Exam 7: Section 3: Thinking, Language, and Intelligence

Charles Spearman believed that a factor he called "general intelligence," or the g factor, was responsible for people's overall performance on tests of mental ability.

It is now generally recognized that it is virtually impossible to design a test that is completely culture-free because intelligence itself is not free from cultural influences.

Only spoken language requires the use of symbols.

When people are motivated by external rewards, such as money or grades, they are displaying intrinsic motivation.

One important property of language is displacement, meaning that speakers can generate an infinite number of new and different phrases and sentences.

In Sternberg's triarchic theory of intelligence, analytic intelligence involves the ability to adapt to the environment and reflects "street smarts."

By being flexible and imaginative, people seeking creative solutions generate many different responses. This approach is called divergent thinking because it involves moving away from the problem and considering it from a variety of perspectives.

When people accept only evidence that conforms to their belief, while rejecting or ignoring any evidence that does not conform, they are demonstrating the belief-bias effect.

Research has shown that just imagining a face or place activates the same brain region that is activated when a person perceives a face or a place.

Philip, who displays the hallmark characteristics of autism spectrum disorder, is likely to have a high level of mathematical skill and a low score on the Raven's Progressive Matrices test.

According to the In Focus box on neurodiversity, about 10 percent of people with autism are savants who have some extraordinary talent or ability in math, music, or art.

People diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder are likely to have communication problems, be unresponsive to social interactions, engage in repetitive or odd motor behaviors, and have restricted routines and interests.

Forming a mental image of a face or a place activates a brain area called the fusiform facial area (FFA), whereas actually perceiving a face or a place activates a brain area called the parahippocampal place area (PPA).

Standardization is the process of administering a test to a large, representative sample of people under uniform conditions for the purpose of establishing norms.

Cognition refers to the mental activities involved in acquiring, retaining, and using knowledge.

Comparative cognition is a field of psychology that focuses on aspects of animal behavior, including memory, problem solving, planning, and cooperation.

A key step in effective problem solving is to consider all possible solutions for a problem.

Research has shown that the underlying cause of stereotype threat is that people experience social functional fixedness, which interferes with effective communication in diverse social situations.

People tend to believe evidence that confirms what they want to believe is true, a phenomenon that is sometimes called the wishful thinking bias.

Unlike formal concepts, natural concepts tend to have "fuzzy boundaries."