Lecture 3 -> Navigating the social world (memory, attribution and impression formation) Flashcards
(21 cards)
Making sense of the world
We rely on our ability to recall past events (memory)
We make attributions about our (and other’s) behaviour
We form impressions of others using limited information
Remembering things
Short-term memory
- information and input that is currently activated
Long-term memory
- information from past experience that may or may not be currently activated
Encode -> rehearse -> consolidate -> retrieve
Are we failing to encode?
Use of social media influences our ability to encode experiences and retrieve memories
- recent research suggests using social media reduces recall
- similar results found when taking pictures of experiences
Dividing attention between social media and taking selfies may impair your ability to recall that experience
Encoding information
(Schemas again)
Associative networks:
- models for how pieces of information are linked together and stored in memory
These links result from several processes:
- semantic associations (overlap in meaning)
- experiential associations (classical/operant conditioning)
- self-schemas -> always accessible
You can measure encoding using IAT tests, e.g. stereotype incongruent trial
Retrieving information (schemas)
Accessibility:
- the ease with which people can bring an idea into consciousness and use it in thinking
Salience:
- the extent a schema is active in one’s mind which may consciously or unconsciously alter their perceptions and behaviour
Priming:
- the process by which exposure to a stimulus in the environment increases the salience of a schema (e.g. subliminal messaging)
Effects of priming
When a clean-smelling citrus scent was outside the entrance to a hospital, 47% stopped to sanitise hands
- this was a large increase from the 15% who cleaned their hands
- relevance to Covid-19 pandemic
Effects of mood on encoding
Mood-congruent memory:
- more likely to remember positive information when in a negative mood
- information associated with emotional states in semantic network
Moods shape judgements and perceptions of others
- if negative mood = self-focused (less encoding, use of heuristics)
- if positive mood = other-focused (more encoding, less heuristics)
Retrieving information
Memory is a reconstructive process
Retrieval is influences by biases, schemas, motives es and goals
It is easier to remember schema-consitent information
Primes can make certain things salient which biases retrieval
The misinformation effect
- memories are biased by schemas that we encode and recall
- primes after an event can plant false information in memory
- Allport and Postman (1945)
Elizabeth Loftus and eyewitness testimony
- leading questions by police investigators and exposure to information after an event can influence witness memories
about 25% of exonerations involve false confessions
- repressed memories of childhood abuse can be falsely reconstructed
Inferring cause and effect
People tend to perceive actions in terms of cause and effect
In viewing these shapes, people often assume one triangle is pushing out of the room
The naïve scientist (Heider, 1958) -> the bias for attribution theory
- we are motivated by two primary needs
~ the need to form a coherent view of the world
~ the need to gain control over the environment
To satisfy these needs, we act as naïve scientists, logically testing out hypotheses about the behaviour of other
Causal attribution
People tend to explain events in terms of causes
Causal attributions vary on two dimensions
- locus of causality: internal or external
- stability: stable or unstable
~ permanent and lasting vs temporary and fluctuating
- The locus of causality -
Internal (person) attribution
- any explanation that locate the cause as being internal to the person (personality, mood, attitudes, abilities, effort)
External (situation) attribution
- any explanation that located the cause of being extneral to the person (actions of others, the nature of the situation, luck)
Boys attribute maths difficulties to lack of effort (unstable) or bad teacher (external)
Girls tend to attribute maths difficulties to lack of maths abilities (internal)
Correspondent inference theory
People try to infer a correspondent inference that one’s action indicates a stable personality characteristic
- people prefer attributing behaviour to personality because that is more valuable for making predictions about behaviour
Social behaviour is ambiguous
- we assume automatic processing to assure high correspondence between behaviour and personality
Promoting correspondent inference
Social desirability
- more likely hen socially undesirable behaviours are observed
Choice
- more likely when someone freely chooses given behaviour
Noncommon effects
- more likely when comparing behaviour to alternative behaviours which may have different/unique (or non-common) outcomes
The covariation model
The correspondent inference model is limited to using a single instance of behaviour to explain behaviour
The covariation model considered multiple observations and considers external and internal attributions
- correspondent inference model focused on internal
Attributions are made using the covariation principle
- to be the cause of behaviour, it must be present during the behaviour and absent when the behaviour is absent
We assume the cause is something that “covaries” alongside the behaviour most often
Factors of covariation
Consensus information
- how others react to the same stimulus
Consistency information
- reacting to stimulus in the same ay on different occasions
Distinctiveness information
- reacting in the same way to other stimulus
- Table Information _
Type of information -> Example -> Implication
Consensus information -> High: everyone is in a bad mood -> situation -> low: only your professor is in a bad mood -> disposition
Consistency information -> High: your professor is always in a bad mood -> disposition -> low: your professor is only in a bad mood today -> situation
Distinctiveness information -> high: your professor is only in a bad mood in this class -> situation -> low: your professor is in a bad mood when you see him around campus -> disposition
Fundamental attribution error
The tendency to attribute someone’s behaviour to internal; factors (personality) and underestimate situational factors
Actor-observer effect
- tendency go make internal attributions for behaviour of others and external attributions for our behaviour
Expectations for this effect
- internal attributions more likely made for our success
- actor-observer difference stronger of negative behaviour
Self-serving attributions
- tendency to attribute success to internal attributions and failures to external factors outside of our control
- making attributions in this way protects and maintains our self-esteem
Intergroup attributions
- supporters of a football team may attributed winning to skill but when their team loses they might attribute this to bad luck
- intergroup attributions can propagate prejudice and discrimination against minority groups in society
~ reinforce stereotypes
~ self-fulfilling prophecies
Importance of cognitive systems
People who are cognitively strained or depleted are less likely to correct their judgment of others
Greenberg et al:
people were asked to judge the models level of anxiety under normal conditions and cognitive strain
People were much more likely to rate it a high level of anxiety under cognitive strain than under normal conditions
Importance of causal attributions
Play a large role in the judgements and decisions people make about other people and about themselves
Derived from complex and ambiguous circumstances, can help us quickly make sense of the world (for better or worse)
They help us maintain our preferred view of the world
- make assumptions based on prior experiences and schemas
Impresson formation
Impression from bottom up:
Gathering individuals observations to form an impression
- thin slices
- negativity bias
- theory of mind
~ mirror neurones
~ certain neurones that are activated both when on performs and action oneself and when one observed another person perform that action
Impressions from top down:
Using preconceived ideas and schemas as basis for impression
- transference
- false consensus
- representativeness heuristic
~ stereotypes
~ prototypically
- transference
- false consensus
More likely to use bottom-up processing and less reliance on heuristics when we:
- are motived to get to know someone (internally motivated later)
- need to work with someone (externally motivated later)
- feel similar to someone (in-group bias later)
that said, need unimpaired cognitive/controlled systems
First impressions
Primacy effect:
- what we learn early on shapes our judgments
- who do you think had a more favourable personality
Halo effect:
- social perception of a person is constructed around a single trait
Dangers of the halo effect
Advertising and misleading health halos
- health also are shortcuts consumers use in food0based decisions
- labelling products “healthy” created deceptive health halos
~ companies might label product as “healthy” and consumers might assume that the food is natural, low calorie, etc
~ children might perceive unhealthy food commercial where product is labelled as “healthy” to be healthier as other foods
First impressions
Expectations can lead to self-fulfilling prophecies
- impressions and assumptions change how we act towards others
Self-fulfilling prophecy:
- an expectation changes how we act towards others
- this shapes others’ behaviour, making out expectations come true
- Self-fulfilling prophecy in the workplace -
job performance of new cashiers in grocery store
- cashiers were ethnic minorities who had immigrated from Africa
- when assigned to work with biased manager, they were more likely to be absent, leave work early, scan items more slowly, etc
- when working with unbiased managers, minorities often performed better than majority workers
~ biased managers created self-fulfilling prophecy about performance, because he made them uncomfortable and declines their productivity
- Self-fulfilling prophecy in the classroom -
Controversial experiment: Rosenthal and Jacobsen (1968)
- gave students a meaningless test and gave teachers bogus feedback on whether students were “intellectual bloomers”
- these bloomers performed better than non-bloomers
teacher forms expectation of student -> teacher communicates explanation (verbally or nonverbally) -> student behaviour aligns with expectations -> teacher’s expectations confirmed
