cognition (memory, problem solving, reasoning,
Input —> Hardware and softwa
consciousness) —> Output.

Artificial Intelligence (AI): A scientific field that focuses on creating machines capable
of performing activities that require intelligence when they are done by people.

1) THINKING: The process of manipulating information mentally by forming concepts,

solving problems, making decisions, and reflecting critically or creatively.
A. Concepts: Mental categories that are used to group projects, events and
characteristics. Concepts are important for 4 reasons:
• Concepts allow us to generalize.
• Concepts allow us to associate experiences and objects.
• Concepts aid memory by making it more efficient so that we do not have to reinvent
the wheel each time we come across a piece of information. (Fiat VS wrangler)
• Concepts provide us clues about how to react to a particular object or experience.
- Prototype model: A model emphasizing that when people evaluate whether a given
item reflects a certain concept, they compare the item with the most typical item(s) in that
category and look for a “family resemblance” with that item’s properties.

B. Problem-Solving: The mental process of finding an appropriate way to attain a

goal when the goal is not readily available. There are 4 steps:
• Find and Frame problems: asking questions in creative ways and “seeing” what others
do not.
• Develop good problem-solving strategies: There are 3 effective strategies to problem-
solving:
◦ Subgoals: Intermediate goals or intermediate problems devised to put the
individual in a better position for reaching the final goal or solution. (Ash,
wede, sour, tyr, Tripoli…)
◦ Algorithms: Strategies — including formulas, instructions, and the testing of all
possible solutions — that guarantee an answer.
◦ Heuristics: Shortcut strategies or guidelines that suggest a solution to a problem
but do not guarantee an answer. (Avoir les solutions devant toi, essayer
toutes)
• Evaluate solutions
• Rethink and redefine problems and solutions over time.
!!: An obstacle to problem solving: Fixation (= using prior strategy and failing to look
at a problem from a fresh new perspective).
 - Functional fixedness: Failing to solve a problem as a result of fixation on a thing is
usual functions. (Sans material jpe rien faire)

C. Reasoning and Decision-making:

◦ Reasoning: The mental activity of transforming information to reach
conclusions. There are 2 types of reasoning:
▪ Inductive reasoning: reasoning from specific observations to make
generalizations. (De petits trucs, je generalise.)
▪ Deductive reasoning: reasoning from a general case that is known to be
true to a specific instance. (De generalisations, je specifie.)
◦ Decision-making: The mental activity of evaluating alternatives and choosing
among them.
• There are 2 systems of reasoning and decision-making:

Controlled System Automatic System

• Rapid
• Slower
• Heuristic
• Effortful
• Associative
• Analytical
• Intuitive
• Conscious reflection
• Following one’s hunch

• Biases and Heuristics:

◦ Confirmation bias: Actively seek out and assign more weight to evidence that
confirms our hypothesis/ideas, and ignoring or underweight evidence
that could disconfirm our hypothesis. (Straight/lesbian)
◦ Hindsight bias: The tendency to report falsely, after the fact, that one has
accurately predicted an outcome. (I knew it all along)
◦ Availability heuristic: A prediction about the probability of an event based on
the ease of recalling or imagining similar events. (Mon avion va tomber)
◦ Base rate neglect: The tendency to ignore information about general principles
in favor of very specific but vivid information. (Doctor tells you that this
medicine is the best; your mom tells you it gave her allergies, you don’t
take it anymore, you NEGLECT THE BASE)
◦ Representativeness heuristic: The tendency to make judgements about group
membership based on physical appearances or the match between a person
and one’s stereotype of a group rather than on available base rate
information.

D. Thinking critically and creatively:

• Critical thinking: Thinking reflectively and productively and evaluating the evidence.
◦ Mindfulness: The state of being alert and mentally present for one’s everyday
activities.
◦ Open-mindedness: The state of being receptive to other ways of looking at
things.
• Creative thinking:
◦ Creativity: The ability to think about something in novel and unusual ways and
 to devise unconventional solutions to problems.
▪ Divergent thinking: Thinking that produces many solutions to the same
problem (cf. brainstorming).
▪ Convergent thinking: Thinking that produces the single best solution to
a problem.
▪ Flexibility and playful thinking
▪ Inner motivation
▪ Willingness to face risk
▪ Objective evaluation of work

2) INTELLIGENCE: All-purpose ability to do well on cognitive tasks, to solve

problems, and to learn from experience.
Psychologists measure intelligence by using tests that produce a score known as the
person’s "Intelligence Quotient”(IQ). The criteria for a good intelligence tests:
1. Validity: The extent to which a test measures what it is intended to measure.
2. Reliability: The extent to which a test yields a consistent, reproducible measure of
performance.
3. Standardization: The development of uniform procedures for administering and scoring
a test, and creation of norms (performance standards) for the test.

Alfred Binet developed the concept of Mental Age (MA), which is an individual’s level
of mental development relative to that of others.
Chronological Age (CA): Age from birth.
WILLIAM STERN: CREATED THE IQ = (MA/CA) x 100

Normal distribution: A symmetrical, bell-shaped curve, with a majority of the scores

falling in the middle, and few scores falling towards the extremes.

Culture-fair tests: Intelligence tests that are intended to be culturally unbiased.

Moreover, some psychologists don’t believe in fair tests because a lot of things can be
biased (pictures, time limits, even words). They concluded that there are only culture-
reduced tests.

Genetics and Environmental Influences on Intelligence:

Genotype refers to an organism’s genetic material.
Phenotype refers to the actual characteristics the organism possesses.
When we are talking about genetic influences on intelligence, we are interested in
understanding how differences at the level of the genotype predict differences in the
phenotype of intelligence.

Heritability: The proportion of observable differences in a group that can be explained

by differences in the genes of the group’s members. (How much people are different
depending on their different genes)
!!: Heritability has no meaning when applied to a single case —> Heritability estimates
can change over time and across different groups.
Even if the heritability of a characteristic is high, the environment still matters.
Flynn Effect: One effect of education on intelligence is evidence in rapidly increasing IQ
test scores around the world. (Example taking someone the same age as me a long time
ago, and my IQ now, mine will be higher because education is developing through time
and around the world)

Extremes of Intelligence:
Giftedness: Possessing high intelligence (an IQ of 130 or higher) and superior talents in
a particular area. It’s likely a product of both heredity and environment.
Intellectual disability (or intellectual disorder): A condition of limited mental activity
that affects an individual’s functioning in everyday life, particularly in 3 domains:
1. Conceptual skills; including language, reading, writing, math reasoning, and memory.
2. Social skills; including empathy, social judgement, interpersonal communication, and
the ability to make friends.
3. Practical skills; including self-management, personal care, job responsibilities, money
management, organizing school and work tasks.

Intellectual disability may have an organic cause, or a cultural and social cause:
Organic intellectual disability: Cause by a genetic disorder or brain damage. Ex: Down
syndrome. (IQ between 0 and 50)
Cultural-familial intellectual disability: A mental deficit with no evidence of organic
brain damage. (IQ between 55 and 70)

Large majority: mild.

Adaptive behavior: having an intellectual disability but still adapting to it.
People with Down syndrome: may never accomplish the amazing academic feats to
giftedness.
HOWEVER they may build close relationships to other —> SOCIAL SKILLS.
BUT THEY MAY HAVE DIFFERENT INTELLIGENCE ABILITIES.

STERNBERG’S TRIARCHIC THEORY OF INTELLIGENCE: Intelligence comes

in 3 forms:
1. Analytical Intelligence: The ability to analyze, judge, evaluate, compare and contrast.
2. Creative Intelligence: The ability to create design, invent, originate and imagine.
3. Practical Intelligence: The ability to use, apply, implement, and put into practice.

GARDNER’S MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES: There are 9 types of intelligence, or

“frames of mind”:
1. Verbal: The ability to think in words and use language to express meaning.
Authors, journalist, speakers.
2. Mathematical: The ability to carry out mathematical operations. Scientists, engineers,
accountants.
3. Spatial: The ability to think in 3D. Architects, artists, sailors.
4. Bodily-kinesthetic: The ability to manipulate objects and to be physically adept.
Surgeons, dancers, athletes.
5. Musical: The ability to be sensitive to pitch, melody, rhythm, and tone. Composers,
musicians.
6. Interpersonal: The ability to understand and interact effectively with others. Teachers,
mental health professionals.
7. Intrapersonal: The ability to understand oneself. Theologians, psychologists.
8. Naturalist: The ability to observe patterns in nature and understand natural and
human-made systems. Farmers, botanists, ecologists, landscapers.
9. Existentialist: The ability to grapple with the big questions of human existence, such
as the meaning of life an death…

3) LANGUAGE: A form of communication — whether spoken, written or signed — that

is based on a system of symbols.
The basic Properties of Language:
1. Phonology: A language’s sound system.
2. Morphology: A language’s rules for word formation.
3. Syntax: A language’s rules for combining words to form acceptable phrases and
sentences.
4. Semantics: The meaning of words and sentences in a particular language.
5. Pragmatics: The useful character of language and the ability of language to
communicate even more meaning than it is verbalized.

Noam Chomsky has argued that humans come into the world biologically prewired to
learn language at a certain time and in a certain way.
—> Children all over the world reach language milestones at about the same time and in
about the same ordered, despite vast variations in the language input they receive from
their environment.

≠ Behaviorists oppose Chomsky’s hypothesis and argued that language

represents nothing more than chains of responses acquired through
reinforcement.
—> Language is a complex learned skill.

Evidence for the important role of the environment in language development comes
from case histories of children who have lacked exposure to languages.
Example: Genie.

4) THINKING, PROBLEM SOLVING AND HEALTH AND WELLNESS:

Cognitive appraisal: Interpreting the events and experiences in one’s life as harmful
and threatening, or as challenging, and determining whether one has the resources to
cope effectively.
Coping: Managing taxing circumstances, expending effort to solve life’s problems, and
seeking to master or reduce stress.
In Lazarus’ view, people appraise events in 2 steps:
1. Primary appraisal: Individuals interpret whether an event involves harm or loss that
has already occurred, a threat of some future danger, or a challenge to be
overcome.
2. Secondary appraisal: Individuals evaluate their resources and determine how
effectively they can be used to cope with the event.

Cognitive reappraisal: Regulating one’s feelings about an experience by reinterpreting

that experience or thinking about it in a different way or from a different angle.
• Benefit finding: looking at a stressful event in a particular way, focusing on the good
that arisen in one’s life as a result.