Thinking, Intelligence and Creativity Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The error is the confirmatory (confirmation) bias.

Confirmation bias is the tendency to seek, notice and remember evidence that supports what one already believes, while neglecting evidence that could disprove it. Wason's selection task showed it neatly: most people turn over cards that could confirm a rule instead of those that could falsify it.

Deductive reasoning is drawing conclusions that follow necessarily from premises. Affirming the consequent is the invalid inference 'if p then q; q; therefore p', and affirming the antecedent (modus ponens) is a valid form of argument. Neither describes selective search for supporting evidence.

Answer: C

The one that is not a theory of reasoning is prospect theory.

Prospect theory, by Kahneman and Tversky (1979), is a theory of decision making under risk. It explains how people value gains and losses relative to a reference point, with losses weighing more heavily than equal gains.

The other three are accounts of how people reason: the mental models theory (Johnson-Laird) says reasoners build and test models of the possibilities; mental logic theories (Braine, Rips) propose built-in inference rules; and the probabilistic approach (Oaksford and Chater) treats reasoning as judging probabilities.

Answer: A

The correct match is P-3, Q-4, R-1, S-2.

• Sternberg's triarchic theory includes contextual (practical) intelligence.
• Raymond Cattell distinguished fluid from crystallized intelligence.
• Guilford's structure-of-intellect model contrasts convergent with divergent thinking.
• Wechsler's scales give a verbal and a performance intelligence quotient.

Each other option puts at least one theorist against a concept from someone else's model, for example Cattell with convergent thinking.

Answer: D

The key calls this barrier functional fixedness.

Functional fixedness is the tendency to see an object only in terms of its usual function, which stops the solver representing it in the new way the problem needs. Duncker's candle problem is the classic case: people fail to see the box of tacks as a shelf because they represent it only as a container. Being stuck on one interpretation is exactly that kind of fixed representation.

An algorithm is a step-by-step procedure that guarantees a solution, not a barrier, and 'algorithm interference', 'blocked solution path' and 'the representational problem' are not the standard name of this barrier.

Answer: C

DIQ, the deviation IQ, is a measure of intelligence in standard scores.

Wechsler replaced the ratio IQ with the deviation IQ: a person's score is compared with the scores of his or her own age group and expressed as a standard score with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15 (16 in the old Stanford-Binet). It shows how far, in standard deviations, a person is from the age-group average.

The ratio IQ, mental age divided by chronological age times 100, is the older measure that DIQ replaced. DIQ is not a measure of any disorder.

Answer: C

Concepts are learned through (1) generalisation and (4) discrimination.

Forming a concept requires two processes working together. Generalisation lets the learner treat different instances that share the defining features as members of the same concept (different dogs are all 'dog'). Discrimination lets the learner tell members apart from non-members that look similar (a wolf is not a dog).

Classification and categorization describe the outcome, the placing of an item in a concept, rather than the learning processes by which the concept is acquired, which is why the options containing them are not keyed.

Answer: B

Spearman's theory treats intelligence as a global, unitary ability.

Spearman found that scores on different mental tests are all positively correlated and explained this by a general factor, g, common to all intellectual tasks, plus a specific factor, s, peculiar to each test. Since s varies from test to test, intelligence in his account is essentially the single general ability g.

Multiple abilities describe Gardner's theory, a set of primary abilities is Thurstone's, and the 120 combinations are Guilford's structure-of-intellect model.

Answer: B

Hema is using a heuristic.

A heuristic is a mental shortcut or rule of thumb that usually leads to a good solution quickly but does not guarantee it. 'The most expensive brand is the best' saves her from comparing every product, but it can be wrong.

An algorithm is a step-by-step procedure that guarantees the right answer, such as testing every cosmetic. Framing effects (printed 'farming effects') concern how wording changes choices, and functional fixedness is seeing objects only in their usual use; neither is a price rule of thumb.

Answer: A

Galton wanted to show that intelligence was determined by heredity.

Francis Galton, Darwin's cousin, argued in Hereditary Genius (1869) that eminence ran in families and so intelligence was inherited. He set up an anthropometric laboratory to measure reaction time, sensory acuity and other simple capacities, believing these reflected inherited mental ability, and he founded the eugenics movement on the same belief.

He gave little weight to experience, so options crediting experience, alone or jointly, do not describe his aim.

Answer: C

The correct match is P-4, Q-3, R-2, S-1.

• Guilford's structure-of-intellect model classifies abilities by content, operations and products.
• Raymond Cattell proposed fluid intelligence (with crystallized).
• Wechsler's scales separate a performance factor from the verbal factor.
• Binet's scale, as later analysed, is treated as a measure of the general 'g' factor.

Guilford and content-operations is the surest pair, and only option C gives P-4.