U1 Social Cognition

Question 1

What is social cognition

Answer 1

● “How we think about the social world”
● “The general process we use to make sense out of
social events, which may or may not include other
people.
” (Bordens and Horowitz, 2008, p.5)
● “Our attempts to understand complex issues, and
why we sometimes are less than optimally rational”

Question 2

What is information overload?

HOW DO WE DEAL WITH THIS?

Answer 2

Happens when the amount of information individuals need to process exceeds their cognitive capacity at a given time

-Demands of the environment > capacity of the cognitive system

• Development of strategies to deal as quickly as possible with as much information as we can.
• Especially when there’s uncertainty.

Question 3

How do people deal with information overload

Answer 3

-> develop strategies to process info quickly and efficiently, especially in particular or uncertain situations - envolve heuristics

Question 4

What are heuristics?

Answer 4

-> mental shortcuts or simplified rules that allow for quick decision making.
-> dealing with complicated situations
SERVE AS efficient strategies to manage large amounts of information
* Cope with big amounts of
information
❖ Can lead to / be biased

Question 5

What are some potential downsides to using heuristics?

Answer 5

While generally beneficial, heuristics can introduce biases into decision making process

Question 6

What is the representativeness heuristic?

Answer 6

Representativeness heuristic involves making judgements about the probability of something belonging to a category.
-> the more similar to the prototype the more are perceives to belong to that group

Question 7

Can you give an example of the representativeness heuristic?

Answer 7

Encountering a purple frog.
You might assume its poisonous bcs it fit your prototypes

Question 8

What is the availability heuristic?

Answer 8

The tendency to judge the frequency or likelihood of an event based on how easily instances of that event can be recalled from memory
-> ease w/ which relevant information is retrieved influences our perception of its frequency

Question 9

What is an example of the availability heuristic?

Answer 9

Seeing several news reports about car accidents in a a short period of time.
The amount of available information, emotional association, self-reliance can all influence the availability heuristic

Question 10

What are some factors that can influence the availability heuristic?

Answer 10

Factors such as frequency of events, personal biases in attention to information,
the amount of available information, emotional associations,
and self-relevance can all influence the availability heuristic

Question 11

What is the anchoring and adjustment heuristic?

Answer 11

Describes the tendency to rely heavily on an initial piece of information (anchor) when making decisions.

Subsequent judgments are often made by adjusting away from that anchor even if it’s not relevant or accurate

Question 12

Can you give an example of the anchoring and adjustment heuristic?

Answer 12

Negotiating the price of a used car, the seller’s initial asking price can serve as an anchor.
Your counteroffer will likely be influenced by that price.

Question 13

What is the status quo heuristic?

Answer 13

heuristic reflects a preference for the current state of affairs, assuming that the way things are is better than alternatives, even without evidence to support this belief

Question 14

What are some examples of the status quo heuristic?

Answer 14

The status quo heuristic is evident in consumer behavior when people stick with familiar products out of habit or inertia. It can also explain resistance to societal change and the preservation of traditions.

Question 15

How does time influence the status quo heuristic?

Answer 15

The longer something remains the same, the more likely people are to perceive it as the better or preferred option

Question 16

What are schemas

Answer 16

They are cognitive frameworks or mental structures that organise knowledge and interpreting information about the social world
Translates to:
* What to expect
* Comfort
* Generalization.

Question 17

What is the purpose of schemas

Answer 17

They help us interpret new experiences, guide our actions, and process relevant information efficiently. They provide sense of predictability and comfort by shaping exceptions about social interactions and situations

Question 18

Are schemas universal or culture-specific?

Answer 18

While some schemas may be universal, many are shaped by cultural norms, values, and experiences leading to variations in social perceptions and behaviors across cultures

Question 19

How do schemas impact social cognition?

Answer 19

Schemas influence what we pay attention to, how we encode and store information in memory, and what we remember later.

Question 20

Do people remember information that is consistent or inconsistent with their schemas better?

Answer 20

Research on the impact of schemas on memory retrieval yields mixed findings. Some studies suggest that inconsistent information stands out and is therefore more memorable, while others indicate that people tend to report information consistent with their schemas more readily.

Question 21

How can multiple schemas be managed during social interactions?

Answer 21

The activation and influence of schemas during social interactions are not constant. Factors such as the strength of a schema and the concept of priming help explain which schemas are activated and when

Question 22

What determines the strength of a schema?

Answer 22

The strength of a schema is determined by its ease of activation, frequency of use, and resistance to deactivation.
-> Schemas that are more ingrained, well-developed, and frequently used are generally stronger and more likely to be activated in relevant situations.

Question 23

What is priming?

Answer 23

Priming refers to the temporary increase in the accessibility of a particular schema due to recent experiences or exposures.

Question 24

How can a schema be “unprimed”?

Answer 24

Once a primed schema has been sufficiently activated or “satisfied,” it becomes deactivated or unprimed. This unpriming process allows other schemas to become more accessible and influential in subsequent situations

Question 25

What is the Perseverance Effect in the context of schemas?

Answer 25

The perseverance effect describes the tendency for schemas to remain unchanged even when confronted with contradictory information

Question 26

What is counterfactual thinking?

Answer 26

Counterfactual thinking involves imagining alternative outcomes or scenarios that could have occurred but did not. This often involves thinking about “what might have been” and is particularly common following negative or unexpected events

Question 27

How does counterfactual thinking relate to emotions?

Answer 27

Counterfactual thinking can significantly influence our emotional responses to events. The ease with which we can mentally undo or change the circumstances leading to an event can intensify or diminish our feelings of regret, sadness, or relief

Question 28

What is the difference between upward and downward counterfactual thinking?

Answer 28

Upward counterfactual thinking involves comparing the current outcome with a more favorable hypothetical outcome, often leading to increased negative emotions like regret and dissatisfaction.
Downward counterfactual thinking, on the other hand, focuses on comparisons to less favorable alternatives, potentially enhancing positive feelings and satisfaction with the current outcome

Question 29

How does mood influence cognition?

Answer 29

Our current mood can significantly influence our cognitive processes, including attention, memory, and judgment

Question 30

What is mood-congruent memory?

Answer 30

Mood-congruent memory refers to the tendency to recall information more readily when it is consistent with our current mood. When experiencing a particular mood, we are more likely to remember information encoded while in a similar emotional state

Question 31

What is the three basic processes for schemas?

Answer 31

Attention: what enters our consciousness. - we notice information consistent with what I already know → reduces the
cognitive load.

Encoding: how we store the information. - Info consistent with my previous schemas is “stored normally”, but exceptions or inconsistencies may be stored in a different location.

Retrieval: what we remember and how quickly we can access the memory:
- Do we remember better congruent or incongruent info?
- Disagreement: inconsistent info stands out more.
BUT we report more when consistent with our schemas.

Question 32

automatic processing

Answer 32

-> Automatic processing: fast, relatively effortless
and intuitive manner.
-> Based on neurological findings:
- We have two different neural systems to process social information
(prefrontal cortex and the limbic system).
- Located in different areas (amygdala for automatic reactions and
prefrontal cortex for controlled ones).
- People act according to their schemas, so once a schema is activated it guides our
thoughts and actions, even without us noticing.

Question 33

Potential Sources of error

Answer 33

-> Optimistic bias
-> Overconfidence bias: We foresee a bright and golden future for ourselves:
* We don’t extrapolate based on our past, but based on our desires,
expectations and goals.
-> Hindsight bias
-
“The tendency to exaggerate, after learning an outcome, one’s ability to have foreseen how something turned out.
-> Survey research = Unrepresentative samples.

Question 34

Mood-congruence

Answer 34

current moods strongly determine which
information in a given situation is noticed, then entered into memory.

Question 35

Mood-dependent memory

Answer 35

what specific information is retrieved from
memory. When people experience a particular current mood, they are
more likely to remember information they acquired in the past while in
a similar mood.
→ Moods act as a retrieval cue.

Question 36

Affective forecast:

Answer 36

predictions of how we would feel about an event we have not experienced.
* They are often inaccurate.
₋ Our cognition is based on a different way of processing information
compared to actual emotional experience.
→ Moods act as a retrieval cue.