Social Cognition

Question 1

what was the example of schemas in class

Answer 1

one group was told the story was about doing laundry the other group was told nothing, the group that was told it was about laundry said they were more confident they knew what the story was about

Question 2

what are schemas

Answer 2

organized structure of knowledge about a stimulus that is built up from experience, guides expectations and behavior
-set of expectations we take with us in every situation, built off of past experiences
(when we lack a schema it can be difficult to remember things)
-store knowledge and use it to influence future behaviors/expectations

Question 3

what is social cognition

Answer 3

study of how we interpret, analyze, remember and use information about the social world
-we go into situations with pre-existing thoughts and how we process information is based on these notions

Question 4

what is most of our thinking and an example

Answer 4

automatic (happens without intent

ex. driving after a long period of time (becomes more automatic), automatic processing

Question 5

how is automatic thinking adaptive

Answer 5

it is functional to not have to relearn everything, this trait evolved overtime

Question 6

what are the characteristics of automatic thinking (4)

Answer 6

1) nonconscious (don’t know we are doing it)
2) unintentional (just happens)
3) involuntary (like a reflex)
4) effortless (requires no mental resources)

Question 7

what are cognitive misers

Answer 7

humans dont like to part with mental resources if we can do something automatically we will (stingy)
-this leaves our mental resources for other things

Question 8

what is effortful vs. effortless thought

Answer 8

-automatic (system 1) vs. controlled thoughts (system 2)

Question 9

what are the dual process models of social cognition

Answer 9

1) either/ or

2) simultaneous

Question 10

what is the either/ or process model of social cognition

Answer 10

use automatic OR controlled thought, can even be for the same situation

• rely on biases or correct for them
  ex. driving while snowing, you switch to controlled thought from automatic

Question 11

what is the simultaneous model of social cognition

Answer 11

-every moment you have a stream of implicit and explicit cognitions
(implicit AND explicit cognitions)

Question 12

what is the study that shows the simultaneous model of social cognition with the picture of the man

Answer 12

-picture of middle aged white man on screen “Bob” with a sentence of what Bob did (explicit information about Bob)
ex. Bob donated money to charity, Bob stole money
manipulation: what % of statements are positive vs. negative (75 pos & 25 neg or vice versa)
manipulation: attractive Bob vs. unattractive Bob
dependent measures: asked participants what they think of Bob and an IAT test where participants have to pair Bob to negative things or positive things, whichever is done faster shows implicit bias

results: the more positive statements about Bob the more positive explicit answers about Bob (when asked what they think of him), the more negative statements the more negative answers
if Bob was attractive, people formed a positive implicit bias of Bob, negative if unattractive

Question 13

what does the study that shows the simultaneous model of social cognition with the picture of the man show us

Answer 13

explicit association matched the statements (conscious, verbal, explicit rating), implicit association matched attractiveness

shows that there are two different thought systems

Question 14

what are stereotypes

Answer 14

schemas about a group of people

Question 15

what is an example of schema

Answer 15

what happens in a restaurant

Question 16

when do we realize we have a schema and Brown’s car example

Answer 16

when something violates it
-we switch from automatic thought to controlled thought (evidence is that we have to think)

ex. parking a small cars is a schema (what you are used to), then you get a bigger rental car and switch to controlled thought to part, this shows you have a schema about parking small cars

Question 17

what are the functions of schemas

Answer 17

1) Attention
2) Guide memory
3) Inference and construal
4) Accessibility (Priming)

Question 18

what is the attention function of schemas and an example

Answer 18

guide our attention, focus on what is important and this is what we pay attention to

ex. took one of Brown’s tests and this guides us what we take notes on for future tests

Question 19

what is the guided memory function of schemas

Answer 19

what we pay attention to determines what we remember

-mind marks something as important vs. unimportant and this is what we remember

Question 20

are schemas accurate (guided memory) and an example

Answer 20

most of the time schemas are accurate, but sometimes they are not
ex. schemas can change memory from past events

Question 21

what is a study that shows schemas can change memory from past events

Answer 21

participants read study about 2 students Jack and Barbara who dated, talks about how they met and follows them through the first few months of them dating, then they want to take vacation together (Jack asks Barbara to go to his vacation home), both stories have positive and negative details about both characters (ex. Jack helped Barbara, Jack had temper), experimenters wanted to give people details to latch onto “Oh I knew this ending was coming”, the stories were the same minus the last sentence
manipulation (how story ends):
1) happy- proposal
2) unhappy - Jack rapes Barbara

participants are then later asked to recall the story (experimenters wanted to see what they remember and what false memories they implant)

results: different schemas for what led to rape vs what led to proposal, ending sentence activated schema and influenced what they remembered, story implanted beliefs stereotypically representative of rape and marriage proposal, those with the marriage ending made up more marriage details, those with the rape ending made up more rape details

Question 22

what does the study that shows schemas can change memory from past events show us

Answer 22

we can falsely recall things happening because they fit with that schema/perspective

Question 23

what is the inference and construal function of schemas and an example

Answer 23

interpretation of what happened, interpret ambiguous information consistent with schema

ex. friend splits bill in her head and underpays you $7, if you like the person you think they just miscalculated (give them benefit of doubt), if you are suspicious of the person you think they did it intentionally and tried to get away with paying less

Question 24

what is the accessibility function of schemas and an example

Answer 24

the extent to which schemas, categories, or concepts are at the forefront of peoples minds (schemas can be high or low in accessibility)
-things that are highly accessible are likely to be used or remembered (priming)

ex. Brown has a negative schema about car places (think they rip people off) so she goes to a car place which primes paranoia schema which she will apply to other things (someone else calls her asking her for money to donate to charity)

Question 25

what is priming

Answer 25

when recent experiences make a schema, concept, etc. accessible

Question 26

what is thought suppression

Answer 26

the attempt to prevent certain thoughts from entering consciousness, trying not to think about something
-controlled, not automatic

Question 27

when is it harder to suppress thoughts

Answer 27

when cognitive resources are depleted it is harder to control thought suppression

Question 28

what is the paradoxical effect

Answer 28

suppressing a though creates an obsession with the thought

Question 29

what is the study that shows the paradoxical effect about the white bear

Answer 29

participants are supposed to look at thoughts and see how often thought enters consciousness (thought about white bear)
manipulation: when participants are told to suppress vs. express thoughts about white bear 2x2 study between- (initial: expression vs. suppression) x within-(period: express vs. suppress)
E -> S
S -> E
participants had 5 minutes to express thoughts, stream of consciousness, told to either try to think of white bear (express) or do not think of white bear (suppress), participants had to ring bell everytime they thought of a white bear or said white bear, each participant has two five minute periods the order is what changes

results:
expression 1st- think about white bear early but then settles
expression 2nd- think of white bear more as time goes on, only group that this happens to
suppression 2nd- think about white bear early but then settles
suppression 1st- think about white bear early but then settles

Question 30

why were the results the way they were in the study that shows the paradoxical effect about the white bear

Answer 30

during suppression 1st, not thinking about white bear became an obsession and when they were allowed to express it, it was all they could think about it (thought suppression rebound)

Question 31

what is the thought suppression rebound

Answer 31

after trying to not do something for awhile, we eventually do it a lot
-suppression becomes obsession

Question 32

why the paradoxical effect? what made expression 2nd think about the white bear so much?

Answer 32

experimenters proposed that in the background non conscious mind is constantly looking for thoughts of white bear, which makes the thoughts of a bear more accessible

• automatic (ironic) monitoring process
• controlled operating process

keeps white bear in people’s minds and when the effort of suppression is removed, white bear is so accessible, it is all they can think about

-initial suppression makes white bear accessible, when trying not to think of something your brain is on red alert looking for that thing, so when you have decreased cognitive resources or no longer suppressed the thought is flooded in your mind

Question 33

what is hindsight bias and the example we did in class

Answer 33

the tendency, once an event has occurred, to overestimate our ability to have foreseen the outcome

ex. Brown handing out papers in class, long version had outcome of study on it and people had to give their confidence that they would have guessed the results right had they not known the answer, short version was not given results and they had to guess the result and give confidence (long version was hindsight condition)
results: confidence was higher in those who had answer that they would guess it right than those who actually did guess right even though more people guessed wrong

Question 34

what is the example in class that shows illusory correlation

Answer 34

list of statements of members in Group A and Group B, either a positive or negative thing that member did

• then rate each group on honest, helpful, popular and intelligent (1-4 scales)
• calculated averages for both groups in class, people rated group A more positive than group B (results were statistically significant)

why?
more A than B in beginning so when B comes up it stands out
more positive than negative in beginning so negative statements stand out
even though both groups had the same ratio of desirable: undesirable

group A: 26 statements, 8 undesirable
group B: 13 statements, 4 were undesirable

Question 35

what is illusory correlation

Answer 35

overestimating the covariation between two or more variables

-we think a correlation between two variables exists even when it does not

Question 36

what does illusory correlation occur (3 reasons)

Answer 36

1) distinctiveness
2) look for supporting (confirming) evidence
3) how easily something comes to mind

Question 37

what is distinctiveness of illusory correlation

Answer 37

• how memorable something is
• the minority, something that is uncommon stands out
  ex. negative things stand out when the majority of things are positive
• when 2 distinctive things occur (uncommon, negative) simultaneously we pay attention to them (least frequently occurring things stand out)

Question 38

how can distinctiveness of illusory correlation lead to stereotypes

Answer 38

stereotypes can develop because of this, a minority group stands out more when they do something negative

Question 39

what is “look for supporting (confirming) evidence” of illusory correlation

Answer 39

when we assume two things are related so we look for evidence they are related and ignore evidence that says they are not

Question 40

what is “how easily something comes to mind” of illusory correlation and Dr. Brown’s example

Answer 40

the things that stand out are what come to mind easily

ex. Brown wears contacts mostly, feels her glasses bring out the rain (wearing glasses in the rain sucks) in the four square (SEE ON PAPER) the rainy, glasses cell is the distinct cell so when it happened Brown remembered this because it was so memorable

our mind over represents two things occurring at the same time that are distinct

Question 41

what is the confirmation bias example we did in class and how was our class different than what usually happens

Answer 41

we come up with three numbers and Brown tells us if the three numbers follow the rule she came up with 
ex. rule is numbers are increasing
8,10,12
1,3,5
4,5,7

when we tried first numbers that fit sequence we then tried to find examples that might not fit (looked for disconfirming evidence)

but most of the time people do not look for disconfirming evidence

Question 42

what do people do instead of seeking out disconfirming evidence

Answer 42

if we only seek evidence that our theory is right we don’t look for evidence that shows it’s wrong and we could be wrong

Question 43

what is confirmation bias

Answer 43

people seek out evidence that confirms rather than falsifies their beliefs
-in research this is why we test the null hypothesis, but the human mind does not work this way

Question 44

what is the study about the girl on the playground that shows confirmation bias

Answer 44

used participants conclusions about a girl based on her performance and SES, first shown a video of a girl walking around a neighborhood and a parl (either a nice neighborhood high SES, or a not nice neighborhood low SES)
then showed a video of the girl being asked difficult math questions and getting them right and easy math questions and getting them wrong (this made the video ambiguous because it gives evidence that the girl is smart or not as smart

these two videos would activate stereotypes about how intelligence covaries with wealth (people would focus on the evidence in the math video that lined up with their pre-exisitng beliefs)

participants had to rate girl’s inelligence
high SES -> cited difficult problems
low SES -> cited easy problems

Question 45

what does the study about the girl on the playground that shows confirmation bias show us

Answer 45

people find even more evidence for the belief they already have, assume something is true

Question 46

what is the study that shows how people seek out evidence that confirms their pre-existing beliefs (introversion/extroversion)

Answer 46

participants told they would interview someone else and find out introverted or extroverted they were and had to ask from list of questions

• the questions elicited a response that make someone seem like an introvert or like an extrovert
  ex. what dont you like about parties? what would you do to liven up a party?

manipulation:

1) friends say this person is outgoing
2) friends say this person is shy

participants could pick what questions to ask and the participants picked questions that would elicit a response consistent with their pre-existing thoughts

people search for evidence that confirms

Question 47

what is self fulfilling prophecy

Answer 47

process by which someone’s expeectations about a person or group leads to the fulfillment of those expectations
-our expectations cause that reality

Question 48

how is self fulfilling prophecy different than confirmation bias

Answer 48

confirmation bias is seeking out evidence to affirm beliefs

self fulfilling prophecy is we change the world, treat people different to bring our that outcome

Question 49

what is the student and teacher study that shows self fulfilling prophecy

Answer 49

used actual students and teachers, had students take test to determine students potential
-experimenters chose a few random students to be “late bloomers”, told the teacher the will eventually pass their peers and excel in school

-2 months passed and gave kids test, the children who were picked as “late bloomers” improved on the second test

researchers gave teachers expectation these kids would be better and teachers gave the kids more praise, encouragement, and difficult problems
-the teachers expectations caused them to behave differently to students which changed their behavior

Question 50

what is the self fulfilling diagram (three step process) SHOW ON PAPER

Answer 50

1) perceiver forms expectations about the target
->
2) perceiver acts towards the target based on expectations
->
3) target interprets the perceivers actions and responds so that his/her behaviors are consistent with the perceivers behavior
->
then back to step one

people do not realize the role they played in causing the target’s response

Question 51

what is the phone call study about self fulfilling prophecy

Answer 51

men had phone call with women participant
manipulation:
1) attractive photo shown to men of who they would be talking to
2) unattractive photo shown to men
3) no photo

men asked to rate the person they talked to
results: men rated women who were unattractive as less friendly, cold etc

researchers recorded phone call and had people code the men and women separately
-found that men were less warm and friendly to the unattractive women which predicted the women’s behaviors

Question 52

why can self fulfilling prophecy be bad

Answer 52

because people treating others differently based on beliefs actually changes the world (their behavior)

Question 53

what is the intent-to-outcome lay belief

Answer 53

the belief that other people generally achieve their intentions
-lay belief is a common everyday belief

Question 54

what does the Kupor et al study about photography competitions show us about the intent-to-outcome lay belief

Answer 54

conditions: natural (no instructions), intended outcome, unintended outcome
- read about photography competition, shown two people entering (Stan and Mark), both intend to win (participants are shown photo by each person)
- told they would have to write about either Stan or Mark
intended: why you think this person will achieve outcome
unintended: why this person might not win
natural: no instructions
- participants then had to pick 3 out of 6 pieces of information to read what other people wrote about the person (each person had 3 where they won and 3 where they lost)

DV: the information participants sought to make their opinion, looked at the three pieces of info participants picked

results: when participants in intended outcome condition, they picked confirmatory evidence (confirmation bias) in unintended condition outcome confirmation bias decreased, in control condition the results were the same as the intended outcome condition, shows that our baseline is assuming people will achieve outcomes

participants naturally “test” the hypothesis that people will achieve their outcome and predict that people will achieve their outcome