Lesson 1: Thinking, Language, and Intelligence



Lesson 1: Thinking, Language, and Intelligence

Learning Target:

This lesson acquaints you with important concepts related to cognition (thinking), language, and intelligence. It will also emphasize theories of intelligence and the history of intelligence testing.

Success Criteria:

After completing this lesson, I can

• trace the origins of intelligence tests in the contributions of Binet, Terman, Gardner, Spearman, and Sternberg.

• distinguish between aptitude and achievement tests and describe the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS).

• describe test standardization and explain its importance in test analysis.

• distinguish between reliability and validity and determine how each is applied in testing.

• explain the issue of stability in intelligence scores, as well as the importance of genetic inheritance, and describe the two extremes of intelligence.

• explain the strategies used to solve problems and the hurdles encountered when trying to solve problems.

• describe the effects of overconfidence and framing on judgments and decisions as well as how representativeness and availability heuristics influence our judgments.

• trace the course of language acquisition and understand Chomsky’s theory and the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.

Commentary

As your textbook states, cognition refers to all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating. Therefore, it is obviously important for us to understand cognition. If we are having difficulty in any of these areas, we can perhaps improve our cognitive abilities or use them more effectively.

Problem Solving

Questions and problems confront us every day. How exactly do we go about finding the solution to the problem or the answer to the question? There are three typical ways.

• First, we have a method that guarantees that we will find the answer. Using the algorithm, we try every possible logical combination to come up with the correct answer. It would take an incredibly long time, though, if we tried to use this method for all of our problems.

• The second method, which is speedier, is called a heuristic. This is a simple thinking strategy that allows us to make judgments and solve our problems more efficiently. It is more error prone, though, because we do not look at every possible eventuality.

• The third method, insight, is not really a strategy at all. We are not aware of using a strategy—the answer just comes to us. This usually, but not always, provides a novel solution. You may have experienced this when you had a problem and did not know what to do. Then, later that day, maybe when you were in the shower or driving, the solution was right there smacking you in the face and you had no idea where it came from.

Unfortunately, we sometimes cannot find the correct answer, because there are obstacles in our way. One obstacle is confirmation bias, a tendency to search for information that confirms our preconceptions. For example, if I am your classroom teacher and I make the early determination that you are a wonderful student, I tend to pay more attention to the times you do really well and ignore the times you do not. Then, in following years, I will follow your successes. Confirmation bias can be very harmful, because relevant information may be ignored when it contradicts a person’s initial opinion or judgment. If researchers cannot overcome this bias, we should suspect their research.

A second obstacle is fixation, the inability to look at a problem from a different perspective. A type of fixation called functional fixedness occurs when we can only perceive objects as having the function they were designed for. We know, for example, that a paperclip is used to hold papers together, but if we cannot see any other ways it can be used, we have functional fixedness. See how many uses you can think of for a paper clip. (This is also a general test of creativity. Some interviewers use these types of tests in initial job interviews.)

Language

Language is our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways that we combine them as we think and communicate. Without language, we could not have the complex social groups and societies that exist today. How do we develop language, and what is normal development?

The nature/nurture controversy rears its head again in the language acquisition debate. Behaviorists like B. F. Skinner believed that we could explain language acquisition through operant and classical conditioning techniques, which we explored during the first half unit of this course. (If you are new to these concepts, you can refer to Chapter 7 in the textbook.) Noam Chomsky, on the other hand, believed that we have inborn universal grammar. In essence, he believed that we have a “language acquisition device” that readies us to learn grammar, provided we have access to it. An individual raised in isolation, as in the case of Genie or Victor (discussed in Lesson 3 of the first half unit), will be unable to develop appropriate language.

Intelligence

Today, most experts believe that intelligence consists of the mental abilities that are needed to select, adapt to, and shape environments. This has been a controversial topic, though, because not everyone agrees on the definition or what it tells us about an individual. So let us take a journey to the beginning of intelligence testing.

History of Intelligence Testing

In 1904, the French government hired Alfred Binet and Théodore Simon to identify schoolchildren who needed special instruction. These two men developed a test using age-graded tasks to determine which children were behind their peers. The children could then be given special help to get them to the level they should be, based on their age. In the test, the researchers did not make any determinations about why the children were behind (or ahead); they just identified where they were.

Lewis Terman, a Stanford University professor, wrote an English version of Binet’s test (the Stanford-Binet) and added questions he thought enabled his version to measure adult intelligence. With this test, the intelligence quotient was developed: mental age divided by chronological age, with the result then multiplied by 100. (This IQ formula is no longer used.)

Terman argued that intelligence was fixed and inherited. Therefore, people should be placed in appropriate educational environments relative to their IQ score. Interestingly, the IQ movement corresponded with the eugenics movement. This movement proposed that since intelligence was mostly inherited, people deficient in intelligence should be discouraged from reproducing. This led some people to push for state sterilization of the mentally deficient. For a thought-provoking movie, watch I Am Sam starring Sean Penn. This movie explores whether a mentally retarded man should be allowed to raise his “normal IQ” child.

In 1949, David Wechsler developed a new intelligence test that had many subtests. He wanted to create a test to measure intelligence in people who were not familiar with American language and culture. His test, called the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), with many revisions, is now the most widely used intelligence test. There is also a version for children, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC). His test has eleven subtests divided into a verbal scale and a performance scale. Check out page 323 of the textbook to sample questions from his test.

What Is Intelligence?

Researchers have long wondered about the structure of intelligence. Is it a general ability or many specific abilities? In order to study it, researchers use a statistical technique called factor analysis to identify clusters of items related to a common ability.

Charles Spearman found a positive correlation for scores on most tests of mental ability, which he believed indicated a general intelligence, the g factor. He tended to believe that you could not learn g, but that there are specific intelligence factors that can be learned.

Howard Gardner disagreed with Spearman. He developed the theory of multiple intelligences, which proposes that people have separate areas of intelligence, such as bodily-kinesthetic, musical, spatial, mathematical, etc. He used studies of savants to support his theory. Savant syndrome is a condition in which individuals with serious handicaps, from retardation or autism, have spectacular talents that are remarkable in contrast to their handicap. He said that these individuals had specific “islands of brilliance” in a particular area, such as math, while in other areas, they were almost completely lacking in intelligence. A video to watch is Rain Man (rated R), in which Dustin Hoffman does a tremendous job portraying an autistic savant.

Robert Sternberg agrees with Gardner that intelligence is much more than the narrow range of abilities that can be measured by standard IQ tests, but he considers the multiple intelligences more like special talents. He believes that intelligence involves three types of mental ability.

[pic]

Practical intelligence, as defined by Sternberg, is required for everyday tasks. Source:

In the following table, write definitions paraphrased from the textbook. See the appendix of your print study guide for the answer key.

|Table 1.2: Intelligence |

|Analytical intelligence |  |

|Creative intelligence |  |

|Practical intelligence |  |

Principles of Test Construction

There are two types of tests. Achievement tests measure what you have already learned. The midterm you take in this class is an achievement test. Aptitude tests measure your capacity to learn or your potential to learn. Intelligence tests are aptitude tests. For tests to be accepted, they must be standardized, reliable, and valid. The current Wechsler and Stanford-Binet tests meet these requirements.

Standardization

To be sure that a test is standardized, it must be given to a representative sample of people so that later, when it is given to another group using the same procedure, the results can be compared. On intelligence tests, scores tend to form a normal curve. On the Wechsler test, the average score is 100 with a standard deviation of 15, which means that 68 percent of the population scores between 85 and 115. Refer to figure 9.9 on page 323 in the textbook to see the distribution of scores on an IQ test. Mental retardation begins with a score of 70 or lower. Refer to table 9.2 on page 325 of the textbook to see the different levels of retardation and individuals’ typical adaptation to life’s demands.

Reliability

A test must also be reliable, which means that the test results must be repeatable. For example, I take your temperature and it is 100. When I take it again a minute later, it should be close to 100, or the thermometer cannot be considered reliable. If your temperature is 80 one time and 115 a few minutes later, the thermometer is not reliable. The same applies to a test. Let’s say that I give you a WAIS when you are 13, and it says that your IQ is 110. When I test you again at 16, your score should be very close to 110 for the test to be considered reliable. The Wechsler tests have very good reliability, especially for teenagers and adults.

Answer the following questions about the methods used to determine reliability. See the appendix of your print study guide for the answer key.

|Table 1.3: Reliability |

|If you are given a test today and two days later are given the same test, what method is being used to determine reliability? |

| |

|If you are given one test and your score on the even questions is compared to your score on the odd questions, what method is |

|being used to determine reliability? |

Validity

Finally, a test must also have validity. This means that the test must measure what it claims to be measuring. Identify the types of validity in the table below. See the appendix of your print study guide for the answer key.

|Table 1.4: Validity |

|Which type of validity is represented when you have a psychology test that asks questions about thinking, language, and |

|intelligence? |

| |

|For an aptitude test to be good, it must have what type of validity? (A test with this quality can then predict future |

|achievement.) |

Conclusion

As you leave this lesson, I hope you reflect on the effects and the power that labeling has on individuals. Also, think about the controversy of bias in intelligence testing when you are forming opinions about others based on test scores.

Review Activities

Go through the “Rehearse It” sections in your textbook.

On the CD-ROM that came with your textbook, or on the publisher’s Web site, answer the review questions and complete the practice vocabulary section.

For More Information

Internet

Visit the Course Links page for additional information about the topics presented in this lesson.

Videos and DVDs

• I Am Sam (New Line Home Entertainment, 2001)

• Rain Man (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1988)

Completing the Progress Evaluation

Although you may use your textbook and study guide to answer the questions, try to answer them on your own first. This provides practice for the exams, which are closed-book. Here are instructions for completing computer-evaluated progress evaluations:

1. Before attempting the progress evaluation, complete all reading assignments and study activities for the lesson.

2. Read each question carefully. If you are unsure of the correct response, mark the answer you consider the most likely to be correct because the same number of points is subtracted for a wrong answer as for no answer.

3. Record your answers in your print study guide so you have a record of your responses. Answer forms mailed to the Center will not be returned.

4. After you answer the questions on your own, use the textbook, study guide, and your notes to check your answers before submitting them. You can submit your progress evaluation online or mail it to the Center.

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