CHAPTER TWO: SOCIAL COGNITION How we think about the social world
Chapter Outcomes
Chapter 2 addresses the following Issues: The impact of schemas on social cognition and reality How we reduce our effort in social cognition The mistakes people make in social cognition The influence of cognition on affect and vice versa
Chapter Two Summary
This chapter consists of 5 major sections:
SCHEMAS
Impact on cognition Priming The persistence of schemas
HEURISTICS AUTOMATIC AND CONTROLLED PROCESSING POTENTIAL SOURCES OF ERROR IN SOCIAL COGNITION THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EFFECT AND COGNITION
Social Cognition
Social Cognition is defined as the manner in which we interpret, analyse, remember, and use information about the social world.
Heuristics
Heuristics are defined as simple rules for making complex decisions or drawing inferences in a rapid and ostensibly effortless manner
Affect
Affect points to our current feelings and moods
Schemas
SCHEMAS
Have strong effects on attention as well as the encoding and retrieval of information Downside to schemas: they can distort social reality and be self-fulfilling
Impact of schemas on social cognition
Schemas are mental frameworks centered on a specific theme that help us to organise social information Schemas influence social thought by having an effect on attention, encoding, and the retrieval of information. Attention refers to the information we notice, for which schemas act as filters. Encoding refers to the process by which information gets stored in memory. Information consistent with existing schemas gets encoded more readily Information unexpectedly inconsistent is also encoded Regarding the retrieval of information from memory, people generally report information consistent with their schemas. Information inconsistent with schemas is also present in memory The eventual effect that schemas have on social cognition is strongly influenced by the schemas themselves and by a high cognitive load.
Priming
Priming
Is when specific stimuli ore events increase the availability of specific types of information held in memory The eventual effect of priming is that conspicuous recent experiences make some schemas more active than they would otherwise be. Priming tends to have very long-lasting effects Unpriming might occur if a schema is somehow expressed in thought or behaviour The impact of the schema may subside if unpriming occurs Priming tends to have long lasting effects
(Refer to Sparrow and Wegners (2006) research, illustrated in Figure 2.3 in the textbook)
Fig 2.3 Unpriming of Schemas
Bringing the effects of Priming to an End
Schema is primed activated by some experience, event or stimulus
Schema is not expressed in thought or behaviour
Effects persist schemas influence social thought/and or behaviour
Unpriming schema is expressed somehow in behaviour or thoughts
Effects of schema dissipate the schemas no longer influence social thought or behaviour
When schemas are primed, activated by experience, events or stimuli their effects tend to persist. In fact, they have been observed over months, even years. If the schema is somehow expressed in thought or behaviour , however, unpriming may occur, and the impact of the schema may decrease or even disappear.
Priming
Schema Persistence
The perseverance effect
Although schemas help us to make sense of intricate social information, they have a downside in that even discredited information can sometimes influence our thoughts and behaviour We place new information in a special category rather than adapting the schema Schemas can also be self-fulfilling
The research by Rosenthal and Jacobsen (1968) discussed in the Building the Science section, illustrates this point. Refer to page 44 in the textbook
Heuristics
Information overload occurs when our ability to process information is exceeded. We often experience information overload
The demands on our cognitive system are greater than its capacity At any given time we are capable of handling a certain amount of information Additional input beyond this level puts us into a into a state of information overload Our processing capacity can be depleted by high levels of stress or other demands on us. To cope with information or cognitive overload we adopt simple and effective strategies called cognitive shortcuts. One effective shortcut is our use of simple rules to make complex decisions or to draw inferences rapidly. This is known as heuristics. We may also revert to automatic processing
Representativeness, availability and anchoring and adjustment are important types of heuristics that we use to process information.
Heuristics
Representativeness, availability and anchoring and adjustment are important types of heuristics that we use to process information. Representativeness
The representativeness heuristic is a strategy for making judgments based on the extent to which the current stimuli or events resemble other stimuli or categories, We use this heuristic when we evaluate people If someone closely resembles a typical member of a group, we assume that the person must belong to that group. These judgments are not always correct So called base rates or the frequency with which events or patterns occur in the total population are often ignored.
Availability
We sometimes make judgments based on how easily specific information can be brought to mind. This is known as the availability heuristic. Relying on the availability heuristic can lead to errors. Research suggests that the ease with which something can be brought to mind as well as the amount of information that is raised, are important factors when we use this heuristic. It depends on the judgment we are making If our judgment involves feelings we tend to rely on the ease with which we remember something. If our judgment involves factual information, then we tend to rely on the amount we remember.
Heuristics
Representativeness, availability and anchoring and adjustment are important types of heuristics that we use to process information.
Anchoring and Adjustment
We also use the anchoring and adjustment heuristic This is when we use a number value or personal experience as a starting point, to which we then make adjustments The strong effect of anchoring was illustrated in the study by Englich et al(2006) where experienced legal professionals in Germany learned about the sentences for a defendant from a journalist, an experienced prosecutor or randomly.
(Refer to Figure 2.6 in the textbook)
The reason why anchors influence our judgments seem to be our strong tendency to avoid effortful work when making adjustments to the anchor.
Automatic and Controlled Processing
Automatic and Controlled Processing
POTENTIAL SOURCES OF ERROR IN SOCIAL COGNITION THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EFFECT AND COGNITION
Potential Sources of Error in Social Cognition
Potential Sources of Error in Social Cognition
The Relationship between Effect and Cognition
The Relationship between effect and cognition
Affect and Cognition
There is a continuous interplay between affect and cognition Feelings and moods influence cognition and vice versa Being in a good mood might have a negative side to it.
