Chapter 8

Thinking Thinking &“Intelligence”&“Intelligence”

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Judging and Making Decisions

Confirmation BiasConfirmation Bias

Hindsight Bias

Representativeness Bias

Availability Bias

Ignoring or finding fault with information that does not fit our opinions, and seeking information with which we agree

Judging and Making Decisions

Confirmation Bias

Hindsight BiasHindsight Bias

Representativeness Bias

Availability Bias

Tendency, after learning about an event, to believe that one could have predicted the event in advance

“I knew it all along” phenomenon

(politics, medicine, sports)

Judging and Making Decisions

Confirmation Bias

Hindsight Bias

Representativeness Representativeness BiasBias

Availability Bias

Strategy based on presumption that, once a person or event is categorized, it shares all features of other members in that category

Exaggerating the Improbable

Availability Heuristic The tendency to judge the probability of

an event by how easy it is to think of examples or instances.

(Personal Experiences*) September 11 & flying

Intelligence

Define: Intelligence is ____________.

(or) Intelligence is not ____________.

“ability to profit from experience, acquire knowledge, think abstractly, and adapt to changes in the environment”

:ability to master information or skills needed to succeed in your culture

(hypothetical construct)

Danger in Definitions:Intelligence

“The tendency has always been strong to believe that whatever received a name must be an entity or being,

having an independent existence of its own. And if no real entity answering to the name could be found, men did not for that reason suppose that none existed, but imagined

that it was something peculiarly abstruse and mysterious” ~John Stuart Mill

Intelligence

Very controversial Steven Jay Gould’s The Mismeasure

Of Man Hernstein & Murray's The Bell Curve

Dangers of reification regarding something abstract as a

material or concrete thing is dangerous!!!

Binet-Simon Test

• Why was test created?• Trial and Error Method• Binet’s Philosophy

• Intelligence Testing in America• Terman: IQ

IQ Testing: A Brief HistoryIQ Testing: A Brief History

Goddard and Eugenics Eugenic Philosophy Ellis Island: Goddard’s

Intelligence Classification of Immigrants of Different Nationalities (1917)

83% of all Jews tested were feeble-minded, as were 80% of the Hungarians, 79% of the Italians, and 87% of the Russians.

Many immigrants were turned away and sent back to Europe.

The Immigration Restriction Act, passed in 1924 (which remained in effect until 1965)

World War I

Mass Testing (Alpha vs. Beta) Army Beta designed for illiterates or people whose

first language was not English Consisted of mazes, mentally counting blocks,

number-symbol completions Very bizarre, unfair testing conditions

Calculating IQs “on the Curve”

Normal distribution – Bell-shaped curve describing the spread of a characteristic throughout a population

(height, intelligence, aggression, etc.)

Normal range – the middle two-thirds of a normal distribution

(Mean and SD)

Calculating IQs “on the Curve”

Some psychologists believe that the essence of

intelligence is a single, general factor, while others believe intelligence is best described as a collection of

distinct abilities

What Are the Components of What Are the Components of Intelligence?Intelligence?

Psychometric Theories of Intelligence

Spearman’s G Factor

Factor Analysis

Cognitive Theories of Intelligence

Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory

Gardner’s Seven (8?) Intelligences

Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory

Ability to cope with the environment, “street smarts”

also called tacit knowledge

Contextual Contextual IntelligenceIntelligence

Logical Reasoning

Experiential Intelligence

Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory

Ability to analyze problems and find correct answers, ability measured by most IQ tests

Practical Intelligence

Componential Componential IntelligenceIntelligence

Experiential Intelligence

Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory

Form of intelligence that helps people see new relationships among concepts, involves insight and creativity

Practical Intelligence

Logical Reasoning

Experiential Experiential IntelligenceIntelligence

Gardner’s Seven Intelligences

LinguisticLinguistic

Logical-MathematicalLogical-Mathematical

SpatialSpatial

MusicalMusical

Bodily-KinestheticBodily-Kinesthetic

InterpersonalInterpersonal

IntrapersonalIntrapersonal

Other Intelligences?

Emotional intelligence (EQ) The ability to:

identify your own and other people’s emotions accurately,

express your emotions clearly, and

regulate emotions in yourself and others

Bias and IQ Testing Cultural-Racial

Expectations

“selling out”

(S.E.S.)

Runner::Marathon as

Envoy::Embasy

Martyr::Massacre

Oarsman::Regatta

Referee::Tournament

Horse::Stable

An Illustration of Stereotype Threat

-Scores are affected by an individual’s expectations (e.g., negative*) for performance.

(African-Americans, Latinos, low-income people, women, and elderly people)

Bias and IQ Tests

Culture Free Tests? Gender Bias?

Should we continue to use IQ tests?

-Why/Why not?

Motivation and intelligence

Comparing the 100 most successful men with 100 least successful, researchers found that motivation, not IQ made the difference.

Motivation to work hard at intellectual tasks differs as a function of culture.

Americans are “worlds” apart from Asians Attitudes, expectations, and effort (e.g., math skills) “Complacency, fatalism, and low standards can

prevent people from recognizing what they don’t know and can reduce the efforts to learn.”