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CHAPTER 7 COGNITION AND MENTAL ABILITIES
CHAPTER 7
COGNITION AND MENTAL ABILITIES
▲ TABLE OF CONTENTS
To access the resource listed, click on the hot linked title or press CTRL + click
To return to the Table of Contents, click on click on ▲ Return to Table of Contents
To return to a section of the Lecture Guide, click on ► Return to Lecture Guide
► LECTURE GUIDE
➢ Building Blocks of Thought
➢ Language, Thought, and Culture
➢ Nonhuman Language and Thought
➢ Problem Solving
➢ Decision Making
➢ Multitasking
➢ Intelligence and Mental Abilities
➢ Heredity, Environment, and Intelligence
➢ Creativity
➢ Chapter Review
▼ FULL CHAPTER RESOURCES

➢ Learning Objectives
➢ Rapid Review
➢ Lecture Launchers and Discussion Topics
➢ Activities and Exercises
➢ Handout Masters
➢ APS Current Directions Reader
➢ Forty Studies that Changed Psychology
➢ Web Resources
➢ MyPsychLab Video Resources
➢ MyPsychLab Multimedia Resources
➢ PowerPoint Slides
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Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
376
►LECTURE GUIDE
BUILDING BLOCKS OF THOUGHT (TEXT PAGE 217)
Lecture Launchers/Discussions Topics:

➢ The Influence of Language on Thought
➢ Eye-Tongue Coordination
➢ Nonverbal Gestures
Classroom Activities, Demonstrations, and Exercises:
➢ Learning a Concept
➢ Mental Imagery
➢ Context and Speech Perception
➢ Channels of Communication
➢ Exploring Bilingualism
➢ Is Reading Automatic? A Survey
Web Resources:
➢ Language
MyPsychLab Video Clips:
➢ List of Video Resources
MyPsychLab Multimedia Resources:
➢ List of Multimedia Resources
PowerPoint Slides:
➢ Link to PowerPoint slides
Describe the three basic building blocks of thought and give an example of each. Explain how
phonemes, morphemes, and grammar (syntax and semantics) work together to form a
language (text pp. 217-220).
Cognition – the processes whereby we acquire and use knowledge.
Language
• Language – a flexible system of communication that uses sounds, rules, gestures, or symbols
to convey information.
o Phonemes – the basic sounds that make up any language.
o Morphemes – the smallest meaningful units of speech, such as simple words,
prefixes, and suffixes.
o Grammar – the language rules that determine how sounds and words can be
combined and used to communicate within a language.
▪ Syntax – the system of rules that governs how we combine words to form
meaningful phrases and sentences.
▪ Semantics – how we assign meaning to morphemes, words, phrases, and
sentences; semantics are the content of language.
❖ Surface structure – the particular words and phrases used to create a
sentence.
❖ Deep structure – the underlying meaning of a sentence.
▪ Transformations – According to Noam Chomsky, to produce or understand
language, one must engage in transformations between surface and deep
structures. When producing language, one begins with the thought or meaning
one wants to convey (the deep structure), and then assembles the appropriate

377
words and phrases (the surface structure). The reverse transformation occurs
when hearing a message. (See Figure 7-1 on text page 219.)
Images
• Image – a mental representation of a sensory experience; images can be visual (e.g., recall
what the Statue of Liberty looks like), olfactory (e.g., recall the smell of bacon), or auditory
(e.g., recall the song “Auld Lang Syne”).
Concepts
• Concepts – mental categories for classifying objects, people, or experiences; concepts help
us think about things and how they relate to one another.
o Fuzzy concepts – concepts typically overlap one another and are often poorly
defined.
o Prototype (or model) – a mental model containing the most typical features of a
concept. When we encounter new objects, we compare them with prototypes to
determine what they are.
▲ Return to Chapter 7: Table of Contents
LANGUAGE, THOUGHT, AND CULTURE (TEXT PAGE 220)

➢ Who Talk More: Men or Women?
➢ Personal Experiences with Sexist Language
➢ Non-sexist Language
PowerPoint Slides:
Summarize the evidence for the idea that people in different cultures perceive and think about
the world in different ways. Explain what is meant by "linguistic determinism" and summarize
the evidence for and against it (text pp. 220-222).
• Linguistic relativity hypothesis – proposed by Benjamin Whorf, this hypothesis asserts that
patterns of thinking are determined by the specific language one speaks.
o Linguistic determinism – the belief that thought and experience are determined by
language. According to Whorf, if a language lacks a particular expression, the
corresponding thought will probably not occur to speakers of that language.
o Research indicates that the proposed link between thought and language is not as strong
as Whorf suggested. For example, even though the Dani of New Guinea have only two
words for color, they can perceive and think about colors much as English-speaking
people do.

378
o There is also ample evidence that language does not limit thought provided by the growth
of personal computers and the Internet; these technological advances have generated a
new vocabulary.
• Psychologists has now softened Whorf’s hypothesis, recognizing that language, thought and
culture are intertwined; experience shapes language and language, in turn, affect experience.
Is Language Male Dominated?

• Since evidence suggests that language influences thought, research has been conducted on how
the use of masculine and feminine pronouns impact thinking. Use of the pronouns “he” and
“she” significantly influenced children’s ratings of female workers (Hyde, 1984).
• More recent research on gender-stereotyped pronouns also revealed an impact on thinking; male
and female adults responded more quickly when they were presented with gender-stereotypic
stimuli (e.g., nurse/she) and non-gender-stereotypic stimuli (e.g., nurse/he), even if the adult
participants held attitudes that opposed gender-stereotyping.
NONHUMAN LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT (TEXT PAGE 222)

➢ Do Animals Have Language? A Survey
Multimedia Resources on MyPsychLab:
➢ Learn More: Animal Studies and Language
➢ Video: Birds and Language
PowerPoint Slides:
Summarize research evidence that supports the statement that "nonhuman animals have
some humanlike cognitive capacities." Explain the following statement: "All animals
communicate, but only humans use language to communicate" (text pp. 222-224)
The Question of Language

Honeybees dance to communicate to hive mates the location and quality of pollen; humpback whales
perform solos. Do these signs constitute “language?”
• Signs – general or global statements about an animal’s current state.
• Distinguishing features of language:
o Meaningfulness – semantics
o Displacement – talking about the past or future
o Productivity – the ability to produce and understand new and unique words and
expressions (e.g., slang)
• Applying these criteria, it appears that no other species has its own language. Several researchers
have been able to teach primates sign language or other means of communicating through

379
symbols or keyboards, but their efforts have, at best, resulted in “language” capabilities similar to
that of a 2- to 2½ year-old child.
Animal Cognition
Numerous studies have indicated that other animals have some humanlike cognitive capacities:
• An African gray parrots was able to identify more than 50 objects and count to 6;
• Dolphins have demonstrated mastery of the concepts same and different, more and less;
• Rhesus and capuchin monkeys have learned numeration (the capacity to use numbers) and
seriation (the ability to place objects in a specific order);
• Chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, and some gorillas have demonstrated that they possess
aspects of a sense of self (self-recognition) or self-awareness;
• Chimpanzees have also revealed a sense of other-awareness, as expressed through deception.
PROBLEM SOLVING (TEXT PAGE 225)

➢ Types of Problems
➢ Functional Fixedness
➢ Problem Representation
➢ Breaking Sets in Problem-Solving
➢ Mental Sets in Everyday Life
Web Resources:
➢ Problem-Solving
PowerPoint Slides:
Explain why problem representation is an important first step in solving problems. In your
explanation include divergent and convergent thinking, verbal, mathematical and visual
representation, and problem categorization (text pp. 225-227).
Interpreting Problems
• Problem representation – the first step in problem-solving; it involves interpreting or defining
the problem. (See Figures 7-2 and 7-3 on text page 225.)
• Divergent thinking – thinking that generates many different possible answers; certain problems
demand this kind of thinking – it results in originality, inventiveness, and flexibility. (See Figure
7-4 on text page 226.)
• Convergent thinking – thinking that is directed toward one correct solution to a problem.
• Successful problem solving often hinges on selecting the most effective way to represent the
problem (e.g., verbally, mathematically, or visually), since the representation of the problem
influences the types of strategies that people will pursue to solve the problem. Problem
380
representation also influences problem categorization, which helps problem solvers make
connections between the current problems they are facing and similar problems that they faced in
the past.
Distinguish between trial and error, information retrieval, algorithms, and heuristics as ways
of solving problems. Give an example of hill-climbing, subgoals, means-end analysis and
working backward. Explain how "mental sets" can help or hinder problem solving (text pp.
227-230).
Implementing Strategies and Evaluating Progress

Following the representation of a problem in the selection of strategies to solve the problem and
means of evaluating progress toward one’s goals as the strategies are implemented.
• Trial and Error – this strategy works best when choices are limited; it is not an efficient strategy
when there are many options to test.
• Information Retrieval – if one has faced a similar problem in the past or has learned the solution
to the problem, a very efficient strategy is to simply retrieve this information from long-term
memory.
• Algorithms – these are step-by-step methods of problem solving that guarantee the correct
solutions if the steps are properly carried out.
• Heuristics – rules of thumb that help in simplifying and solving problems, although they do not
guarantee a correct solution.
o Hill climbing – a heuristic, problem-solving strategy in which each step moves a person
progressively toward the final goal.
o Subgoals – intermediate, more manageable goals used in problem-solving to make it
easier to reach the final goal.
o Means-end analysis – a heuristic strategy that aims to reduce the discrepancy between
the current situation and the desired goal at a number of intermediate points; this strategy
combines hill climbing and subgoals. Use of means-end analysis might result in what
appears to be a step backward in order to reach an end goal, therefore effective use of this
heuristic demands flexible thinking.
o Working backward – a heuristic strategy in which one works backward from the desired
goal to the given conditions.
Obstacles to Solving Problems

Level of motivation and level of emotional arousal can both serve to help or hinder problem
solving.
• Mental set – the tendency to perceive and to approach problems in certain ways. Mental sets
can be helpful if we have learned approaches and strategies that can be successfully applied
to a problem situation. However, a mental set can also be a hindrance to problem-solving if
the problem we are facing demands a novel approach to solve it.
o Functional fixedness – the tendency to perceive only a limited number of uses for an
object, thus interfering with the process of problem solving. (See Figure 7-5 on text
page 229.)
• Insight and Intuition – occasionally, the solution to a problem presents itself “out of the
blue.” These mental breakthroughs occur after we widen our scope of attention to consider a
more diverse set of possible solutions beyond a few obvious but incorrect solutions.
• Brainstorming – a problem-solving strategy in which an individual or a group produces
numerous ideas and evaluates them only after all ideas have been collected.
381
DECISION MAKING (TEXT PAGE 231)

➢ Intuition
➢ Don’t Believe Everything You Read…Except This
➢ Availability Heuristics
➢ Demonstrating Cognitive Biases
➢ Insight
APS Reader:
➢ The Role of Emotion in Decision Making
PowerPoint Slides:
Explain how decision making differs from problem solving. Describe the process of
compensatory decision making and the use of decision-making heuristics. Explain how
framing can affect decisions, and how hindsight bias and counterfactual thinking affect that
way we view our decisions after the fact (text pp. 231-233).
• Decision making is form of problem solving in which we already know all the possible solutions
or choices. In effect, the task involves making a choice from among a set of options that presents
the greatest benefits or the best possible outcomes.
Compensatory Decision Making

Compensatory model: a rational decision-making model in which choices are systematically
evaluated on various criteria. For each choice, the attractive features can compensate for the
unattractive features. The option that best meets the most important criteria should be the option
that is selected. This approach to decision-making works well when it is easy to identify and
evaluate various features of each of the available options from which one is choosing.
Decision-Making Heuristics
• Representativeness heuristic – judging a new situation on the basis of its resemblance to a
stereotypical model. We make a decision based upon how an option matches our model of
the typical member of a category. For example, when choosing a new cell phone, we
compare our options to a prototypical cell phone in an effort to determine if the potential cell
phone exceeds or falls short of our “model” phone.
• Availability heuristic – making a decision based on information that is most easily retrieved
from memory. Of course, just because information is readily available to us from our own
experiences does not mean that it is accurate information (see the subway effect described on
p. 232 of the text).

382
• Confirmation bias – the tendency to notice and remember evidence that supports our beliefs
and ignore or overlook evidence that contradicts them. This bias is related to the availability
heuristic in that it skews the information that is readily available to us in memory.
o Confirmation bias is reinforced by our tendency to see patterns of cause and effect
where none exist. In effect, we believe that two correlated events have a causal
relationship, even despite research to the contrary.
Framing
• The way information is presented can significantly influence a final decision.
• Framing – the perspective from which we interpret information before making a decision
(see the example of medical decision-making on pp. 232-233 of the text that utilized a
survival frame and a mortality frame when presenting treatment outcomes to research
participants and radiologists).
Explaining Our Decisions (to ourselves)

• Hindsight bias – the tendency to see outcomes as inevitable and predictable after we know
the outcome. This bias can be seen as a cognitive flaw – as a way to explain away our bad
decisions. Some researchers also see it as an efficient way to replace misinformation of
faulty assumptions so that we can make better decisions in the future.
• Counterfactual thinking – thinking about alternative realities and things that never
happened. This thinking often takes the form of “If only I had ________, (done something
different), then ________ would have (or not have) happened.” We may use this kind of
thinking to mentally revise the events or actions that led to the actual outcome we
experienced, or to improve future decision-making.
MULTITASKING (TEXT PAGE 233)
Web Resources:
➢ Multitasking
PowerPoint Slides:
Multitasking has, quite simply, become a way of life in the digital age. Perhaps because we multitask
so often, there are commonly-held assumptions about it:
• Multitasking makes us more efficient.

o Multitasking can result in limited, enhanced productivity when the multitasker is
engaged in tasks that are dissimilar, the multitasker is an experienced multitasker,
and the multitasker is intelligent.
o When the above conditions are not met, research on multitasking indicates that
multitasking slows down thinking, decreases accuracy, and can increase stress.

383
• Young people are better at multitasking than older adults.

o Research comparing 18- to 21-year-olds to 35- to 39-year-olds found that the
negative effects of multitasking were more pronounced in the younger group.
• Texting while driving is a bad idea, but just talking on a cell phone while driving is okay.
o Texting while driving is indeed a bad idea, with research indicating that breaking
response slowed by 35% and steering control was reduced by 91%, both results
revealing far greater impairments than would be caused by the use of marijuana or
alcohol.
o Just talking on the phone while driving results in impaired braking time and reduced
attention to events in the peripheral visual field. These results were observed even
with well-practiced multitaskers or with other drivers who were specifically
instructed to give more attention to driving than to talking on the phone.
Professor David Myer, an expert on multitasking, concluded that “If you’re driving while cell-
phoning, then your performance is going to be as poor as if you were legally drunk.”
INTELLIGENCE AND MENTAL ABILITIES (TEXT PAGE 234)

➢ Fallacies in Reasoning
➢ IQ and Juror Selection
➢ The Darwin Awards—What Intelligence Isn’t
➢ Does the SAT Have Predictive Value?
➢ Birth Order and Intelligence
➢ Information Processing Approach to Intelligence
➢ Arthur Jensen
➢ What Exactly is Intelligence?
➢ Cultural Bias in IQ Testing
➢ Creating a Culture-Fair Intelligence Test
➢ Intelligence
➢ Multiple Intelligences
➢ Emotional Intelligence (The EQ Test)
➢ Intelligence and Mental Capacity in Film
➢ Age and Intelligence
➢ Should Psychology Adopt a Theory of Multiple Intelligence?
Forty Studies
➢ What You Expect Is What You Get
➢ Just How Are You Intelligent?
Web Resources:
➢ Intelligence
PowerPoint Slides:
384
Intelligence – a general term referring to the ability or abilities involved in learning and adaptive
behavior.
Compare and contrast the theories of intelligence put forth by Spearman, Thurstone,
Sternberg, Gardner and Goleman (text pp. 236-237).
Theories of Intelligence
Early Theorists
• Charles Spearman proposed that intelligence is a singular, general quality about a person.
o Spearman described intelligence in terms of a “g” factor – the ability to reason and
solve problems.
o Spearman argued that people who are bright in one area tend to be bright in other
areas as well.
• L.L. Thurstone believed that intelligence was comprised of seven distinct, independent
mental abilities:
o Spatial ability, memory, perceptual speed, word fluency, numerical ability,
reasoning, and verbal meaning.
o Individuals could, according to Thurstone, excel in certain areas but not in others.
Contemporary Theorists
• Robert Sternberg proposed three types of intelligence in his triarchic theory of intelligence:
o Analytical intelligence – mental processes involved in learning, problem solving,
acquiring knowledge, and completing tasks.
o Creative intelligence – the ability to creatively adapt to new tasks and situations, to
gain insight
o Practical intelligence – the ability to find solutions to practical and personal
problems.
• Howard Gardner proposed eight different and independent types of intelligence in his theory
of multiple intelligences, ranging from verbal, linguistic, and mathematical to interpersonal
and intrapersonal intelligence (see the full list of Gardner’s intelligences and their
descriptions on page 237 of the text, and “Thinking critically about …” questions appear on
the previous page that lend themselves to an engaging class discussion).
• Emotional intelligence, a construct proposed by Daniel Goleman, refers to how effectively

people perceive and understand their own emotions and the emotions of others, and how they
regulate and manage their own emotional behavior.
Describe the similarities and differences between the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale and the
Wechsler Intelligence Scales, and explain how they differ from group tests, performance tests
and culture-fair tests of intelligence. Explain what is meant by test "reliability" and "validity"
and how psychologists determine whether an intelligence test is reliable or valid (text pp. 237-
240).
Intelligence Tests
The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale

385
• Originally developed by Alfred Binet Theodore Simon as a test of school placement,

Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale measures four intellectual abilities: Verbal reasoning,
abstract/visual reasoning, quantitative reasoning, and short-term memory.
• The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test yields an intelligence quotient (IQ) which is a
numerical value that is determined from performance on an intelligence test and is normed
around a score of 100 for a person of average intelligence. (See Figure 7-6 on text page
238.)
The Wechsler Intelligence Scales

• The Wechsler Intelligence Scales, including the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children –
Fourth Edition (WISC-IV) and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale – Fourth Edition
(WAIS-IV), differ from the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale in that Wechsler believed that
intelligence consists more of the ability to handle life situations than to solve verbal and
abstract problems.
• The Wechsler Intelligence Scales yield a verbal and a performance score as well as an overall
score of intelligence.
Group Tests
• The Stanford-Binet and Wechsler Intelligence Scales are individually-administered tests of
intelligence scale. As such, they are time and labor-intensive tests.
• Group tests – written intelligence tests administered by one examiner to many people at one
time – are a more efficient means of testing the intelligence of many people, but in group
testing situations the examiner is less likely to notice if a person being tested is tired, ill, or
confused by the directions.
Performance and Culture-Fair Tests

• Performance tests – intelligence tests that minimize the use of language. As their name
implies, these tests require people to perform, often by assembling puzzles, completing
mazes, or in some way manipulating materials to achieve a specified goal.
• Culture-fair tests – intelligence tests designed to eliminate cultural bias by minimizing the
use of language as well as the use of skills and values (like the need to work quickly) that
vary from one culture to another.
Biological Measures of Intelligence

• For decades, researchers have attempted to assess intelligence using biological markers (e.g.,
brain size, size and metabolic functioning of specific brain structures, electrical response of
brain cells to stimulation), but the results reveal only weak or modest correlations with other
indicators of intelligence.
• To date, no biological measure of intelligence approaches the accuracy of psychological tests.
What Makes a Good Test?

Psychologists assess the quality of a test by referring to a test’s reliability and validity.
• Reliability – ability of a test to produce consistent and stable scores.
o Test-retest reliability – the degree of similarity between test scores given twice to the
same group of people.
o Split-half reliability – a method of determining test reliability by dividing the test
into two parts and checking the agreement of scores on both parts.
o Reliability is often assessed statistically in terms of correlation coefficients –
statistical measures of the degree of association between two variables.
386
• Validity – ability of a test to measure what is has been designed to measure.

o Content validity – refers to a test’s having an adequate sample of questions
measuring the skills or knowledge it is supposed to measure.
o Criterion-related validity – validity of a test as measured by a comparison of the
test score and independent measures of what the test is designed to measure.
Summarize the criticisms of intelligence tests and the relationship between IQ test scores and
job success (test pp. 240-242).
Criticisms of IQ Tests
• Disagreements on the nature of intelligence lead to criticisms of particular tests of
intelligence.
• At a minimum, intelligence tests are an indicator of a person’s ability to takes tests.
• Questions remain about how useful intelligence tests are. What do they tell us about a
person?
• Emotional intelligence appears to be predictive of social success in school and in the
workplace, but some researchers argue that the “new” construct of emotional intelligence is
simply a combination of well-known factors that can be measured with traditional
intelligence and personality measures.
• The content and administration of intelligence tests do not take into account cultural
variations and, in fact, discriminate against minorities.
HEREDITY, ENVIRONMENT, AND INTELLIGENCE (TEXT PAGE 243)

➢ Mental Retardation
➢ Terman’s Termites
➢ Hormones and Thinking Skills
➢ Einstein’s Brain
➢ How to Improve Cognitive Processes
➢ Take a Stand
Summarize the evidence that both heredity and environment (including intervention
programs) affect intelligence (text pp. 242-245).
Heredity
• The IQ scores of identical twins raised together is remarkably high (see Figure 7-7 on page
243 of the text), but these twins share both a common genotype and common environment.

387
• The IQ scores of identical twins raised apart is also very high, indicating that there is a strong
genetic component to intelligence.
• Adopted children tend to have IQ scores that are more highly correlated with that of their
biological mothers than the IQ scores of their adoptive mothers.
Environment
• Genetic influence on IQ varies with economic status; in impoverished families, heredity has
little influence on IQ, whereas in affluent families its influence is stronger.
• Prenatal nutrition influences IQ scores, as does nutrition during infancy (malnutrition lowers
IQ scores by 20 points on average) and the use of vitamin supplements during childhood.
• Skeels’ research on orphanages in the 1930s revealed that children raised in stimulating
environments exhibited significant increases in their IQ scores compared to children who
were raised in environments that offered little stimulation or support.
Intervention Programs: How Much Can We Boost IQ?

➢ The Milwaukee Project (1961-1967) and, more recently, Head Start (1965 to present) provide
early enrichment and nutrition to children and their families. Research on both of these
intervention programs has revealed dramatic benefits to the participants: Increased IQ scores,
enhanced cognitive and language development, higher academic achievement and lower
delinquency rates.
➢ Overall, the effectiveness of early intervention appears to depend on the quality of the
particular program.
What is the "Flynn Effect"? What are some of the explanations that have been offered for it?
(text pp. 245-246)
The IQ Debate: A Useful Model

• See the helpful nature-nurture metaphor involving plants and enriched and poor soil
described on page 245 of the text.
• Between-group differences in IQ scores may be due to environmental factors, while
differences within a group of people could be due primarily to genetics.
• According to Robert Plomin (1997), “the world’s literature suggests that about half of the
total variance in IQ scores can be accounted for by genetic variance” (p. 89). Environment
accounts for the remaining half.
• The Flynn Effect – from the 1930s through the 1970s, a researcher from New Zealand –
James Flynn – noticed that IQ scores have increased in the population as a whole. The
increase amounted to 3-6 points per decade.
o Numerous explanations for the phenomenon have been offered (e.g., people are
getting better at taking tests, improvements in nutrition and health care, increasing
complexity of the world), but none account entirely for the magnitude of the change
over time in the mean IQ of the population.
Summarize the evidence regarding gender differences and cultural differences in mental
abilities (text pp. 246-248).
Mental Abilities and Human Diversity: Gender and Culture

Gender

388
• Despite the long-held belief that men have a higher math aptitude than women, a 2010
study that reviewed published research on more than one million people showed no
difference between men and women in mathematical ability.
• Recent research also suggests that when gender differences are observed, they are
relatively small and concentrated in very specific skills:
o The long-established advantage that girls have over boys in verbal abilities applies
only to written verbal skills.
o Boys tend to outperform girls on tests of visual-spatial skill, which accounts for most
of the gender-related differences on standardized math tests.
• Men are much more likely than women to fall at the extremes of the intelligence range:
o 7 out of 8 people with extremely high IQ scores were men, while approximately the
same ratio is observed among those with mental retardation.
o There are no gender differences on measures of general intelligence.
Culture
• For decades, American children have lagged behind children in China and Japan with
respect to reading and math abilities, and recent evidence suggests that the gap is
widening. When first- and fifth-grade children in America perform more poorly than
their counterparts in China and Japan, and their poorer standing continues through
eleventh grade.
o Cultural attitudes toward ability and effort account for much of the differences
between the cultures.
o A majority of American students think that studying hard as little to do with
academic performance. Rather, they believe that academic skills are primarily the
result of innate ability.
o Many American teachers also believed that innate ability was the most important
factor in mathematics performance.
o Asian students, their parents and teachers believe that effort and studying hard
determine success in school.
o These cultural differences have significant consequences for the way that children,
their parents, and their teachers approach the task of learning. Cultural differences in
math and reading abilities likely reflect differences in effort to learn rather than
differences in intelligence across cultures.
Explain what is required for a diagnosis of mental retardation and summarize what is known
about its causes. Describe what is meant by "inclusion" and whether it has been shown to be
beneficial (text pp. 247-249).
Extremes of Intelligence
Mental Retardation – condition of significantly sub-average intelligence combined with
deficiencies in adaptive behavior.
• A low IQ and the inability to function independently must both be present before someone is
considered to be mentally retarded.
• Mental retardation varies in its degree of impairment, including mild, moderate, severe and
profound types of retardation (see Table 7-3 on page 248 of the text).
• Some people with mental retardation exhibit remarkable ability in specific areas, such as
numerical computation, art or music, occasionally resulting in savant performances.

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• The causes of retardation are, in most individual cases, unknown. However, there are a wide
variety of genetic (e.g., phenylketonuria, Down’s syndrome), environmental (e.g., lead
poisoning), social (e.g., neglect), nutritional (e.g., malnutrition) and other risk factors.
• There are a variety of intervention programs that can elevate the intellectual functioning and
adaptive behaviors of those with mental retardation, including inclusion (formerly called
“mainstreaming”) in K-12 educational settings, training in skills of daily living and
occupational skills, and the use of small, group-home residential settings for adults.
Explain what is meant by saying a person is "gifted." Explain the pros and cons of special
programs for gifted children (text pp. 249-250).
Giftedness – refers to superior IQ combined with demonstrated or potential ability in such areas
as academic aptitude, creativity, and leadership.
• Most gifted people exhibited special abilities in only a few areas; globally gifted people are
rare.
• School systems typically identify gifted children with the use of diagnostic testing,
interviews, and evaluation of academic and creative work. Students are often identified for
evaluation due to teacher recommendations or achievement test results.
• While a common stereotype holds that gifted children are social misfits, the research suggests
otherwise, actually revealing that moderate levels of giftedness bring social advantages to
those gifted children. However, there are some gifted children who have difficulty socially.
• Programs for gifted children that separate them from their peers tend to result in social
isolation for the gifted students. Being labeled a “brain” may result in fewer invitations to
social events. So, while enrichment programs may be intellectually fulfilling, there are social
concerns that accompany them.
CREATIVITY (TEXT PAGE 250)

➢ Creative Thinking
➢ Creativity Quiz
Forty Studies
➢ Maps in Your Mind
PowerPoint Slides:
Describe the relationship between creativity and intelligence, and the ways in which creativity
has been measured (text pp. 250-252).
Creativity – the ability to produce novel and socially valued ideas or objects.
Intelligence and Creativity

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• Early research found no correlation between creativity and intelligence, but these early
studies focused on bright individuals.
• Some evidence has been found for threshold theory – that creativity and intelligence are
linked, but only up to a certain level of IQ, then the relationship disappears. Support for the
threshold theory has been mixed.
• Creative people tend to be problem finders as well as problem solvers. They will work on
problems that they identify, and often exhibit extraordinary dedication, ambition, and
perseverance as they pursue solutions to the problems they are addressing.
Creativity Tests
• Assessing creativity is difficult because creativity involves original responses to situations.
Multiple-choice or True/False responses are too confining, so an open-ended question format
must be adopted.
• Examples of creativity tests include the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking, the Christensen-
Guilford Test, Mednick’s Remote Associates Test, and the Wallach and Kogan Creative
Battery.
• Performance on the Wallach and Kogan Test is independent of one’s IQ, while the Torrance
Test results are correlated with IQ test scores.
• Most creativity tests lack high degrees of validity, so their results must be interpreted
cautiously.
• Neuroscience research to date has indicated that there is no particular area of the brain that is
clearly associated with creative thinking or behavior.
CHAPTER REVIEW (TEXT PAGE 255)

Classroom Activities, Demonstrations, and Exercises
➢ Crossword Puzzle
➢ Fill in the Blank

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▼CHAPTER 7
Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, students should be able to respond to each of the bulleted objectives below:
Building Blocks of Thought

• Describe the three basic building blocks of thought and give an example of each. Explain how
phonemes, morphemes, and grammar (syntax and semantics) work together to form a language.
Language, Thought, and Culture

• Summarize the evidence for the idea that people in different cultures perceive and think about the
world in different ways. Explain what is meant by "linguistic determinism" and summarize the
evidence for and against it.
Nonhuman Thought and Language

• Summarize research evidence that supports the statement that "nonhuman animals have some
humanlike cognitive capacities." Explain the following statement: "All animals communicate, but
only humans use language to communicate."
Problem Solving
• Explain why problem representation is an important first step in solving problems. In your
explanation include divergent and convergent thinking, verbal, mathematical and visual
representation, and problem categorization.
• Distinguish between trial and error, information retrieval, algorithms, and heuristics as ways of
solving problems. Give an example of hill-climbing, subgoals, means-end analysis and working
backward. Explain how "mental sets" can help or hinder problem solving.
Decision Making
• Explain how decision making differs from problem solving. Describe the process of
compensatory decision making and the use of decision-making heuristics. Explain how framing
can affect decisions, and how hindsight bias and counterfactual thinking affect that way we view
our decisions after the fact.
Intelligence and Mental Abilities

• Compare and contrast the theories of intelligence put forth by Spearman, Thurstone, Sternberg,
Gardner and Goleman.
• Describe the similarities and differences between the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale and the
Wechsler Intelligence Scales, and explain how they differ from group tests, performance tests and
culture-fair tests of intelligence. Explain what is meant by test "reliability" and "validity" and how
psychologists determine whether an intelligence test is reliable or valid.
• Summarize the criticisms of intelligence tests and the relationship between IQ test scores and job
success.
Heredity, Environment, and Intelligence

• Summarize the evidence that both heredity and environment (including intervention programs)
affect intelligence.
• What is the "Flynn Effect"? What are some of the explanations that have been offered for it?
• Summarize the evidence regarding gender differences and cultural differences in mental abilities.

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• Explain what is required for a diagnosis of mental retardation and summarize what is known
about its causes. Describe what is meant by "inclusion" and whether it has been shown to be
beneficial.
• Explain what is meant by saying a person is "gifted." Explain the pros and cons of special
programs for gifted children.
Creativity
• Describe the relationship between creativity and intelligence, and the ways in which creativity has
been measured.

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▼CHAPTER 7
Rapid Review
(From the Study Guide accompanying Morris/Maisto, Understanding Psychology, 10th edition)
The chapter opens with Oliver Sacks’ case description of Joseph, an 11-year-old deaf boy who longed to
communicate but could not. As illustrated by Sacks, language and thought are intertwined, and the
chapter focuses on three “characteristically human” cognitive processes: thinking, problem solving, and
decision making. The term cognition involves the processes whereby we acquire and use knowledge.
The three most important building blocks of thought are language, images, and concepts. As we think, we
use words, sensory “snapshots,” and categories that classify things.
Language is a flexible system of symbols that allows us to communicate ideas to others. When we
express thoughts as statements, we must conform to our language’s rules. Every language has rules
indicating which sounds (or phonemes) are part of that particular language, how those sounds can be
combined into meaningful units (or morphemes), and how those meaningful units can be ordered into
phrases and sentences (rules of grammar). To communicate an idea, we start with a thought and then
choose sounds, words, and phrases that will express the idea clearly. To understand the speech of
others, the task is reversed.
Images are mental representations of sensory experiences. Visual images in particular can be powerful
aids in thinking about the relationships between things. Picturing things in our mind’s eye can sometimes
help us solve problems.
Concepts are categories for classifying objects, people, and experiences based on their common
elements. Without the ability to form concepts, we would need a different name for every new thing we
encounter. We draw on concepts to anticipate what new experiences will be like. Many concepts are
“fuzzy,” lacking clear-cut boundaries. Therefore we often use prototypes, mental models of the most
typical examples of a concept, to classify new objects.
The chapter continues into a discussion of language, thought, and culture. According to Benjamin Whorf’s
linguistic relativity hypothesis, thought is greatly influenced by language. But critics contend that
thought and experience can shape and change a language as much as a language can shape and
change thought.
Some evidence indicates that the use of “man” and “he” to refer to all people affects the way that English
speakers think. Referring to doctors, college professors, bankers, and executives by the generic “he” may
contribute to the gender stereotyping of these respected occupations as appropriate for men but not for
women. In contrast, referring to secretaries and housekeepers as “she” may reinforce the stereotype that
those occupations are appropriate for women, not men.

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The chapter next moves into the realm of nonhuman language and thought. Non-human animals
communicate primarily through signs: general or global statements about the animal’s current state.
Using the distinguishing features of language, which include semantics, displacement, and productivity as
criteria, no other species has its own language, although chimpanzees have been taught to use American
Sign Language. Research indicates that some animals have human-like cognitive capacities, such as the
ability to form concepts and to reason. Apes have demonstrated sophisticated problem-solving skills.
However, only chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans consistently show signs of self-awareness.
The chapter switches focus to the subject of problem-solving. Interpreting a problem, formulating a
strategy, and evaluating progress toward a solution are three general aspects of the problem-solving
process. Each in its own way is critical to success at the task.
Problem representation—defining or interpreting the problem—is the first step in problem-solving. We

must decide whether to view the problem verbally, mathematically, or visually; and to get clues about how
to solve it we must categorize it. Some problems require convergent thinking, or searching for a single
correct solution, while others call for divergent thinking, or generating many possible solutions.
Representing a problem in an unproductive way can block progress completely.
Selecting a solution strategy and evaluating progress toward the goal are also important steps in the
problem-solving process. A solution strategy can range from trial and error, to information retrieval based
on similar problems, to a set of step-by-step procedures guaranteed to work (an algorithm), to rule-of-
thumb approaches known as heuristics. An algorithm is often preferable over trial and error because it
guarantees a solution and does not waste time. But because we lack algorithms for so many things,
heuristics are vital to human problem-solving. Some useful heuristics are hill climbing, creating
subgoals, means-end analysis, and working backward.
A mental set is a tendency to perceive and approach a problem in a certain way. Although sets can
enable us to draw on past experience to help solve problems, a strong set can also prevent us from using
essential new approaches. One set that can seriously hamper problem-solving is functional fixedness—
the tendency to perceive only traditional uses for an object. One way to minimize mental sets is the
technique of brainstorming in which an individual or group collects numerous ideas and evaluates them
only after all possible ideas have been collected.
The chapter continues from problem-solving to the related topic of decision making. Decision making is a
special kind of problem-solving in which all possible solutions or choices are known. The task is not to
come up with new solutions, but rather to identify the best one available based on whatever criteria are
being used.
The logical way to make a decision is to rate each available choice in terms of weighted criteria and then
to total the ratings for each choice. This approach is called a compensatory model because heavily
weighted attractive features can compensate for lightly weighted unattractive ones.
Heuristics can save a great deal of time and effort, but they do not always result in the best choices.
Errors in judgment may occur based on the representativeness heuristic, which involves making
decisions based on information that matches our model of the “typical” member of a category. Other
examples are overreliance on the availability heuristic (making choices based on whatever information
we can most easily retrieve from memory, even though it may not be accurate) and the confirmation
bias (the tendency to seek evidence in support of our existing beliefs and to ignore evidence that
contradicts them).
Framing, or perspective in which a problem is presented, can also affect the outcome of a decision. And
regardless of whether a decision proves to be good or bad, we often use hindsight bias, which refers to
our tendency to view outcomes as inevitable or predictable after we know the outcome to “correct” our

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memories so that the decision seems to be a good one. Counterfactual thinking involves revisiting our
decisions by considering “what if” alternatives.
Next, the chapter briefly jumps into a discussion of multitasking. Contrary to what many people believe,
multitasking often results in reduced speed, decreased accuracy, and increased stress. Numerous
studies have shown that driving is particularly affected by multitasking. Talking on a cell phone or texting
while driving may be as bad as driving legally drunk.
Shifting gears, the chapter next takes on intelligence and mental abilities. Psychologists who study
intelligence ask what intelligence entails and how it can be measured. To accomplish this, they use a
variety of questions to assess general knowledge, vocabulary, arithmetic reasoning, and spatial
manipulation.
Intelligence theories fall into two categories: those that argue in favor of a “general intelligence” that
affects all aspects of cognitive functioning, and those that say intelligence is composed of many separate
abilities, in which a person will not necessarily score high in all. Spearman’s theory of intelligence is an
example of the first category. Thurstone’s theory is an example of the second category, as are
Sternberg’s triarchic theory of intelligence and Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences. Goleman’s
theory of emotional intelligence emphasizes skill in social relationships and awareness of others’ and
one’s own emotions.
The Binet–Simon Scale, developed in France by Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon, was adapted by
Stanford University’s L. M. Terman to create a test that yields an intelligence quotient (IQ), the
Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scale. The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale and the Wechsler
Intelligence Scale for Children provide scores for several different kinds of mental abilities as well as an
overall IQ score. In contrast to these individual intelligence tests, group tests of intelligence are
administered by one examiner to many people at a time. Alternatives to traditional IQ tests include
performance tests of mental abilities that exclude the use of language and culture-fair tests that reduce
cultural bias in a variety of ways.
Reliability refers to the ability of a test to produce consistent and stable scores. Psychologists express
reliability in terms of correlation coefficients, which measure the relationship between two sets of
scores. Validity is the ability of a test to measure what it has been designed to measure. Content
validity exists if a test contains an adequate sample of questions relating to the skills or knowledge it is
supposed to measure. Criterion-related validity refers to the relationship between test scores and
whatever the test is designed to measure. In the case of intelligence, the most common independent
measure is academic achievement. Although the reliability of IQ tests is seldom questioned, their validity
is questioned. Critics charge that these tests assess a very limited set of mental skills and that some tests
may be unfairly biased against minority groups. Also, poor school performance may be the result of,
rather than caused by, low test scores. Finally, although IQ tests tend to predict occupational success and
performance on the job after college, they are not ideally suited to that important task. New tests are
being developed to address these concerns.
The chapter continues forward with an in-depth treatment of heredity, environment, and intelligence,
starting with a discussion of IQ scores. Although there has been extended debate about the extent to
which heredity and environment contribute to IQ, studies comparing the IQ scores of identical and
fraternal twins raised in the same and different families indicate that approximately 50% of differences in
intelligence are due to genetics and the other half due to differences in environment, including education.
With such a sizable percentage of the differences in IQ scores being attributable to the environment and
education, many psychologists are strongly in favor of compensatory education programs for young
children from disadvantaged homes. Two such programs are the Milwaukee Project and Head Start.
Although they may not boost IQ scores greatly in the long run, such programs do seem to have significant
educational benefits.

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Conceptually, observations from the study of plants may be able to help us understand the relationship
between heredity and the environment. Plants grown in rich soil under ideal environmental conditions
generally do better than plants grown in poor soil under less than ideal conditions, thus showing the
importance of environment. But differences between plants grown under the same environmental
conditions demonstrate the importance of heredity. Similarly, individual differences in human intelligence
reflect both the genetic and environmental factors. However, psychologists cannot yet account for the fact
that IQ scores on the whole are increasing (the Flynn Effect).
While males and females do not differ in general intelligence, females do tend to have slightly stronger
verbal skills while males tend to have slightly stronger visual-spatial skills. Research indicates that these
differences emerge in early infancy. As for cultural differences, research does not support the notion that
people from certain cultures have a natural tendency to excel at academic skills.
The IQs of nearly 70% of the population fall between 85 and 115; and all but 5% have IQs between 70
and 130. Mental retardation and giftedness are the two extremes of intelligence. About 25% of cases of
mental retardation can be traced to biological causes, including Down syndrome, but causes of the
remaining 75% are not fully understood; nor are the causes of giftedness. Gifted people do not
necessarily excel in all mental abilities.
The chapter concludes with a look at creativity and its relation to intelligence. Creativity is the ability to
produce novel and socially valued ideas or objects.
The threshold theory holds that a minimum level of intelligence is needed for creativity, but above that
threshold level, higher intelligence doesn’t necessarily make for greater creativity. Apparently factors
other than intelligence contribute to creativity.
Creativity tests are scored on the originality of answers and, frequently, on the number of responses
(demonstrating divergent thinking). Some psychologists question how valid these tests are, however.

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▼ LECTURE LAUNCHERS AND DISCUSSION TOPICS

Eye-Tongue Coordination
The Influence of Language on Thought
Nonverbal Gestures
Who Talk More: Men or Women?
Types of Problems
Intuition
Don’t Believe Everything You Read…Except This
Functional Fixedness
Hormones and Thinking Skills
Fallacies in Reasoning
IQ and Juror Selection
The Darwin Awards—What Intelligence Isn’t
Does the SAT Have Predictive Value?
Birth Order and Intelligence
Mental Retardation
Terman’s Termites
Information Processing Approach to Intelligence
Arthur Jensen
Einstein’s Brain
How to Improve Cognitive Processes
Lecture/Discussion: Eye-Tongue Coordination
“Put the apple on the towel in the box.” The ambiguity inherent in this sentence can lead to great
confusion. Should the apple that’s currently on the towel go in the box? Should the towel lying near the
apple first go in the box, followed by the apple on top of it? Or should the apple be placed on the towel in
the box, rather than on the plate that’s in the box?
Until recently, most views of speech comprehension emphasized the decoding of grammar, followed by a
search for contextual clues that might aid in following a command. The grammar in this example
illustrates that sometimes that can be a tall order. A recent study, however, suggests that visual cues
irrelevant to grammar play a prominent early role in influencing message comprehension. A combination
of visual and linguistic information helps us to better understand what others tell us.
A research team led by Michael K. Tanenhaus at the University of Rochester tracked the eye movements
of volunteers while they listened to a variety of messages. These simple commands asked them to
manipulate objects that were visible in the laboratory. The researchers found that people look at targets as
soon as they hear words that distinguish the target from other items. As an example, when asked to “touch
the starred yellow square” participants took about a quarter-second to look at the correct target (that lay
among other unstarred blocks) after hearing the word “starred.” However, if the items included two
starred yellow blocks, participants looked at the target after hearing the word “square.”
But where does the apple go? When presented with either an ambiguous phrase (“Put the apple on the
towel in the box”) or an unambiguous one (“Put the apple that’s on the towel in the box”) participants’
eye movements differed. As they heard a particular command, participants viewed either a display with
an apple set on a towel, another towel without an apple, a box, and a pencil; or a similar arrangement in
which the pencil was replaced by an additional apple on a napkin. When faced with only one apple, the
ambiguous phrase led participants to glance at the towel after hearing “towel,” showing their inclination
that the apple should be placed there, then both placed in the box. Those participants given the
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unambiguous phrase, however, never glanced at the towel. When the two-apple arrangement was
presented, however, both ambiguous and unambiguous instructions produced the same patterns of eye
movements. Participants looked from one apple to the other upon hearing the word “apple,” then looked
at the appropriate apple upon hearing the word “towel,” and made no further eye movements until hearing
the word “box.” An apple on a towel in a box illustrates the coordination that takes place between vision
and hearing in speech comprehension. But if the apple stays in the box it doesn’t do much for the hearing-
hunger connection.
Bower, B. (1995). Understanding speech: I see what you mean. Science News, 147, 373.
Reprinted from Alan Swinkels (2003). Instructor's resource manual for Psychology by S. Kassin. Englewood Cliffs,
NJ: Prentice Hall.
► Return to Lecture Guide: Building Blocks of Thought

▼ Return to List of Lecture Launchers and Discussion Topics for Chapter 7
Lecture/Discussion: The Influence of Language on Thought
In George Orwell’s chilling novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, a totalitarian government tries to narrow thought
by shrinking language. The result, called Newspeak, is supposed to wipe out “thoughtcrime” by
obliterating the words needed to commit it. “We’re destroying words—scores of them, hundreds of them,
every day,” boasts a worder in the ironically named Ministry of Truth. “We’re cutting the language down
to the bone.” Words also get new meanings: War is peace, love is hate. (Lest anyone think Orwell’s
projections were pure fantasy, in recent years leaders in our own government have called lying “mis-
speaking,” the wartime killing of civilians “collateral damage,” the accidental killing of American
soldiers by their own side “friendly fire,” nuclear missiles “peacekeepers,” and tax increases “revenue
enhancement.”)
Was Orwell right? Does language provide a mental straitjacket for thought? Can we think only what we
can say? Or does language merely express ideas and perceptions that would exist anyway?
The leading spokesperson for the notion that language shapes thought was Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897–
1941), an insurance inspector by profession and a linguist and anthropologist by inclination. His theory of
linguistic relativity held that (1) language molds habits of both cognition and perception and (2) different
languages point speakers toward different views of reality. Whorf sometimes seemed to believe that
language determines thought in an absolute way. He once wrote, “We dissect nature along lines laid down
by our native languages” (Whorf, 1956). But usually he took the more moderate position that language
has a powerful influence on cognition.
Whorf’s evidence was linguistic and cultural. For example, he noted that English has only one word for
snow, but Eskimos (now called the Inuit) have different words for falling snow, slushy snow, powdered
snow, and so forth. On the other hand, the Hopi have a single noun that refers to all flying things and
beings, with the exception of birds. This word can be used for aphids, airplanes, and aviators. Thus the
Inuit presumably would notice differences in snow that people in other cultures would not, and Hopis
might see similarities between insects and aviators that others would miss. Since Whorf’s time, other
writers have added examples of their own. Chinese, for instance, has at least nineteen words for silk, but
(in keeping with the reticence of the Chinese about discussing sexual matters) it has no common word for
either foreplay or orgasm, making it something of a challenge to do sex surveys in China (Kristof, 1991)!
In English, much has been written about how the very word foreplay limits sexual imagination. Why are
all activities other than intercourse merely “fore” play?

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Whorf felt that grammar had an even greater influence on thought than did separate words. He argued, for
example, that grammar affects how we think of time. English verbs, he noted, force people to emphasize
when an action took place; you can’t talk about seeing Joan without saying whether you saw her, see her
now, or will see her. But Hopi verbs do not require these distinctions. Instead, they allow a speaker to
convey whether he or she experienced the action personally, observed it, heard about it, or inferred it.
Further, English speakers refer to time as a thing that can be saved, squandered, or spent, or as something
that can be measured; we say time is short, long, or great.
The linguistic differences pointed out by Whorf and others have fascinated students and teachers for
generations. Clearly culture and language are intertwined: English is full of sports metaphors (“I scored
some points with my boss,” “She plays hardball in negotiations”), whereas French is rich in food
metaphors (un navet, “a turnip,” means a bad film, and C’est la fin des haricots! “This is the last of the
stringbeans,” is equivalent to “It’s the last straw”) (Halpern, 1991). But does language shape thought, or
does it merely reflect cultural concerns? Critics note that it is easy enough to describe in English what the
various Inuit words for snow mean or how Hopis conceive of time, despite linguistic differences. Within a
culture, when a need to express some unlabeled phenomenon arises, speakers easily manufacture new
words. Like the Inuit, English-speaking skiers need to talk about several kinds of snow, so they speak of
powder, corn, and boilerplate (ice).
Linguistic evidence alone cannot prove that language determines, or even influences thought. Do the Inuit
perceive snow differently from people who have fewer words for it? Do Hopis experience time differently
because of their grammar? We cannot know, unless linguistic evidence is supplemented by psychological
evidence, and unfortunately, the few psychological studies that have been done have been inconclusive,
mainly because of difficulties in studying this question.
Yet the theory of linguistic relativity, which has sometimes seemed deader than a dinosaur, keeps
springing back to life. Within a language, it is easier to process some words and grammatical
constructions than others; it is reasonable to assume, then, that it is easier to think certain thoughts in one
language than another, because of the words and grammatical constructions the languages require (Hunt
& Agnoli, 1991). Further, recent research suggests that languages may, at the very least, influence the
acquisition of specific mental skills, by guiding attention in particular directions.
For example, Irene Miura and her colleagues (Miura et al., 1988; Miura & Okamoto, 1989) argue that
linguistic differences can help explain why Asian children tend to outperform English-speaking children
on tests of numerical ability. In many Asian languages, names of numbers reflect a base-10 system: the
label for 12 is “ten-two,” the label for 22 is “two ten(s)-two,” and so forth. These names may help
children understand numbers and simple arithmetic. In a study of Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and
English-speaking American first-graders, Miura and her associates (1988) had children stack blocks to
represent five different quantities. White blocks stood for single units and blue blocks for tens units. Each
child had two chances to show the numbers. Most of the Asian children could express all five numbers in
more than one way, for example, 12 as either 12 white blocks or 1 blue block and 2 white ones. But only
13 percent of the American children could do the same; most simply used a collection of white blocks.
Further, on their first try most of the Asian children used patterns corresponding to written numbers, for
example, 2 tens and 8 ones for 28. But only 8 percent of the American children did so. Of course, these
results do not prove that linguistic differences are responsible for the differences in math achievement. It
is interesting, though, that bilingual Asian-American students tend to score higher in math achievement
than do those who speak only English (Moore & Stanley, 1986).
Finally, language affects social perceptions (Henley, 1989). In the previous sentence, you read the name
of a psychologist. Would you be at all surprised to learn it was Nancy Henley? Feminists have long
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observed that in much of our writing, humanity is male and women are outsiders, the “second sex.” This
is why they have long objected to the use of men or mankind to refer to humanity, and he to refer to any
person, sex unspecified.
Language, then, can influence thinking, reasoning, and social stereotypes. It allows us to manipulate
symbols rather than objects. It directs our attention. It allows us to create detailed plans for the future. But
the degree to which linguistic differences between cultures result in different ways of thinking and
perceiving remains an open question.

Lecture/Discussion: Nonverbal Gestures
The study of nonverbal gestures and their meaning has received extensive research attention in
psychology, sociology, and communication. Through basic research we know a great deal about what
gestures convey, how they are culturally variable, and how they act as cues to emotional and other
internal states of a communicator. Roger Axtell, former international business executive and now
professional speaker and author, has cataloged a variety of gestures and their appropriate uses in cultures
around the world. His collection of examples shows clearly that an intended message may not always be
communicated successfully. Some common miscommunicated meanings include:
• The “two-fingered salute.” In most of the contemporary world flashing the index and middle
finger in a “V” shape, palm outward, signifies “victory” or “peace” (depending on the vintage of
the communicator). However, in England, Australia, and several other countries, a simple turn of
the wrist (flashing the sign with the palm toward the communicator) changes this gesture to a
highly insulting one: a two-fingered version of our “one-fingered salute.”
• “The fig.” Brazilians clench their fists with a thumb jutting between the index and middle fingers
to signal good luck and help in warding off evil spirits. In Greece and Turkey, however, this same
gesture is quite insulting, whereas in Holland and Tunisia it has sexual connotations.
• “Hook ‘em Horns.” Texans, especially Austinites, know that an outstretched index and pinky
finger signal a cheer for the University of Texas Longhorns to do well on the playing field. This
same gesture signals a curse in Africa, a good luck sign in Brazil, and an Italian chide that the
recipient is being cuckolded.
• Signaling that someone is “crazy” can take on a variety of forms. In Germany it is done by
rotating the forefingers back and forth around one’s temples. Italians send the same message by
tapping their hands to their foreheads. To complicate matters, in Holland a forefinger to the
temple means “intelligent” whereas a forefinger to the forehead signals “crazy.” The common
North American gesture of a circular motion around the temple actually signals “There’s a phone
call” among Argentineans.
• “Nice job!” Flashing a “thumbs up” to a friend usually signals that the person has done well or
that the communicator wishes good luck. In Australia, however, it is considered the equivalent of
the “two-fingered salute” discussed above, whereas in Japan it signals “five,” in Germany it
indicates “one,” and in Bangladesh it is considered obscene.
• “Pointing” is accomplished in North America and Europe by using the index finger. In Malaysia
the thumb is preferred, whereas in Japan and China an open hand is used.
• The “hand sweep.” Moving one’s hand and arm across a table in a sweeping motion signals
“someone is stealing” in Latin American countries. In Peru, this same gesture means “pay me.”

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• Extending the palm of the hand toward someone might be a way of saying “no more” or “no
thanks.” In Greece, however, it is an extremely insulting gesture mimicking shoving dirt (and
other brown matter) into someone’s face.
Axtell, R. E. (1991). Gestures: The do’s and taboos of body language around the world. New York: Wiley.
Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1969). The repertoire of nonverbal behavior: Categories, origins, usage, and coding.
Semiotica, 1, 49–98.
Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1972). Hand movements. Journal of Communication, 22, 353–374.

► Return to Lecture Guide: Language, Thought, and Culture
Lecture/Discussion: Who Talks More: Men or Women?
Women talk a lot more than men, right? A long-standing stereotype of the socially gifted, talkative
woman is contrasted with the stereotypical male: somewhat guarded, less social, and less talkative. Do
experimental data bear these stereotypes out? In 2006, Louann Brizendine, founder and director of the
University of California, San Francisco's Women's Mood and Hormone Clinic, published The Female
Brain. In it was a claim that women speak an average of 20,000 words per day, nearly three times the
mere 7,000 spoken by men. This seemingly sensational claim was immediately questioned by James
Pennebaker, a psychologist at University of Texas, Austin. In a series of studies (prior to the publishing of
Brizendine’s controversial book) at schools in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, researchers used an
electronically activated recorder to record samples of male and female students’ talking for 17 hours per
day. From the samples of 396 students (210 females and 186 males) it was estimated that women and men
speak roughly the same number of words per day. Women were found to speak an average of 16,215
words per day whereas men speak 15,669. This result does not even approach statistical significance, and
calls into question Brizendine’s claim. Moreover, Pennebaker’s findings indicate that the stereotypes of
the talkative woman / reserved man are simply psychomythology. A discussion of these findings will
nicely illustrate how sound psychological experimentation can lead to the truth. Additionally, most
students hold these stereotypes, and this discussion should elucidate the power of stereotypes—some
students who, even when faced with strong scientific evidence to the contrary, will maintain their views.

Lecture/Discussion: Types of Problems
Sometimes the kinds of problems you have to solve determine the way you try to solve them. There are
basically three kinds of problems: arrangement, inducing structure, and transformation.
Arrangement Problems
Arrangement problems are those in which it is necessary to rearrange the information you have.
Anagrams, a type of puzzle in which letters must be rearranged to form a familiar word, are a good
example of this problem type. What common word, for example, could be made from the letters
bemnur?
(The answer is “number.”)

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Jigsaw puzzles are also arrangement problems, as are puzzles or tasks that require you to put
certain pictures or events in order. When an investigator of a crime tries to recreate the sequence of
events, it is also a problem of arrangement.
Problems of Inducing Structure

If you have ever faced a puzzle that involved finding the next number or letter in a sequence,
you have been trying to induce (reason from the specific examples to a general solution) structure.
What is the next letter in this sequence?
S M T W T F __
This is not only a good example of inducing structure, it’s also a good example of insight. Once
you realize that the letters are the first letters of the days of the week, “S” becomes an easy answer.
Transformation Problems
In a transformation problem, one has to carry out a sequence or series of transformations, or
changes, to solve the problem. The 3-cup and 5-cup measure problem would be a simple example of
this type. Another example would be to try to solve the “Tower of Hanoi” puzzle in which three
rings of different sizes have to be moved from one post to another – ending at the other end of the
row of three posts – without ever putting a big one on a little one, or moving more than one at a time.
► Return to Lecture Guide: Problem Solving

Lecture/Discussion: Intuition
Psychologists have long been interested in understanding reasoning, problem solving, and decision
making. But the other, “softer” side of this cognitive coin is the study of intuition; how we develop a “gut
feeling” or “sense” about a judgment, situation, or another person. Far from relying on an aching bunion
or creaky joint to understand intuition, scientists have recently put the notion to the test.
Antonio Damasio and his colleagues at the University of Iowa College of Medicine studied 6 people who
had damage to the ventromedial sector of the prefrontal cortex and 10 people who did not. This area of
the brain is responsible for storing information about emotional experiences and is also involved in
decision making. Armed with $2,000 in fake money, the participants were presented with four decks of
cards and were told they could turn over cards from any deck during the course of a game. Unbeknownst
to the participants, two decks were rigged to produce lower immediate rewards but a higher overall
payoff, whereas the other two decks yielded short-term, large payoffs but at the price of greater total
losses. Participants flipped cards at will while being monitored for GSR as an indicator of nonconscious
(or conscious) anxiety. After the first 20 rounds the research team questioned the participants, and did so
again after each subsequent 10 rounds, in order to determine when the participants became conscious of
the best strategy to win.
Those participants without brain damage began to show signs of anxiety before picking cards from the
losing decks, and began to avoid those decks, although consciously they were not yet aware that they
were losers. By the 80th round 7 of the 10 normal participants consciously knew to avoid the losing
decks, and although the remaining 3 did not reach that insight, they nonetheless continued to make
advantageous choices. The 6 brain damaged participants, however, continued to pick from the losing
decks, never expressed a hunch that something was amiss, and never showed signs of anxiety. In short,

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the intuition or unconscious knowledge that arose in the normal subjects was absent in the impaired
group; there never arose a “sense” or “feeling” of what was going on.
One study digs deeper to the roots of intuition. A team of researchers led by David Skuse, a psychiatrist at
the Institute of Child Development of University College in London, found evidence suggesting intuition
is an inherited trait passed from fathers to their daughters. Skuse and his colleagues defined intuition in
terms of social skills, such as the ability to decode nonverbal communication or recognize socially
appropriate behavior. Although the research team has not identified a gene (or genes) responsible for
these abilities, their patterns of evidence suggest a specific chain of inheritance. The parents of 88 girls
with Turner’s syndrome (characterized by a single X chromosome) were asked to rate their daughters on
various measures of social intelligence, such as awareness of other’s feelings, skill at following
instructions, or awareness of offending others. The researchers next determined whether each girl’s single
X chromosome had come from her father or mother. The results revealed that those girls who had
inherited the mother’s chromosome scored worse on the measures of “intuition” than did those receiving
the X from their fathers.
Parents of normal boys and girls were also asked the same questions. The boys, compared to the normal
girls, scored lower on the measures of social intuition: Like all boys, they also received their X
chromosome from their mothers. Furthermore, the researchers also compared the responses of the
Turner’s syndrome girls with those of normal boys and girls on a battery of neuropsychological measures.
Turner’s syndrome girls who received their X chromosome from their mothers scored worse on tests that
required extensive planning or the inhibition of urges; normal boys also scored worse on the inhibition
measures (but not the planning tasks).
Brown, D. (June 12, 1997). Women inherit intuition from dads, researchers say. Austin American-Statesman, A1, A6.
Stein, R. (March 9, 1997). Intuition affects sensible choices, researchers find. Austin American-Statesman, A25.
► Return to Lecture Guide: Decision Making

Lecture/Discussion: Don’t Believe Everything You Read…Except This
People sometimes believe in things they ought not to, such as flat Earths, cheese moons, or their own
invulnerability. But forming and clinging to misbegotten beliefs may itself be a consequence of some
fundamental cognitive processes, such as how information gets encoded in memory or what happens to a
disrupted attentional system.
Dan Gilbert, of Harvard University, has been exploring the problem of “believing what isn’t so” for
several years. In explaining the process by which such belief takes place he invokes the thinking of Rene
Descartes and Baruch Spinoza, both of whom wrote quite a bit about how information is perceived and
stored in a mental system. Descartes argued that information is first comprehended, and then in a
subsequent step, a truth value is assigned to it: We decide to accept or reject the information as being true.
This would suggest, of course, that we can easily entertain ideas (indefinitely, perhaps...putting them up
in a mental guest room, so to speak) without necessarily putting stock in them. If comprehension
(understanding) of information and endorsement (acceptance or rejection) are two distinct steps, humans
should be able to hold an idea without believing it.
Spinoza adopted a different position on the nature of belief, arguing that comprehension and acceptance
of information are accomplished in a single initial step, only later to be followed by certification or

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rejection of the information. This view holds that the very act of receiving information entails assigning a
belief to it [“this information is true” (or false, as the case might be)], which only later can be
substantiated or “unbelieved,” as might be called for. Quite unlike Descartes, then, Spinoza argued that
ideas could not be entertained, “beliefless,” in a cognitive system, but rather are believed upon first being
received into the cognitive system.
How to disentangle these competing predictions? Notice that both, if allowed to run their course, would
lead to the same outcome: The acceptance or rejection of information as being true. The difference lies in
when the belief is assigned, either in a Spinozan first step or in a Cartesian second step. Gilbert reasoned,
then, that disrupting a belief system in action would be the only way to tell which system (Spinozan or
Cartesian) was at work. If Descartes was correct, disrupting the system between steps should have no
effect on cognition: We would be left holding a collection of ideas that had not yet been assigned truth
values. If Spinoza was correct, however, disruption should produce a very pronounced tendency: We
should be left believing information to be true (since it was automatically tagged with a truth valued upon
entering the cognitive system) when in some cases it is not.
To test these ideas, Gilbert and his colleagues asked research participants in one of several experiments to
learn some (fictitious) Hopi language terms. Participants saw a Hopi/English word-pairing flash on a
computer screen (such as “A monishna is a star,” “A rirg is a valley,” or “A neseti is a bee”), which was
followed by a brief pause, and then followed by one of three outcomes: The word “True” (signaling that
the preceding pairing was accurate), the word “False” (indicating that the preceding pairing was
incorrect), or a blank screen. Note that Descartes and Spinoza are still neck-and-neck at this point. Either
account of belief would argue that participants could take in the information (untouched, as Descartes
would have it, or believed as true, as Spinoza would have it) and then correct it based on the True or False
cue later given (which would mean assigning a belief in the Cartesian system, or revising/substantiating
an existing belief in the Spinozan system). However, the researchers asked participants to do one
additional task. On some trials participants were asked to press a button if they heard a particular tone.
This additional task served to tax their available cognitive resources, making it more difficult to perform
the correction step of integrating the true/false cues with the prior information. These participants,
however, provided an answer to the riddle of belief. When later polled they showed a particular pattern of
errors; namely, they were left believing propositions that should have been revised (i.e., those tagged as
“False”) as being true. Given the controls of the experiment, the only way to account for this outcome is
that the information must have been encoded as true upon first being read (just as Spinoza argued).
Because these resource-depleted subjects were disrupted from performing Spinoza’s second task
(certifying or, in these cases, rejecting the previously-believed information), they were left believing what
they ought not to.
The implications of this research are startling. For example, as Dan Wegner and his colleagues have
shown, it may help explain the workings of innuendo. When presented with information that may or may
not be correct, our Spinozan belief system compels us to endorse that information upon comprehension. If
our cognitive resources are later disrupted we may be unable to correct our initial comprehension.
Similarly, this research may help explain why belief perseverance takes place. If the stage of correcting
initial information is subject to disruption, we may be left clinging to beliefs even in the face of clearly
disconfirming evidence. Finally, these results fly in the face of what your parents always told you. Far
from “not believing everything you read,” it seems that we can’t escape that fate.
Gilbert, D. T. (1993). The assent of man: Mental representation and the control of belief. In D. M. Wegner & J. W.
Pennebaker (Eds.), Handbook of mental control (pp. 57–87). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Gilbert, D. T. (1991). How mental systems believe. American Psychologist, 46, 107–119.
Gilbert, D. T., Krull, D. S., & Malone, P. S. (1990). Unbelieving the unbelievable: Some problems in the rejection of
false information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 601–613.

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Ross, L., Lepper, M. R., & Hubbard, M. (1975). Perseverance in self-perception and social perception: Biased
attributional processes in the debriefing paradigm. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 32, 880–892.
Wegner, D. M., Wenzlaff, R., Kerker, R. M., & Beattie, A. E. (1981). Incrimination through innuendo: Can media
questions become public answers? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40, 822–832.

Lecture/Discussion: Functional Fixedness
To demonstrate functional fixedness, gather a number of household items, such as an egg carton, film
container, baby food jar, nail, paper clip, baking cup, empty toilet paper roll, piece of string, paper napkin,
clothes pin, safety pin, Band-aid, and cotton ball. You may wish to have several of each item depending
on how many students are in your class.
Arrange the class in small groups and have each group choose several items. Their task is to brainstorm as
many new uses for their items as possible in the time allowed. For four or five items, allow 10 to 15
minutes. Have each group report their results to the class.
The following discussion should allow you to reinforce ideas about the nature of creativity and the
meaning of functional fixedness. If a person suggests using a baby food jar to store small items such as
buttons, this is still fixating on the function of the jar as a container. A more creative suggestion would be
to break the jar and use a piece for cutting, or to draw around it to make a circle.

Lecture/Discussion: Hormones and Thinking Skills
Uriel Halbreich, UB professor of psychiatry and gynecology and obstetrics, and an expert in
psychopharmacology, hormonal disorders and behavior, has reported that the performance of
postmenopausal women on certain tests measuring the ability to integrate several cognitive functions
improved significantly after a course of estrogen-replacement therapy (ERT).
It was found that low levels of estrogen may impair some cognitive functions, while estrogen-replacement
therapy may help improve certain thinking and biological brain processes, and also may play a role in
elevating mood, results of studies involving postmenopausal women conducted by researchers at UB have
shown.
Post-menopausal women and women of child-bearing age were given a wide variety of tests that measure
different areas of cognitive functions according to Halbreich. The women were then given estrogen for 60
days, and there appeared to be a significant improvement. This increase in cognitive ability was correlated
with the plasma levels of estrogen. The results indicated that integrative abilities, reaction times and
short-term verbal memory of many of the postmenopausal women improved after estrogen therapy.
Halbreich believes that estrogen may help maintain some functions that typically decline with age or
menopause.
► Return to Lecture Guide: Heredity, Environment, and Intelligence

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Lecture/Discussion: Fallacies in Reasoning
We often have lapses in critical thinking as we speak and write. A fallacy is a belief or argument that rests
on invalid or false inference, that is logically unsound. Fallacies are often used unintentionally, but they
are also used intentionally when an effort is being made to deceive or mislead the listener or reader.
1. “If you know about BMW, you either own one or you want one.”
What’s wrong with this statement? It is an example of the fallacy called false alternatives. It is also called
dualistic or black-and-white thinking and bifurcation. The fallacy occurs when it is presumed that a
classification is exclusive or exhaustive. It often takes the form of overlooking alternatives that exist
between two polar opposites.
Here is another example of false alternatives written by an educator who was suggesting that children
should begin public school at the age of four and that high school should end after the eleventh year:
“Twelfth grade has become a bore for able students and a holding tank for the rest.”
2. “I asked my doctor why my mouth was so dry and he told me that it was because my saliva glands
are not producing enough saliva.”
What do you think of the doctor’s diagnosis? This is an example of the fallacy of begging the question,
or circularity. The fallacy occurs when the solution to a problem is a restatement of the problem, or, an
argument for a proposition is equivalent to the proposition, such as “He throws tantrums all the time
because he has a terrible temper.” Diagnoses of mental disorders are sometimes considered to beg the
question: “Why is he so nervous and agitated?” “He has generalized anxiety disorder.” “What does that
mean?” “It means that he has anxiety and apprehension.”
Here is another example that may seem ridiculous, but when things such as this occur in the context of
speech or writing, they often sound all right, maybe even impressive: “Bodies fall because they have a
downward tendency.”
3. “He is an innocent man. He was tried before a jury of his peers and the prosecution was unable to
prove him guilty.”
Is the assumption of innocence justified? This is an example of the fallacy called appeal to ignorance.
This fallacy occurs when it is argued that because we cannot prove a proposition to be true, it must be
false; or if we cannot prove a proposition to be false, it must be true.
Here is another example: “There has never been any scandal about this candidate for president. Therefore,
he must be an honest, moral person.”
4. “If you don’t pick up your clothes before you go to bed at night, pretty soon you’ll be knee-deep in
dirty clothes.”
Is that the way it is? This is an example of the fallacy called slippery slope; certain applications of it have
been called the domino theory. The argument is that if the first in a possible series of steps or events
occurs, the other steps or events are inevitable.
Here is an example from a letter to the editor of a metropolitan newspaper. The writer was responding to

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an article discussing the morality of euthanasia in the case of a person with an advanced case of multiple
sclerosis: “If we allow this to happen, where do we stop? Who would decide at what point someone
should die? Do we give them poison the moment they know they have multiple sclerosis or cancer, before
they have any suffering?”
5. “TV can’t be harmful for children because it occupies their attention for hours and keeps them off
the streets.”
Is this argument against the idea that TV can be harmful for children convincing? It is an example of the
fallacy called irrelevant reason. This fallacy occurs when the argument given to support a proposition has
little or no relevance to the proposition.
Here is another example: “Conservationists have suggested that we could conserve fuel by increasing the
tax on gasoline. But more taxes, whether they’re paid by the oil companies or passed on to the consumer
at the pump, will not produce one more barrel of oil.”
6. “I don’t see how she can get elected. No one I know is going to vote for her.”
What’s wrong with this argument? This is the fallacy called hasty generalization. It occurs when an
isolated or exceptional case is used as the basis for a general conclusion. In more statistical language, it is
making a conclusion about a population based on information obtained from a sample that is biased or too
small. It is an error of inductive reasoning—going from the particular to the general when it is not
justified by the evidence.
Another example is attributed to the brother of a former president of the United States: “I never read a
book by a woman because I never met a woman who had sense enough to write a book.” (Either he hasn’t
met very many women, in which case the sample is too small, or the ones he has met are a biased sample.
Of course, there is the possibility that he is a devout sexist.)
7. “If socialized medicine will result in better and lower-cost healthcare, shouldn’t the same logic be
applied to automobiles? Wouldn’t nationalization of the auto industry produce better and lower-
cost cars? And if we nationalized auto mechanics, wouldn’t we get better and less-expensive
repairs?”
These words were spoken in rebuttal after Senator Kennedy had called for national health insurance in a
speech at a meeting of the United Auto Workers. Does the speaker’s argument make sense? It represents
the fallacy called questionable analogy. In questionable analogy an attempt is made to make two
situations seem more similar than they actually are.
Another example is from a state senator who was using the crucifixion as a rationale for capital
punishment:
“Where would Christianity be if Jesus got 8 to 15 years with time off for good behavior?”
► Return to Lecture Guide: Intelligence and Mental Abilities


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Lecture/Discussion: IQ and Juror Selection
A California court case (People v. Pierce [40 Cal. Rptr. 2d 254]) raises the issue of how intelligent a
person must be to serve as a member of a jury in a criminal trial. Ronald Blaine Pierce was convicted of
forcible oral copulation, forcible sodomy, and false imprisonment. His conviction was overturned,
however, on the grounds that one of the jurors who convicted him was mildly mentally retarded.
During the voir dire process the judge asked prospective jurors to state their names, occupations,
occupations of their spouses, and whether they had ever served on a jury. The juror in question answered
honestly and simply. Subsequently, the judge asked, “Do any of you know any reason at all, perhaps
something I haven’t touched on in my voir dire, that would bear upon your qualities to serve as a fair and
impartial juror?,” to which no one responded. The defendant’s attorney discovered during the jury’s final
instructions that one of the jurors was mildly mentally retarded, and filed for a reversal of the conviction.
A clinical psychologist later testified that the juror in question was a long-term resident of a group home
and had an IQ of 66. In the psychologist’s opinion, the juror would have had difficulty processing the
information in the trial, due to “her shortened attention span and her inability to process testimony at a
normal rate of speech.” It was also revealed, however, that the juror in question worked 20 hours a week
in a retail store, and had received several promotions and raises during the past two and a half years. The
juror was also capable of getting to and from work using public transportation.
California Code of Civil Procedure, section 203, lists the factors that disqualify potential jurors. These
include people who are not U.S. citizens; who do not live in the state or in the jurisdiction in which they
are called to serve; who have been convicted of a felony; who are serving as grand jurors; or who are the
subject of conservatorship. On these grounds, the judge denied the defendant’s motion for a new trial,
noting that none of these exclusions applied to the mentally retarded juror. The California Court of
Appeal, however, ruled that the defendant had been denied due process “to a jury whose members are
both impartial and mentally competent.” The appellate court ruled that section 203 eliminates certain
categories of people, but not all categories of people who may be unfit to serve.
This case raises several issues regarding the efficacy of the voir dire process, as well as the standards of
“competence” and “incompetence” to be used in juror selection.
Ewing, C. P. (1995, July). Is IQ relevant to juror selection? APA Monitor, p. 16.

Lecture/Discussion: The Darwin Awards – What Intelligence Isn’t
Another way to approach the issue of defining intelligence is to define what intelligence is not! This can
be done in a humorous way by recounting a few passages from the well known Darwin Awards books. It
honors certain people who kill, or in rare cases sterilize themselves accidentally by attempting to do
stupid feats or making careless mistakes. The Darwin Award books state that, “The Awards honour
people who ensure the long-term survival of the human race by removing themselves from the gene pool
in a sublimely idiotic fashion.” The Darwin Awards website has many examples of award winners from
the past, plus a “vintage Darwins” section, which is a hall of fame of sorts for Darwin Awards:
http://darwinawards.com/darwin/
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Consistent with a critical thinking approach, the examination of an apparent lack of intelligence will
prime students to consider what intelligence really is (besides not being stupid).

Lecture/Discussion: Does the SAT have Predictive Value?
A discussion of the predictive value of the SAT is sure to get students’ attention. The following are some
recent data and news regarding the SAT, and a critical look at whether the test is doing what it is
supposed to do, i.e., predict school performance.
The SAT is woven into the fabric of the college admissions process. Nearly all colleges use the SAT to
help whittle down their applicant pool to a manageable number, and to select students with desirable
intellectual qualifications. Nearly 2 million hopeful college applicants take the test annually, and nearly
1600 undergraduate institutions use the SAT to help them in their selection process. There have been
many critics of the SAT, however, for many different reasons.
Jeff Rickey, dean of admissions at Earlham College says about the SAT, “The test is too long (about 4
hours) for most young people to actually sit through…the present SAT experience is almost cruel and
inhumane punishment.” According to an April 5 article in USA Today, 24 of the top 100 liberal arts
colleges as ranked by U.S. News & World Report are SAT- and ACT-optional. “We expect the
ACT/SAT-optional list to continue growing as more institutions recognize that the tests remain biased,
coachable, educationally damaging and irrelevant to sound admissions practices,” said Robert Schaeffer,
public education director of FairTest, a Cambridge, Mass., agency that monitors standardized tests. “As
leaders of the new test-optional campuses have eloquently stated, dropping ACT and SAT score
requirements will enhance diversity and academic quality,” he said in an announcement about the
increase in schools dropping test-score requirements.
To examine the point of whether SAT scores actually do what they are supposed to do, we need to look at
the issue scientifically. The information presented in the chapter that indicates two “branches” of
predictive value for the SAT (the “low branch” of SAT scores has some [albeit limited] predictive power
concerning college grade point average, whereas the “high branch” of SAT scores has virtually no
predictive power) is intriguing. Another set of data, generated by the Ralph Nader report (1980) on the
Educational Testing Service, indicates that random predictions for student performance were nearly 90%
as accurate as the SAT! In other words, the SAT doesn’t appear to have much discriminative power with
regard to future student school performance. As noted above, these kinds of revelations have been
causing some schools to reconsider their reliance on the SAT as a tool for student selection in the
admissions process. Of note, M.I.T. (a very prestigious institution) no longer uses it. Given the lack of
predictive power for the “upper branch” of SAT scores, this totally makes sense. In fact, more and more
colleges and universities are giving more weight to what appears to be the best predictor of collegiate
success: high school grades.


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Lecture/Discussion: Birth Order and Intelligence
Birth order has been invoked to explain all manner of behavior, according to the pop psychology that
crowds the bookstore shelves. Although some of the claims are false and some are wishful thinking, there
is a ring of truth to the effects of one’s family position on behavior. In particular, birth order has been
used to explain some elements of intellectual performance.
Several studies have found that earlier-born children (in a family sequence) tend to perform better on
aptitude and intelligence tests compared to later-born children. Why this is the case, however, remains
somewhat a matter of debate. Several theories on the “nature” side of things, such as hormonal or other
biological changes in slightly older mothers affecting later-borns, have been advanced and rejected. At
present, the “nurture” side of the debate, emphasizing environmental influences, has captured the
attention of researchers seeking to explain this outcome.
Robert Zajonc and Gregory Markus have offered an explanation. Their confluence model argues that
children will attain higher intellectual achievements if they are raised in environments that provide greater
intellectual stimulation, coming, in part, from parents and siblings. At first blush this theory would
suggest that larger families should provide more of such opportunities, and further that later-born children
should reap the rewards of the abundant intellectual stimulation of their numerous siblings. However,
Zajonc and Markus made the opposite argument, that as family size increases the intellectual climate of
the family decreases.
In the simplest case of two parents and a single child, the overall intellectual climate can be calculated
based on a simple heuristic. If the parents each contribute 50 “intelligence units” (an arbitrary value used
for illustration) and the infant contributes zero, the overall intellectual climate of the family would be 50
+ 50 + 0 = 100 / 3 = 33. As the child grows his or her contribution to the family intellectual climate might
increase by 3 points a year. After two years, if another child is born, the overall intellectual climate of the
family has now changed to 50 + 50 + 6 + 0 = 106 / 4 = 27. If another sibling arrives two years after that,
the equation changes to 50 + 50 + 12 + 6 + 0 = 118 / 5 = 24. In short, as more children arrive the overall
intellectual climate decreases, given the contributions made by each family member, but only to a point.
With extraordinarily large families (e.g., 10 or more children) a rise in overall climate can be seen in these
calculations.
When applied to data, Zajonc and Markus’ theory holds up remarkably well. For example, a reanalysis of
data from a large Dutch study (Belmont & Marolla, 1973) generally confirmed the confluence model,
with a few exceptions. First, there was an “only-child” effect, such that children with no siblings scored at
about the same performance level as first-borns in families with four children. The confluence model
should predict only-children to score highest, given that they enjoy the richest intellectual climate (based
on the calculations). Second, there was a “last-born” effect, such that the last sibling’s intellectual
performance tended to drop dramatically. This is curious, given the slight rise in calculated scores as
families become substantially larger.
Zajonc and Markus suggested that neither only-children nor last-borns get to be “teachers,” which may
account for the anomalies in the pattern of scores. Only children have no one to teach, and last children
seem unlikely candidates for teaching their older siblings. This intriguing explanation has a ring of truth
to it, and fits well with the available data.
So, how to plan a family to maximize intellectual development? Here the answer is not so clear. Only
children may enjoy a rich intellectual climate, but succumb to the only-child effect. Up to a point, more
children will reduce the overall intellectual climate. The strategy of spacing births out considerably, such
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as 5 or more years between two children to maximize the first child’s contributions, may lead to the last-
child effect. Although the confluence model makes a compelling case for explaining birth order effects, it
remains silent on strategies for optimal family planning.
Belmont, L., & Marolla, F. (1973). Birth order, family size, and intelligence. Science, 182, 1096–1101.
Zajonc, R. B., & Markus, G. B. (1975). Birth order and intellectual development. Psychological Review, 82, 74–88.
http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=search.displayRecord&uid=2001-17729-002

Lecture/Discussion: Mental Retardation
Mental retardation is a term used when a person has certain limitations in mental functioning that occurs
prior to the age of 18. There must also be a limitation in skills such as communicating, taking care of
him/herself, and social skills. People scoring below an IQ score of 70–75 and have adaptive problems are
considered to be mentally retarded.
There are many things that can cause mental retardation. Among them are genetics, problems during
pregnancy, problems during birth and some health problems. Being mentally retarded causes the
individual to have other problems as well. As many as 3 out of every 100 people in the United States are
considered to be mental retarded. Of those individuals, over 600,000 between the ages 6 to 21 have some
level of mental retardation and need special education in school (Twenty-fourth Annual Report to
Congress, U.S. Department of Education, 2002). In fact, 1 out of every 10 children who need special
education has some form of mental retardation. Most individuals with mental retardation, about 87%, will
only be a little slower than average in learning new information and skills.
For more information about mental retardation, please check the following source:
American Association on Mental Retardation. (2002). Mental retardation: Definition, classification, and
systems of supports (10th ed.). Washington, DC.
Reprinted from Alan Swinkels (2003). Instructor’s resource manual for Psychology by S. Kassin. Englewood Cliffs,
NJ: Prentice Hall.

Lecture/Discussion: Terman’s Termites
Lewis Madison Terman (1877–1956), began his career as a school principal in San Bernardino, CA. after
having received his Ph.D. in psychology from Clark University. He was influenced by Alfred Binet and
Sir Francis Galton. His Ph.D. thesis was titled “Genius and Stupidity: A Study of the Intellectual
Processes of Seven “Bright” and Seven “Stupid” Boys.” He became a professor at the Los Angels Normal
school and from there went to Stanford University where he taught from 1910 to 1956. While at Stanford,
Terman published a revised and perfected the Binet-Simon scale for American populations. This
“Stanford Revision of the Binet-Simon Scale,” soon became known as the “Stanford-Binet,” and was
considered by far the best available individual intelligence test that is still in use today.

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Terman’s most ambitious undertaking in the 1920’s was a study of 1500 child prodigies over their entire
lives. Terman was to discredit the stereotype that bright children were frail, sickly, and socially
maladapted.
It was evident from the beginning of the study that the “Termite’s,” as they became to be called were
healthier then their peers, were more likely to obtain a college education and generally earned more
money. Terman was surprised to find that having a high IQ was no guarantee to success.

Lecture/Discussion: Information-Processing Approach to Intelligence
As noted in Chapter Six, information-processing theory focuses on the study of how the mind processes
and uses information. One of the concepts that information-processing theorists study is speed of
processing, which is the speed with which the brain can make decisions. Would a person whose brain is
speedier than someone else also be more intelligent than that other person?
Researchers (Bowling and Mackenzie, 1996; Deary and Stough, 1996) have designed tests to measure
speed of processing. The results of these tests were then correlated with the IQ of the subjects. The
correlation was –0.45, which is a fairly decent, although not spectacular, correlation. (The correlation is
negative because the shorter the speed of processing, the higher the IQ—see Chapter Two for a review of
correlation.) The conclusion from these studies is that having a speedy nervous system is at least part of
what it means to be intelligent.
Perkins, like Sternberg, has proposed that intelligence depends upon three factors (1995). But his three
factors are a little different:
1. Neural intelligence: the speed and efficiency of the nervous system, which is relatively
unchanging until late adulthood.
2. Experiential intelligence: the knowledge and skills that a person has acquired over time.
3. Reflective intelligence: The ability to become aware of one’s own habits of thinking, also
known as metacognition.
Both experiential and reflective intelligence can be improved, with the result that a person’s overall
intelligence can increase with training and experience.

Lecture/Discussion: Arthur Jensen
In 1969, Arthur Jensen stirred up a hornet’s nest of controversy by publishing an article titled “How
Much Can We Boost I.Q. and Scholastic Achievement?” in the Harvard Educational Review (February,
1969). In this article, Jensen concluded that race and intelligence are highly related to each other, with
people of some races having a higher degree of intelligence than others. Specifically, he claimed that the
white population in the United States typically scores about 15 IQ points higher than the black population,
leading to his claim that black people were genetically less intelligent than white people. Therefore, the
government was wasting the taxpayer’s money on remedial education for black children.

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Jensen also failed to understand that heritability only applies to differences that can be found within a
group of people as opposed to those between groups of people or individuals (Gould, 1981). As discussed
earlier, heritability estimates can only be used to talk about general trends within a particular group, and
everyone in that group should have experienced similar environmental influences.
In fact, Jensen’s two groups were not truly equivalent. His white subjects came from segregated schools
in urban areas (with higher tax brackets and therefore more money for education, healthcare, and so on)
while his black subjects came mostly from segregated schools in rural and economically depressed areas
(reference to come). The differences between these two groups were far greater than the color of their
skin in terms of money, health, and opportunity.
Jensen’s work was met with a flurry of criticisms. But Jensen still argues that his original findings are
correct (Jensen, 1998). In 1994, Herrnstein and Murray published the controversial The Bell Curve, in
which they cite large amounts of statistical studies (never published in scientific journals prior to the
book) that lead them to make the claim that IQ is largely inherited. These authors go further by also
implying, and in some cases stating outright, that people from lower economic levels are poor because
they are unintelligent, and the fact that this particular level of the population has more children than does
the upper-class, economically enriched level of the population. They also imply that some sort of
“controls” should be placed on the “breeding” of the lower socioeconomic levels, and that intelligent (and
therefore financially well-off) people should have more children.
Jensen, A. R., & Miele, F. (2002). Intelligence, race and genetics: Conversations with Arthur R. Jensen. Boulder,
CO: Westview Press.

Lecture/Discussion: Einstein’s Brain
After Albert Einstein died of a hemorrhaged abdominal aneurysm in 1955, pathologist Dr. Thomas
Harvey removed Einstein’s brain and kept it for scientific study. He noted that on a gross-anatomical
level, Einstein’s brain was no larger or heavier than the normal human brain. Since 1955, Einstein’s brain
has been photographed extensively and sectioned for further investigation. In 1996, Dr. Sandra Witelson
obtained a significant section of Einstein’s brain and has reported with her colleagues that although
Einstein’s brain was reported as average in size and weight, Einstein’s inferior parietal lobe was 15%
wider than comparable parietal lobes. This brain area is associated with visual-spatial cognition,
mathematical thought, and imagery of movement. Note that Einstein’s theoretical insights were usually
the result of mental imagery that he translated into the mathematical language. Witelson and her
colleagues also found that the sylvian fissure, which separates the frontal and temporal lobes, was shorter
than average, suggesting tightly packed neurons and interconnections and thus increased communication
between neurons in this brain region.
It is still unknown whether Einstein was born with an extraordinary mind, or whether the brain
reorganized itself around Einstein’s life work (following the principles of neural plasticity). As long as
humans are intrigued by intelligence, we will always be interesting in the mystery behind genius.
Witelson, S. F., Kigar, D. L., & Harvey, T. (1999). The exceptional brain of Albert Einstein. The Lancet, 353, 2149–
2153.

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Lecture/Discussion: How to Improve Cognitive Processes
A study published in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, indicated
that adults ages 58 to 78 who began any type of fitness program, saw improvements in how their brains
functioned. This fitness program could involve working out at a gym or activities as simple as brisk
walking,
The study, including 41 adults, showed that over a 3 month gradual increase in activity that led up to a 45
minute walk three times a week increased their brain activity. The activity was measured by an MRI.
Tests on decision making were also given and there was an 11% improvement while performing a variety
of tasks.
The control group that only performed stretching and toning exercises – not aerobic type activities, had
lower brain activity. However, they did show a 2% improvement over the pre-measure. Arthur F. Kramer
of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at Illinois explained, “The kinds of tasks
that we explored are similar to those encountered in real world situations such as driving a vehicle or any
endeavor that requires a person to pay attention despite distractions.”
http://www.pnas.org/content/101/9/3316.full?sid=ce932bee-dd4d-4371-aa08-8d3536d62e60


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▼CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES, DEMONSTRATIONS, AND EXERCISES

Learning a Concept
Mental Imagery
Problem Representation
Breaking Sets in Problem-Solving
Availability Heuristics
Demonstrating Cognitive Biases
Creative Thinking
Insight
Mental Sets in Everyday Life
Creativity Quiz
What Exactly Is Intelligence?
Cultural Bias in IQ Testing
Creating a Culture-Fair Intelligence Test
Intelligence
Multiple Intelligences
Emotional Intelligence (The EQ Test)
Intelligence and Mental Capacity in Film
Age and Intelligence
Should Psychology Adopt a Theory of Multiple Intelligence?
Context and Speech Perception
Non-sexist Language
Channels of Communication
Do Animals Have Language? A Survey
Exploring Bilingualism
Is Reading Automatic? A Survey
Take a Stand
Crossword Puzzle
Fill in the Blank
Activity: Learning a Concept
Objective: To demonstrate concept learning

Materials: 3 x 5 index cards
Procedure: Draw one square and one triangle on each index card. The figures should vary in size
(large/small), color (green/red), and position (up/down). The fourth concept is, of course, shape. Select
one student to learn the concept you have chosen but not revealed from the four possibilities. Give the
student feedback after each card as to whether his or her response was correct. For instance, you have
selected size as the relevant concept. If the student selects a large, blue triangle on the card, tell the
student the choice is wrong (since you secretly selected small). See how many cards it takes the student to
discover the relevant concept. You may want to repeat this exercise using a different concept for at least
two other students.
Conclusion: Discuss how concept formation is an important but often difficult task.

▼ Return to List of Activities, Demonstrations and Exercises for Chapter 7

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Activity: Mental Imagery
The textbook notes that images (i.e., mental representations of a sensory experience) play an important
role in thinking and cognition; that is, we commonly visualize things in order to think about and solve
problems. Margaret Matlin suggests two simple demonstrations that illustrate how certain attributes of
mental images (such as their size and shape) influence our ability to make judgments.
Imagery and size. Read the following questions aloud to your students:
Scenario I: Imagine an elephant standing next to a rabbit. Now, answer this question: Does a rabbit
have a beak?
Scenario II: Imagine a fly standing next to a rabbit. Now, answer this question: Does a rabbit have an
eyebrow?
Next, ask your students to tell you whether the rabbit was the largest in Scenario I or II. Which scenario
seemed to have more detail in the area they were examining for the beak or the eyebrow, I or II?
According to Matlin, research by Stephen Kosslyn suggests that the size of an image is an important
factor in determining how fast we can make judgments about it. Indeed, across several studies people
made faster judgments when relying on a larger mental image (such as the rabbit next to the fly) than
when using a smaller mental image (such as the rabbit next to an elephant). Did your students’
experiences mirror this result?
Imagery and shape. For this problem students will need to imagine two standard (non-digital) clocks.
Explain that you will present them with two specific times, and that for each pair of times they should
compare their mental clocks and decide which clock has the smaller angle between the hour hand and the
minute hand. Give students the following times:
1. 3:20 and 7:25

2. 4:10 and 9:23
3. 2:45 and 1:05
4. 3:15 and 5:30
Did some sets seem to take longer than others? If your students took longer with sets 1 and 4 than with 2
and 3, your results are consistent with Allan Paivio's research, which showed that decision time is related
to the size of the difference between angles. That is, it is much harder (and thus, takes longer) to make a
decision between angles that are nearly equal (e.g., 3:20 and 7:25) than it is to make a decision between
angles that are quite different (e.g., 4:10 and 9:23).
Matlin, M. W. (1994). Cognition (3rd ed.). Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace.

Reprinted from Alan Swinkels (2003). Instructor's resource manual for Psychology by S. Kassin. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice
Hall.


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Activity: Problem Representation
Challenge your students by presenting them with the hospital room problem (taken from Matlin, 1994).
Handout Master 7.1 contains the details of the problem, which can be projected onto an overhead or
photocopied and distributed to students. After students have had a reasonable amount of time to solve the
problem, have them discuss their representation of it as well as its correct answer. (Answer: Ms.
Anderson has mononucleosis and is in Room 104.)

Reprinted from Alan Swinkels (2003). Instructor's resource manual for Psychology by S. Kassin. Englewood Cliffs,
NJ: Prentice Hall.

Activity: Breaking Sets in Problem-Solving
Objective: To demonstrate how psychological set (e.g., stating the problem) can interfere with the
generation of solutions to problems
Materials: See Handout Master 7.8
Procedure: Ask students to think about a problem; the problem may be a corporate problem (e.g., crime
or pollution) or a personal problem (e.g., poor grades). Using the handout, each student should reword or
describe the problem in several different ways. This may open some doors in terms of solutions. Next,
students should develop at least two solutions to the problem.

Activity: Availability Heuristics
Objective: To demonstrate the potential shortcoming of availability heuristics

Materials: See Handout Master 7.7 Heuristics
Procedure: When people judge the relative frequency of objects or events, they are often influenced by
the relative availability or accessibility of such events in their own memories. Distribute the handout and
ask the students to indicate their answers to the questions. Their estimates are influenced by the
availability heuristic if they indicate that the number of words beginning with r or k is greater than the
number of words with those letters appearing third. This is because first letters are more useful cues than
third letters for referencing and accessing items in one's personal word collection. It is easier to generate
(i.e., make available) words that begin with the letters. Actually, words with those letters appearing third
are far more numerous. Similarly, their estimate of the number of women faculty on campus should be
positively correlated with the number of female professors they have actually had.


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Activity: Demonstrating Cognitive Biases
Cognitive biases are often difficult for students to grasp. The following simple demonstrations will help
students recognize such biases in their own thinking.
1. The availability heuristic is the tendency to judge the frequency of some event as a function of
how available specific instances of that event are in memory.
A geographer named Thomas Saarinen provides an interesting variation on the availability heuristic by
asking students to draw their “mental maps” of the world. Saarinen asks students to take a pencil and a
piece of paper and spend half an hour sketching a map of the world. He finds that there are two consistent
patterns in the resulting maps. Students greatly enlarge the size of Europe and reduce the size of Africa.
Saarinen finds that this occurs regardless of the country of origin of the students. This undoubtedly
reflects the relative prominence of Europe and the relative obscurity of Africa in the Western view of
history. That which we know more about is seen as physically larger, and that which we know little of is
diminished in size.
This is an easy phenomenon to demonstrate. Before a discussion of cognitive biases, ask students to
spend half an hour outside of class drawing a map of the world. Make sure they know that they may not
“cheat” by looking at maps, globes, or atlases. It may help to reassure students that you will not grade
their maps, and that they may submit them anonymously. Have students turn in the maps at least one class
prior to your discussion of the topic, so that you have time to review and summarize the results of the
demonstration. See if your students exhibit the same biases that Saarinen reports; you might make
overheads of some of the better examples you receive. You might use this demonstration to highlight the
influence of culture on cognition, a topic that psychologists are only recently beginning to investigate.
2. The confirmation bias is the tendency to look for information that confirms one’s belief.
There are many easy ways to demonstrate the confirmation bias. The standard approach is to write a
series of three numbers, such as 5, 7, and 9 on the board. Tell students that there is a rule to which these
numbers conform, and it is their job to determine what the rule is. To solve the problem, students may
give you any sequence of three numbers and you will tell them whether it conforms to the rule. Record
their sequences and your responses on the board or transparency. When they feel confident that they have
guessed the rule, they should raise their hands and offer their solution.
The rule for the above sequence is simply “any three ascending numbers,” but students will develop many
more complicated possibilities. The confirmation bias will be demonstrated by the nature of the sequences
that students offer to test their guesses. If a student believes that the rule is “three successive odd
numbers,” he or she might ask whether “9, 11, 13” conforms to the rule. Additional sequences that they
suggest will probably conform to the same rule. But these are confirming instances of their rule, and
therefore provide little information. It is much more informative to provide a sequence that they believe is
wrong, such as “2, 3, 4,” and discover that it is, in fact, consistent with the rule, thereby allowing them to
reject an incorrect guess.
3. The hindsight bias is the tendency to overestimate one’s ability to have predicted an event once
the outcome is known.
To demonstrate this bias, ask students to predict the outcome of an upcoming event (Academy Awards,
elections, World Series, etc.). Next to their predictions, ask students to rank their degree of confidence in

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the prediction on a scale from 1 (“Just a guess, I’m not at all sure.”) to 5 (“I’m very sure!”). Collect the
papers, and return them after the outcome of the event. Ask students to reflect on their reactions. Do they
feel that “they knew it all along” even though their confidence ratings before the event indicate
otherwise?
Monastersky, R. (1992). The warped world of mental maps. Science News, 142, 222–223.

Activity: Creative Thinking (Group Activity)
Tell your students that you want them to take out a sheet of paper because there is a quiz. Once all the
groaning has stopped, have them write down all the uses they can think of for some item, i.e., Kitty Litter
or rice. At the end of 5 minutes have them get into small groups and see how many uses the small groups
can come up with for whatever item you have chosen.
Have the students present their cooperative list to the class. Make sure that you tell them they need not
repeat an item that another group has already presented. Find out how many items they originally came up
with versus the number of items that the group named. It is interesting how many items have similar in
the group.
This finding can be a lead in to discussing a mental set and how it impedes creativity.
► Return to Lecture Guide: Creativity

Activity: Insight
Insight, the sudden understanding of a problem, is often considered to be a component of intelligence.

You can demonstrate the "aha" feeling that insight inspires by presenting students with the problems in
Handout Master 7.2, which are taken from the popular game, MindTrap©. Students are likely to exclaim
with joy each time they experience the insight necessary to solve a particular problem.
Answers:
1. The letters should be arranged as follows: one word.
2. A desert is a region so arid that it supports little or no vegetation. This includes frozen deserts of the
far north, where Abdullah made his crossing. Thus, he survived by eating ice and snow.
3. It is the shortest sentence in the English language that includes every letter of the alphabet.
4. The "pack on her back" was a pack of wild wolves.
5. The two of you must stand back to back.
6. There aren't any penguins in the Arctic (they are native to the Southern Hemisphere).
MindTrap Games, Inc. (1991). MindTrap. Norwalk, CT: Great American Puzzle Factory.


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Activity: Mental Sets in Everyday Life
Luchins' water jar problem and the alphabetical number puzzle are ways to demonstrate how mental sets
can create barriers to effective problem solving. After students have been introduced to the notion of
mental sets (from the text, lecture, and exercises such as those given in the next section), you might ask
them to write a short paper in which they identify instances of mental sets in everyday life. As one
example, students could consider the problem of making the adjustment from high school to college. How
might a mental set (i.e., the tendency to approach or respond to a problem in a particular way) learned in
high school interfere with the successful solution of problems later on in college? Students should specify
how strategies that at one time were adaptive or successful could eventually become undesirable or
maladaptive. Traditional-age college students should have plenty of experience with mental sets related to
academic strategies, social life, living away from home, financial responsibilities, and so on. If your
students are older, they might consider mental sets related to major life changes (e.g., marriage, divorce,
death of a loved one), career changes, or other situations requiring adjustment on their part. An added
benefit of this assignment is that—in addition to better understanding the notion of mental sets—your
students might also gain valuable insight into their own problem solving strategies and skills.
Adapted from Zechmeister, E. B., & Johnson, J. E. (1992). Critical thinking: A functional approach. Belmont, CA:
Brooks/Cole.

Activity: Creativity Quiz
Draw a circle on the board. Allow students five minutes to list all of the things they can think of that your
picture could represent. Use a plate and a wedding ring as examples, and urge them to think divergently.
Sample responses may include, for example:
Total eclipse of the sun / Top view of a baldheaded man / Floor plan for an igloo / Port hole at
night / The end of a gun as seen by a victim / Belly button / Bucket of tar from the top

Activity: What Exactly Is Intelligence?
An in-class discussion of what intelligence is can be an interesting and enlightening experience. Having
students get together in small groups to discuss the definition of intelligence can produce even better
results… pedagogically speaking. The following questions should be addressed by each group, and the
groups should be prepared to share their ideas with the other groups.
1. What are the common characteristics of intelligent behavior? In other words, how can you tell if
someone is intelligent? Why? (try to come up with 5 or 6 common characteristics)
2. What proposed characteristics of intelligence that came up during your discussion of #1 were
eventually eliminated? Why?

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Activity: Cultural Bias in IQ Testing
In order to allow students to experience how it feels to take a biased and unfair “intelligence” test,
adminster the Chitling Test (Dove Counterbalance Intelligence Test) found on Handout Master 7.3. This
test was developed in the 1970s by sociologist Adrian Dove as a statement about how biased intelligence
testing was at that time. This test usually provides a lively discussion about fairness in testing. Students
are often uncomfortable until they realize that it is not a real IQ test. Ask them how it might feel if their
scores on this test determined their admission to college.
Scoring Sheet: Chitling Test of Intelligence
The answers are as follows:
1. (c)
2. (c)
3. (c)
4. (c)
5. (c)
6. (c)
7. (c)
8. (a)
9. (c)
10. (d)
11. (d)
12. (a)
13. (b)
14. (a)
15. (b)
http://www.wilderdom.com/personality/intelligenceChitlingTestShort.html (last updated 02 Aug 2003)

Dove, A. The "Chitling" Test. From Lewis R. Aiken, Jr. (1971). Psychological and educational testing. Boston: Allyn
and Bacon.

Activity: Creating a Culture-Fair Intelligence Test
Objective: To help students understand the difficulties involved in separating culture from intelligence.
Materials: None
Procedure: Divide students into small groups. Instruct each group to come to a consensus about the
kinds of questions that should be on a culture-fair intelligence test. After the groups have finished, ask
each to report on its conclusions. Engage the entire class in discussions of each proposal, carefully
examining how culture or specific experiences (e.g., education) might influence the results.


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Activity: Intelligence (Group activity)
After discussing the different theories of intelligence, have your students design a series of test items that
would indicate the different intelligences according to Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences.
For example:
Spatial intelligence may be putting together a puzzle made out of a piece of plywood; Mathematical
intelligence may be figuring out how many cups of water it is going to take to fill up a bucket; Athletic
intelligence may be the actual running of a relay to fill up the buckets of water; Interpersonal intelligence
may be assessed by having students find out information about other students; Musical intelligence may
be assessed by defining which instrument is being played in a musical piece or knowing the words to a
song, Verbal may be assessed with knowing what words fill in the blanks to some simple sentences;
Intrapersonal may be understanding how you feel about a topic; Naturalistic may be assessed by being
able to figure out how a plant needs to planted in order to grow the most it can.
Students can up with a variety of means of assessing these different types of intelligences. There is no one
real measure of any of these. Students will begin to see that intelligence is composed of many different
abilities and may be expressed in numerous ways.

Activity: Multiple Intelligences
Objective: To relate Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences to examples generated by students

Materials: Handout Masters 7.10 Parts A and B
Procedure: After discussing Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences, have your students generate items
that measure his concept of interpersonal intelligence. First, have students think of people they know who
exemplify the types of intelligences presented on Handout 8.1a. Next, on Handout 8.1b, ask them to think
of the individual named who has interpersonal intelligence and to describe two behaviors that the person
exhibits that represent this high, interpersonal intelligence. After that, develop test items that you could
use to measure interpersonal intelligence.

Activity: EQ Test (Emotional Intelligence)
Objective: To assess students' emotional intelligence

Materials: See Handout Master 7.9 EQ Test
Procedures: Instruct students to take the test and follow directions to find their scores. After all have
finished, tell them that the closer their score to 24, the higher their EQ.

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Activity: Intelligence and Mental Capacity in Film
Chapter 7 discusses the extremes of intelligence, from mental retardation to giftedness. The two films
described below expand on these topics and give students an opportunity to explore these extremes in
much greater detail. Charly explores the world of mental retardation whereas Little Man Tate considers
the question of how best to nourish genius. Depending on your interests, assign either of these films (or
give students a choice) and ask students to write a short paper relating insights in the films to
psychological principles covered in the text and lecture. You might ask students to supplement their
discussion with an article or two from the mental retardation or giftedness literatures using Psychological
Abstracts.
• Charly (1968). In this endearing and classic tale, Oscar-winner Cliff Robertson portrays a retarded man
with a drive to learn so powerful that he agrees to an experimental surgical procedure in order to become
smarter. When he gets his wish, he must struggle to adapt to the changes and newfound emotions that
accompany his sharp increase in intelligence (CBS/Fox; 104 min).
• Little Man Tate (1991). Jodie Foster stars in this heart-wrenching tale of an uneducated mother who
knows she cannot provide the stimulating and enriched environment her genius son needs to thrive. This
extremely well-done film depicts the boy's frustrating struggle to gain both the love and the academic
stimulation he needs (Orion; 99 min).

Activity: Age and Intelligence
Objective: To help students understand the role of norms in the calculation and interpretation of IQ scores
Materials: See Handout 7.6
Procedure: Have students fill in the blanks on the handout, then lead a discussion of what constitutes
intelligent behavior for people of various ages.

Activity: Should Psychology Adopt a Theory of Multiple Intelligences?
Intelligence used to be a simple thing; so simple, in fact, that it wasn’t even capitalized. But pretty much
since the time of Spearman’s advocacy of “g” (a “general intellectual ability” factor) other theorists and
researchers have proposed views of intelligence that involve multiple factors. Classic examples of such
theories include Thurstone’s multiple factor model, Guilford’s Structure of Intellect model, Sternberg’s
triarchic theory, modern musings on emotional intelligence, and Gardner’s theory of multiple
intelligences. Clouding the issue is the fact that much of the time higher-order factors can be factor-
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analyzed back down to “g.” The debate, then, seems to center on the utility of thinking about intelligence
as a single thing versus many things. Ask your students to share their views as they debate this
controversial issue.
Slife, B. (2003). Taking sides: Clashing views on controversial psychological issues (13th ed.). Guilford, CT: Dushkin
Publishing Group.

Activity: Context and Speech Perception
Margaret Matlin points out that human speech perception is quite flexible: We are active listeners who,
instead of receiving speech sounds, use context as a cue to help figure out a word or a sound. One
implication of this flexibility is phonemic restoration, in which people regularly (and without awareness)
fill in missing sounds using context as a cue. Apparently, our skill at reconstructing missing sounds (e.g.,
hearing the word peel in the sentence, "The _eel was on the orange") has evolved because we are
accustomed to having phonemes occasionally masked by extraneous noises, such as coughs, whispers,
pages turning, etc. Interestingly, it is our ability to perceive words on the basis of context that also allows
us to ignore sloppy mispronunciations. To demonstrate this in class, practice reading the following
sentences until you can read them smoothly. Then, read them aloud to your class, asking students to
identify which sound/word in each sentence was incorrect.
1. In all the gunfusion, the mystery man escaped from the mansion.
2. When I was working pizily in the library, the fire alarm rang out.
3. The messemger ran up to the professor and handed her a proclamation.
4. It has been zuggested that students be required to preregister.
5. The president reacted vavorably to all of the committee's suggestions.
Your students, if consistent with research by Cole, should not notice mispronunciations when they occur
in the context of a sentence (although Cole's subjects were able to distinguish syllables such as gun and
con when the isolated syllables were presented). Matlin notes that our tolerance of sloppy speech may
cause us to overlook startling pronunciation mistakes made by children, as in the case of the child who
sang the following words to a famous Christmas carol, "O come all ye hateful: Joy, Phil, and their
trumpet."

Activity: Personal Experiences with Sexist Langage
Considerable attention has been paid recently to sexist language. What has been your own experience
with sexist as opposed to non-sexist language? In your own experience, in what ways does it make a
difference whether language is sexist or not? Does the textbook discussion of language shed light on this
issue? What are the likely consequences for men and women of a reduction in sexist language?

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Activity: Non-sexist Language
The generic use of man and other masculine pronouns excludes women in our language and also
contributes to gender stereotyping. As a thought-provoking assignment, have your students try to generate
gender neutral alternatives for the words in Handout Master 7.4 (suggested alternatives are given
below). This exercise should not only spark a lively discussion of the importance of gender neutral
language, but should also provide students with plausible alternatives that they will then (hopefully)
incorporate into their own speech. You might also consider assigning Janet Hyde's excellent article
referenced below.
Some suggested gender neutral alternatives:
1. business people
2. businesswoman
3. cave dwellers, cave people
4. chair, head, president, leader, moderator, coordinator
5. student
6. representatives, members of Congress, Congress people
7. craftsperson, artisan, craft worker
8. delivery clerk, courier, deliverer
9. ancestors, forebears
10. supervisor, boss, leader, foreperson, head juror
11. laypeople
12. mail carrier, postal worker
13. the human species, humans, humanity, humankind, human beings, people
14. handmade, hand-built, human-made, synthetic, manufactured, constructed
15. personnel, staff, human resources, labor, people power
16. meter reader, meter attendant
17. police officer
18. repairer, repair person
19. salesclerk, salesperson, sales rep (or representative)
20. trash collector
Hyde, J. S. (1984). Children’s understanding of sexist language. Developmental Psychology, 20, 697–706.
Swinkels, A., Giuliano, T. A., & Dickson, A. J. (2001). Her inclusion in mankind: A review of research on sexist
language. Unpublished manuscript.
Adapted from Miller, C., & Swift, K. (1988). The handbook of nonsexist writing (2nd ed.). New York: Harper & Row.
Reprinted from Alan Swinkels (2003). Instructor's resource manual for Psychology by S. Kassin. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice Hall.

Activity: Channels of Communication
Nonverbal behavior is often taken for granted, probably because it occurs so effortlessly in our
interactions that we fail to notice it. It provides such a valuable aspect of communication, however, that it

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is definitely noticed when it is missing. You can illustrate the importance of nonverbal behavior to your
students with a simple demonstration.
Start by drawing a simple dichotomy between verbal channels of communication and nonverbal channels.
The verbal channel is easy; it is the words used, or perhaps a transcript of them. Ask your students to list
the nonverbal channels of communication as you write them on the blackboard. The first response will
usually be a generic “body language,” but tell them to be more specific; body language is a catch-all term
incorporating many nonverbal channels. In short order you should find that students list facial
expressions, eye contact, vocal cues (mainly tone of voice), and gestures, and with a little prodding they
will add touch, interpersonal distance, speech dysfluencies, posture, gait, or appearance (such as hair or
clothing style) as ways of communicating nonverbally. Seeing the board fill up with one verbal means of
communication and 5 to 8 nonverbal channels will illustrate clearly the importance of nonverbal behavior.
After generating these ways of communicating, illustrate what kind of information each adds to a
message. This will take some acting on your part, but it is easy to master with a little practice. Start by
saying a very emphatic message (“I’m absolutely thrilled to be here today!”) while keeping all other
channels of communication constant. In other words, hold your body perfectly still (arms at your side),
keep a neutral facial expression, and say the words in a monotone. It should be clear that although the
verbal channel is quite enthusiastic, the nonverbal channels belie the impact of the message. Next repeat
the message, adding the appropriate vocal inflections and tone cues, but keeping all other channels
constant. Add a happy facial expression in the next iteration, and finally repeat the gushing message with
inflection, a happy face, and a broad sweep of your arms. Your students will get the idea that words
actually “say” very little; most of this message is carried by other channels.
A variation on this idea is suggested by Richmond and McCroskey, focusing on the vocal channel. You
can demonstrate this yourself or by enlisting the help of 4 or 5 students willing to ham it up in front of the
class. Consider the following phrases: “Gee, thanks,” “This turned out to be a fine day,” “I just love it
when you do that,” “Way to go, dude,” “I would like nothing better,” “Wow, this is fun,” “Wonderful,”
“That’s my favorite,” “Truly awesome,” “Real nice,” “This stinks,” and “Rhonda’s a real winner, isn’t
she?” Ask your students to say each phrase using a variety of vocal styles, and have the class comment on
the change in meaning that results. In each case the most obvious difference will come from the use of
sarcasm, where the vocal inflection runs opposite to the verbal content. But many of these phrases (as
well as others you might generate that are more specific to your university or to your class) can carry
other meanings as well. For example, “Real nice” can convey sarcasm, sincerity, or sexuality depending
on how it is delivered. Like the facial expression demonstration described earlier, these are fun and easy
ways to introduce the topic of nonverbal behavior.
Richmond, V. P., & McCroskey, J. C. (1995). Nonverbal behavior in interpersonal relations (3rd ed.). Needham
Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Activity: Do Animals Have Language? A Survey
A fairly large number of people believe that animals have language abilities. Most scientific data on the
point, however, indicate that animals communicate, but do not use a complicated system of symbols and
syntax to convey ideas. The following three questions can be used by students as an informal survey of
people (including fellow students, parents, etc.) regarding the issue of animal language:

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1) Do you believe that animals have language? If so, what specific species? Why or why not?
2) Why do you think humans have such well-developed language abilities?
Students can potentially learn a great deal by teaching those that they survey (presumably there will be
many people who may not grasp the vast difference between animal communication and human
language). Additionally, the answers to #2 may be interesting, enlightening, and even humorous.
► Return to Lecture Guide: Nonhuman Language and Thought

Activity: Exploring Bilingualism
Although many educators believe that bilingual children should be taught in English and in their native
language (both to preserve their culture and because it has cognitive benefits), other educators and
members of Congress are pushing to assimilate non-native speakers into U.S. culture by placing them in
classes where only English is taught. Because much of the negativity and confusion about this issue may
stem from a general fear and dislike for the unknown, your students might gain a fresh perspective on this
controversial issue by considering what it's like to be bilingual or multilingual. For this assignment, ask
your students to write a short paper that explores the experiences of being bilingual or multilingual;
Margaret Matlin (1994) suggests several excellent questions that can be used as the cornerstone for such
an essay. If any of your students are bilingual or multilingual, they can answer some of these questions
themselves. Otherwise, students should identify someone they know fairly well who they would feel
comfortable asking about their experiences. Questions to be addressed include:
1. How old were you when you were first exposed to your second language?
2. How did you acquire this second language (e.g., Did you have formal lessons? Were you taught by a
parent?)
3. When you began to learn the second language, did you find yourself becoming less fluent in your
native language? What kinds of problems did you experience? Can you give examples?
4. What do you think are the advantages of being bilingual? For example, do you think you have any
insight into the nature of language that a monolingual person might not have?
5. When you are with another bilingual person who speaks your native language, do you find yourself
switching back and forth between the two languages? Are there situations in which you are especially
likely to switch from one language to the other?
6. If you had something embarrassing or secret to divulge, in which language would you discuss it?
7. Are there any topics or kinds of conversation for which you prefer one language over the other? For
example, are there aspects of your education or job that, because they were derived from American
terminology (e.g., psychological concepts), are harder to discuss in your native language? Is it
difficult to express American cultural concepts in your native language?
8. Do you feel that the North American culture discourages bilinguals from using their first language?


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Activity: Is Reading Automatic? A Survey
The sentences presented contain words that are spelled identically, but have different pronunciations and
meanings (these kinds of words are called homographs). This leads to potentially ambiguous reading of
the sentences! However, most readers of English are extremely adept at reading the sentences, probably
due to the context in which the words are used. In any case, students can use these 12 sentences as a sort
of survey to be conducted on their fellow students. The idea is to have the subjects read each sentence
aloud and determine whether any errors (even pauses could be interpreted as errors) occur. Each sentence
should be presented individually, so as not to allow subject to “preread” the sentences. Additionally,
subjects should attempt to read a sentence immediately after being presented with it. Total errors made
should be tallied. If the homographs were indeed completely ambiguous, then we would expect errors in
pronunciation for every sentence (a total of 12 errors). Most subjects will probably not exhibit this kind of
error rate! A list of all homographs in the English language can be found at this website:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_homographs
1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce.
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture.
5) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
6) I did not object to the object.
7) They were too close to the door to close it.
8) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
9) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
10) After a number of Novocain injections, my jaw got number.
11) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
12) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

Activity: Take a Stand
Objective: To encourage students to recognize varying points of view about inclusion

Materials: None
Procedure: Designate one side of the room for students who believe that students with mental retardation
should be included (sometimes called "mainstreaming") in classes for normal students and the other for
students who oppose inclusion. Ask each student to explain his/her views, and allow students to switch
sides when they hear a convincing argument from the other side.


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Activity: Crossword Puzzle
Copy and distribute Handout Master 7.5 to students as a homework or in-class review assignment.
The answers for the crossword puzzle are:
Across
4. the process of solving problems by combining ideas or behavior in new ways. creativity
5. aspects of language involving the practical aspects of communicating with others, or the social
“niceties” of language. pragmatics
7. type of thinking in which a person starts from one point and comes up with many different ideas or
possibilities based on that point. divergent
11. the ability to learn from one’s experiences, acquire knowledge, and use resources effectively in
adapting to new situations or solving problems. intelligence
13. ideas that represent a class or category of objects, events, or activities. concepts
14. a system for combining symbols so that an unlimited number of meaningful statements can be made
for the purpose of communicating with others. language
15. concepts that are defined by specific rules or features. formal
16. an example of a concept that closely matches the defining characteristics of a concept. prototype
Down
1. the smallest units of meaning within a language. morphemes
2. the system of rules for combining words and phrases to form grammatically correct sentences.
semantics
3. very specific, step-by-step procedures for solving certain types of problems. algorithms
4. the tendency to search for evidence that fits one’s beliefs while ignoring any evidence that does not fit
those beliefs. Confirmation Bias
6. the rules for determining the meaning of words and sentences. semantics
8. the two percent of the population falling on the upper end of the normal curve and typically possessing
an IQ of 130 or above. gifted
9. the degree to which a test actually measures what it’s supposed to measure. validity
10. the tendency for people to persist in using problem-solving patterns that have worked for them in the
past. Mental set
12. the system of rules by which the symbols of language are arranged. grammar
► Return to Lecture Guide: Chapter Summary


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Activity: Fill in the Blank
Copy and distribute Handout Master 7.11 to students as a homework or in-class review assignment.
Answer Key: Chapter 7 – Cognition and Mental Abilities – Fill in the Blank
1. Cognition
2. Language
3. Phonemes, morphemes
4. Syntax, semantics
5. Image
6. Concepts
7. Prototype
8. Linguistic relativity hypothesis
9. Problem representation
10. Convergent thinking
11. Divergent thinking
12. Trial and error
13. Algorithms
14. Heuristic
15. Mental set
16. Functional fixedness
17. Availability
18. Confirmation bias
19. Hindsight bias
20. Intelligence
21. Triarchic theory of intelligence
22. Howard Gardner
23. Emotional intelligence
24. Intelligence quotient
25. Culture-fair
26. Reliability
27. Split-half reliability
28. Validity
29. Head Start
30. Mental retardation
31. Giftedness
32. Creativity


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▼ HANDOUT MASTERS
7.1 The Hospital Room Problem
7.2 Insight
7.3 The Chitling Intelligence Test
7.4 Using Non-Sexist Language
7.5 Crossword Puzzle
7.6 What is Intelligence?
7.7 Availability Heuristics
7.8 Breaking Sets in Problem-Solving
7.9 Emotional Intelligence Test
7.10 Handout A: Multiple Intelligences and Handout B: Measuring Interpersonal Intelligence
7.11 Fill in the Blank

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Handout Master 7.1
The Hospital Room Problem
Instructions: Use the following information to answer the question posed below.
Five people are in a hospital. Each one has only one disease, and each has a different disease. Each one
occupies a separate room; room numbers are 101–105.
1. The person with asthma is in Room 101.
2. Ms. Jones has heart disease.
3. Ms. Green is in Room 105.
4. Ms. Smith has tuberculosis.
5. The woman with mononucleosis is in Room 104.
6. Ms. Thomas is in Room 101.
7. One of the patients, other than Ms. Anderson, has gall bladder disease.
Question: What disease does Ms. Anderson have and in what room is she?
► Return to Activity: Problem Representation

▼ Return to List of Handout Masters for Chapter 7
Source: Matlin, M. W. (1994). Cognition (3rd ed.). Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace.
Reprinted from Alan Swinkels (2003). Instructor's resource manual for Psychology by S. Kassin. Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall

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Handout Master 7.2
Insight
Instructions: Give the correct answer for each of the following problems.
1. How would you rearrange the letters in the words new door to make one word? [Note: There is only
one correct answer.]
2. It is impossible for anyone to survive longer than one week without drinking, yet Abdullah managed a
ten-day desert crossing without finding water or bringing any along. How was this possible?
3. What is so unusual about the sentence below? (Aside from the fact that it doesn't make a lot of sense.)
"Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz."
4. A well-known fashion designer, wanting to escape the hustle and bustle of the city, decided to spend a
few days at a rural resort. After a day of relaxing, she went for a winter stroll to get some fresh air. That
was the last time anyone saw her alive. The autopsy revealed that her death was due to the pack on her
back. What was so deadly about this pack?
5. How can you stand behind your father while he is standing behind you?
6. Even if they are starving, natives living in the Arctic will never eat a penguin's egg. Why not?
► Return to Activity: Insight

Source: MindTrap Games, Inc. (1991). MindTrap. Norwalk, CT: Great American Puzzle Factory.

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Handout Master 7.3
The Chitling Intelligence Test

[Adrian Dove]
1. A "handkerchief head" is:
(a) a cool cat (b) a porter (c) an Uncle Tom (d) a hoddi (e) a preacher.
2. Which word is most out of place here?
(a) splib (b) blood (c) gray (d) spook (e) black.
3. A "gas head" is a person who has a:
(a) fast-moving car (b) stable of "lace" (c) "process" (d) habit of stealing cars (e) long jail
record for arson.
4. "Bo Diddley" is a:
(a) game for children (b) down-home cheap wine (c) down-home singer (d) new dance (e)
Moejoe call.
5. "Hully Gully" came from:
(a) East Oakland (b) Fillmore (c) Watts (d) Harlem (e) Motor City.
6. Cheap chitlings (not the kind you purchase at a frozen food counter) will taste rubbery unless they
are cooked long enough. How soon can you quit cooking them to eat and enjoy them?
(a) 45 minutes (b) 2 hours (c) 24 hours (d) 1 week (on a low flame) (e) 1 hour.
7. What are the "Dixie Hummingbirds?"
(a) part of the KKK (b) a swamp disease (c) a modern gospel group (d) a Mississippi Negro
paramilitary group (e) Deacons.
8. If you throw the dice and 7 is showing on the top, what is facing down?
(a) 7 (b) snake eyes (c) boxcars (d) little Joes (e) 11.

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9. "Jet" is:
(a) an East Oakland motorcycle club (b) one of the gangs in "West Side Story " (c) a news and
gossip magazine (d) a way of life for the very rich.
10. T-Bone Walker got famous for playing what?
(a) trombone (b) piano (c) "T-flute " (d) guitar (e) "hambone."
11. "Bird" or "Yardbird" was the "jacket" that jazz lovers from coast to coast hung on:
(a) Lester Young (b) Peggy Lee (c) Benny Goodman (d) Charlie Parker (e) "Birdman of
Alcatraz."
12. Hattie Mae Johnson is on the County. She has four children and her husband is now in jail for
non-support, as he was unemployed and was not able to give her any money. Her welfare check is
now $286 per month. Last night she went out with the highest player in town. If she got pregnant,
then nine months from now how much more will her welfare check be?
(a) $80 (b) $2 (c) $35 (d) $150 (e) $100.
13. "Money don't get everything it's true ."
(a) but I don't have none and I'm so blue, (b) but what it don't get I can't use, (c) so make do
with what you've got, (d) but I don't know that and neither do you.
14. How much does a short dog cost?
(a) $0.15 (b) $2.00 (c) $0.35 (d) $0.05 (e) $0.86 plus tax.
15. Many people say that "Juneteenth" (June 19) should be made a legal holiday because this was the
day when:
(a) the slaves were freed in the USA (b) the slaves were freed in Texas (c) the slaves were
freed in Jamaica (d) the slaves were freed in California (e) Martin Luther King was born (f)
Booker T. Washington died.
► Return to Activity: Cultural Bias in IQ Testing

Dove, A. The "Chitling" Test. From Lewis R. Aiken, Jr. (1971). Psychological and educational testing Boston: Allyn and
Bacon.

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Handout Master 7.4

Using Nonsexist Language
Instructions: For each of the following words or phrases below, try to generate at least one alternative
word or phrase that is gender neutral. For example, firefighter is an appropriate gender neutral alternative
for fireman, and anchor is a suitable substitute for anchorman.
1. businessman ___________________________
2. career girl ____________________________
3. cavemen ___________________________
4. chairman, chairwoman ___________________________
5. coed (as in, "three beautiful coeds") ___________________________
6. congressmen ___________________________
7. craftsman ___________________________
8. deliveryman ___________________________
9. forefathers ___________________________
10. forelady, foreman ___________________________
11. laymen ___________________________
12. mailman ___________________________
13. man, mankind (as in the human species) ___________________________
14. man-made ___________________________
15. manpower ___________________________
16. meter maid ___________________________
17. policeman, policewoman ___________________________
18. repairman ___________________________
19. salesman, saleswoman ___________________________
20. trashman ___________________________
► Return to Activity: Non-Sexist Language

Adapted from Miller, C., & Swift, K. (1988). The handbook of nonsexist writing (2nd ed.). New York: Harper & Row.

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Handout Master 7.5

Crossword Puzzle Activity
Chapter 7: Cognition and Mental Abilities

440
Across
4. the process of solving problems by combining ideas or behavior in new ways.

5. aspects of language involving the practical aspects of communicating with others, or the social
“niceties” of language.
7. type of thinking in which a person starts from one point and comes up with many different ideas or
possibilities based on that point.
11. the ability to learn from one’s experiences, acquire knowledge, and use resources effectively in
adapting to new situations or solving problems.
13. ideas that represent a class or category of objects, events, or activities.
14. a system for combining symbols so that an unlimited number of meaningful statements can be made
for the purpose of communicating with others.
15. concepts that are defined by specific rules or features.
16. an example of a concept that closely matches the defining characteristics of a concept.
Down
1. the smallest units of meaning within a language.

2. the system of rules for combining words and phrases to form grammatically correct sentences.
3. very specific, step-by-step procedures for solving certain types of problems.
4. the tendency to search for evidence that fits one’s beliefs while ignoring any evidence that does not fit
those beliefs.
6. the rules for determining the meaning of words and sentences.
8. the two percent of the population falling on the upper end of the normal curve and typically possessing
an IQ of 130 or above.
9. the degree to which a test actually measures what it’s supposed to measure.
10. the tendency for people to persist in using problem-solving patterns that have worked for them in the
past.
12. the system of rules by which the symbols of language are arranged.
► Return to Activity: Crossword Puzzle (answers)


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Handout Master 7.6
What Is Intelligence?
For each age group, list five traits that characterize intelligence.
6-month-old 2-year-old
1. ________________________ 1. ________________________
2. ________________________ 2. ________________________
3. ________________________ 3. ________________________
4. ________________________ 4. ________________________
5. ________________________ 5. ________________________
10-year-old 20-year-old
1. ________________________ 1. ________________________
2. ________________________ 2. ________________________
3. ________________________ 3. ________________________
4. ________________________ 4. ________________________
5. ________________________ 5. ________________________
50-year-old 80-year-old
1. ________________________ 1. ________________________
2. ________________________ 2. ________________________
3. ________________________ 3. ________________________
4. ________________________ 4. ________________________
5. ________________________ 5. ________________________
► Return to Activity: Age and Intelligence


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Handout Master 7.7
Availability Heuristics
Heuristics
1. In the English language, are there more words beginning with the letter r or more words with the
letter r appearing as the third letter?
❑ First position
❑ Third position
2. In the English language, are there more words beginning with the letter k or more words with the
letter k appearing as the third letter?
❑ First position
❑ Third position
3. What percentage of the faculty at this university are women?
________ %
4. How many of your courses have been taught by female professors?
________ courses
► Return to Activity: Availability Heuristics


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Handout Master 7.8

Breaking Sets in Problem-Solving
Think of a problem. Describe it concisely, then list four alternative ways to describe the difficulty.
Initial statement of the problem:
Alternate 1:
Alternate 2:
Alternate 3:
Alternate 4:
Describe the problem from the point of view of other parties involved:
Describe two solutions to this problem, indicating how these solutions are influenced by the particular
statement of the problem you have chosen:
► Return to Activity: Breaking Sets in Problem Solving


444
Handout Master 7.9
Emotional Intelligence Test
Check one response for each item.
1. I'm always aware of even subtle feelings as I have them.
____ Always ____ Usually ____ Sometimes ____ Rarely ____ Never
2. I can delay gratification in pursuit of my goals instead of getting carried away by impulse.
3. Instead of giving up in the face of setbacks or disappointments, I stay hopeful and optimistic.
4. My keen sense of others' feelings makes me compassionate about their plight.
5. I can sense the pulse of a group or relationship and state unspoken feelings.
6. I can soothe or contain distressing feelings, so that they don't keep me from doing things I need to do.
Score your responses as follows: Always = 4 points, Usually = 3 points, Sometimes = 2 points, Rarely = 1 point,
Never = 0 points. Add your scores for each item to derive a total score.
► Return to Activity: Emotional Intelligence Test


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Handout Master 7.10
Handout A: Multiple Intelligences
For each of the types of intelligence listed below, name and describe a person you know (or know of) who
embodies that kind of intelligence to you.
Linguistic intelligence:
Musical intelligence:
Logical-mathematical intelligence:
Spatial intelligence:
Bodily intelligence:
Interpersonal intelligence:
Intrapersonal intelligence:

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Handout B: Measuring Interpersonal Intelligence
Interpersonal intelligence involves understanding others—how they feel, what motivates them, and how
they interact with another.
List two people you believe are high in interpersonal intelligence:
Person 1:
Person 2:
Describe two behaviors you have observed in each person that lead you to believe that they are high in
interpersonal intelligence:
Person 1: Behavior 1
Behavior 2
Person 2: Behavior 1
Behavior 2
Create a test item (using either true-false or an agree-disagree continuum) that reflects the interpersonal
intelligence exhibited in each of the above behaviors:
Item 1 (Person 1; Behavior 1):
► Return to Activity: Multiple Intelligences


447
Handout Master 7.11
Fill in the Blank Class Activity
1. _______________ refers to the processes whereby we acquire and use knowledge.
2. The system for combining symbols (such as words) so that an unlimited number of meaningful
statements can be made for the purpose of communicating with others is known as
_______________.
3. The basic units of sound in a language are known as _______________, whereas

_______________ represent the smallest meaningful units in a language.
4. The two major components of grammar are _______________ and _______________.
5. An _____________ is a mental representation that stands for objects or events and has a picture-
like quality.
6. __________________ are ideas that represent a class or category of objects, events, or activities.
7. A _____________ is an example of a concept that closely matches the defining characteristics of

a concept; it is the most typical example of the concept.
8. Whorf’s _______________ _______________ _______________ asserts that one’s patterns of

thinking are determined by the specific language one speaks.
9. _______________ _______________ is the first step in solving a problem; it involves

interpreting or defining the problem.
10. _______________ _______________ is a type of thinking in which a problem is seen as having

only one answer, and all lines of thinking will eventually lead to that single answer, using
previous knowledge and logic.
11. _______________ _______________ is the type of thinking in which a person starts from one
point and comes up with many different ideas or possibilities based on that point.
12. The problem-solving method in which one possible solution after another is tried until a
successful one is found often takes much time and is called _______________ _____
_______________.
13. _______________ are very specific, step-by-step procedures for solving certain types of
problems.
14. A _______________ is a “rule of thumb” that helps to simplify a problem or possible approaches
to it; this rule of thumb does not guarantee a correct solution.
15. _______________ _______________ is the tendency for people to persist in using problem-
solving patterns that have worked for them in the past.
16. A block to problem solving that comes from thinking about objects in terms of only their typical
functions and not what else they can be utilized to do is called _______________
_______________.
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17. We are using the _______________ when we make a decision based on information that is most
easily retrieved from memory.
18. _______________ _______________ is the tendency to search for evidence that fits one’s
beliefs while ignoring any evidence that does not fit those beliefs.
19. _______________ _______________ is the tendency to see outcomes as inevitable and

predictable after we know the outcome.
20. The ability to learn from one’s experiences, acquire knowledge, and use resources effectively in
adapting to new situations or solving problems is known as _______________.
21. Robert Sternberg proposed the _______________ _______________ _____ _______________

that asserts that there are different kinds of intelligence, including analytical, creative, and
practical intelligence.
22. According to _______________ _______________ there are many types of intelligences and he
developed the theory of multiple intelligences.
23. _______________ _______________ is the awareness of and ability to manage one’s own
emotions as well as the ability to be self-motivated, able to feel what others feel, and socially
skilled. Viewed as a powerful influence on success in life.
24. _______________ _______________ is a number that represents a measure of intelligence,

based upon one’s performance on an intelligence test, that is normed on a score of 100 for
average intelligence.
25. _______________-_______________ tests of intelligence minimize or eliminate the use of

language and they downplay skills and values that may vary across groups of people.
26. _______________ is the tendency of a test to produce the same scores again and again each time
it is given to the same people.
27. If scores on two halves of a test agree, the test is exhibiting _______________-_______________
_______________.
28. The degree to which a test actually measures what it’s supposed to measure is known as the
_______________.
29. _______________ _______________ is the nation’s largest intervention program designed to

provide low-income preschoolers and their families with educational training and nutrition
information.
30. _______________ _______________ is a condition of significantly sub-average intelligence

combined with deficiencies in adaptive behavior.
31. Those with a superior IQ combined with exceptional ability (demonstrated or potential) are
exhibiting _______________.
32. _______________ is the ability to produce novel and socially valued ideas or objects.
449
Words to Use:
Algorithms
Availability
Cognition
Concepts
Confirmation bias
Convergent thinking
Creativity
Culture-fair
Divergent thinking
Emotional intelligence
Functional fixedness
Giftedness
Head Start
Heuristic
Hindsight bias
Howard Gardner
Image
Intelligence
Intelligence quotient
Language
Linguistic relativity hypothesis
Mental retardation
Mental set
Morphemes
Phonemes
Problem representation
Prototype
Reliability
Semantics
Split-half reliability
Trial and error
Triarchic theory of intelligence
Validity
► Return to Activity: Fill in the Blank (answers)


450
▼APS: READINGS FROM THE ASSOCIATION OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE

Current Directions in Introductory Psychology, Second Edition (0137143508)
Edited by Abigail A. Baird, with Michele M. Tugade and Heather B. Veague
Nasir Naqvi, Baba Shiv, and Antoine Bechara

The Role of Emotion in Decision Making: A Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective (Vol. 15,
No. 5, 2006, pp. 260—264) p. 56 in the APS reader
Decision making often occurs in the face of uncertainty about whether one’s choices will lead to
benefit or harm. The somatic-marker hypothesis is a neurobiological theory of how decisions are
made in the face of uncertain outcome. This theory holds that such decisions are aided by
emotions, in the form of bodily states, that are elicited during the deliberation of future
consequences and that mark different options for behavior as being advantageous or
disadvantageous. This process involves an interplay between neural systems that elicit emotional/
bodily states and neural systems that map these emotional/ bodily states.

▼Forty Studies that Changed Psychology: Explorations into the History of

Psychological Research, Sixth Edition (013603599X)
By Roger Hock
Studies examined in Intelligence and Cognition:
Maps in Your Mind

Tolman, E. C. (1948). Cognitive maps in rats and men. Psychological Review, 55, 189—208.
What You Expect Is What You Get

Rosenthal, R., & Jacobson, L. (1966). Teachers’ expectancies: Determinates of pupils’ IQ gains.
Psychological Reports, 19, 115—118.
Just How Are You Intelligent?

Gardner, H. (1983) Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic Books.


451
▼WEB RESOURCES
Building Blocks of Thought
Center for the Study of Language and Information: http://www-csli.stanford.edu/

This independent research center founded by researchers from Stanford University provides information
about their current and past publications.

Nonhuman Language and Thought
Can Chimps Talk?: http://pubpages.unh.edu/~jel/nova.html

Transcript of a NOVA program. (NOVA site with supplementary information and activities pertaining to
the program: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/teachers/programs/2105_chimps.html)
Do Apes Use Language? – The Why Files: http://whyfiles.org/058language/ape_talk.html

Interesting article on the topic.
Machiavellian Monkeys and Shakespearean Apes: The Question of Primate Language

http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Publications/ZooGoer/1995/6/machiavellianmonkeys.cfm
Nice, non-technical summary of a large body of work on language in animals by Alex Hawes, published
in Zoogoer, September/October, 1995.
Primate Use of Language

http://www.pigeon.psy.tufts.edu/psych26/language.htm
Very nice review of studies of language acquisition in primates by Lauren Kosseff, of Tufts University.
► Return to Lecture Guide: Nonhuman Langauge and Thought

Problem Solving
Anagram Server: http://www.wordsmith.org/anagram/index.html

Find anagrams for any word.

Multitasking
How to Multitask: http://dualtask.org/images/08MULTITASK.html

A brief New York Times Magazine article about “multitasking.” Offers information about the construct of
multitasking and practical advice on how to complete multiple tasks successfully.
► Return to Lecture Guide: Multitasking


452
Intelligence and Mental Abilities
Assessment: http://ericae.net/intbod.htm
Offers definitions, descriptions, resources, and other detailed information about a wide range of
assessment measures. Use this site as a starting point for a classroom presentation, demonstrating the
different ways to assess mental functioning.
Barbarian’s Online Tests: http://www.wizardrealm.com/tests/

A variety of tests that are meant for “fun,” and are not based in psychometrics at all. Good for getting
students to think critically about the validity of online tests.
Classical Intelligence Test: http://www.queendom.com/tests/iq/classical_iq_r2_access.html

Free IQ test from Cyberia Shrink with online scoring Unfortunately, no reliability and validity data are
provided and there are no norms for this test provided online.
Darwin Awards: http://www.darwinawards.com

“Darwin Awards commemorate those who improve our gene pool by removing themselves from it in
really stupid ways.”
Kohler’s Research on the Mentality of Apes: http://www.pigeon.psy.tufts.edu/psych26/kohler.htm

Excerpts from a book on Kohler's work with an insight on chimpanzees. There are some interesting
pictures at the bottom of this page.
Intelligence: http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/cogsys/intell.html
Discussion and explanation of theories of intelligence, by Bill Huitt, Valdosta College, Georgia.
Intelligence of Dogs: http://petrix.com/dogint/intelligence.html

Provides ranking of “brightness” by breed of dog. The Boarder Collie tops the list as the brightest dog,
while the Afghan Hound is at the bottom of the list. Woof.
Interview with Robert Sternberg on The Bell Curve:

http://www.psych.utoronto.ca/users/reingold/courses/intelligence/cache/03.3.fm-sternberg-interview.html
Great interview by Skeptic Magazine with Robert Sternberg on his view of intelligence and opinions of
The Bell Curve.
IQ Test – Self Discovery Workshop: http://iqtest.com/

Takes about 20 minutes with online scoring. They ask for a lot of personal information before you take
the test. I recommend that you do not provide any personal information. You can take the test without
doing so. You also do not need to sign up for the individual profile, which costs MONEY!!!!!
IQ Tests Online: http://www.2h.com/Tests/iq.phtml

Various online IQ tests. Good for stimulating critical thinking regarding validity of online tests.
Majon’s Online IQ Tests: http://www.majon.com/iq.html

Four online IQ tests are offered.
Mensa International: http://www.mensa.org

Organization for high-IQ-scoring individuals. See how the top 2% spend their time in this organization.

453
Multiple Intelligences: http://tip.psychology.org/gardner.html

Overview of Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences.
Why IQ Scores are Rising: http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/970917.atc.14.ram

This audio file from National Public Radio requires the RealPlayer plug-in.


454
▼ MyPsychLab VIDEO CLIPS AVAILABLE FOR

CHAPTER 7: COGNITION AND MENTAL ABILITIES
The MyPsychLab Video Series includes current introductory video content that takes viewers into
research laboratories, inside the body and brain, and onto the streets for real-world applications of chapter
content. Each video is approximately 5 minutes long, and the videos are accompanied by assessments so
that they may be turned into assignments for students.
Within each chapter (or “episode”), the viewer can find video clips that serve the following purposes:
• The Big Picture – introduces the topic of the chapter/episode.
• The Basics – presents foundational topics from the chapter/episode, especially ones that students
find challenging.
• Special Topics – shows research in action as specific topics are explored more deeply.
• Thinking Like a Psychologist – demonstrates critical thinking and the uses of various research
methods.
• In the Real World – illustrates the practical applications of psychological research.
• What’s in it for Me? – conveys the relevance of psychological research to the lives of students.
Episode 10: Cognition and Language

 The Big Picture: I Am, Therefore I Think, 3:13
Cognitive processing is how we take in and understand the information around us each day.
In this video, using finding your way around a foreign city as an example, we learn how
humans use concepts, algorithms, and heuristic strategies to process information. We also
learn the differences between cognitive contents and processes while performing a task.
 The Basics: The Mind is What the Brain Does, 3:17
In this video, we learn how concepts are formed and how we build on them, use them, and
share them with others. We also learn why individuals don’t necessarily share the same
prototypes and mental images, despite being based on the same concepts.
 Special Topics: Mental Imagery: In the Mind’s Eye, 3:02
In this video, we learn why the mental images we see in our mind can feel as real to us as the
tangible objects we see in front of us. We also learn where in the brain mental imagery is
processed.
 Thinking Like a Psychologist: Speaking One’s Mind, 6:24
Human language acquisition is nothing short of remarkable. Babies have an incredible ability
to learn hundreds of complex sounds merely by listening to the people around them and
eventually assign word labels to every object they encounter. In this video, Dr. Kathy Hirsh-
Pasek of Temple University explains the many stages of how this language acquisition
unfolds.
 In the Real World: Changing Your Mind, 5:32
Are people naturally good at solving problems or can this skill be acquired? In this video,
Deidre Kolarick of New York University speaks in depth about our problem-solving abilities,
the professions that require quick decision-making skills versus those that require
deliberation, and how we are able to acquire and improve decision-making skills over time.
 What’s In It For Me? Making Choices, 4:11
How do you feel when you are faced with what feels like too many options? What criteria do
you use to make your final decision? In this video, we learn from Dr. Abigail Baird of Vassar
College and Dr. Amy Marin of Phoenix College about how our brains, our emotions, and our
culture affect our decision-making, and what happens when we are faced with too many
options.
455
Episode 11: Intelligence

 The Big Picture: What is Intelligence?, 3:16
Is intelligence something we are born with or is it something we develop through our
environment? In this video, you will see that although intelligence is a concept we value and
measure, defining it and determining how it is acquired can be challenging.
 The Basics: Theories of Intelligence, 5:28
In this video, psychologists Jack Chuan of Highline Community College and Amy Marin of
Phoenix College explain in detail the well-known intelligence theories developed by
Spearman, Sternberg, and Gardner.
 Special Topics: Intelligence Testing, Then and Now, 5:37
Psychologists have been interested in studying intelligence for some time. In this video,
psychologist Amy Marin of Phoenix University explains the history of intelligence testing,
including how the Stanford-Binet test, the WAIS test, and IQ were developed and how biased
intelligence tests were commonly used to keep people out of the country. Marin also expalins
how Intelligence tests today have evolved to help us better interpret an individual’s specific
strengths and weaknesses for the purpose of improving one's overall ability and potential for
success at school and work.
 Thinking Like a Psychologist: Intelligence Tests and Success, 4:28
If you can do well on a test, does it mean you will do well in life? In this video, psychologist
Deidre Kolarick of New York Univeristy explains what outcomes IQ scores have been
positively and negatively correlated with and how others’ reactions to our IQ scores may be
what shapes our destiny.
 In the Real World: Intelligence Tests and Stereotypes, 6:01
Negative stereotypes can have a powerful impact on individual and group performance. In
this video, psychologist Keith Maddox of Tufts University defines stereotype threat and
explains how this threat can negatively affect an individual’s self esteem and performance
and even cause them to struggle with feelings about their identity.
 What’s In It For Me? How Resilient Are You?, 4:30
Can we improve our intelligence over time, or is the intelligence level we were born with
unchangeable? In this video, Carol Dweck of Stanford University explains the fixed theory of
intelligence versus the growth theory of intelligence and how intellectual resilience can
influence personal success.
MyPsychLab videos can be accessed at www.mypsychlab.com and are also available on DVD
(visit www.pearsonhighered.com).

456
▼MyPsychLab MULTIMEDIA RESOURCES

Multimedia Content applicable to this chapter is available at www.mypsychlab.com
Building Blocks of Thought Text Page References

Watch the Video: Special Topics: Mental Imagery: In the Mind's Eye 218
Watch the Video: The Basics: The Mind is What the Brain Does 219
Watch the Video: The Big Picture: I Am, Therefore I Think 219
Simulate the Process: The Mind's Organization of Conceptual Knowledge 219
Language, Thought, and Culture Text Page References

Watch the Video: Music Is/Is Not A Universal Language: Steven Demorest and Steven Morrison 220
Nonhuman Thought and Language Text Page References

Watch the Video: Birds and Language 224
Watch the Video: Classic Footage of Chimpanzees and Sign Language 224
Problem Solving Text Page References

Explore the Concept: Intuition and Discovery in Problem Solving 227
Watch the Video: Mathematical Knowledge and Problem Solving: Martha Alibali 227
Watch the Video: Special Topics: Mental Shortcuts in a Social Context 227
Watch the Video: IT Video: Water Lilly 228
Explore the Concept: The Two-String Problem 229
Decision Making Text Page References

Watch the Video: What's In It For Me?: Making Choices 231
Explore the Concept: AIDS Timeline 232
Explore the Concept: Confirmation Bias 232
Staying Healthy Text Page References

Watch the Video: IT Video: AIDS 232
Decision Making Text Page References

Explore the Concept: Sources of HIV Infection in Adults 232
Multitasking Text Page References

Watch the Video: Multitasking Myth 233
Watch the Video: What's In It For Me?: The Myth of Multitasking 233
Intelligence and Mental Abilities Text Page References

Watch the Video: The Big Picture: What is Intelligence? 234
Complete the Survey: What is Intelligence? 234
Watch the Video: Developing a Wiser Population: Robert Sternberg 236
Explore the Concept: Gardner's Multiple Intelligences 236
Simulate the Process: Gardner's Theory of Intelligence 236
Watch the Video: Intelligence: Robert Sternberg 236
Simulate the Experiment: Mental Rotation 236
Watch the Video: Practical Intelligence 236

457
Watch the Video: Robert Sternberg on Practical Intelligence 236

Explore the Concept: Sternberg's Triarchic Theory of Intelligence 236
Watch the Video: Successful Intelligence: Robert Sternberg 236
Watch the Video: The Basics: Theories of Intelligence 236
Watch the Video: The Curriculum of the Future: Robert Sternberg 236
Watch the Video: Classic Footage of Assessment of Memory with the Stanford-Binet Intelligence
Scale 237
Watch the Video: Classic Footage of Language Assessment Portions of Stanford-Binet
Intelligence Scale 237
Watch the Video: Special Topics: Intelligence Testing, Then and Now 237
Watch the Video: Are Intelligence Tests Valid: Robert Guthrie 239
Watch the Video: Uses and Misuses of Standardized Tests 239
Watch the Video: Demographics and Intelligence Testing: Robert Guthrie 241
Heredity, Environment, and Intelligence Text Page References

Watch the Video: In the Real World: Intelligence Tests and Stereotypes 241
Explore the Concept: Factors Affecting Intelligence 242
Watch the Video: Literacy 243
Watch the Video: Piano Lessons and Development 243
Watch the Video: Brain Development and Nutrition 244
Watch the Video: Frank Manis: How is research applied in the classroom? 244
Watch the Video: Thinking Like a Psychologist: Intelligence Tests and Success 244
Explore the Concept: Correlations Between IQ Scores of Persons of Varying Relationships 245
Watch the Video: Cultural Biases: Robert Guthrie 246
Watch the Video: Cultural Influences on Intelligence: Robert Sternberg 246
Watch the Video: Gender and Spatial Ability: Nora Newcombe 246
Watch the Video: Gender Differences: Robert Sternberg 246
Creativity Text Page References

Watch the Video: SAT Alternatives: Robert Sternberg 250
Complete the Survey: What is Creativity? 250
Simulate the Process: Creativity 251

458
▼POWERPOINT SLIDES
Three different sets of PowerPoint slides are available for this chapter and can be
accessed by clicking on the links below:
Lecture PowerPoint Slides

Click on the Resources tab
Interactive PowerPoint Slides

Art Only PowerPoint Slides


459
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
disposition that has induced them in modern times to
impose humiliating penalties on such Women as are
guilty of sins which the Men themselves commit with
the utmost freedom, and thus to establish a mortifying
difference, in that respect, between the two sexes,
instead of that amiable equality which obtained
between them under the Jewish law, according to
which the Man and Woman who had committed
together the sin of Fornication, were lashed with equal
numbers of stripes.
[9] The Miserere is the 51st Psalm; and the De
Profundis is the 130th, which is none of the shortest.
The singing of the Miserere seems to be particularly
appropriated, among Catholics, to regulate both the
duration of religious flagellations, and the time to which
they are to be performed, as we may conclude from
the above passage of our Author; and also from a
passage of M. de Voltaire in his Candide, in which he
says, that, when Candide was flagellated at Lisbon, by
order of the Inquisition, he was all the while
entertained with a Miserere en faux bourdon; which is
a kind of Church Music.
[10] The expressions of the Vulgate are, fui
flagellatus, I have been whipped. The Vulgate of the
Old Testament is a very ancient Latin version of it from
the Hebrew, corrected afterwards by St. Jerom, which
is followed in all Catholic Countries.
[11] The Talmud is the Tradition, or unwritten law of
the Jews, the Law of Moses being their written Law.
This Tradition has, in process of time, been set down
in writing; and two different Collections have been
made of it: the one, in the Jerusalem School, about
three hundred years after Jesus Christ, which is called
the Jerusalem Talmud; the other, in the Babylonian
School, five hundred years after Jesus Christ, and is
called, the Babylon Talmud. The latter is that which is
usually read among the Jews; and when they simply
say, the Talmud, they mean the Babylon Talmud.
[12] Buxtorf, the Author from whom the above facts
are drawn, is mentioned with great praise in the
Scaligerana, which is a Collection, or mixture, of
Notes, partly French, partly Latin, found in the papers
of J. Scaliger, and printed after his death. Buxtorf is
called, in one of these Notes, the only Man learned in
the Hebrew language; and Scaliger adds, that it is
surprising how the Jews can love him, though he has
handled them so severely; which shews that he has
been impartial in his accounts. Mirum quomodo
Buxtorsius à Judæis ametur, in illâ tamen Synagogâ
Judaicâ illos valdè perstringit.
[13] It is to be supposed, that the Jew Priests had
been well freed for the above benign interpretations
they gave of the law of Moses.
C H A P. III.
Voluntary flagellations were unknown to the first

Christians. An explanation is given of the
passage of St. Paul: I chastise my body, and
keep it under subjection[14].
FLAGELLATIONS are mentioned so often as eleven

times by the Holy Writers of the New Testament.
Of these, five relate to Jesus Christ. The first is in
the xxth chapter of the Gospel according to St.
Matthew, v. 19; and in the xxvith of the same, v. 26.
In the xvth chapter of St. Mark’s Gospel, v. 33. In the
xviith chapter of the Gospel according to St. Luke, v.
33; and in the xixth chapter of the Gospel according
to St. John, v. 1[15]. No just conclusion, as the Reader
may see, can be drawn from the above-mentioned
passages, in support of voluntary flagellations, and of
those Disciplines which Monks now-a-days inflict on
themselves; since it is plain that our Saviour did not
whip himself with his own hands: and we might as
well say that we ought to inflict death upon ourselves,
and nail ourselves to a cross, as that we ought to
lacerate our own flesh with scourges, because Jesus
Christ was exposed to that kind of punishment.
The other six passages of the New Testament in
which whipping is mentioned, are, first, in St. John’s
(c. ii. v. 15.) And when He had made a scourge of
small cords, he drove them out of the Temple, and
the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the
changers of money, and overthrew the tables. The
second chapter is in the fifth chapter of the Acts (v.
40.) And when they had called the Apostles and
beaten them with scourges, they commanded that
they should not speak in the name of Jesus; and let
them go. The third place in which scourgings are
mentioned, is the sixth chapter of the second Epistle
to the Corinthians (v. 15.) St. Paul in that Chapter
places Stripes among the different methods of
persecution which were used against the ministers of
the Gospel, and he moreover relates the sufferings to
which he himself had been exposed. Of the Jews five
times received I forty stripes save one: and in the
next verse he says, Thrice was I beaten with rods,
once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck; a
night and a day I have been in the deep. Fifthly, in his
Epistle to the Hebrews (xi. 36.) the same Apostle
says, speaking in general terms, And others had
trials of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea,
moreover of bonds and imprisonments. Now, from all
these passages no authority whatever can be
derived to justify the practice of voluntary flagellation.
All the persecuted persons above-mentioned
suffered those beatings with rods, and those
scourgings, much against their will.
The sixth and last passage in which whipping is
mentioned, in the New Testament, is therefore the
only one from which any specious conclusion may be
drawn in support of the practice of voluntary
flagellation: it is contained in the first Epistle to the
Corinthians (ix. 22); St. Paul in it says, I chastise my
body, and keep it under subjection. Indeed this
passage is well worth examining attentively. Several
men of great authority have given it as their opinion,
that the Apostle expressly meant to say, by the
above words, that it was his practice to lash himself,
in order to overcome his vicious inclinations. Among
others, James Gretzer, an able Theologian and one
of the Fathers Jesuits, vehemently asserts that the
Greek words in the text literally signify, “I imprint on
my own body the stripes or marks of the whip, and
render it livid by dint of blows,” and the same Father
supports his assertion by the authority of Septalius
and Guastininius, two celebrated Interpreters of
Aristotle, who, in their Commentaries, quote
Gallienus as having used the Greek word in question
(ὑπωπιάζω) in the same sense which he (Father
Gretzer) attributes to St. Paul. To these authorities
Gretzer moreover adds those of St. Irenæus, St.
Chrysostom, Paulinus, and Theophylactus, who (he
says) have all explained the above passage in the
same manner as himself does: so that, if we were to
credit all the comments of Father Gretzer, there
would, indeed, remain little doubt but that St. Paul
meant to say, he fustigated himself with his own
hands; and that he was thereby left an example
which all faithful Christians ought in duty to imitate.
But yet, if, setting aside, for the present, all
authorities on this head, we begin with examining
attentively into the real meaning of the Greek word
which is the subject of the present controversy, we
shall see that it cannot have that signification which
Father Gretzer pretends. In fact, let us examine if
that word occurs in any other place of the New
Testament, and in what sense it is employed. We
meet with it in the eighteenth Chapter of St. Luke,
wherein Jesus Christ says, in the manner of a
Parable, that a Widow used to teaze a Judge with
her frequent complaints, who was thereby compelled
at last to do her justice; and he makes him speak in
the following words: “Because this Widow troubles
me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming,
she weary me (ὑπωπιάζη μὲ.)” Now, who can
imagine that this Judge entertained any fear that the
Woman should flagellate him? Yet, we must think so,
if the Greek word used in the Text (which is the very
same as that employed by St. Paul, and on which
Father Gretzer builds his system) should always
signify, as that Father pretends, to beat, or lash. If a
literal explanation of that word, therefore, is in many
cases improper and ridiculous, it follows that it is
frequently to be understood in a figurative sense, and
that it is then only employed to express that kind of
hard usage either of one’s self, or of others, which is
exercised without any mixture of real violence, or
bodily sufferings. To this add, that St. Paul himself,
when, on other occasions he really means to speak
of blows and actual stripes, never once makes use of
the word in question.
Besides, if in order rightly to understand the
meaning of St. Paul, we consult the holy Fathers and
Interpreters (which certainly is a very good method of
investigating the truth), we shall scarcely find one
who thought that St. Paul either beat or lashed
himself, and in the above passage meant to speak of
any such thing as voluntary Flagellation. St. Iræneus,
Bishop of Lyons, though he has translated the words
in question into these, “I chastise my own body, and
render it livid,” has made no mention whatever of
either scourges, whips, or rods.—St. Chrysostom
likewise supposes, that the Apostle in the above
passage, only spoke of the pains and care he took, in
order to preserve his temperance, and conquer the
passions of the flesh; and that it was the same as if
he had said, “I submit to much labour, in order to live
according to the rules of Temperance. I undergo
every kind of hardship, rather than suffer myself to be
led astray.” It must be confessed, however, that
Benedictus Haeftenus, in his Disquisitiones
Monasticæ, quotes a passage from the above
Author’s 34th Homily, by which he pretends to prove
that self-flagellations were in use in that Father’s
time; but the words which Haeftenus has quoted in
Latin are not to be found in the original Greek of St.
Chrysostom’s Homilies, and are therefore to be
attributed to some modern Flogging-Master
(Μαστιγοφόρος) who has lent them to him, by a kind
of pious fraud. Other passages to prove our
assertion, might be quoted from the words of
Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrus, of Oecumenius, as well
as several other Greek Fathers.
The Latin have also understood St. Paul’s words in
the same sense that the Greek Fathers have done.
Indeed I do not find one among them but who
thought that St. Paul did not actually lash himself with
his own hands. St. Ambrosius, Bishop of Milan,
expresses himself on the subject in the following
words. ‘He who says (meaning St. Paul) I chastise
my body, and bring it into subjection, does not so
much grieve (contristatur) for his own sins, which
after all could not be so very numerous, as for ours.’
St. Fulgentius, Bishop of Ruspe, and an illustrious
Discipline of St. Augustin, on this occasion treads in
the footsteps of his excellent Master, giving the same
sense as him to the words of St. Paul. The following
is the manner in which St. Fulgentius explains those
words, in his Epistle on Virginity, addressed to Proba.
“The spiritual Spouse of Virgins does not seek in a
Virgin a body practised in carnal pleasures; but
rather wishes she should have chastised it by
abstinence. This, the Doctor of the Gentiles used to
practice on his own body. I chastise (says he) my
body, and keep it under subjection. And again, in
watchings often, in thirst and hunger, in fastings
often: let therefore the Virgin of Christ forbear to seek
after pleasures which, she sees, are equally with-
held from the widow.”
To all the above proofs, I know it will be objected
that St. Petrus Chrysologus, archbishop of Ravenna,
is clearly of opinion that St. Paul lashed himself with
his own hands. The following is the manner in which
he expresses himself on this head, at least if we are
to credit the account given of his words by that great
Patron of flagellations, Father Gretzer, in his Book
printed at Ingolstadt in the year 1609. “This St. Paul
used to do, who wrote in the following words the title-
deed of his own Servitude, I render my body livid,
and bring it into subjection: like a faithful Slave,
himself supplied the rod, (vindictam) and severely
lashed his own back, till it grew livid[16].” Now, who
would not from these words, thus standing alone, as
Father Gretzer recites them, conclude that St. Paul
really used to cover his back with stripes? But, if we
consult the original itself, we shall see that St.
Chrysologus meant no more than to borrow a simile
from the punishment usually inflicted on Slaves;
which punishment he mentions in the beginning of
the very passage we discuss here, and of which
Father Gretzer has artfully quoted only the
conclusion. “After all (says Peter Chrysologus) if the
Servant does not awake early the next day, and rise
before his Master, whether he be weary or not, he
will be tied up and lashed. If the Servant therefore
knows what he owes to another Man, the Master is
thence taught what himself owes to the Lord of
Lords, and is made sensible that he also is subject to
a Master.” ‘This is what St. Paul practised, who wrote
the title-deeds of his own servitude, and exposed
himself to thirst, hunger, and nakedness. Like a good
slave, he himself supplied the rod, and severely
lashed himself.’
If we examine into the works of St. Hierom, St.
Austin, Pope Gregory the Great, and other Latin
Fathers, we shall find that they also understood, that
St. Paul had expressed himself in a figurative
manner. And it is only by misquotations, or arts of the
like kind, that Father Gretzer, Cardinal Demian, and
others, have attempted to prove that self-flagellations
were in use so early as the time of St. Paul among
Christians.
FOOTNOTES:
[14] As the disputes concerning religious

flagellations have been carried on with great warmth
on both sides, the two parties have ransacked the
Scriptures for passages that might support their
respective opinions; and the supporters of flagellations
have been particularly happy in the discovery of the
passage of David, mentioned in the preceding
Chapter; and that of St. Paul which is recited here. By
the former passage, the supporters of flagellations
pretend to shew, that they were in use so early as the
time of David; and that the Prophet underwent a
flagellation every morning: by the latter passage, they
endeavour to prove that self-scourgings were practised
by St. Paul, and of course by the first Christians. As
the literal meaning of the above two passages is
wholly on the side of the supporters of flagellations,
this, as it always happens in controversies of that kind,
has given them a great advantage over their
opponents, who have been reduced, either to plead
that the expressions urged against them were only to
be understood in a figurative sense, or to endeavour,
by altering the original passage, to substitute others in
their stead. The latter is the expedient on which our
Author has chiefly relied in this chapter, and he strives
to substitute another word, to the word ὑπωπιάζω,
used by St. Paul when he said, he chastised his flesh;
which is to be found in all the common Editions of the
Greek New Testament. And indeed it must be
confessed, that the above word is of itself extremely
favourable to the promoters of self-flagellation; little
less so than the words of Asaph, fui flagellatus (I have
been whipped) mentioned in the foregoing Chapter; its
precise meaning being the same as I bruise or
discolour with blows: it comes from the word ὐπώπιον,
which signifies a livid mark left under the eye by a
blow: on which the Reader may observe (which, no
doubt, will be matter of agreeable surprise to him) that
what is called in plain English a black-eye, was
expressed in Greek by the word ὑπώπιον. Besides
trying to substitute another word to that attributed to St.
Paul in the common Greek Editions of the New
Testament, our Author produces several passages
from Greek and Latin Fathers, to shew that they
thought that St. Paul meant no more than to speak of
his great labours, abstinence, continence, &c.
The principal end of this Chapter is, therefore, to
discuss the interesting question, whether St. Paul used
to flagellate himself: and I have preferred to give the
above compendious account of the contest on the
subject, rather than introduce the long discussion of
Greek words, and use the whole string of passages
from Greek and Latin Fathers, contained in the Abbé
Boileau’s Book. By that means, the present Chapter
has, for the sake of the Reader, been shortened to ten
pages, instead of thirty, it must otherwise have
contained.
[15] “And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock,
and to scourge and to crucify him.” St. Matth. c. xx. v.
19.... “Then Pilate took Jesus, and scourged him.” St.
John, c. xix. ver. 1.
[16] Hoc implebat Paulus, qui servitutis suæ titulos
sic scribebat. Lividum facio corpus meum, & servituti
subjicio. Præbebat vindictam bonus servus, qui se
usque ad livorem, sic agens, jugiter verberabat.
C H A P. I V.
The use of Flagellations was known among the

ancient Heathens. Several facts and
observations on that subject.
IT is not to be doubted, that flagellations had been

invented, and were become, in early times, a
common method of punishment in the Pagan world.
Even before the foundation of Rome, we meet with
instances which prove that it was the usual
punishment inflicted on Slaves. Justin, in his Epitome
of Trogus Pompeius, relates that the Scythians more
easily overcame their rebellious Slaves with
scourges and whips, than with their swords. ‘The
Scythians being returned (says Justin) from their
third expedition in Asia, after having been absent
eight years from their Wives and Children, found they
now had a war to wage at home against their own
Slaves. For, their Wives, tired with such long fruitless
expectation of their Husbands, and concluding that
they were no longer detained by war, but had been
destroyed, married the Slaves who had been left to
take care of the cattle; which latter attempted to use
their Masters, who returned victorious, like Strangers,
and hinder them, by force of arms, from entering the
Country. The war having been supported, for a while,
with success pretty nearly equal on both sides, the
Scythians were advised to change their manner of
carrying it on, remembering that it was not with
enemies, but with their own Slaves, that they had to
fight; that they were to conquer by dint, not of arms,
but of their right as Masters; that instead of weapons,
they ought to bring lashes into the field, and, setting
iron aside, to supply themselves with rods, scourges,
and such like instruments of slavish fear. Having
approved this counsel, the Scythians armed
themselves as they were advised to do; and had no
sooner come up with their enemies, than they
exhibited on a sudden their new weapons, and
thereby struck such a terror into their minds, that
those who could not be conquered by arms, were
subdued by the dread of the stripes, and betook
themselves to flight, not like a vanquished enemy,
but like fugitive slaves.’
Among the antient Persians, the punishment of
whipping was also in use: it was even frequently
inflicted on the Grandees of the Kingdom by order of
the King, as we find in Stobæus, who moreover
relates in his forty-second Discourse, ‘That when one
of them had been flagellated by order of the King, it
was an established custom, that he should give him
thanks as for an excellent favour he had received,
and a token that the King remembered him.’ This
custom of the Persians was however in subsequent
times altered: they began to set some more value on
the skin of Men; and we find in Plutarch’s
Apophthegms of Kings, ‘That Artaxerxes, son of
Xerxes, sirnamed the Longhanded, was the first who
ordered that the Grandees of his kingdom should no
longer be exposed to the former method of
punishment; but that, when they should have been
guilty of some offence, instead of their backs, only
their clothes should be whipped, after they had been
stripped of them.’
We also find, that it was a custom in antient times,
for Generals and Conquerors, to flog the Captives
they had taken in war; and that they moreover took
delight in inflicting that punishment with their own
hands on the most considerable of those Captives.
We meet, among others, with a very remarkable
proof of this practice, in the Tragedy of Sophocles,
called Ajax Scourgebearer (Μαστιγοφόρος): in a
Scene of this Tragedy Ajax is introduced as having
the following conversation with Minerva.
Minerva.
‘What kind of severity do you prepare for that
miserable man?’
Ajax.
‘I propose to lash his back with a scourge till
he dies.’
Minerva.
‘Nay, do not whip the poor Wretch so cruelly.’
Ajax.
‘Give me leave, Minerva, to gratify, on this
occasion, my own fancy; he shall have it, I do
assure you, and I prepare no other punishment
for him.’
The punishment of flagellation was also much in

vogue among the Romans; and it was the common
chastisement which Judges inflicted upon Offenders,
especially upon those of a servile condition.
Surrounded by an apparatus of whips, scourges, and
leather-straps, they terrified Offenders, and brought
them to a sense of their duty.
Judges, among the Romans, as has been just now
mentioned, used a great variety of instruments for
inflicting the punishment of whipping. Some
consisted of a flat strap of leather, and were called
Ferulæ; and to be lashed with these Ferulæ, was
considered as the mildest degree of punishment.
Others were made of a number of cords of twisted
parchment, and were called Scuticæ. These Scuticæ
were considered as being a degree higher in point of
severity than the ferulæ, but were much inferior, in
that respect, to that kind of scourge which was called
Flagellum, and sometimes the terrible Flagellum,
which was made of thongs of ox-leather, the same as
those which Carmen used for their Horses. We find
in the third Satyr of the first Book of Horace, a clear
and pretty singular account of the gradation in point
of severity that obtained between the above-
mentioned instruments of whipping. In this Satyr,
Horace lays down the rules which he thinks a Judge
ought to follow in the discharge of his office; and he
addressed himself, somewhat ironically, to certain
persons who, adopting the principles of the Stoics,
affected much severity in their opinions, and
pretended that all crimes whatever being equal,
ought to be punished in the same manner. ‘Make
such a rule of conduct to yourself (says Horace) that
you may always proportion the chastisement you
inflict to the magnitude of the offence; and when the
Offender only deserves to be chastised with the whip
of twisted parchment, do not expose him to the lash
of the horrid leather scourge; for, that you should only
inflict the punishment of the flat strap on him who
deserves a more severe lashing, is what I am by no
means afraid of[17].’
The choice between these different kinds of
instruments, was, as we may conclude from the
above passage, left to the Judge, who ordered that to
be used which he was pleased to name; and the
number of blows was likewise left to his discretion;
which sometimes were as many as the Executioner
could give. ‘He (says Horace in one of his Odes) who
has been lashed by order of the Triumvirs, till the
Executioner was spent[18].’
Besides this extensive power of whipping
exercised by Judges among the Romans, over
persons of a servile condition, over Aliens, and those
who were the subjects of the Republic, Masters were
possessed of an unbounded one with regard to their
Slaves, over whose life and death they had moreover
an absolute power. Hence a great number of
instruments of flagellation, besides those above-
mentioned, were successively brought into use for
punishing Slaves. Among those were particular kinds
of cords manufactured in Spain, as we learn from a
passage in an Ode of Horace, the same that has just
been quoted, and was addressed to one Menas, a
freed-man, who had found means to acquire a great
fortune, and was grown very insolent. ‘Thou (says

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ClassPrep is available in MyPsychLab (visit www.mypsychlab.com). Finding, sorting, organizing, and

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Cognition – the processes whereby we acquire and use knowledge.

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LANGUAGE, THOUGHT, AND CULTURE (TEXT PAGE 220)

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Is Language Male Dominated?

NONHUMAN LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT (TEXT PAGE 222)

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The Question of Language

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PROBLEM SOLVING (TEXT PAGE 225)

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Implementing Strategies and Evaluating Progress

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DECISION MAKING (TEXT PAGE 231)

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Compensatory Decision Making

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Explaining Our Decisions (to ourselves)

MULTITASKING (TEXT PAGE 233)

• Multitasking makes us more efficient.

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• Young people are better at multitasking than older adults.

INTELLIGENCE AND MENTAL ABILITIES (TEXT PAGE 234)

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HEREDITY, ENVIRONMENT, AND INTELLIGENCE (TEXT PAGE 243)

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Intervention Programs: How Much Can We Boost IQ?

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CREATIVITY (TEXT PAGE 250)

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