31 Questions
Social cognition refers to how people think about themselves and the social world.
True
Automatic thinking requires deliberate mental effort.
False
Intuitive thinking is quick and reflexive, often relying on hunches.
True
Analytical thinking is slow and reflective.
True
Automatic thinking is conscious and intentional.
False
Schemas are mental structures that influence the information people notice, think about, and remember.
True
Understanding social situations is an example of automatic function.
True
Mr. Crane is more upset than Mr. Tees.
False
Counterfactual thinking only occurs in hypothetical situations.
False
Counterfactual thinking can be adaptive for preparing for the future.
True
Negative affect is not a key component of counterfactual thinking.
False
Counterfactual thinking is always adaptive for people high in perfectionism.
False
Controlled thinking is more prone to errors than automatic thinking.
False
The overconfidence barrier refers to people having too little confidence in their judgments.
False
Considering other opinions can improve judgment.
True
Teaching people statistical and methodological thinking is a perfect solution to improving judgment.
False
True or false: The availability heuristic refers to the tendency to make classifications based on similarity to typical cases?
False
True or false: The representativeness heuristic is a mental shortcut where people make classifications based on similarity to typical cases?
True
True or false: The availability heuristic is demonstrated in a study by Tversky & Kahneman where people could recall more famous names and overestimate the total number of names when the names were famous?
True
True or false: The base rate fallacy refers to people ignoring the actual frequency of membership in categories when making judgments?
True
True or false: Analytic thinking style is more characteristic of collectivist cultures?
False
True or false: Attentional processes are shaped by culture and are directed by top-down knowledge?
True
True or false: Controlled thinking is conscious, intentional, voluntary, and effortful?
True
Bartlett's study on the War of the Ghosts showed that over time, stories are shaped to fit culture-related schemas.
True
Schemas organize our knowledge and provide discontinuity.
False
Priming is the process by which recent experiences decrease the accessibility of a schema, trait, or concept.
False
In Higgins et al.'s study, participants were exposed to words that could influence perceptions of a person before reading a description and rating impressions of 'Donald'.
True
Self-fulfilling prophecy refers to people having an expectation about another person, which influences how they act toward that person, causing that person to behave consistently with those expectations.
True
Embodied cognition is the process by which mental structures activate bodily sensations, such as schemas.
False
Heuristics are mental shortcuts used to make judgments quickly and efficiently, and they are not prone to errors.
False
The availability heuristic refers to judgments or decisions made based on the ease with which information comes to mind.
True
Study Notes
Social Cognition
- Refers to how people think about themselves and the social world
Types of Thinking
- Automatic thinking: quick and reflexive, often relying on hunches
- Intuitive thinking: same as automatic thinking, quick and reflexive
- Analytical thinking: slow and reflective
Schemas
- Mental structures that influence the information people notice, think about, and remember
- Organize our knowledge and provide discontinuity
- Can be shaped by culture and top-down knowledge
Counterfactual Thinking
- Occurs in hypothetical situations
- Can be adaptive for preparing for the future, especially for people high in perfectionism
Thinking Errors
- Controlled thinking is more prone to errors than automatic thinking
- The overconfidence barrier: people having too little confidence in their judgments
- The availability heuristic: judgments or decisions made based on the ease with which information comes to mind
- The representativeness heuristic: a mental shortcut where people make classifications based on similarity to typical cases
- The base rate fallacy: ignoring the actual frequency of membership in categories when making judgments
Cultural Influence
- Analytic thinking style is more characteristic of individualist cultures, not collectivist cultures
- Attentional processes are shaped by culture and are directed by top-down knowledge
Priming and Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
- Priming: the process by which recent experiences increase the accessibility of a schema, trait, or concept
- Self-fulfilling prophecy: people having an expectation about another person, which influences how they act toward that person, causing that person to behave consistently with those expectations
Embodied Cognition and Heuristics
- Embodied cognition: the process by which mental structures activate bodily sensations, such as schemas
- Heuristics: mental shortcuts used to make judgments quickly and efficiently, but they are prone to errors
Test your knowledge on cognitive biases with this quiz! Explore the concept of salience, limited experience, and familiarity in decision-making. Challenge yourself with examples from Tversky & Kahneman's famous study.
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