Psychology Core Concepts 8th Edition Zimbardo Solutions Manual 1

Psychology Core Concepts 8th Edition
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CHAPTER 6
THINKING AND INTELLIGENCE
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► LECTURE GUIDE
➢ 6.1 Concepts
➢ 6.2 Imagery and Cognitive Maps
➢ 6.3 Thought and the Brain
➢ 6.4 Intuition
➢ 6.5 Problem Solving
➢ 6.6 Judging and Making Decisions
➢ 6.7 Becoming a Creative Genius
➢ 6.8 Binet and Simon Invent a School Abilities Test
➢ 6.9 American Psychologists Borrow Binet and Simon’s Idea
➢ 6.10 Psychometric Theories of Intelligence
➢ 6.11 Cognitive Theories of Intelligence
➢ 6.12 Cultural Definitions of Intelligence
➢ 6.13 The Question of Animal Intelligence
➢ 6.14 What Evidence Shows That Intelligence is Influenced by
Heredity?
Copyright © 2017, 2014, 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
➢ 6.15 What Evidence Shows That Intelligence is Influenced by
Environment?
➢ 6.16 Heritability (Not Heredity) and Group Differences
▼ FULL CHAPTER RESOURCES

➢ Key Questions
➢ Core Concepts
➢ Psychology Matters
➢ Lecture Launchers and Discussion Topics
➢ Activities and Exercises
➢ Handouts
➢ Web Resources
LECTURE GUIDE
Introduction
KEY QUESTION
What are the Components of Thought?
6.1 CORE CONCEPT
Thinking is a cognitive process in which the brain uses information from the senses,
emotions, and memory to create and manipulate mental representations such as concepts,
images, schemas, and scripts.
6.1 Lecture Outline: Concepts

Lecture Launchers/Discussions Topics:
➢ Types of Problems
➢ Intuition
➢ Don’t Believe Everything You Read…Except This
➢ Functional Fixedness
➢ Using Cognitive Maps
Classroom Activities, Demonstrations, and Exercises:
➢ Learning a Concept
Web Resources:
➢ Intelligence
➢ Déjà vu, French for “seen before,” is an experience in which the individual has the feeling
of having experienced a current event sometime in the past.
➢ The process of déjà vu reflects the brain’s ability to match a present experience to a
previous experience, even though the explicit memory is not retrieved.
➢ This ability to assimilate and associate experiences, objects, or ideas into mental categories
and take the same action toward them or give them the same label is one of the most basic
attributes of thinking organisms.
➢ These categories are called concepts.
o Concepts are mental structures and cannot be observed directly.
o Cognitive scientists infer concepts from their influence on brain activity or behavior;
Individuals, using the same process, cannot be sure that another person shares their
same concepts.
6.1.1. Two Kinds of Concepts

➢ Natural concepts are imprecise mental categories that develop out of everyday
experiences in the world.
➢ A natural concept, such as “bird,” invokes a mental prototype, or mental image,
representing a typical bird from your experience.
o A determination of whether an object is a bird is made by comparing the object to the
bird prototype; the closer it matches, the quicker a decision of “bird” can be made.
➢ Artificial concepts are defined by a set of rules or characteristics, such as dictionary
definitions or mathematical formulas.
6.1.2. Concept Hierarchies

➢ Much of the individual’s declarative memory is organized into concept hierarchies,
arranged from general to specific.
6.1.3. Culture, Concepts, and Thought

➢ Concepts carry vastly different meanings in different cultures.
➢ Some examples are the terms “democracy” and “freedom,” which look obvious to
Americans but which may connote chaos, excess, and rudeness in parts of Asia.
➢ In the United States, many people place a higher value on qualities variously known as
“common sense,” which refers to thinking based upon experience rather than logic.
➢ Universal principles of thought that cut across cultures involve very basic processes.
➢ It cannot be assumed that the processes of concept formation or their meaning attached to
them are universal.
6.2 Lecture Outline: Imagery and Cognitive Maps
➢ We think in words, but we also think in images, spatial relationships, and other sensory
images.
➢ A cognitive representation of physical space is a special form of visual concept called a
cognitive map.
6.3 Lecture Outline: Thought and the Brain

➢ Developments in brain imaging have allowed cognitive researchers to begin mapping the
mind itself.
➢ Scientists can now connect certain thoughts, with specific electrical wave patterns in the
brain by presenting a stimulus and viewing brain responses and pathways. Over many
trials, responses can be averaged into a pattern.
➢ PET, MRI, and fMRI neuroscientists have identified brain regions that become active
during various mental tasks.
➢ Thus, thinking is an activity involving widely distributed areas of the brain—not just a
single “thinking center.”
➢ Neuroscientists now see the brain as a community of highly specialized modules, each of
which deals with different components of thought.
➢ Moreover, the brain generates many of the images used in thought with the same circuitry
it uses for sensation.
6.4 Lecture Outline: Intuition
➢ Intuition is the ability to make judgments without conscious reasoning, using feelings as
well as reason.
➢ This emotional component of thinking, like many other complex cognitive tasks, involves
the prefrontal cortex, which unconsciously factors emotional “hunches” in our decisions in
the form of information about past rewards and punishments.
➢ Intuition is not always correct—sometimes intuitive snap judgments, which may feel like
truth, are merely prejudices and biases; sometimes, however, quick intuitive judgments
can be on target.
➢ Accuracy in intuition may depend upon context.
6.4.1 When Can You Rely on Intuition?

➢ In general, “instincts” about personality may be correct, although they are not infallible.
➢ When we “intuitively” make statistical or numerical judgments, we are likely to be wrong.
➢ Intuition may be more reliable in complex situations when time is limited; conscious
processing skills, located in working memory, may not be capable of handling the
complexity or the number of factors that have to be quickly weighed.
➢ When time is not short and when a person has the expertise necessary to analyze a
situation, intuition may impede their thinking.
➢ Thus, it is important to recognize when intuitive judgments are being made and to
consider the context, the time available, and expertise in that area, furthermore
acknowledging that intuition can be wrong.
PSYCHOLOGY MATTERS: Schemas and Scripts Help You Know What to Expect
Much knowledge is stored in the brain as schemas, clusters of related concepts that provide a
framework for thinking about objects, events, ideas, or emotions. Schemas are used in the
cognitive process in several ways.
Schemas act as “search engines”; they provide contexts and expectations about the features
likely to be found when familiar people, situations, images, and ideas are encountered. They
provide a way of relating new information to previously stored information. Things are often
found to be funny when they draw on two or more incongruous or incompatible schemas at once.
Finally, an event schema, or script, gives us a pattern for behavior in specific circumstances.
Scripts differ from culture to culture. Each culture has a unique way of observing the world and
dealing with its situations; therefore, its scripts will differ.
KEY QUESTION
What Abilities Do Good Thinkers Possess?
6.2 CORE CONCEPT
Good thinkers not only have a repertoire of effective strategies, called algorithms and
heuristics, they also know how to avoid common impediments to problem solving and
decision making.
6.5 Lecture Outline: Problem Solving

➢ Hormones and Thinking Skills
➢ Fallacies in Reasoning
➢ Einstein’s Brain
➢ What Exactly is Intelligence?
➢ Problem Representation
➢ Availability Heuristics
➢ Demonstrating Cognitive Biases
➢ Insight
➢ The Nine-Dot Problem
➢ Handout Transparency: Luchins’ Water Jar Problem
Web Resources:
➢ Problem-Solving
➢ Effective problem solvers have several things in common: requisite knowledge for solving
the problem being faced, skill in identifying the problem, and skill in selecting the strategy
to solve the problem.
6.5.1. Identifying the Problem

➢ The good problem solver learns to consider all relevant possibilities without leaping to
conclusions prematurely.
➢ The good problem solver considers all relevant possibilities before committing to one
solution.
6.5.2. Selecting a Strategy

➢ The good problem solver selects a strategy that fits the problem at hand.
➢ While trial and error may serve strategically for simple problems, more complex ones may
require specialized knowledge or procedures or formulas—algorithms.
➢ The expert problem solvers may use heuristics, more intuitive but less precise strategies.
1. Algorithms
➢ Algorithms are procedures and formulas that guarantee success if properly applied.
➢ Some examples are those formulas learned in science and math classes.
2. Heuristics
➢ Heuristics are rules of thumb that are accumulated through life experience and act
as shortcuts to solve complex mental tasks.
➢ They do not guarantee a correct solution to a problem, but they are often useful for
starting off in the right direction.
➢ Some heuristics require special knowledge, such as training in medicine, physics, or
psychology.
6.5.3. Some Useful Heuristics

1. Working Backward
➢ The strategy of starting at the end of a problem can often be effective in cutting
down on the number of possible pathways to a solution of a problem.
➢ In forensics, for example, police gathering evidence at a crime scene can narrow
down a list of suspects.
2. Searching for Analogies

➢ If a new problem is similar to an old one, it may be possible to employ a strategy
that was previously used successfully.
➢ It is necessary to recognize the similarity, or analogy, between the two problems.
3. Breaking a Big Problem into Smaller Problems

➢ Breaking a problem into parts, or subgoals, may make it more manageable.
➢ In this way, the work required for the solution can be organized into parts and a
plan can be developed for each part of the solution.
6.5.4. Obstacles to Problem Solving

➢ While having a good repertoire of problem-solving strategies is essential problem solving,
it is important to recognize and let go of an ineffective strategy.
1. Mental Set
➢ Mental set refers to the tendency to respond to a new problem in the manner used
for an old one.
➢ If a problem-solving strategy is based upon the wrong analogy, schema, or
algorithm, this mental set can generate an ineffective strategy for solving the current
problem.
2. Functional Fixedness
➢ This type of mental set is the inability to perceive a new use for an object associated
with a different purpose.
➢ Under this condition, the function of a familiar object becomes fixed in the mind,
which cannot develop a new use for it.
➢ A dime used as a coin can also be used as a screwdriver; function fixedness can
prevent a person from recognizing this.
3. Self-Imposed Limitations
➢ There are many instances in which people impose limitations upon themselves.
➢ People may have absorbed racial or gender stereotypes directed at their group, or as
students often say, “I’m not good at math.”
4. Other Obstacles
➢ There are many other obstacles to problem solving.
➢ These include lack of specific knowledge required to solve the problem, lack of
interest, and low self-esteem.
➢ Fatigue, drugs (legal and illegal), and arousal and its stress create stumbling blocks,
as well.
➢ In general, humans are thinkers who readily jump to conclusions, based on our
knowledge but also biased by our knowledge, as well as our motives, emotions, and
perceptions.
➢ Most of our problem-solving efforts draw upon past experiences to make
predictions about future rewards and punishments.
➢ This process is what operant conditioning is all about, which suggests that this
mode of thinking is a fundamental part of human nature.
6.6 Lecture Outline: Judging and Making Decisions
➢ Decisions are made every day; each decision is a solution to a problem for which there
may not be a clear answer but for which a decision is required.
➢ Judgment may be clouded by emotions and biases that interfere with critical thinking.
➢ Kahneman (2011) has identified modes of thinking that operate simultaneously:
o System 1 – Intuitive thought processes that are designed for quick decisions, but
relies on biases, prejudices, and faulty heuristics.
o System 2 – Takes conscious control over the more automatic System 1, particularly in
complex cases.
6.6.1. Confirmation Bias

➢ Confirmation bias makes us pay attention to events that confirm our beliefs and ignore
evidence that contradicts them.
➢ Evidence shows that confirmation bias is a powerful human tendency.
6.6.2. Hindsight Bias

➢ Hindsight bias, the “I knew it all along” response, is the tendency, after learning about an
event, to “second guess” or believe that one could have predicted the event in advance.
➢ Hindsight bias impedes the ability to learn from mistakes; “I knew it all along” ignores an
opportunity to improve judgment next time by recognizing errors this time.
➢ There is a correlation between hindsight bias and poor performance; being swayed by
hindsight bias may increase the chance of repeating the same mistake.
6.6.3. Anchoring Bias

➢ Anchoring bias is a faulty heuristic caused by basing (anchoring) an estimate on a
completely irrelevant quantity.
➢ In a series of numbers, people base their estimate on whether the first number is higher or
lower than the ones that follow.
6.6.4. Representativeness Bias
➢ Representativeness bias is a faulty heuristic strategy based on the presumption that, once
people and events are categorized, they share all the features of other members in the same
category.
➢ This bias is used because it is convenient, simplifying the tasks of social judgment.
➢ In employing this bias, what is ignored is that people and events do not belong to
categories simply because a category label can be applied; we risk ignoring or
underestimating the tremendous diversity of individual cases and complexity of people.
➢ Base rate information is the probability of a characteristic occurring in the general
population, and by ignoring this information, representativeness bias judgments are made.
6.6.5. Availability Bias

➢ The availability bias reflects our tendency to judge probabilities of events by how readily
examples come to mind; for example, detailed coverage of plane crashes in the media
obscure the statistical fact that car crashes are more probable than plane crashes.
➢ People who watch a lot of television judge their chances of being mugged or murdered as
being much higher than people who watch little television.
6.6.6. The Tyranny of Choice

➢ Too many choices can be overwhelming and can interfere with decision-making.
➢ The tyranny of choice, the impairment of effective decision-making when confronted
with too many choices, can create stress.
➢ Satisficing, finding a choice that is merely good enough, rather than perfect, can be a
useful strategy.
6.6.7. Decision-Making and Critical Thinking

➢ The impediments to effective decision-making described above are related to lapses in
critical thinking, especially the identification of bias.
➢ Critical thinkers should know how to identify a problem, select a strategy, apply the most
common algorithms and heuristics, and identify biases and work to correct them.
6.7 Lecture Outline: Becoming a Creative Genius
➢ Although experts cannot agree on an exact definition of creativity, it is generally agreed

that creativity is a process that produces novel responses to the solutions of problems.
➢ Experts generally agree that a genius is someone whose insight and creativity are greater
than that of the general population.
6.7.1. A Genius is Not Superhuman

➢ There is little evidence to show that people with extreme creativity and genius are
superhuman—a breed apart.
➢ The psychologist Robert Weisberg portrays the thinking of people who are considered
geniuses as “ordinary thought processes in ordinary individuals.”
➢ Weisberg attributes extraordinary creativity to extensive knowledge, high motivation, and
certain personality characteristics, not superhuman talents.
6.7.2. Knowledge and Understanding
➢ The most highly creative individuals have expertise, or highly developed knowledge, in
their fields.
➢ Such mastery requires a high level of motivation to sustain years of intense training and
practice.
➢ Studies indicate that it takes about 10 years of work, or 10,000 hours, to become fully
competent in virtually every field.
➢ Such factors as time pressures or an overly critical supervisor, teacher, or parent can
suppress a creative flow.
6.7.3. Aptitudes, Personality Characteristics, and Creativity

➢ Opposing Weisberg’s views, the psychologist Howard Gardner argues that the
extraordinary creativity seen in the work of Freud, Einstein, Picasso, and others results not
only from expertise and motivation but also from certain patterns of abilities and
personality characteristics.
➢ In Gardner’s view, highly creative people have aptitudes, or largely innate potentialities
(as contrasted with abilities acquired by learning).
➢ These potentialities must be developed by intensive study and practice.
➢ In addition to aptitudes, creative people usually posses a common cluster of personality
traits, including:
o Independence: the ability to resist social pressures to conform to conventional ways
of thinking;
o Intense interest in a problem: an all-consuming interest in their subject matter;
o Willingness to restructure a problem: not only struggling with a problem, but also
questioning the way the problem is presented;
o Preference for complexity: creative people like to work with seemingly chaotic or
messy problems, finding it challenging to look for simplicity in complexity;
o A need for stimulating interaction: creativity almost always grows out of an
interaction of highly creative individuals.
➢ Early on, creative people usually find a mentor, a teacher who brings them up to speed in a
chosen field.
6.7.4. The Role of Intelligence in Creativity

➢ While low intelligence inhibits creativity, having high intelligence does not necessarily
produce creativity.
➢ Among those with low intelligence, some special cases—individuals called savants—may
have a highly developed skill despite their handicaps.
➢ Thus, intelligence and creativity are distinct abilities.
➢ The psychologist Robert Sternberg argues that creativity requires a decision to go against
the expectations of the crowd.
o This makes creativity potentially achievable for anyone who chooses to adopt a
creative attitude.
o Sternberg says that most people will not do so, being unwilling to take the necessary
risks.
PSYCHOLOGY MATTERS: Using Psychology to Learn Psychology
Experts are people who know a great deal about a particular subject. Unlike a novice, an expert
confronting a problem does not have to start from scratch to find a solution. A study of chess
experts found that experts organize their knowledge into chunks, or schemas, so that when they
are confronted with a problem, they can retrieve the solution from the specific information stored
and organized in their schemas. They not only know facts; they also know the connections
between them. Last, they have a repertoire of heuristics, the “tricks of the trade.”
Perhaps the most important two variables in developing expertise are motivation and practice.
There is evidence that people have different aptitudes for a particular skill, but it is impossible to
predict in advance who will become an expert. Motivation and a lot of practice are required to
turn aptitude into expertise.
KEY QUESTION
How Is Intelligence Measured?
6.3 CORE CONCEPT
Intelligence testing has a history of controversy, but most psychologists now view
intelligence as a normally distributed trait that can be measured by performance on a
variety of cognitive tasks.
➢ Intelligence, the mental capacity to acquire knowledge, reason, and solve problems
effectively, has long fascinated psychologists, and mental testing has been used for
thousands of years.
➢ Intelligence must be defined in relation to the same abilities in a comparison group,
usually of the same age range.
➢ Intelligence is a hypothetical construct, a characteristic that is not directly observable
but which must be inferred from behavior.
6.8 Lecture Outline: Binet and Simon Invent a School Abilities Test
➢ IQ and Juror Selection
➢ Birth Order and Intelligence
➢ Terman’s Termites
➢ Information Processing Approach to Intelligence
➢ Arthur Jensen
➢ Intelligence and Mental Capacity in Film
➢ Age and Intelligence
➢ Multiple Intelligences
➢ Emotional Intelligence (The EQ Test)
➢ In 1904, French educators Alfred Binet and Théodore Simon were asked to design a test to
identify those school children starting school who might need remedial help.
➢ They designed a 30-problem sampling of a variety of abilities needed for school that
predicted which children could or could not handle normal schoolwork.
➢ Four features of the Binet-Simon test were: 1) interpretation of test scores as a measure of
current performance, not innate intelligence; 2) using test scores to identify children who
needed special help, not to categorize them as bright or dull; 3) emphasis on training and
opportunity that could affect intelligence and pinpointing the areas of performance in
which special education could help the children identified as needing such help; 4)
empirical testing, basing the test on how children were observed to perform, rather than
tying the test to a theory of intelligence.
➢ Binet and Simon assessed French children of various ages with this test and first computed
an average score for children at each age. That comparison yielded a score for each child,
expressed in terms of a mental age (MA). Mental age is thus the average age at which
normal (average) individuals achieve a particular score.
➢ For example, when a 5-year old child’s score was the same as the average score for the
group of 5-year olds, the child was said to have a mental age of 5 years, regardless of his or
her chronological age (CA), or age since birth.
➢ Binet and Simon determined that students most needing remedial help were those whose
MA score was 2 years behind their CA score.
6.9 Lecture Outline: American Psychologists Borrow Binet and Simon’s Idea
➢ Within 10 years after Binet and Simon began testing schoolchildren, American
psychologists imported the Binet-Simon test and turned it into what we now think of as an
IQ test.
➢ They modified the scoring procedure, expanded the test’s content, and obtained scores
from a large normative group of people including adults.
6.9.1. The Appeal of Intelligence Testing in America

➢ Three forces changing the face of America in the early 20th century combined to make
intelligence testing seem like an orderly way out of turmoil and uncertainty.
➢ The United States was experiencing an unprecedented wave of immigration resulting from
global economic, social, and political crises, and new laws requiring universal education
were flooding schools with students.
➢ When World War I began, the military needed a way of assessing and classifying new
recruits.
➢ Intelligence was seen not only as a means of bringing order to the turbulence of rapid
social change but also as an inexpensive and democratic way to separate those who could
benefit from education or military leadership training from those who could not.
➢ The American public came to accept the idea that intelligence tests could accurately
differentiate people in terms of their mental abilities; this acceptance led to widespread use
of tests in schools and industry.
➢ An unfortunate consequence was that test results reinforced prevailing prejudices by
linking test results to race and country of origin.
➢ This consequence can be viewed in hindsight but at the time testing accomplished its
goals, tests were simple to administer and provided a means of assessing and classifying
people according to their scores.
6.9.2. The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale
➢ Stanford University professor Lewis Terman adapted the Binet-Simon test for American
schoolchildren by standardizing its administration and its age-level norms.
➢ The result was the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, which became the standard by which
other tests were compared.
➢ Its two important features were its design for both children and adults and its individual,
rather than group, administration.
➢ The test introduced the concept of the intelligence quotient, or IQ, which was the ratio of
mental age (MA) to chronological age (CA), multiplied by 100 to eliminate decimals.
➢ The Stanford-Binet test became popular in clinical psychology, psychiatry, and
educational counseling.
➢ Terman accompanied the test with his belief that intelligence is largely innate and
measurable and that the IQ score reflected something fundamental and unchanging about
people.
➢ Critics of the test objected that the test employed an inconsistent concept of intelligence
because it measured different mental abilities at different ages.
➢ Test makers, heeding this criticism and bringing it in line with the scientific understanding
of intelligence, have modified the test to measure multiple intellectual abilities at all age
levels.
6.9.3. Problems with the IQ Formula

➢ By the mid to late teenage years, gains in mental intelligence usually level off as people
develop mentally in many different directions. Consequently, mental growth as measured
by a test appears to slow down. Terman’s formula for computing IQ scales thus makes
normal children appear to become intellectually disabled adults.
➢ People do not grow less intelligent as they become adults; they develop in different
directions, which IQ scores do not necessarily reflect.
➢ The original formula for IQ was abandoned and grading “on the curve” was adopted as the
replacement.
6.9.4. Calculating IQs “on the Curve”

➢ Behind the new calculation of IQ is the assumption that intelligence is normally
distributed throughout the population, that it is spread throughout the population so that
only a few people fall into the high or low ranges while most cluster around a central
average.
➢ The normal distribution, or normal curve, is the bell-shaped curve describing the spread
of a characteristic throughout the population.
➢ Many characteristics, such as height, fall into this pattern, when a population is measured
on this characteristic and the results are recorded a graph, and when IQ tests are given to
large numbers of individuals, the scores of those at each age level fall into this pattern.
➢ IQs are now determined from tables that indicate where test scores fall on the normal
curve.
➢ Scores are statistically adjusted so that the average for each age group is set at 100.
➢ Scores near the middle of each group, between 90–110, are determined to be in the
normal range, whereas at the extreme ends of the distribution, scores below 70 are often
said to be in the intellectual disability range, while those above 130 are said to indicate
giftedness.
➢ Psychologist James Flynn has noticed that the average IQ score has gradually increased at
the rate of three points per decade, ever since the tests were invented—the Flynn effect.
➢ The gradual increase probably results from a combination of factors, including better test-
taking skills, greater complexity and mental stimulation in society, more schooling, and
better nutrition.
➢ Flynn points out that different components of intelligence have accelerated at different
rates, so part of the gain in IQ can be explained by societies encouraging factors that
contribute to intelligence.
➢ Since the mid-1990s, however, the Flynn effect may be slowing down, at least in
developing countries.
➢ Close examination of the Flynn effect indicates increases at the lower end of the
intelligence scale, not at the higher end, suggesting that the effect may be the result of
better education, nutrition, and cognitive stimulation.
6.9.5. IQ Testing Today

➢ The success of the Stanford-Binet encouraged development of other IQ tests.
➢ As a result, psychologists can choose from a wide array of testing instruments.
➢ Psychologist David Wechsler has developed the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale
(WAIS), the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC), and the Wechsler
Preschool and Primary Scale of intelligence (WPPSI).
➢ This family of tests measures many skills presumed to be components of intelligence,
including vocabulary, verbal comprehension, arithmetic ability, similarities, digit span,
and block design.
➢ These tests measure intelligence by assessing performance on a variety of tasks.
PSYCHOLOGY MATTERS: What Can You Do for an Exceptional Child?

Intellectual disability and giftedness lie at opposite ends of the intelligence spectrum.
Intellectual disability is conceived as representing the 2% of the population of the IQ range
scoring below about 70 points. Giftedness is conceived as representing the upper 2% of the
population of the IQ range scoring above about 130 points.
The most current view of intellectual disability deemphasizes IQ scores and focuses on practical
abilities to get along in the world. Some causes of intellectual disability, such as Down
syndrome, are known to be genetic; some causes, such as fetal alcohol syndrome, are
environmental; other types of intellectual disability have no known cause. No cures have been
found for certain types of intellectual disability, although research has found some preventive
measures. Genetic counseling, pregnancy care services, and education of new parents are
effective, as well as diet for some specific types. Special education, providing life skills and
vocational training, and enrichment help the intellectually disabled to lead fulfilling lives.
A study of giftedness suggests that a high IQ is an advantage in life. Psychologist Louis Terman
initiated a longitudinal study in which 1,528 children scoring in the gifted range were followed
throughout their lives. Decades of data showed correlations between IQ and health, happiness,
and academic achievement. As they moved into adulthood, the gifted group contained an
unusually high number of scientists, writers, and professionals. Yet, no one in the group attained
the level of an Einstein or a Picasso. Nor did a high IQ guarantee wealth or stature; group
members led ordinary, undistinguished lives. The most visibly successful seemed to have
extraordinary motivation and someone at home or at school who was especially encouraging to
them—some of the same characteristics found to be markers of “genius.” Because of the
personality traits common to gifted children—especially a tendency to spend time alone working
on their interests—they are more likely than other children to suffer social and emotional
disorders. Gifted children already possess a strong sense of curiosity, and parents should not
push their children excessively, destroying it or making curiosity burdensome.
KEY QUESTION
Is Intelligence One or Many Abilities?
6.4 CORE CONCEPT
Some psychologists believe that intelligence comprises one general factor, g, while others
believe that intelligence is a collection of distinct abilities.
6.10 Lecture Outline: Psychometric Theories of Intelligence

➢ Multiple Intelligences
➢ Emotional Intelligence (The EQ Test)
➢ Should Psychology Adopt a Theory of Multiple Intelligence?
➢ Do Animals Have Language? A Survey
➢ Psychometrics is the field of mental measurements.

➢ The psychologist Charles Spearman used a psychometric technique to advance his theory
of intelligence as a single factor.
6.10.1. Spearman’s g Factor

➢ In 1927, Spearman observed that individuals’ scores on different tests tend to be highly
correlated; those who score high on one test tend to score high on others.
➢ These correlations point to a single common factor of general intelligence underlying
performance in several intellectual domains, which Spearman called g.
➢ Tests of g have located it in the frontal lobes.
➢ Although some neuroscientists accept the concept of g, others believe that this explanation
of intelligence as a single factor oversimplifies both the nature of intelligence and of the
brain.
6.10.2. Cattell’s Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence

➢ Psychologist Raymond Cattell determined that general intelligence can be broken down
into two relatively independent components: crystallized and fluid.
➢ Crystallized intelligence consists of the knowledge a person has acquired, plus the ability
to access that knowledge.
➢ Crystallized intelligence, related to the person’s ability to store and retrieve information
from semantic memory, is measured by tests of vocabulary, arithmetic, and general
information.
➢ Fluid intelligence is the ability to see complex relationships and solve problems—abilities
that involve using algorithms and heuristics.
➢ Fluid intelligence is often measured by tests of block design and spatial visualization, tests
that do not rely on the individual possessing certain “crystallized” background information
to solve a problem.
➢ For Cattell, both types of intelligence were essential to adaptive living.
6.11 Lecture Outline: Cognitive Theories of Intelligence

➢ Cognitive psychologists say that intelligence includes cognitive processes underlying
success in many areas of life, not just school, and thus is broader than the psychometric
view of intelligence.
6.11.1. Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory

➢ Psychologist Robert Sternberg has proposed a three-part—triarchic—theory of
intelligence that three different types of intelligence, each independent of the other.
➢ Practical intelligence is the ability of individuals to cope with people and events in their
environment, sometimes called “street smarts.”
➢ Analytical intelligence, the abilities measured by most IQ tests, relies on problem
solving, rational judgment, and the ability to compare and contrast ideas to analyze
problems and find solutions.
➢ Creative intelligence helps people develop new ideas and see new relationships among
concepts.
➢ According to the triarchic theory, an individual’s ability in one of the three does not
necessarily predict his or her intelligence in the other two.
➢ Recently, Sternberg and his colleagues added another element of intelligence, wisdom,
using one’s intelligence toward a common good, rather than a selfish pursuit.
➢ Only by promoting wisdom can we achieve the societal goals that most people desire,
Sternberg says.
➢ Studies show that wisdom is one predictor of well-being later in life.
6.11.2. Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences

➢ Psychologist Howard Gardner views traditional IQ tests as limited measures of human
abilities.
➢ Gardner argues that we have at least eight separate mental abilities (Figure 6.12), which he
calls multiple intelligences:
o Linguistic intelligence – measured by vocabulary tests and tests of reading
comprehension;
o Logical-mathematical intelligence – measured with analogies, math problems, and
logic problems;
o Spatial intelligence – the ability to form and manipulate mental images of objects
and to think about their relationships in space;
o Musical intelligence – the ability to perform, compose, and appreciate musical
patterns, including patterns of rhythms and pitches;
o Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence – the ability for controlled movement and
coordination, such as that needed by an athlete or a surgeon;
o Naturalistic intelligence – the ability to classify living things as members of diverse
groups and recognize subtle changes in one’s environment;
o Intrapersonal intelligence – the ability to know oneself, to develop a satisfactory
sense of identity, and to regulate one’s life.
➢ Gardner claims that each of these intelligences arises from a separate module in the brain.
➢ The latter two are similar to what some psychologists call emotional intelligence (EQ).
➢ People who are high on emotional intelligence are good at reading other people’s
emotional states as well as their own.
6.11.3. Assessing Cognitive Theories of Intelligence

➢ For cognitive psychologists, there are many ways to excel, and one way is not necessarily
superior to others.
➢ While this notion is appealing, the challenge is how to develop ways of assessing and
measuring these types of intelligences.
➢ Sternberg and his colleagues developed supplemental questions designed to measure
creative and practical intelligence and appended them to SAT tests.
➢ When Sternberg’s team scored them, they proved not only to be valid measures of creative
and practical intelligence, but also increased the college’s ability to predict freshman
success.
➢ Sternberg’s supplemental questions also reduced ethnic group differences in college
admissions by identifying cultural variations in demonstration of intelligence.
6.12 Lecture Outline: Cultural Definitions of Intelligence

➢ The value of each component of intelligence is culturally determined according to what is
needed by, useful to, and prized by a given society.
➢ Many cultures have no word for intelligence as we conceive of it: the mental processes
associated with logic, vocabulary, mathematical ability, abstract thought, and academic
success.
6.12.1. African Concepts of Intelligence

➢ In Kenya, Sternberg found that children who scored highest on tests of practical
intelligence scored lower on traditional IQ tests that measure academic success; practical
solutions are more valuable than academic skills.
➢ The western assumption that intelligence is associated with school success and quick
solutions is not universal.
6.12.2. A Native American Concept of Intelligence

➢ The Cree tribe in northern Ontario makes a distinction between ‘school” intelligence and
the “good thinking” centered on respect, valued in the Cree culture.
➢ What are seen as White values are often disparaged when they are in conflict with Cree
values.
6.13 Lecture Outline: The Question of Animal Intelligence
➢ In the wild, animals have survival skills for hunting and raising their young, often
involving cooperation.
➢ For many years it was not determined whether these were operantly conditioned, learned
from previous consequences, or demonstrations of thinking and intelligence.
➢ Jane Goodall, in her observational studies of wild chimpanzees, reported their making and
using tools— abilities requiring forethought and planning.
6.13.1. What Abilities Make Humans Unique?

➢ If chimpanzees can make and use tools, previously thought to be human skills only, the
question is whether there are any abilities that are unique to humans and make them
“human.”
➢ Humans possess a theory of mind, an awareness that other people’s behavior may be
influenced by beliefs, desires, and emotions that differ from one’s own.
➢ Theory of mind is thought to underlie our human ability to form effective social
relationships.
➢ Language has been thought to be a unique human ability.
➢ Studies have shown that some animals possess both a theory of mind and language.
6.13.2. Language of the Apes

➢ Researchers Allen and Beatrix Gardner taught a chimpanzee named Washoe language
skills previously thought to be impossible in nonhuman animals.
➢ “Adopting” Washoe when she was 10 months old and raising her in an environment
similar to that of a human child, the Gardners taught Washoe American Sign Language for
communication.
➢ After Washoe successfully learned 160 words, other psychologists taught language to a
variety of primates.
➢ Other species have been taught to communicate as well.
6.13.3. What Are the Lessons of Research on Animal Language and Intelligence?
➢ Animals are capable of intelligent behavior, and most psychologists (except strict
behaviorists) would acknowledge that animals are capable of cognition.
➢ Most animals are adapted to a particular biological niche, and they are intelligent in ways
that aid their survival.
➢ Our observations of animal cognition should make us aware of our kinship with other
animals.
➢ Observations of animal behavior are limited by our study of them in human terms rather
than in ways that are appropriate to the species under study.
PSYCHOLOGY MATTERS: Test Scores and the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Expectations influence student performance. Labels and the expectations that they represent
influence not only people’s beliefs but also the outcomes of those beliefs. Observations or
behaviors that result primarily from expectations are called self-fulfilling prophecies. These
play important roles in the performance of children in the classroom; in situations in which
teachers were told to expect high performance from certain children and treated them in
accordance with what they were told, those children performed at a higher standard. Self-
fulfilling prophecies also can be observed in the workplace, where positive expectations of
employees raise productivity significantly.
➢ While we find the full range of IQ scores in every ethnic group, we also find IQ
differences between groups.
➢ If it is assumed that intelligence is primarily the result of innate (hereditary) factors, it
could also be concluded that intelligence is fixed and unchangeable; the next step in this
reasoning might be that there are superior and inferior ethnic groups, based upon IQ
scores.
➢ If it is assumed that intelligence is shaped largely by experience (environment), society is
more likely to make a range of educational opportunities available for everyone and to
view people of all ethnic, cultural, and economic groups as equals.
➢ In actuality, neither the hereditarian nor the environmentalist view is completely correct.
➢ Intelligence and the Politics of Immigration

➢ In the early 1900s, the psychologist Henry Goddard, believing that intelligence is a
hereditary trait, proposed that all immigrants undergo tests; the goal was the exclusion of
those believed to be “mentally defective.”
➢ In 1924, the U.S. Congress passed legislation to limit immigration of groups and
nationalities that Goddard’s data had identified as being mentally deficient.
➢ Both Goddard and the Congress had ignored the fact that his tests had been given in
English to people with little familiarity with English; in short, the test takers couldn’t
read the test.
➢ Today, we are aware of the shortcomings of intelligence tests; we know that Goddard
used faulty reasoning in concluding that heredity affected group data outcomes; we know
that the environment and experience have effects on an individual’s intelligence.
KEY QUESTION
How Do Psychologists Explain IQ Differences Among Groups?
6.5 CORE CONCEPT
While most psychologists agree that both heredity and environment affect intelligence,
they disagree on the source of IQ differences among racial and social groups.
6.14 Lecture Outline: What Evidence Shows That Intelligence Is Influenced

by Heredity?
Lecture Launchers
➢ Early Arguments for Nativism
➢ Group Differences in IQ Do Not Apply to Individuals
➢ Cultural Bias in IQ Testing
➢ Creating a Culture-Fair Intelligence Test
➢ Is There a Racial Difference in Intelligence?
➢ Many lines of research indicate a hereditary influence on intelligence.

➢ Twin studies, particularly identical twins raised by adoptive parents and twins separated at
birth show that the IQs of children are more closely correlated with the IQs of their
biological parents than that of their adoptive parents.
➢ Research under the rubric of the Human Genome Project supports the notion that
intelligence has a genetic component, most likely involving the interaction of many genes.
➢ The closer the genetic relationship—from cousins to siblings to twins—the closer the
relationship of IQ scores.
➢ While psychologists agree that heredity plays an important part in determining an
individual’s IQ scores, they also agree that it remains difficult to estimate the relative
weights of heredity and environment.
➢ A reason for this is that children raised in the same household do not have the same
psychological environment; each child is treated somewhat differently.
6.15 Lecture Outline: What Evidence Shows That Intelligence Is Influenced

by Envirnment?
➢ A longitudinal study of 110 children from impoverished homes revealed that 1) a
stimulating environment was strongly associated with language ability but not with
memory and 2) a nurturing environment was associated with memory but not with
language ability.
➢ There are greater similarities of IQ among people who have been reared together than
among those reared apart.
➢ In laboratory animals, those raised in a stimulus-enriched habitat early in life have a more
complex, complete development of brain cells and cortical regions.
➢ Early intervention programs can boost children’s IQ scores.
➢ The amount of schooling children receive correlates well with their IQ scores.
➢ In adulthood, environmental factors such as the cognitive complexity and intellectual
demand of one’s job can influence mental abilities through life.
➢ Psychologists William Dickens and James Flynn, analyzing IQ scores recently, reported
that the gap between group scores of Euro-Americans and African Americans is
narrowing.
6.16 Lecture Outline: Heritability (not Heredity) and Group Differences
➢ The influence of heredity on individual intelligence does not mean that heredity accounts
for differences between groups.
➢ Heredity is not the same as heritability, the amount of trait variation within a group that
can be attributed to genetic differences. While both terms arise from the notion of
heredity, they have different meanings; heredity is DNA related, while heritability refers
to the amount of influence that heredity can have with respect to a given trait.
➢ Suppose children are all raised in a group in a stimulating environment with devoted
parents who read to them and interact with them—all of which are known to improve
intellectual abilities—because the environments are essentially the same, much of the
differences in their IQ scores could be attributed to the effects of heredity. In this group,
IQ scores have high heritability.
➢ IQ scores of children raised under conditions of neglect—given mere custodial care in an
orphanage, with no intellectual stimulation from their caregivers—would probably have
little variance because they are all intellectually stunted. Group IQ scores would have low
heritability; the genetic contribution to their IQ was minimized because the poor
environment limited development of their genetic potential.
➢ While the IQ differences between the two groups would be real, observations yield no
information about genetic differences, if any, between the groups. Because the
environments are different, it cannot be determined what role genetics play in the
difference.
➢ Because people are exposed to different cultural traditions and experience different levels
of wealth or discrimination, we have not found a way to evaluate what proportion of
differences between groups can be attributed to heredity or environment.
➢ We can speak of heritable differences only within a group of individuals who have shared
essentially the same environment.
➢ Biologists have determined that “race” is not a valid biological concept.
6.16.1. The Jensen Controversy

➢ Despite the concerns about correlating IQ scores with group differences, in the early
1960s, some psychologists, including Arthur Jensen, have contended that racial
differences in IQ scores have a substantial genetic basis; IQ scores can be boosted to some
extent, he said, by helping the poor and disadvantaged, but the potential for gains is
limited.
➢ Jensen presented three types of evidence: 1) several studies showing a strong influence of
heredity on IQ; 2) a complex statistical argument showing only weak environmental
effects on IQ; 3) an interpretation of the results of government programs attempting to
give extra help to disadvantaged Black children that, while showing positive effects, had
not erased the racial differences in performance.
➢ More than 100 published articles responding to Jensen’s challenge pointed out that Jensen
had minimized or ignored several factors, including the effects of racism, lower
expectations for Black children, lack of opportunity, low self-esteem and a White, middle-
class bias built into IQ and achievement tests.
➢ Many psychologists now agree that a combination of environmental factors can explain
the differences that Jensen found.
6.16.2. The Scarr and Weinberg Adoption Study

➢ Psychologists Sandra Scarr and Richard Weinberg compared 113 Black and White
children who were adopted into similar home environments in Minnesota.
➢ Their research utilized educational records and IQ test scores from both the biological
families and adoptive families, with biological parents averaging IQ scores of around 100
and adoptive parents averaging about 115.
➢ Their findings revealed no differences between groups, thus contradicting Jensen’s claim
that group differences are genetic.
6.16.3. Social Class and IQ

➢ Research on the relationship between social class and IQ shows similar effects.
➢ Socioeconomic class, as reflected in an individual’s financial status and lifestyle, clearly
correlates with IQ.
➢ Affluence is associated with higher IQ scores.
➢ Groups with the lowest average IQ scores experience the greatest degree of poverty,
illiteracy, and hopelessness.
➢ The negative effects of growing up in a disadvantaged home far outweigh the benefits of
growing up in a wealthy family.
➢ Poverty also limits individual potential by limiting health care, good nutrition, and
education.
➢ Since schools are funded largely by property taxes, wealthy neighborhoods can provide
bigger and better school facilities, while poorer districts have schools that suffer from
crowding, physically deteriorating buildings, threats to personal safety, and poorly
prepared teachers.
6.16.4. Head Start: A Successful Intervention Program

➢ Head Start, a successful intervention program, grew from the assumption that many
children from deprived families need an intellectual boost to prepare them for school.
➢ The program serves children’s physical and mental needs with nutritional and medical
support as well as a year or two of preschool education.
➢ The program also involves parents in making policy, planning programs working in
classrooms, and learning about planning and child development.
➢ A great deal of research suggests that the Head Start program works; children in the
program score higher on IQ tests and have higher achievement than a matched control
group of children who received no intervention.
➢ The effects of Head Start participation persist into adolescence.
➢ Since educational intervention in the first months of life can raise infants’ scores on
intelligence tests by as much as 30% compared to control groups, beginning such
programs earlier would produce positive results.
➢ The earlier that a child is immersed in an enriched environment, the stronger the effects.
6.16.5. Test Biases and Culture-Fair Tests

➢ Problems with the IQ tests themselves influence IQ scores and contribute to test biases.
➢ Many psychologists have argued that IQ test questions have built-in biases toward a
middle- or upper-class background, biases that favor the White child.
➢ One source of bias stems from the fact that most IQ tests rely heavily on vocabulary level,
giving an advantage to children who are encouraged to read.
➢ Another criticism is that the norms of White-American culture are the norms by which
other cultures are judged.
➢ While a culture-free test of ability or achievement is impossible, more psychologists
would agree that culture-fair tests using nonverbal assessment techniques could be used
more widely.
6.16.6. The Bell Curve: Another Hereditarian Offense

➢ In 1994, a book, The Bell Curve; Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life, by
Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray, argued that racial differences in IQ scores have a
strong genetic basis.
➢ They maintained that if these innate differences could be accepted, the nation could move
on to more enlightened and humane social policies.
➢ Flaws in the book’s arguments are those of the hereditarians; they offered no proof that
differences between groups exposed to different environments have a different hereditary
basis.
➢ The evidence presented in the book is flawed, as well.
➢ Also, the book’s authors confuse correlation with causation. The relationship between
poverty and other social ills that are claimed to be the result of differences can be turned
around and shown to be the causes of group differences. Correlation is not causation.
➢ The book’s preference for simple genetic explanations for the difference in IQ scores has
resonated with the American population because it is a simple explanation for a complex
problem.
➢ Other cultures do not regard genetics as the predominant influence upon IQ scores; when
surveyed, Asians expressed the view that studying hard raises performance levels.
6.16.7. Mindset and Stereotype Threat

➢ Carol Dweck describes two different views, or mindsets, of intelligence.
➢ One sees intelligence as relatively fixed and unchanging, depending on innate ability.
➢ The other views intelligence as fluid, depending on motivation and experience.
➢ The expectancy bias and the self-fulfilling prophecy mean that when members of some
groups harbor low expectations about the abilities of everyone in their group, their
expectations might adversely affect their IQ scores.
➢ Psychologist Claude Steele calls this stereotype threat and has amassed evidence
demonstrating its effect on minority groups.
➢ Stereotype threat also affects gender, when girls may learn to feel inferior in math and
science or on the elderly who may feel intimidated about memory failure.
➢ Stereotype threat can be reduced when people, are encouraged to think of intelligence as
being influenced by experience and expectations rather than as a fixed trait.
PSYCHOLOGY MATTERS: Brain Training Programs: Do They Work?

Many different claims have been made that neuroscientists have developed ways of “training”
your brain, much as an athlete trains her body. There are implications that such efforts can even
stave off mental decline and dementia. Research finds these claims to be dubious, suggesting that
physical activity (such as a hike) might be more advantageous than focusing on a computer
monitor. The research touted by the companies is often methodologically flawed, and when
improvement does occur, it is highly exaggerated.
CRITICAL THINKING APPLIED: The Question of Gender Differences

Are the undisputed gender differences we see the result of socialization, prejudice,
discrimination, and lack of opportunity for women who go into science, or are they the result of
different ways of processing information?
Analyzing this issue from the nurture perspective by applying the critical thinking questions, the
research literature on gender has shown that there are far more similarities than differences in the
dimensions studied. Similarities include mathematical ability, problem solving, reading
comprehension, leadership effectiveness, and moral reasoning. A few exceptions exist, however,
among them greater male aggression, acceptance of casual sex, and throwing velocity, all of
which may have biological roots.
Analyzing this issue from the nature perspective, another set of facts emerges. Men, as a group,
are more variable and extreme than women, with more men lying at the opposite poles of
virtually all mental and behavioral dimensions. Men seem to outnumber women as among the
biggest losers and the biggest winners.
Both sides of this issue agree that gender differences are small. It may be that there are
differences in motivation with males more willing to take risks rather than male ability, and
cultural differences that can be shaped.
Chapter 6 Key Questions

1. What are the components of thought?
2. What abilities do good thinkers possess?
3. How is intelligence measured?
4. Is intelligence one or many abilities?
5. How do psychologists explain IQ differences among groups?
▲ Return to Table of Contents
Chapter 6 Core Concepts
1. Thinking is a cognitive process in which the brain uses information from the senses,
emotions, and memory to create and manipulate mental representations such as concepts,
images, schemas, and scripts.
2. Good thinkers not only have a repertoire of effective strategies, called algorithms and
heuristics, they also know how to avoid common impediments to problem solving and
decision-making.
3. Intelligence testing has a history of controversy, but most psychologists now view
intelligence as a normally distributed trait that can be measured by performance on a variety
of cognitive tasks.
4. Some psychologists believe that intelligence comprises one general factor, g, while others
believe that intelligence is a collection of distinct abilities.
5. While most psychologists agree that both heredity and environment affect intelligence, they
disagree on the source of IQ differences among racial and social groups.
Chapter 6 Psychology Matters

➢ Schemas and Scripts Help You Know What to Expect
➢ Using Psychology to Learn Psychology
➢ What Can You Do for an Exceptional Child?
➢ Test Scores and the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
➢ Brain Training Programs: Do They Work?
▼LECTURE LAUNCHERS AND DISCUSSION TOPICS

Types of Problems
Intuition
Don’t Believe Everything You Read…Except This
Functional Fixedness
Using Cognitive Maps
Hormones and Thinking Skills
Fallacies in Reasoning
Einstein’s Brain
IQ and Juror Selection
Birth Order and Intelligence
Terman’s Termites
Information Processing Approach to Intelligence
Arthur Jensen
Early Arguments for Nativism
Group Differences in IQ Do Not Apply to Individuals
▲ Return to Chapter 6: Table of Contents
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.”)
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
mentioned in Chapter Six (the one in which the rings have to be moved from one post to another
without ever putting a big one on a little one, or moving more than one at a time—Figure 6.4).
▼ Return to List of Lecture Launchers and Discussion Topics for Chapter 6

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 six 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, 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.

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 René 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 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 (as 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.
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 Launcher: Using Cognitive Maps
When students enter a new course, their “cognitive maps” of the material are, at first, somewhat
disorganized—as you might expect. Then, as the course progresses, their mental images of the
field become simpler, organized around core concepts, and more like that of the experts: their
professors. Cognitive scientists have discovered this using path analysis, a mathematical technique
that shows the connections between concepts in our minds and how these connections change as
we learn (Gonzalvo, Cañas, & Bajo, 1994).
The research examined how students and their professors saw the relationships among 30
important concepts in a
history of psychology
course. The students’
cognitive map at the beginning
of the course is shown in the top
figure. By the end of the course,
it had changed, more closely
matching the professors’ map
shown on the next page. (Both
are group averages.) Notice
how the students and
professors organized their
thinking around quite
different concepts. The
professors’ map reflects their
expertise in its relative simplicity
(not simple, but simpler than the students’) and in its choice of the most important concepts, which
you can see serve as organizing principles around which other concepts are clustered.
What does this suggest for your learning of psychology and other disciplines? You would do well
to attend to the way your professors organize their courses.
Reference:
Gonzalvo, P., Cañas, J. J., & Bajo, M. (1994). Structural representations in knowledge acquisition.
Journal of Educational Psychology, 86, 601-616.
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.
Postmenopausal women and women of childbearing 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.

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 4 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 questions: “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 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?”

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
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 interested 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.

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 intellectually disabled.
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
intellectually disabled, 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 2 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
intellectually disabled 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: 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 0, 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 2 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 2 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 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.

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 PhD in psychology from Clark University. He was influenced by
Alfred Binet and Sir Francis Galton. His PhD 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 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.
Terman’s most ambitious undertaking in the 1920s was a study of 1,500 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 “Termites,” as they became to be called,
were healthier than 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 4, 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 2 for a review of the 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 IQ 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.
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. 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 Launcher: Early Arguments for Nativism
The belief that intelligence is determined by one’s ethnic inheritance is a modern-day version of
the earlier theories of nativism. Published in 1875, Richard Dugdale’s investigation of the inherited
basis of “crime, pauperism, disease, and insanity” was accepted throughout the world as the best
documented evidence of the bad seed, or nativist, theory of evil. In his intensive analysis of the
“Jukes” clan, Dugdale identified over 700 people “belonging to the Jukes blood,” of whom more
than 500 were social degenerates. There were those who were “immoral,” “harlots,” “lecherous,”
“paupers,” “drunkards,” “lazy,” and “fornicators,” as well as murderers, rapists, and thieves. So
evil and corrupt was this family line that during the 73 years of its studied existence, it cost the
taxpayers of New York State over a million dollars.
In 1912, another researcher, Henry Goddard, found further support for the nativist position when
he came upon a natural experiment in breeding (this “study” is described in more detail in the next
suggested lecture). A Revolutionary War soldier, whom Goddard dubbed “Kallikak” (from the
Greek kalos, “good” and kakos, “bad”), sired two families, one illegitimate and one legitimate. His
first alliance was with a tavern maid who was reportedly mentally defective; he later married a
young woman of “better stock.” What were the consequences of these different unions? Only a
few of the nearly 500 descendants from Martin Kallikak’s legal marriage could be classified as
“undesirable.” In contrast, the son born of Martin’s affair with the tavern maid produced a long
line of defective descendants. Of 480 traced descendants, 14 were reported to be feeble-minded,
33 were sexually immoral, 24 were alcoholics, many died in infancy, and others were criminals,
brothel keepers, and the like.
These studies led some criminologists to accept the theory that “social disease,” as well as insanity
and idiocy, could be inherited. The apparent inevitability that a tainted individual would pass the
bad seed onto future generations was a powerful stimulus to the eugenics movement in America.
Twenty-seven states proceeded to adopt compulsory sterilization laws to prevent the transmission
of such “unalterable” defects.
Goddard’s own eminence rose as a consequence of this famous study, and he was invited by the
U.S. Public Health Service to test the intelligence of European immigrants arriving at New York’s
Ellis Island. Based on what he described in his 1913 report of the testing of the “great mass of
average immigrants,” Goddard claimed to have discovered the following percentages of
feeble-minded individuals among them:
Russians 87%
Jews 83%
Hungarians 80%
Italians 79%
In 1917, Goddard was able to report a vast increase in deportation of immigrants whose
feeble-mindedness was detected by the use of tests of mental ability. (These tests of mental ability
were given in English to non-English speaking people!)
Lewis Terman furthered the idea that those identified as feeble-minded by IQ tests were a menace
to society. Terman is well known among psychologists for two contributions: his introduction into
the United States in 1916 of a version of the IQ test developed by French psychologist Alfred
Binet, and his longitudinal study of the development of a group of children classified as geniuses
on that Stanford-Binet IQ test. (Terman was then a professor at Stanford University.) What is less
well known is Terman’s belief that feeblemindedness represented a serious menace to society. He
wrote in 1917: “Only recently have we begun to recognize how serious a menace it is to the social,
economic, and moral welfare of the state...If we would preserve our state for a class of people
worthy to possess it, we must prevent, as far as possible, the propagation of mental degenerates”
(pp. 161, 165). Also after having found low IQ scores for a pair of Mexican and Indian children
he tested, Terman generalized:
“Their dullness seems to be racial, or at least inherent in the family stocks from which they
come. The fact that one meets this type with such extraordinary frequency among Indians,
Mexicans, and Negroes suggests quite forcibly that the whole question of racial differences in
mental traits will have to be taken up anew.... Children of this group should be segregated in special
classes.... They cannot master abstractions, but they can often be made efficient workers.” (1916,
pp. 91-92)
Consider the sources of bias in this evidence.
No one would dispute the fact that “eminence” as recognized social status runs in certain
families—but is that support for inheritance or for the social, political, and economic contacts that
eminent parents can provide for their offspring? Can we rule out the availability of advantageous
social influences, supportive family environments, appropriate role models, and educational
opportunities (limited in earlier times only to the rich)?
How was it possible to construct the genetic family trees of the Jukes and Kallikaks from a period
of history when public record keeping of vital statistics was rare or incomplete—and did not exist
for illegitimate births?
How objective are the stigmatizing labels applied by the researchers to the bad-seed offspring:
“immoral,” “lazy,” “perverted?” Is ``fornication” an indicator of pathology?
How were the tests given to the Eastern and Southern European immigrants? Were the people,
fatigued from months aboard a ship, not allowed to enter the city until they completed the test? In
what language were the tests given? One must wonder about the “objectivity” of the criteria used
to assign the categorical label “feebleminded” when the results included the vast majority of
Eastern and Southern European immigrants.
Clearly, this is one area of research where the personal values of researchers have interfered with
proper utilization of the scientific method for collecting unbiased data and drawing valid
conclusions from reliable evidence.
Reference:
Terman, L. M. (1916). The measurement of intelligence. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Lecture Launcher: Group Differences in IQ Do Not Apply to Individuals
A discussion of group differences in IQ (e.g., White versus African American) and the possible
genetic and environmental factors that contribute to the differences is a nice way to delve into a
lecture that critically examines this topic. The chapter presents some convincing evidence and
theory regarding the apparent gap in IQ scores that exists between Whites and African
Americans. The explanation is based on two highly overlapping distributions of IQ scores (see
figure 9.18). So, as the authors suggest, this indicates that the two groups really aren’t all that
different—the primary differences in representation will be found at the upper and lower ends of
the IQ distribution.
To extend this line of reasoning, and to demonstrate how the formation of stereotypes can be a
bad thing in many cases (see Chapter 13), you can provide students with a slightly different
explanation of the IQ score disparity (based on the same analysis). Although there is brief
mention of this concept near the end of the subsection titled, “Reconciling Race Differences,” to
introduce this idea in class should facilitate deeper processing of the material. The idea is that,
given such a highly overlapping distribution of anything (IQ included), what can we conclude
when we evaluate an individual from one or the other group?
The short answer is nothing. Just as an average doesn’t really describe any one person, group
differences do not apply to individuals. In fact, many African Americans do better than Whites
on IQ tests. As another example, although women tend to do (on average) better than men on
tests of verbal ability, the two distributions of scores is highly overlapping, and many men do
better than many women on tests of verbal ability.
Another phenomenon of social psychology tends to rear its ugly head in these kinds of situations:
confirmation bias. That is, if we know (or have a belief) of a group difference, when we see
evidence for the difference, we will notice that difference, thus confirming our belief (bias). This
might be a good time to introduce students to ways in which our beliefs can impact our
judgments.

▼ ACTIVITIES, DEMONSTRATIONS, AND EXERCISES

Learning a Concept
What Exactly is Intelligence?
Problem Representation
Breaking Sets in Problem-Solving
Availability Heuristics
Demonstrating Cognitive Biases
Insight
The Nine-Dot Problem
Handout Transparency: Luchins’ Water Jar Problem
Intelligence and Mental Capacity in Film
Age and Intelligence
Multiple Intelligences
Emotional Intelligence (The EQ Test)
Should Psychology Adopt a Theory of Multiple Intelligence?
Do Animals Have Language? A Survey
Cultural Bias in IQ Testing
Creating a Culture-Fair Intelligence Test
Is There a Racial Difference in Intelligence?
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 Classroom Activities, Demonstrations, and Exercises for Chapter 6

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 five or six common
characteristics.)
2. What proposed characteristics of intelligence that came up during your discussion of #1

were eventually eliminated? Why?

Activity: Problem Representation
Challenge your students by presenting them with the hospital room problem (taken from Matlin,
1994). Handout Master 6.1 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.)
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.

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 6.2
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 6.3: Availability 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.

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 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: 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 6.4, 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.

In-Class Activity: The Nine-Dot Problem
Mental set can hinder problem solving because it often leads us to use our past experience to
impose rules on a problem-solving situation that do not exist. These rules may prevent us from
solving the problem. A classic example of this phenomenon is the nine-dot problem. Have
students attempt to complete Handout Master 6.5 and see how many of them figure it out.
Typically, many will impose the “rule” that you cannot go outside the perimeter of the outer dots
when drawing the four lines. Unfortunately, this restraint makes the problem impossible to solve.
If you allow yourself to draw the lines outside the perimeter of the dots, solving the problem is
surprisingly easy. This activity is a simple, yet fun example that students are not likely to forget.

Activity: Intelligence and Mental Capacity in Film
Chapter 7 discusses the extremes of intelligence, from intellectual disability 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 intellectual disability
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
intellectual disability or giftedness literatures using Psychological Abstracts.
• Charly (1968). In this endearing and classic tale, Oscar-winner Cliff Robertson portrays a
disabled 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 5.7
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: Multiple Intelligences
Objective: To relate Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences to examples generated by students

Materials: Handout Masters 5.8 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 5.9 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.

Activity: Should Psychology Adopt a Theory of Multiple Intelligence?
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-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: 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
for an informal survey of people (including fellow students, parents, etc.) regarding the issue of
animal language:
1) Do you believe that animals have language?

a. If so, what specific species?
2) Why or why not?
3) 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 #3 may be interesting, enlightening, and even
humorous.

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 6.10. 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 they 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
testings. 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.
Activity: Is There a Racial Difference in Intelligence?

A debate related to that above is the more focused question of whether there are racial differences
in intelligence. Taking Sides provides a starting point for this volatile issue. J. Philippe Rushton
argues that the correlation between brain size and intelligence can help explain his position that
blacks are genetically predetermined to have lower intelligence levels, whereas Zack Cernovsky
argues that the correlation is weak and the overall evidence is dubious, at best. In short, this debate
topic, like the previous one, will help students examine issues raised in the text, such as the nature
versus nurture argument and the role of culture in learning and intelligence.
Slife, B. (1998). Taking sides: Clashing views on controversial psychological issues
(10th ed.). Guilford, CT: Dushkin Publishing Group.

▼ HANDOUT MASTERS
Handout Master 6.1: The Hospital Room Problem
Handout Master 6.2: Breaking Sets in Problem-Solving
Handout Master 6.3: Availability Heuristics
Handout Master 6.4: Insight
Handout Master 6.5: The Nine Dot Problem
Handout Master 5.6: Luchins’ Water Jar Problem
Handout Master 5.7: What Is Intelligence?
Handout Master 5.8 A. Multiple Intelligences and B. Measuring Interpersonal Intelligence
Handout Master 5.9 Emotional Intelligence Test
Handout Master 6.10 The Chitling Intelligence Test
Handout Master 6.1
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 6
▲Return to Chapter 6: Table of Contents
Handout Master 6.2

Breaking Sets in Problem-Solving
Think of a problem. Describe it concisely, and 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

▼Return to List of Handout Masters for Chapter 6
▲Return to Chapter 6: Table of Contents
Handout Master 6.3

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?
Commented [MW1]: Okay?
r First position Commented [SJS2R1]: Fixed
r 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?
Commented [MW3]:
k First position
k 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

▼ Return to List of Handout Masters for Chapter 6
Handout Master 6.4

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 10-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, indigenous peoples living in the Arctic will never eat a penguin’s
egg. Why not?
► Return to Activity: Insight

Handout Master 6.5

The Nine Dot Problem
Without lifting your pencil from the paper, draw exactly four straight, connected lines that will
go through all nine dots but through each dot only once.
⚫ ⚫ ⚫
⚫ ⚫ ⚫
⚫
⚫ ⚫
Handout Master 5.6

Luchins’ Water Jar Problem
Instructions: For each of the following seven problems, use some combination of the jars (i.e., by
adding or subtracting quantities of liquid) to obtain the target amount listed in the goal column.
The capacity of Jars A, B, and C for each problem is listed below.
Problem Jar A Jar B Jar C Goal
1 24 130 3 100
2 9 44 7 21
3 21 58 4 29
4 12 160 25 98
5 19 75 5 46
6 23 49 3 20
7 18 48 4 22
Source: Matlin, M. W. (1994). Cognition (3rd ed.). Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace.
Handout Master 5.7

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

Handout Master 5.8
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:
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

Handout Master 5.9

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: EQ Test

Handout Master 6.10

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.
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

WEB RESOURCES
Intelligence
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.
Darwin Awards: http://www.darwinawards.com

“Darwin Awards commemorate those who improve our gene pool by removing themselves from
it in really stupid ways.”
Intelligence: http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/cognition/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.skeptic.com/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.
Mensa International: http://www.mensa.org

Organization for high-IQ-scoring individuals. See how the top 2% spend their time in this
organization.
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.
BIAS
An encyclopedia/dictionary of important terms: http://skepdic.com/confirmbias.html
HERITABILITY
Stanford University’s site for the discussion of important ideas:

http://Plato.stanford.edu/entries/heredity
Problem-Solving
Anagram Server: http://www.wordsmith.org/anagram/index.html

Find anagrams for any word.

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Psychology Core Concepts 8th Edition Zimbardo Solutions Manual 1

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Psychology Core Concepts 8th Edition

Zimbardo Solutions Manual

Solution Manual: https://testbankpack.com/p/solution-manual-for-

Test Bank: https://testbankpack.com/p/test-bank-for-psychology-

▼ FULL CHAPTER RESOURCES

6.1 Lecture Outline: Concepts

6.1.1. Two Kinds of Concepts

6.1.2. Concept Hierarchies

6.1.3. Culture, Concepts, and Thought

6.2 Lecture Outline: Imagery and Cognitive Maps

6.3 Lecture Outline: Thought and the Brain

6.4 Lecture Outline: Intuition

6.4.1 When Can You Rely on Intuition?

6.5 Lecture Outline: Problem Solving

6.5.1. Identifying the Problem

6.5.2. Selecting a Strategy

6.5.3. Some Useful Heuristics

2. Searching for Analogies

3. Breaking a Big Problem into Smaller Problems

6.5.4. Obstacles to Problem Solving

6.6 Lecture Outline: Judging and Making Decisions

6.6.1. Confirmation Bias

6.6.2. Hindsight Bias

6.6.3. Anchoring Bias

6.6.4. Representativeness Bias

6.6.5. Availability Bias

6.6.6. The Tyranny of Choice

6.6.7. Decision-Making and Critical Thinking

6.7 Lecture Outline: Becoming a Creative Genius

➢ Although experts cannot agree on an exact definition of creativity, it is generally agreed

6.7.1. A Genius is Not Superhuman

6.7.2. Knowledge and Understanding

6.7.3. Aptitudes, Personality Characteristics, and Creativity

6.7.4. The Role of Intelligence in Creativity

PSYCHOLOGY MATTERS: Using Psychology to Learn Psychology

6.9.1. The Appeal of Intelligence Testing in America

6.9.2. The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale

6.9.3. Problems with the IQ Formula

6.9.4. Calculating IQs “on the Curve”

6.9.5. IQ Testing Today

PSYCHOLOGY MATTERS: What Can You Do for an Exceptional Child?

6.10 Lecture Outline: Psychometric Theories of Intelligence

➢ Psychometrics is the field of mental measurements.

6.10.1. Spearman’s g Factor

6.10.2. Cattell’s Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence

6.11 Lecture Outline: Cognitive Theories of Intelligence

6.11.1. Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory

6.11.2. Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences

6.11.3. Assessing Cognitive Theories of Intelligence

6.12 Lecture Outline: Cultural Definitions of Intelligence

6.12.1. African Concepts of Intelligence

6.12.2. A Native American Concept of Intelligence

6.13 Lecture Outline: The Question of Animal Intelligence

6.13.1. What Abilities Make Humans Unique?

6.13.2. Language of the Apes

PSYCHOLOGY MATTERS: Test Scores and the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

➢ Intelligence and the Politics of Immigration

6.14 Lecture Outline: What Evidence Shows That Intelligence Is Influenced

➢ Many lines of research indicate a hereditary influence on intelligence.

6.15 Lecture Outline: What Evidence Shows That Intelligence Is Influenced

6.16 Lecture Outline: Heritability (not Heredity) and Group Differences

6.16.1. The Jensen Controversy

6.16.2. The Scarr and Weinberg Adoption Study

6.16.3. Social Class and IQ