Intergroup Cognition Overview

Intergroup Cognition Overview

• Implicit processing is automatic and uncontrollable, inaccessible to introspection.
• Explicit processing is conscious, controllable, and accessible through introspection.
• Implicit bias develops gradually, influenced by family, peers, and life experiences.
• Explicit bias forms through conscious interactions and changes with age.
• Social categories influence reasoning and social interactions, including friendships and group preferences.
• Ingroup preference generally emerges before outgroup aversion, typically around age 3-4 for preference and age 7 for dislike.
• Bias is shaped by direct experience, peers, family, media, and biological factors.
• Contact reduces bias, and explicit race bias peaks at age 7 and declines through adolescence.
• Children categorize spontaneously by age 6, demonstrating ingroup preference.
• Implicit Association Test (IAT) measures reaction time for concept associations (e.g., race and positivity/negativity).
• Studies show implicit White+Good/Black+Bad associations among European-Americans.
• Intergroup preferences remain consistent into adulthood.

Implicit Preference Studies by Ethnicity

• European Americans exhibit strong White+Good/Black+Bad associations.
• Findings in African Americans and Latino Americans reveal nuanced, similar ingroup-positive preferences but vary in strength.

Malleability of Implicit Bias

• Early-formed bias is relatively stable but can adapt to age and contextual changes.
• Interventions can potentially change implicit bias but require consistent exposure to counter-stereotypes.

Conclusion

• Explicit preferences evolve with age, but implicit biases generally show stability over time.
• Shared environments and experiences significantly contribute to both types of biases.

Sources of Bias (from Rudman's Reading)

• Early experiences, affective responses, cultural biases, and cognitive consistency shape implicit bias.

Core Aspects of Language and Development Stages

• Symbols are arbitrary pairings of words and meanings.
• Language is generative, encompassing the creation of new sentences and ideas from existing elements.
• Recursion refers to the ability to rephrase ideas without losing semantic meaning.

Parts of Language

• Phonemes are the smallest units in language (e.g., sounds).
• Morphemes are the smallest components of meaning (e.g., prefixes and suffixes).
• Syntax determines sentence structures; Chomsky's concept of principles and parameters suggests universal language structure.
• Pragmatics involves the non-verbal aspects impacting meaning (e.g., tone of voice).

Stages of Language Development

• Phonological development begins prenatally and is largely complete by 10 months.
• Semantic development rapidly follows, with substantial vocabulary acquisition after 10 months, especially nouns.
• Syntactic development involves simple two-word sentences emerging by age two, with more complex sentence structures developing gradually.
• Pragmatic development extends throughout life.

Quinean Reference Problem (QRP)

• The QRP describes challenges children face in understanding word meanings.
• Whole-object bias, mutual exclusivity, and basic-level phenomena all contribute to the difficulty in identifying precise word meanings.
• Linguistic cues such as grammatical structure can help disambiguate word meanings.

Theories of Language Development

• Behaviorism attributes language acquisition to reinforcement and rewards.
• Connectionism employs neural networks to model language acquisition.
• Statistical learning focuses on children's ability to detect patterns in language.
• Nativism suggests a built-in innate ability for language acquisition, supported by cases like Nicaraguan Sign Language.

Gender Development and Social Learning

• Four key processes in social learning theories involve attention, memory, motivation, and production of gender-relevant behaviors.
• Parental influence shapes gender-typed behaviors by rewarding or discouraging certain behaviors/interests.
• Gender socialization through conversations and observation reinforces gender norms.
• Gender schema theory details mental frameworks for understanding gender and active self-socialization to fit expectations.
• Social cognitive theory focuses on learning through tuition, active experiences, and observation.
• Gender asymmetry arises from contrasting pressures to adhere to traditionally masculine versus feminine roles.

Gender Development: Biological and Social Factors

• Beyond socialization, children display innate gender identity which suggests biological components.
• Gender identity is internal, not solely determined by physical sex.
• Hormones, like androgen levels, affect behavior and development.
• Animal studies using testosterone exposure suggest a biological influence on gender socialization.

Human Studies

• Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH) provides insight into the impact of hormonal imbalances on gender development.
• Cognitive, motivational, and environmental factors interact to shape aggression and gender behavior.
• Studies on transgender children/adolscents illustrate attitudes and preference for same-gendered peers versus transgender peers.
• Gender identity development involves social, cognitive, and biological influences.

Implicit Cognition

• Implicit bias studies, such as those conducted by Baron & Banaji, illustrate developmental patterns of prejudice and intergroup bias.
• The explicit and implicit preferences for particular social groups fluctuate as a function of age and other factors.