PYC 3701 SUMMARY STUDY NOTES

If you are reading these notes you are studying (PYC3701) with UNISA. These notes are aimed at being a guide to assist you in passing this module, and aim to extract the essence of what you need to pass this module with ease at your exam. Please remember to use them IN CONJUNCTION with all our other features. The most important of which is WORKING TOGETHER with the lecturers and other students. Teaching is the best way to learn, so make sure you answer other students questions as often as you post your own questions on areas where you are struggling. What else do you get to assist you in passing when you join a Together We Pass study group? 1. A lecturer to answer questions, facilitate discussions, and ensure you remain on track and motivated in your studies 2. A discussion forum where you can ask for help with difficult questions, from other students as well as your dedicated lecturer 3. The chance to teach others when they are stuck 4. Compare and discuss assignments (cheat free) 5. Great additional resources, such as past papers and tutorial letters 6. Exam revision packs Good luck this term, and we look forward to working with you! Our contact details should you need help: Together We Pass TELEPHONE EMAIL WEB FB GOOGLE+ Together We Pass on Google Plus TWITTER @togetherwepass © 2015 Together We Pass. All rights reserved. 2: SOCIAL COGNITION: HOW WE THINK ABOUT THE WORLD SU 2.1. SCHEMAS: MENTAL FRAMEWORKS FOR ORGANISING – AND USING – SOCIAL INFORMATION  Schemas: Mental frameworks centering on a specific theme that help us to organize social information. THE IMPACT OF SCHEMAS ON SOCIAL COGNITION: ATTENTION, ENCODING, RETRIEVAL  Schemas influence attention (the information we notice, for which schemas act as filters), encoding (the process by which information gets stored in memory), and retrieval.  Information inconsistent with schemas is more likely to be noticed and to enter our consciousness.  We rely most on schemas when we are experiencing cognitive load (a lot of information at once).  Information that is consistent with our schemas is encoded. Information that is sharply inconsistent with our schemas may be encoded into a separate memory location and marked with a unique “tag”.  Regarding memory: In general, people report remembering more information consistent with their schemas, but information inconsistent with their schemas may be strongly present in memory too. PRIMING: WHICH SCHEMAS GUIDE OUR THOUGHT?  Priming: a situation that occurs when stimuli or events increase the availability in memory or consciousness of specific types of information held in memory. Schemas can be temporarily activated by priming.  Unpriming: Refers to the fact that the effects of the schemas tend to persist until they are somehow ex