Beyond the Book

Chapter Eight:Thinking, Language, and Intelligence

1.Thinking. Participate in one of the cognitive psychology experiments online at http://psych.hanover.edu/research/exponnet.html or How did participation in the study help expand your understanding of cognitive science? Describe your experience to the members of your study group and compare your experience to those of the other members of the group.

2.Problem Solving. The SureMath website (http://www.hawaii.edu/suremath/students1.html) claims that you can solve problems easily and reliably, you only need to take the time to understand how problems are solved. Try some of their problem solving recommendations. Did you find that your problem solving abilities improved? Do you find the claims of this site justified? Why or Why not? Compare your experience with those of the other members of your study group.

3.Decision Making. Do you have a decision you’re currently struggling to make? Maybe it’s what to major in, or whether to go out for a sport that you played in the past? presents a multitude of decision making techniques. Read through at least three of these techniques. Do you think any of them would help you make decisions? Why or why not? How does your usual decision-making process stack up against these techniques?

4.Language. Have you ever known someone claim that a pet could “speak” or understand English of another language? Did the pet really “speak”? Did the pet really understand language? What was the nature of the evidence presented to convince you? What was your conclusion? Visit the websites on animal language listed below. Did your view on animal language change after your visits to these websites? Report your findings in a one-page position paper.

http://pubpages.unh.edu/~jel/apelang.html

http://www.santafe.edu/~johnson/articles.chimp.html

  1. Language: Bilingualism. Interview someone whose first language was not English. What were his/her educational experiences like? What method of bilingual education was he/she exposed to? Was it effective? Was he/she successful in their education—in other words did he/she graduate? How fluent is his/her English? Compare your findings with those of others in your class. What do your findings suggest about bilingual education?

6.Intelligence. Visit the following websites and read the reviews of The Bell Curve. Prepare a two-page essay that briefly summarizes and evaluates the major points of each article. In your conclusion provide your final evaluation of the controversy.

Howard Gardner on The Bell Curve:

Professor Julian Paul Keenan’s views on The Bell Curve:

A variety of essays on The Bell Curve:

7.The Measurement of Intelligence. You have probably taken a number of intelligence tests—most of which were group tests. What were the experiences like? Were you informed as to how well you did? Do you believe that the test assessed you fairly or arrived at an accurate estimate of your intelligence? Take two of the online IQ tests at the links below. Are the scores the same? How accurate do you think these are?

“Uncommonly Difficult IQ Tests”

Q-Tests

Wizard Realm

Self Discovery Workshop

Queendom.com

8.Creativity. Do you consider yourself to be creative? Why or Why not? Justify your answer by describing the characteristics of creativity. Do you think that you could become more creative? Visit the Creativity Web at to find information to help you become more creative. After examining these resources, did you change your mind about your own level of creativity? Which resources did you find helpful? Present a report to your study group in how they might improve their creativity based on your findings.

9.Multiple Intelligences. Are you curious about Dr. Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences? Perhaps Dr. Gardner has already answered your question(s); they may be available at his frequently asked questions website ( Pick the three questions that you find most intriguing and write up a summary of the answers. If your own question remains unanswered, perhaps you’d like to jot Dr. Gardner an email; perhaps your question and his answer may end up appearing in a future version of his FAQs!

10.Nature and Nurture in Intelligence: The Mozart Effect. Research has been conducted on the “Mozart Effect,” the possibility that listening to classical music increases a person’s intelligence. Use your favorite web search engine (e.g., or to conduct a search using the term “Mozart Effect.” Does the data suggest that early music exposure will provide children with the sweet sounds of success? Why or why not? Prepare a report for your class on your findings.