IntroDiscussion#3GeneralFeedback

First, define the following: 

(I'm adding this one) Behavior: Practical means of coordinating/adapting with the environment.  Behavior isn't meaningful without knowing a bit about the context.  For example, flipping someone off could be either mean spirited or flirting, depending on the context.

Cognition: It's like behavior (as I have described it) but at a higher order (or class) of coordinating with the environment.  We typically consider the following list parts of cognition.

Perception: a cognitive process where meaning is ascribed (given to) sensations.  Typically has a component of awareness.

Memory: The ability to re-create a context cognitively. Consider the word "remember".  Break it down this way:  re-member.  What does it mean to "member"? It means to distinguish.  A "member" is distinct from other "members".  Re-member is another way of saying to 're-distinguish'.  We do this cognitively.

Thinking:  A catch all word for any cognitive process.  I would include the word 'reflection' here.

Language: This gives us the ability of perspective, of being able to create an experience through the use of symbols and sounds, an experience that we can point to, so to speak, as separate from direct sensation.  Language is also "culturally coordinating, culturally coordinated behavior" (say that 5 times fast) where behavior might be an infant wiggling; coordinated behavior is wiggling to scratch one's face; culturally coordinated behavior would be like playing patty-cake, or shaking hands, or smiling in response to a smile, or using simple words to name things; while culturally coordinating, culturally coordinated behavior is flipping someone off to flirt.

Problem solving: a more reasoned based form of thinking.  Using logic, intuition, and creativity to essentially change something or to discover something.

(I'm adding this one) Personality:  All of the above as a consistent way to coordinate with our environment behaviorally, cognitively, linguistically.

One of my assumptions in this definitional exercise is that our nervous system cannot tell the difference between "perception" and "reality."

Third, read this NY Times article titled Memory Training Shown to Turn Up Brainpower and in 5 sentences or less, identify the main point and its consequence from the article, and then suggest or hypothesize why "intelligence has always been considered principally an immutable inherited trait." Five points for main point/consequence, 3 points for hypothesis, 2 points for spelling/grammar/clarity.

Main point is that it may now be possible to train our fluid intelligence for better performance with a relatively simple game of concentration.  As for a hypothesis, we've simply never really seen evidence that fluid intelligence can be improved much after early adulthood.