Week 5- Automatic Responses Flashcards
What are ’controlled’ tasks
They refer to cognitively demanding tasks that require the full use of our concentration, reasoning, and memory abilities
Our ability to create well-practiced automatic tasks
We have the ability to create well-practiced automatic tasks or sequences of behaviour, that execute with little further guidance
- you can often even execute a controlled task, like texting, while performing an automatic task, like walking.
How can an automatic response be triggered
By some feature of the environment.
For example if you’re in the car with a crazy driver, you find yourself reaching for the brake pedal but of course there isn’t one in the passenger seat.
The automatic response is triggered by some aspect of the environment
What does calidini mean by “click, run”
He is referring to an automatic process being triggered by some feature of the world, or thought of the person(click), and then executed(run)
What is the important design feature of humans
An important design feature of humans is that our controlled processes can at least sometimes override our automatic ones
Why is the ability to override automatic tasks important
Because it means we can respond to things in a flexible way, not just according to the automatic responses we have already learned
What is the stroop task
The controlled task is to name the colour (red), but automatic reading interferes by activating the word ‘green’
What is one way to influence someone
To address their controlled processes-their ability to understand and reason
How do you address someone s controlled processes
You must engage your listeners attention so that they are focusing on your argument
- your argument needs to be presented in a clear way
- you can collect and present evidence, and the basis of your reasoning
What are controlled processes influence important for?
Communicating feel and complex ideas
- of course, the route to influence through controlled processing can be very powerful, but it also requires time and the willingness of the listener to engage
What does appealing to automatic processes mean
- It means taking advantage of-or even creating- automatic biases, automatic behaviours, stereotypes, associations, and shortcuts to judgement to be used by the listener or ‘target’
-in this way, the targets thoughts, emotions and behaviours can be influenced in a way that does not require time, engagement, or even willingness - automatic appeals don’t communicate complex ideas for the very reason that they bypass the rational side needed to understand complexity
What is an important form of automatic processes
Associations
What happens when two events occur together
They are associated together in our memory
How will the association between two events/ things occur
The more frequently and the more recently the two things co-occur, the stronger the association will be
-thoughts or feelings about one concept can then trigger, or prime, associated concepts
Key point from an influence perspective
By changing a Person’s feelings about a person or object can be influenced in specific ways
- because these associations are happening automatically , all the time, by controlling what concepts are presented together, an influencer can begin to manipulate the associations held in our brains
Eg, advertisers will use simple repetition of specific associations between their products and some of the positive concepts already in your brain
