chapter 3 Flashcards
Daniel Kahneman notes that we have have two brain systems. What are the two systems?
System 1: The intuitive, automatic, unconscious, and fast way of thinking
- functions out of our awareness (“gut feeling” or “intuition”)
- influences more of our actions than we realize
System 2: the deliberate, controlled, and slower way of thinking
- requires our conscious attention and effort
Activating particular associations in memory is referred to as what?
Priming
what significance have experiments revealed about priming?
priming one thought, even without awareness, can influence another thought or even an action
What is our embodied cognition?
The mutual influence of bodily sensations on cognitive preferences and social judgements
After receiving a cold shoulder treatment, people judge the room as colder than after being treated warmly. After holding a cold ice pack, people feel lonelier than those who hold the same pack warmed to 98 degrees. Why is this?
because Social exclusion literally feels cold, and cold feels like social exclusion
what do advocates of “intuitive management” believe?
they believe we should tun into our hunches and use system 1.
According to advocates of “intuitive management” what should we do when judging others? What should we do when hiring, firing and investing?
- we should plug into the nonlogical smarts of our “right brain” (use SYSTEM 1)
- we should listen to our premonitions (use SYSTEM 2)
what does priming research hint?
Priming research hints that the unconscious indeed controls much of our behaviour
what processes is our thinking based on?
automatic processing
controlled processing
what is automatic processing?
“implicit” thinking, that is effortless, habitual, and without awareness; roughly corresponds to “intuition”.
also known as system 1
what is controlled processing?
“explicit’ thinking that is deliberate, reflective, and conscious.
also known as system 2
how soon do emotional reactions happens?
often nearly instantaneous, before there is time for deliberate thinking
fill in the blanks:
one neural shortcut takes information from the eye or ear to the brain’s sensory switchboard, the ____, and out to its emotional control centre, the _____, before the _____ has had any chance to intervene.
1) Thalamus
2) Amygdala
3) Thinking Cortex
As perception researchers study visual illusions for what they reveal about our normal perceptual mechanisms, what do social psychologists study?
Social psychologists study illusory thinking for what it reveals about normal information processing
- they want to give us a map of everyday social thinking, with the hazards clearly marked
as we interpret our experiences and construct memories, our ____ __ ____ are sometimes wrong because we are usually unaware of our errors.
System 1 Intuitions
what is the overconfidence phenomenon?
The tendency to be more confident than correct.
- to overestimate the accuracy of one’s beliefs
Fill in the blanks:
Ironically _____ feeds overconfidence.
imcompetence
- “ignorance of one’s imcompetence” occurs mostly on relatively easy-seeming tasks
A tendency to search for information that confirms one’s preconceptions is referred to as what?
confirmation bias
Fill in the blanks:
Confirmation bias appears to be a _____ __ ___ _____, where our default reaction is to look for information consistent with our presuppositions
Stopping and thinking a little, calling up ____ __, makes us less likely to commit this error
System 1 snap judgment
System 2
which three techniques have successfully reduced the overconfidence bias?
1) prompt feedback
2)
3)
what are Heuristics?
A thinking strategy that enables quick, efficient judgements
define representative heuristics.
the tendency to presume, sometimes despite contrary odds, that someone or something belongs to a particular group if resembling (representing) a typical member.
fill in the blanks:
If examples are readily available in our memory, then we presume that the event is _______.
commonplace
what is the availability heuristic?
a cognitive rule that judges the likelihood of things in term of their availability in memory.
what is counterfactual thinking?
Imagining alternative scenarios and outcomes that might have happened, but didn’t
define illusory correlation
A perception of a relationship where none exists or a perception of a stronger relationship than actually exists
What will people do when experiencing a lack of control?
People like feeling in control and so, when experiencing a lack of control, they will act to create a sense of predictability.
what is regression toward the average?
The statistical tendency for extreme scores or extreme behaviour to return toward the person’s average
Fill in the blank:
Our ____ infuse our judgements.
moods
what is the bright side to sadness?
a depressed mood motivates intense thinking - a search for information that makes one’s environment more memorable, understandable, and controllable.
What is belief perserverance?
persistence of your initial conceptions, as when the basis for your belief is discredited but an explanation of why the belief might be true survives.
what has psychological research proved to be true about memories?
Many memories are not copies of experiences that remain on deposit in a memory bank, rather, we construct memories at the time of withdrawal.
what is a misinformation effect?
incorporating misinformation into one’s memory of an event, after witnessing an event, and then receiving misleading information about it.
fill in the blank:
The worse your current view of your partner is, the worse your _____ are, which only further confirms your _____ attitudes
memories, negative
what is misattribution?
mistakenly attributing a behaviour to the wrong cause
what is the attribution theory?
the theory of how people explain the behaviour of others - for example, by attributing it to either internal dispositions, or,
what is a dispositional attribution?
attributing behaviour to the person’s dispositions and traits.
what is a situational attribution
attributing behaviour to the environment.
what is spontaneous trait inference?
an effortless, automatic inference of a trait after exposure to someone’s behaviour.
what is the fundamental attribution error?
The tendency for observers to underestimate situational influences and overestimate dispositional influences on others’ behaviour.
- also called the correspondence bias because we so often see behaviour as corresponding to a disposition.
when our action feels intentional and admirable, what do we attribute it to?
our own good reasons, not to the situation.
A week after hearing someone argue a position that he or she did not choose, people were more likely to credit what?
the situation
fill in the blanks:
people in eastern asian cultures are somewhat more sensitive to the importance of what?
situations
fill in the blanks: passage of time ____ the tendency toward the fundamental attribution error
decreases
illusory thinking is often a by-product of our mind’s strategies for _______ complex information.
simplifying
why might we focus on the fundamental attribution error?
- our capacity for illusion and self-deception
- humanitarian
- we are mostly unaware of them and can benefit from greater awareness
what is a self-fulfilling prophecy?
beliefs that led to their own fulfilment
when someone loves and admires us, what does this help us with?
becoming more the person he or she imagines us to be
what is behavioural confirmation?
A type of self-fulfilling prophecy whereby people’s social expectations lead them to act in ways that cause others to confirm their expectations
what effects do cognitive biases have when we are making judgements??
even small biases can have profound social effects when we are making important social judgements?
