Social Cognition

Question 1

Fast, automatic, frequent, emotional, stereotypic, and mostly unconscious

Answer 1

System 1 processing

Question 2

Slow, effortful, infrequent, logical, calculating, conscious

Answer 2

System 2 processing

Question 3

“Theory-driven” mental processing, in which an individual filters and interprets new information in light of preexisting knowledge and expectations

Answer 3

Top-down processing

Question 4

“Data-driven” mental processing, in which an individual forms conclusions based on the stimuli encountered in the environment

Answer 4

Bottom-up processing

Question 5

A collection of related beliefs or ideas that people use to organize their knowledge about the world

Answer 5

Schema

Question 6

• Script
  How to do something
  Ex: how to act on a date
• Stereotypes
  Schemas for people
  Ex: “a jock”
• Self-schemas
  Generalizations/beliefs about the self that organize and guide the processing of self-relevant information
  Ex: spontaneous self-concept

Answer 6

Types of schemas

Question 7

The presentation of information designed to activate a concept and hence make it accessible
A prime is the stimulus presented to activate the concept in question

Answer 7

priming

Question 8

Cognitive miser
Simple and efficient

Answer 8

Why do we use heuristics?

Question 9

Used to estimate the extent to which a person (or thing) is representative of the average person (or thing) in the category
Tendency to ignore statistical info in favor of stereotypical info

Occurs because of base-rate neglect

Answer 9

Representativeness heuristic

Question 10

Tendency to ignore statistical info in favor of dramatic or vivid case histories

Answer 10

Base-rate neglect

Question 11

When two variables are imperfectly correlated, for extreme values on one of them to be associated with less extreme values on the other

Answer 11

Regression effect

Question 12

Misunderstanding the statistical tendency for extreme behavior to return towards one’s average

Answer 12

Regression fallacy

Question 13

Used to evaluate the frequency or likelihood of an event on the basis of how quickly examples are readily available in your memory

Answer 13

Availability heuristic

Question 14

Sense of ease or difficulty one feels when processing information

Stems from availability heuristic:
Readily available info is easier to recall, so you experience fluency when recalling it- makes it seem more likely
If info is difficult to recall, you experience disfluency, making it seem less likely

Answer 14

Fluency

Question 15

The way information is presented can “frame” the way info is processed and understood
Ex: % chance of living vs. % chance of dying

Stems from availability heuristic

Answer 15

Framing effect

Question 16

Once info is active, more likely to be used in subsequent judgments

Stems from availability heuristic

Answer 16

Order effect

Question 17

Tendency for numerical estimates to be biased by an initial starting point (or “anchor”)

Answer 17

Anchoring and adjustment