10 Questions
What is the term used to describe the process of actively suppressing counterfactual thoughts or discounting them if they occur?
Thought suppression
Which of the following best describes the automatic monitoring process in thought suppression?
It searches for evidence that unwanted thoughts are about to interrupt consciousness.
What is the term used to describe the belief that one's thoughts can influence the physical world in a manner not governed by the laws of physics?
Magical thinking
Which of the following is an example of the law of similarity in automatic processing?
Refusing to eat a chocolate bar shaped like a cockroach because it resembles an insect.
What is the term used to describe mental shortcuts or rules of thumb that people use to reduce the effort required in social cognition?
Heuristics
Which of the following is NOT a component of thought suppression as described in the text?
Cognitive dissonance
What is the purpose of the operating process in thought suppression?
To consciously attempt to distract oneself from unwanted thoughts after the automatic monitoring process
Which of the following is NOT an example of automatic processing mentioned in the text?
Actively suppressing counterfactual thoughts during a speech
What is the purpose of heuristics in social cognition?
To reduce the effort required in social cognition
Which of the following is NOT an example of magical thinking as described in the text?
Refusing to eat a chocolate bar shaped like a cockroach because it resembles an insect
Study Notes
Social Cognition
- Social cognition is the way we interpret, analyze, remember, and use information about the social world.
- It involves how we think about other people, our relationships with them, and how we behave towards the social environment.
Schematic Processing
- Schemas are mental structures that help us organize social information and guide the processing of such information.
- They are mental frameworks for organizing information about the social world.
- Examples of schemas include those formed during experiences like taking exams or shopping.
Anchoring and Adjustment
- This heuristic involves the tendency to use a number or value as a starting point, to which we then make adjustments.
- The initial anchor has a great deal of influence over future assessments.
- People start with an implicitly suggested reference point (the "anchor") and make adjustments to it to reach their estimate.
Automatic Processing in Social Thought
- This involves processing social information in a nonconscious, unintentional, involuntary, and effortless manner.
- It develops after extensive experience with a task or type of information, reaching the stage where we can perform the task or process the information without conscious thought.
- Automatic processing can lead to evaluations of events, people, or situations as good or bad without conscious thought or awareness.
Heuristic and Automatic Processing
- Heuristics are mental shortcuts that reduce effort in social cognition.
- They can lead to errors in social judgment.
- Automatic processing is a nonconscious and unintentional way of processing social information.
Thought Suppression
- This is the effort to prevent certain thoughts from entering consciousness.
- It involves two components: automatic monitoring process and operating process.
- The automatic monitoring process searches for evidence that unwanted thoughts are about to interrupt, while the operating process involves effortful, conscious attempts to distract oneself.
Ability Limits
- Magical thinking is a type of thinking that involves assumptions that don't hold up to rational scrutiny.
- Examples of magical thinking include believing that one's thoughts can influence the physical world in a manner not governed by the law of physics.
Affect and Cognition
- Affect (feelings) shape thought and thought shape feelings.
- Evaluations of events, people, or situations as good or bad can be made automatically, without conscious thought or awareness.
Test your understanding of implicit memory and the anchoring and adjustment heuristic, which involves using a starting point (anchor) to make estimations by making incremental adjustments. Explore how people intuitively assess probabilities in decision-making processes.
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