PYC3701
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
,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 expressed in thought or
behaviour and only then do their effects decrease. If primed
,
schemas are not expressed, their effects may persist for long
periods of time.
• The stronger and better-developed our schemas are, the more
likely they are to influence our thinking, and especially our memory
for social information.
SCHEMA PERSISTENCE: WHY EVEN DISCREDITED
SCHEMAS CAN SOMETIMES INFLUENCE OUR THOUGHT
BEHAVIOUR
• Perseverance effect: The tendency for beliefs and schemas to
remain unchanged even in the face of contradictory information.
• Evidence suggests that schemas can be self-fulfilling – they both
shape and reflect the social world.
Schemas help us make sense of the social world and process
information efficiently, but they can also lock us into acting in ways
that create the world we expect.
REASONING BY METAPHOR: HOW SOCIAL ATTITUDES AND
BEHAVIOUR ARE AFFECTED BY FIGURES OF SPEECH
• Metaphor: A linguistic device that relates or draws a comparison
between one abstract thought and another dissimilar concept.
• Because metaphors can activate different kinds of social
knowledge, they can influence how we interpret events.
SU 2.2. HEURISTICS: HOW WE REDUCE OUR
EFFORT IN SOCIAL COGNITION
• Social cognition: The manner in which we interpret, analyse,
remember, and use information about the social world.
• Heuristics: Simple rules for making complex decisions or drawing
inferences in a rapid and seemingly effortless manner.
• Affect: our current feelings and moods.
• When we are subjected to more information than what we are
capable of processing at one time, this results in information
overload.
• Processing capacity can be diminished by stress levels.
, • We rely on heuristics because they allow us to do more, with less
effort.
REPRESENTATIVENESS: JUDGING BY RESEMBLANCE
• Prototype: Summary of the common attributes possessed by
members of a category.
• Representativeness heuristic: A strategy for making judgements
based on the extent to which current stimuli or events resemble
other stimuli or categories.
• Decisions based on the representative heuristic can be wrong,
because they tend to ignore base rates.
• Base rates: the frequency with which given events or patterns
occur in the total population.
• Cultural groups differ in the extent to which they rely on the
representative heuristic and expect “like to go with like” in terms
of causes and effects.
• Compared to North Americans, Asians rely less on the
representative heuristic.
AVAILABILITY: “IF I CAN RETRIEVE INSTANCES, THEY
MUST BE FREQUENT”
• Availability heuristic: A strategy for making judgments on the
basis of how easily specific kinds of information can be brought to
mind.
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
,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 expressed in thought or
behaviour and only then do their effects decrease. If primed
,
schemas are not expressed, their effects may persist for long
periods of time.
• The stronger and better-developed our schemas are, the more
likely they are to influence our thinking, and especially our memory
for social information.
SCHEMA PERSISTENCE: WHY EVEN DISCREDITED
SCHEMAS CAN SOMETIMES INFLUENCE OUR THOUGHT
BEHAVIOUR
• Perseverance effect: The tendency for beliefs and schemas to
remain unchanged even in the face of contradictory information.
• Evidence suggests that schemas can be self-fulfilling – they both
shape and reflect the social world.
Schemas help us make sense of the social world and process
information efficiently, but they can also lock us into acting in ways
that create the world we expect.
REASONING BY METAPHOR: HOW SOCIAL ATTITUDES AND
BEHAVIOUR ARE AFFECTED BY FIGURES OF SPEECH
• Metaphor: A linguistic device that relates or draws a comparison
between one abstract thought and another dissimilar concept.
• Because metaphors can activate different kinds of social
knowledge, they can influence how we interpret events.
SU 2.2. HEURISTICS: HOW WE REDUCE OUR
EFFORT IN SOCIAL COGNITION
• Social cognition: The manner in which we interpret, analyse,
remember, and use information about the social world.
• Heuristics: Simple rules for making complex decisions or drawing
inferences in a rapid and seemingly effortless manner.
• Affect: our current feelings and moods.
• When we are subjected to more information than what we are
capable of processing at one time, this results in information
overload.
• Processing capacity can be diminished by stress levels.
, • We rely on heuristics because they allow us to do more, with less
effort.
REPRESENTATIVENESS: JUDGING BY RESEMBLANCE
• Prototype: Summary of the common attributes possessed by
members of a category.
• Representativeness heuristic: A strategy for making judgements
based on the extent to which current stimuli or events resemble
other stimuli or categories.
• Decisions based on the representative heuristic can be wrong,
because they tend to ignore base rates.
• Base rates: the frequency with which given events or patterns
occur in the total population.
• Cultural groups differ in the extent to which they rely on the
representative heuristic and expect “like to go with like” in terms
of causes and effects.
• Compared to North Americans, Asians rely less on the
representative heuristic.
AVAILABILITY: “IF I CAN RETRIEVE INSTANCES, THEY
MUST BE FREQUENT”
• Availability heuristic: A strategy for making judgments on the
basis of how easily specific kinds of information can be brought to
mind.
