Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Thinking & Memory, Nature vs Nurture?, No significant relationship…
Thinking & Memory
Thinking
Problem solving methods
Algorithm
A methodical, step-by-step procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem (e.g., math formula, recipes)
- Slower but more accurate than heuristic
Heuristic
Rule of thumb (judgemental shortcuts), based on prior experiences, that suggests a course of action without guaranteeing an optimal solution.
- Four types
- Representativeness
- Availability
- Working backward
- Sub-goals
Representativeness Heuristic
A rule of thumb for judging the probability of membership in a category by how well an object/person is representative of that category
- Tendency to overgeneralize from few characteristics or observations
Availability Heuristic
Estimating the frequency or likelihood of an event based on immediate examples that come to mind
- if something can be recalled it must be important
Working Backward
Attempting to solve a problem by working from the goal backward to the starting point
Sub-goals
Breaking large problem into smaller, more manageable goals, so that as each sub-goal is achieved, the final solution is that much closer
-
Trial & Error
Trying several solutions until one works (e.g., trying to recall a password)
Barriers
Functional Fixedness
Fixated on thinking about objects only in terms of their typical functions resulting in a mental block
-
Confirmation Bias
Tendency to favour information that confirms one’s existing beliefs or theories, while ignoring any contradicting evidence
- E.g., Reading your horoscope and looking for things that agree with what was said to justify what you read
Types of thinking
-
-
Creative thinking
Combination of flexibility in thinking and reorganization of understanding to produce innovative ideas and new solutions
Reasoning
Purposeful mental activity that involves drawing conclusions from observations, facts, or assumptions.
Formal reasoning
Algorithms & formal logic (e.g., IQ test, MCQ exam); problems with one (best) solution
Informal reasoning
Heuristics; problems often with no single correct solution that require evaluation of opposing points view (dialectical reasoning)
Reflective Judgement (Critical Thinking)
Ability to evaluate and integrate evidence, consider alternative interpretations and reach a defensible conclusion. Many people never develop this ability
-
Intelligence
The ability to learn from experience, acquire
knowledge, act purposefully, or adapt to new situations
Theories
- Spearman’s General Intelligence Factor (g factor)
- Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences
- Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence
Emotional Intelligence
The ability to perceive, understand, manage and
use emotions
- Can be acquired
- To perceive and appraise
- To access and evoke emotions
- To comprehend emotional language and make use of emotional information
- To regulate one’s own and others’ emotions
Measurement
-
Stanford-Binet Test
- Yields IQ score (MA/CA X 100), score of 100 is average
- Assesses variety of verbal and nonverbal skills • Composite score estimate of g factor (general intelligence)
- Comprises 10 subtests, assessing reasoning (verbal, quantitative, visual/abstract) and memory (short-term)
- In its 5th revision
Wechsler Tests
- Developed to address Stanford-Binet’s test criticisms (e.g., 1 score, child-focused)
- Age-based intelligence tests
- WAIS (adults); WISC (children); WPPSI (preschool children)
- In its 4th revision, most popular IQ test
-
-
Usefulness
- Generally valid for predicting academic success & job performance
- Identifies people who differ greatly from those of average intelligence (intelligence extremes)
- Neuropsychology
- Head injury, learning disabilities, neuropsychological disorders
- Culturally-fair (not completely free of cultural bias)
- Word of caution: IQ tests need to be administered and interpreted by well-trained and specialist psychologists
Extremes
Intellectual Disability
- Deficits in mental ability (IQ < 70) & adaptive behaviour
- Causes of developmental delay include
- Chromosome & genetic disorders (e.g., down syndrome, fragile X syndrome, fetal alcohol syndrome)
- Deprived environments
- Drug and alcohol
- Dietary deficiencies
Giftedness
- IQ ≥ 130 (top 2% upper end of curve), IQ>140: geniuses
- Giftedness generally guarantees success
- Gifted children typically develop into well-adjusted adults, except when pushed to achieve at young ages
- Geniuses: some social & behavioural adjustment problems
-
Memory
Active system that encodes information received from the senses, organises and stores the information, and then retrieves it when required
-
Information Processing Model
Information for storage is processed in series of 3 stages (Stage Model)
- Model with a “big-picture” view of memory system
- Memory comprises 3 systems (stages)
- Sensory memory
- Short term memory
- Long term memory
-
Short Term Memory
- Memory’s “notepad”; holds information briefly (~30 secs)
- Selective attention: entry ticket for information to be transferred from sensory to STM (focused attention)
- Working Memory: processes information in STM
- STM capacity is limited
Boosts
-
Rehearsal
Repeating bits of information in one’s head to maintain it in STM
- Rehearsal & STM susceptible to interference
- If counting interrupted have to start over
- If introduced to group of people, tend to remember the first few people
Long Term Memory
Relatively permanent and limitless memory depot of well learned and rehearsed information
Types
- Explicit / Declarative: Conscious recall of factual information (“knowing that”)
- Semantic Memory: general knowledge
- Episodic Memory: personal recollections
- Implicit / Non-declarative: does not require conscious recall, but implicit in actions (“knowing how to”)
- Procedural Memory: motor skills & habits
- Conditioned Memory: automatic conditioned responses
- Priming: retrieval based on earlier experience
-
Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP) Model
Simultaneous processing of information across multiple neural networks
Levels-of-Processing Model
Information is processed according to its meaning; deeper level of processing→ longer retention
Conditions
Organic amnesia
- Physical damage to the brain (due to disease, accident, surgery, or drugs) causing memory loss
- Retrograde: loss of memory for events that occurred before the injury or onset of disease
- Anterograde: inability to form new memories after the injury or onset of disease
Alzheimer's Disease
Irreversible, progressive brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills, and eventually the ability to carry out the simplest task
- Starts as anterograde amnesia but as disease progresses retrograde amnesia can occur as well
- Worldwide, nearly 44 million (only 1 in 4 diagnosed)
- No cure, but various drugs for slowing or stopping progression
- Risk factors include: ↑cholesterol, ↑blood pressure, smoking, obesity, Type II diabetes
Infantile Amnesia
Inability to remember clearly or accurately the first years of life (prior to age of 3)
- Relating to explicit memories
- Explicit memories are retained after development of
- One’s personal story (autobiographical memory)
- Language acquisition
Psychogenic amnesia
Loss of memory and important personal information due to a traumatic event (abuse in childhood, witnessing murder as an adult)
- Brain blocks ability to recall the event
- No physiological basis for disruption (not organic)
- Retrograde amnesia woman witnessing a murder: forgets her name, identity, how she got to that place
Healthy Memory
- Sleep
- Sleep deprivation severely interferes with hippocampal function and memory
- New information better consolidated while sleeping
- Diet – Food rich in:
- Omega-3 fatty acid helps memory cells communicate (e.g., salmon, tuna, walnuts)
- Antioxidants (e.g., blueberries, spinach, green tea)
- Vitamin B (e.g., spinach, broccoli, soybeans)
- Exercise
- Improves learning and mental performance
- Higher cardio vascular activity ↑verbal memory
- Aerobic training ↑ brain connectivity
- Helps prevent and treat dementia, Alzheimer's & brain aging • Reduces sensitivity to stress, depression and anxiety
Behavioural Techniques
- Rehearse and test new material
- Make material meaningful (form stories)
- Activate retrieval cues to jog your memory
- Use mnemonics (chunking, acronyms, rhymes)
- Minimise interference (study before sleep)
- Interleaving (avoid back-to-back study of same subject/s)
-
- No significant relationship between ethnicity & IQ
- Environmental influences on intelligence:
- poor prenatal care
- malnutrition
- exposure to toxins
- stressful family circumstances
- living in an impoverished & disadvantaged neighbourhood
- Intellectual performance is strongly influenced by motivation and self-discipline
- Influenced by cultural expectations, attitudes toward education and beliefs about origins of mental abilities