CH 4 Social Cognition

Question 1

Pluralistic ignorance

Answer 1

Misperception of a group norm that results from observing people who are acting at variance with their private beliefs out of a concern for the social consequences – actions that reinforce the erroneous group norm. (page 112)

Question 2

Primacy effect

Answer 2

The disproportionate influence on judgment by information presented first in a body of evidence. (page 117)

Question 3

Recency effect

Answer 3

The disproportionate influence on judgment by information presented last in a body of evidence. (page 117)

Question 4

Framing effect

Answer 4

The influence on judgment resulting from the way information is presented, such as the order of presentation or how it is worded. (page 117)

Question 5

Construal level theory

Answer 5

A theory that outlines the relationship between psychological distance and the concreteness versus abstraction of thought. Psychologically distant actions and events are thought about in abstract terms; actions and events that are close at hand are thought about in concrete terms. (page 120)

Question 6

Confirmation bias

Answer 6

The tendency to test a proposition by searching for evidence that would support it. (page 121)

Question 7

Bottom-up processes

Answer 7

‘Data-driven” mental processing, in which an individual forms conclusions based on the stimuli encountered through experience. (page 124)

Question 8

Top-down processes

Answer 8

‘Theory-driven” mental processing, in which an individual filters and interprets new information in light of preexisting knowledge and expectations. (page 124)

Question 9

Encoding

Answer 9

Filing information away in memory based on what information is attended to and the initial interpretation of the information. (page 126)

Question 10

Retrieval

Answer 10

The extraction of information from memory. (page 126)

Question 11

Prime

Answer 11

To momentarily activate a concept and hence make it accessible. (Also used as a noun – a stimulus presented to activate a concept.) (page 129)

Question 12

Subliminal

Answer 12

Below the threshold of conscious awareness. (page 132)

Question 13

Self-fulfilling prophecy

Answer 13

The tendency for people to act in ways that bring about the very thing they expect to happen. (page 134)

Question 14

Heuristics

Answer 14

Intuitive mental operations that allow us to make a variety of judgments quickly and efficiently. (page 136)

Question 15

Availability heuristic

Answer 15

The process whereby judgments of frequency or probability are based on how readily pertinent instances come to mind. (page 136)

Question 16

Representativeness heuristic

Answer 16

The process whereby judgments of likelihood are based on assessments of similarity between individuals and group prototypes or between cause and effect. (page 136)

Question 17

Fluency

Answer 17

The feeling of ease associated with processing information. (page 140)

Question 18

Base-rate information

Answer 18

Information about the relative frequency of events or of members of different categories in the population. (page 142)

Question 19

Planning fallacy

Answer 19

The tendency for people to be unrealistically optimistic about how quickly they can complete a project. (page 144)

Question 20

Illusory correlation

Answer 20

The belief that two variables are correlated when in fact they are not. (page 147)