18.7 Chapter 7: Cognition, Language, and Intelligence

show what you know

1. Cognition
2. b. concept
3. c. formal concept
4. Answers will vary. Structures in the brain are associated with cognition. For example, the association areas integrate information from all over the brain. Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas work with other parts of the brain to generate and understand language.
   The biology of cognition can be found at the neural level as well. For example, changes at the level of neurons make it possible to store and retrieve information. It is also at the neuronal level where we see the plasticity of the brain at work.

1. c. trial and error.
2. a. functional fixedness
3. Answers will vary. A means–ends analysis is a heuristic used to determine how to decrease the distance between a goal and the current state. The goal in this example is to complete an assignment in a timely manner. The means could be to break the problem into two subproblems: (1) choosing a topic (for example, by reading the textbook for interesting ideas, discussing ideas with your instructor); and (2) conducting a literature review (for example, identifying appropriate databases, finding a library to obtain and read articles).

1. Decision making
2. d. availability heuristic.
3. Answers will vary. A heuristic uses a “rule of thumb” or a broad application of a strategy to solve a problem, but it can also be used to help predict the probability of an event occurring. However, heuristics can lead us astray in our assessment of situations or predictions of outcomes. In the current example, you can present information to your friend that indicates flying is the safest form of travel. But you can also describe how the availability heuristic might lead him to believe that air travel is not safe. The vividness of airplane crashes can influence his recall; even though they are rare events, he is likely to overestimate the probability of them happening again due to the ease with which he recalls similar events. Highly detailed media reports of an airplane crash are likely to linger in his memory.
4. a. the representativeness heuristic.

1. Phonemes
2. b. thinking and perception.
3. Answers will vary. Bilingualism is associated with enhanced creativity, abstract thought, and working memory. And knowing more than one language has been found to be associated with more efficient executive functioning, including abilities related to planning ahead and solving problems. Thus, bilingualism may actually improve performance on cognitive tasks, such as deciphering unknown and untranslatable words.

1. c. analytic, creative, practical.
2. aptitude; achievement
3. The intelligence quotient (IQ) is a score from an intelligence assessment, which provides a way to compare levels of intelligence across ages. Originally, an IQ score was derived by dividing mental age by chronological age and multiplying that number by 100. Modern intelligence tests still assign a numerical score, although they no longer use the actual quotient score.
4. a. heritability
5. originality

1. d. Cognition; thinking
2. a. Concepts
3. c. natural concepts
4. b. the plasticity
5. d. an algorithm
6. a. Insight
7. b. availability heuristic.
8. d. confirmation bias.
9. c. the framing effect.
10. b. phonemes
11. a. divergent thinking
12. c. morphemes
13. d. Intelligence
14. b. validity
15. a. environmental factors such as chronic stress.
16. Formal concepts are created through rigid and logical rules, or features of a concept. Natural concepts are acquired through everyday experience, and they do not have the same types of rigid rules for identification that formal concepts have.
    Examples will vary. An example of a formal concept is the pitch of a sound, which is defined by the frequency of the sound wave. The concept of family is an example of a natural concept. Is a family a group of people who just live together, or do they have to be related genetically? Family is a natural concept that can change based on individual experiences.
17. See TABLE 7.2. Charles Spearman speculated that intelligence consists of a general intelligence (or g factor), which refers to a singular underlying aptitude or intellectual ability. Howard Gardner suggested we have multiple intelligences, proposing eight different types of intelligences or “frames of mind”: linguistic (verbal), logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and naturalist. Robert Sternberg proposed three kinds of intelligences. His triarchic theory of intelligence suggests that humans have varying degrees of analytical, creative, and practical abilities.
18. Using the availability heuristic, we predict the probability of something happening in the future based on how easily we can recall a similar type of event from the past. The availability heuristic is essentially a decision-making strategy that relies on memory. They remembered a recent storm in which they did not have to leave their homes, and so they decided it was safe to stay.
19. Reliability is the ability of an assessment to provide consistent, reproducible results. Validity is the degree to which an assessment measures what it intends to measure. An unreliable IQ test might result in getting different scores for the IQ test taken now and again in a few months; it would not be consistent across time, which is counter to what you would expect (we expect level of intelligence to remain fairly stable over time). An IQ test that is not valid would not be able to predict future performance on tasks related to intellectual ability.
20. Answers will vary. Divergent thinking is the ability to devise many solutions to a problem.
    Possible solutions: As a door stop, icebreaker, paper weight, shovel, or axe; for killing a poisonous snake; for putting out cigarettes; for breaking glass; for crushing ingredients for a recipe; for putting out a candle; and so on.