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

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

Chapter Two Summary

Social Cognition is defined as the manner in which we interpret, analyse, remember, and use information about the social world.

Social Cognition

Heuristics are defined as simple rules for making complex decisions or drawing inferences in a rapid and ostensibly effortless manner

Heuristics

Affect points to our current feelings and moods

Affect

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.

Schemas

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 Wegner’s (2006) research, illustrated in Figure 2.3 in the textbook)

Priming

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.

Fig 2.3 Unpriming of SchemasBringing 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

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

Priming

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.

Heuristics

Automatic and Controlled Processing

POTENTIAL SOURCES OF ERROR IN SOCIAL COGNITION THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EFFECT AND COGNITION

Automatic and Controlled Processing

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.