Ch. 2 Social Cognition

Question 1

Heuristics

Answer 1

simple Rules for Drawing Inferences and Making Decisions in a relatively effortless manner.

Question 2

Conditions of Uncertainty

Answer 2

Where the correct answer is Not Obvious or would require a great deal of Effort to Asses.

Question 3

Prototype

Answer 3

a Summary of Common Attributes possessed by members of a category.

Question 4

Base Rates

Answer 4

The frequency of occurrence.

Question 5

Information Overload:

What is it and How do we deal with it?

Answer 5

occurs when the Demands on our cognitive systems are Greater than its Capacity.

To deal with this condition, we often Reduce the efforts we expend on Social Cognition - how we think about others and events.

Question 6

The Representative Heuristic:

What is it and What does it suggest?

Answer 6

a strategy for making judgments based on The Extent that Current Stimuli/Events Resembles other stimuli or events.

> it suggests that the more similar a person is to a groups prototype, the more likely that this person will be seen as belonging to that group.

Question 7

List 2 reasons why the representative heuristic is often accurate and 1 condition in which it leads to erroneous decisions and judgments.

Answer 7

The representative heuristic is often accurate because:

1. Belonging to a group affects the attitudes and behaviors of its members, and
2. Individuals with certain traits are drawn to specific groups in the first place.

Under conditions in which Base Rates are ignored - despite their relevance - leads individuals to erroneous decisions and judgments.

Question 8

The Availability Heuristic:

What is it and What does it suggest?

Answer 8

a strategy for making judgments based on How Easily Information Comes to Mind.

> it suggests that The Easier it is for Information to come to mind the Greater its Impact will be On one’s Evaluations and subsequent Behavior.

> both the strength and quantity of the information affect the magnitude of their impact.

> > judgments involving emotions and feelings typically rely on the:
“easy” of retrieval;
judgments involving facts or tasks with inherent difficulty tend to rely on the:
“amount” of information retrieved.

Question 9

Why is the availability heuristic sometimes erroneous and Who are we most likely to apply it to?

Answer 9

It can lead us to overestimate the likelihood of rare and dramatic events.

We are most likely to apply this heuristic to ourselves rather than to those whom we are less familiar with.

Question 10

Anchoring and Adjusting Heuristic:
What does this heuristic rely on and involve?
Who does it affect the most?

Answer 10

Relies on our Tendency to Avoid Effortful cognitive work, and
Involves our Tendency to Use Numbers as a starting point to which we then make adjustments.

• when adjustments are made, they’re typically insufficient in overcoming initial anchors.

> this tendency is greatest for individuals less capable of engaging in effortful thought.

Question 11

Status Quo Heuristic:

What is it and How does it affect our judgments?

Answer 11

is a Cognitive Bias that Explains our Preference for Familiarity.

objects n’ opinions more easily retrieved from memory may be judged in a heuristic fashion of ‘Good’ or ‘Bad’:

> Objects/opinions that are: 
 - New, 
 - Rarely encountered, or 
 - Represent change to the status quo
   are judged less favorably than those that are more familiar to us - thus, heuristically 'good'.

> > ‘New’ is consistently subjected to greater scrutiny. Therefore, potential flaws become more obvious.

Question 12

Schemas: What are they and How do they affect cognition?

Answer 12

schemas are mental Frameworks - Formed from Experience - which Organize information.

They affect cognition through their effects on our:

• attention (info we notice),
• encoding (processes used to store info), and
• retrieval (the pathways used to recover stored info).

> info that is Consistent w/ current schemas is most likely to be Noticed.

> info that is the Focus of our Attention is most likely to be stored in Long-Term Memory - however, information that is Inconsistent with current schemas may Force a mental note and stored with a special ‘Tag’.

> people have a tendency to Report information that is consistent with their current schemas
***Depending on priming and which memory measure is employed.

Question 13

Priming:

When does it occur and How are its effects reduced?

Answer 13

when a situation or event Increases:
> The Availability of Memory or Consciousness
Regarding Specific Types of information stored in one’s memory.

The effects of priming persist until they have been unprimed - finding expression through thoughts or behaviors.

Question 14

Perseverance Effect

Answer 14

The tendency for our beliefs and schemas to remain unchanged even in the presence of contradictory evidence.

Question 15

Self-fulfilling Effects

Answer 15

our Tendency to Behave in ways that Create Confirming experiences to our expectations.

Question 16

Metaphors

Answer 16

Linguistic Devices that relate an abstract concept to another dissimilar concept - which shape how we perceive and respond.

Question 17

The Optimistic Bias:

What is it and Why might it occur?

Answer 17

the optimistic bias is our Predisposition to Overlook Risks and Expect Positive Outcomes:

We expect that, in comparison to others, we are more likely to experience positive outcomes and less likely to experience negative outcomes.

> > may occur in part because when we think about the future Unexpected Possibilities Aren’t Salient - instead, we focus on desired goals and personal happiness.

Question 18

The Planning Fallacy:

What is it and Why does it occur?

Answer 18

Reflects our tendency to make optimistic predictions regarding how long projects will take to complete.

It occurs repeatedly because:

> we fail to consider unforeseen obstacles - and when we do consider the past, we attribute late outcomes to ‘unusual’ circumstances.

> when we’re motivated and have a desire to complete a task we often fail to factor in the time-consuming steps required to do so.

Question 19

The Overconfidence Bias:

What is it and where might it stem from?

Answer 19

our Tendency to have Greater Confidence in the Accuracy of our judgments than is reasonable.

Errors of Omission
> that is, we lack the relevant feedback and essential information that would help moderate our confidence

Question 20

Counterfactual Thinking:

What is it, What encourages such thinking, and What are its effects on affect and subsequent behaviors?

Answer 20

our Tendency to Imagine Other Outcomes for a situation other than the one that actually occurred.

the belief in Free Will encourages counterfactual thinking.

Upward counterfactuals:
> may induce Feelings of Dissatisfaction which could Motivate Us to perform better in future situations.

Downward counterfactuals:
> often results in positive affect.

counterfactuals can Reduce the Bitterness of outcomes when we Adjust our Perceptions to view the situation as Inevitable.

Question 21

Magical Thinking:

What is it, What does it assume, & Where might it stem from?

Answer 21

Thinking that Involves Assumptions that DO NOT hold up to Rational Scrutiny.

It assumes that:
> One’s thoughts can influence the physical world, and
> Our actions - or lack there of - will Tempt Fate and can increase the likelihood of negative (or positive) events.

May stem from Terror Management
» one form of magical thinking - believing in the supernatural - may be our efforts to cope with our awareness that one day we will die.

Question 22

Mood Dependent Memory

Answer 22

Reflects what’s retrieved.

> information learned when in a positive or negative affect will be more easily recalled while experiencing a similar affective state.

Info learned while in a positive state will be more easily remembered when in a positive state (same as negative affective states).

Question 23

Mood Congruent Memory

Answer 23

Determines what we notice and remember.

We are more likely to remember:
> positive information while in a positive state, and
> negative information when in a negative state.

Question 24

Affective Forecasting:

What are they and Why are they often incorrect?

Answer 24

Predictions about how we’ll feel in events not yet experienced.

forecasting and experiencing Differ in the way they Process Information - they’re based in two different brain regions.

Rational Cognition is responsive to:
> abstract symbols;
> thus, forecasting is dependent on scale.

Emotions are responsive to:
> concrete images and immediate experience;
> thus, affect is dependent on the scope.

Question 25

The Two Factor Theory of Emotion:

Answer 25

It states that we often do not know the nature of our own feelings - instead, we infer their nature from the external world.

Question 26

How are Heuristic Strategies Employed?

Answer 26

due to our Limited Capacity to process information, heuristics are often employed when experiencing Information Overload and Under Conditions of Uncertainty.

we are also More Likely to think heuristically When In a Positive Affective state.

We employ the:
> Representativeness: to make Judgments about the Probability of an event,

> Prototypes to Assess the Likelihood of something or someone Belonging to a category,

> Availability Allows people to Quickly Arrive at a Conclusion,

Question 27

Describe the Role of Schemas in Guiding our Thoughts and Behaviors.

Answer 27

Schemas are basic components of social cognition.

These mental frameworks, formed through our experiences, help us organize social information.

> Once Formed, schemas Exert Powerful Effects on what we Notice, what Enters Memory, and is Remembered.

> Once Primed - conscious or not - Trigger Actions Consistent with them - unpriming reduces their effects.

> they tend to Show a strong Perseverance Effect and Exert Self-fulfilling Effects, causing us to behave in ways that confirm them.

> the schema that Guides Depends On Strength and Priming.

Question 28

Distinguish between Automatic and Controlled Processing.

Answer 28

Evaluative reactions can occur in 2 ways:
> simple ‘good/bad’ rapid judgments, or
> weighing out all the options.

Controlled processing is:

• systematic, logical, and highly effortful.
• it occurs in the medial and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex’s.

Automatic processing is:

• rapid, heuristic, intuitive, relatively effortless.
• it occurs in the amygdala and limbic system.

> An advantage of automatic processing is that it’s:
> less prone to cognitive overload.

Therefore, it can account for various dimensions and elements of information that conscious thought may incorrectly weigh - resulting in more satisfactory outcomes that reflect our true preferences.

Question 29

Evaluate the imperfections of the social cognitive processes.

Answer 29

Judgments people make often systematically deviate from perfect rational in a number of ways.

We have biases that are quite general in their nature, such as:
> the optimistic bias, and
> the overconfidence bias
As well as tendencies that are more specific in their nature, including:
> the planning fallacy - and example of our optimism
> counterfactual thinking, and
> magical thinking.

Question 30

Assess how Affect Influences Cognition.

Answer 30

• our current Moods influence our Perceptions, Interpretations, and the Attributions we make for others, Thus, they Affect our Subsequent Interactions.
• the Extent to which we Think Systematically or Heuristically can influence Memory.
  > via mood congruence effects and mood dependent memory.

> when we’re in a positive affect we tend to process heuristically - whereas - when we’re experiencing a negative effect we tend to pay more attention to the words and content of the msg, thus, more alert to deception.

Question 31

Assses how Cognition Influences Affect.

Answer 31

Cognition influences affect through:

• our Interpretation of Emotion-provoking events, and through
• the Activation of Schemas Containing strong Affective components

> > the Two - Factor Theory of Emotion suggests that we don’t know our feelings or attitudes directly, instead, we infer them from the external world.

> > How we Think about others and who we think they are Tells us How we will Feel about such persons.

in addition:
* we employ many Cognitive Techniques to Regulate our emotions or feelings.

Question 32

Though affect and cognition are closely intertwined, what does cognitive neuroscience indicate?

Answer 32

Neuroscience indicates that there are distinct brain regions and systems involved for each affect and cognition.

i.e. Affective Forecasts:
> made using the cognitive system, but
> respond to with the emotional system while experiencing those events.