Social cognition Flashcards
(41 cards)
What are three models of the social thinker?
- Naive scientist –gathers evidence to test hypothesis.
- Cognitive miser –uses heuristics
- Motivated tactician – chooses strategies based on goals. Scientist if motivated to be skeptical; miser if motivated to believe.
What is a priming effect?
The unintended influence of prior experience on judgment, thought or behaviour.
What is a priming technique?
The presentation of a stimulus that activates a concept in memory.
What evidence is there that the target of judgement influences priming effect?
Banaji et al. (1993) experiment. Sentence unscramble primes aggressive or neutral. Pps rate para about Donald or Donna. Only Donald rated as more aggressive. Converse effect for dependence.
Primed information was only used when it was relevant to the target.
What evidence is there that porn can prime some men to view women as sex objects? McKenzie-Mohr and Zanna (1990)
Men watched either porn or parliament. Then had interview with female confederate. 47% (porno video) vs. 35% (control video) recalled physical characteristics. And wheeled chair closer in porn condition. But ONLY among macho men.
What evidence is there that sexualised commercials primes men, irrespective of whether they are macho or androgynous, to view women as sex objects?
Participants who were sexually primed (by watching ads) were faster to recognise words that recognised women as sexual objects in lexical decision task. (Same effect also found for playing Leisure Suit Larry).
Participants who saw the sexualised ads engaged in sexualised behaviour during the interview - i.e. asking more sexist questions.
How might power affect the behaviour of men likely to sexually harass?
Men likely to sexually harass, when primed with power words (e.g. boss), were faster at pronouncing sex words (e.g. motel). No effect for normals.
Power primes also increased attraction toward a female confederate among men who were high in LSH.
What are the two processes of mental control according to ironic process theory?
- Intentional operating process, which searches for distracters. It is conscious, effortful, and interruptible.
- Ironic monitoring process, which is used to monitor whether the to-be-suppressed thought is resurfacing.
It is unconscious, less effortful, and uninterruptible.
How does ironic process theory work?
Intentional operating process is effortful and so can be
weakened under cognitive load. But the monitoring process is still going strong. So, we end up having lots of recurring thoughts about what we don’t want to think about.
What are two studies that validate ironic process theory?
Wegner’s putt and the pendulum studies.
Study 1: “Whatever you do, don’t overshoot the target”
In experimental condition, pps also asked to remember 6 digit number –cognitive load. These pps sig. more likely to overshoot.
Study 2: “Whatever you do, don’t swing the pendulum in a sideways motion”
In exp. cond. pps count back from 1000 to 0 in threes. cognitive load. These people swung pendulum more!
When asked not to do sth, implicitly activates motor schema of swinging, and when add cognitive load, intentional inhibiting process is compromised.
Describe the cookie study for self-control depletion (Baumeister et al., 1998)?
Hungry participants put in room with cookies and radishes and instructed to refrain from eating:
- warm chocolate chip cookies or
- radishes or
- control condition
Then task 2 –given unsolvable puzzle
control spent 20 mins on puzzle
cookies spent 20 mins on puzzle
radishes spent 8 mins on puzzle
Being depleted in one domain has affect on other unrelated domains.
How did Oaten and Cheng (2006) demonstrate the effect of going to the gym on self-control?
Longitudinal study:
Phase 1: Control phase (2 months)
Phase 2: Exercise program phase (2 months)
Results 1. Better performance on a visual tracking task at 1 month and even better at 2 months 2. Self-reported self-regulatory behaviours increased. Less: - junk food - impuse/over spending - losing temper - friends/TV instead of study etc.
Self-regulation is…
Self-regulation is the human capacity to control responses for goal-directed action.
Self-regulation relies on a _______ energy source that can be ________, but can be ________ with exercise.
Self-regulation relies on a single energy source that can be depleted, but can be strengthened with exercise.
What’s the difference between emotion and mood?
- Emotions guide actions, e.g. fear of a snake makes you run from the snake. They are the feeling that we have in combination with the object of that emotion. You are angry with something, you are scared of something.
- Moods do not usually have an immediate or salient cause. We tend to be ‘in’ a mood, but it is not always clear what causes that mood.
What is affect?
Affect: our current emotions and moods
What is the difference between mood-congruent and mood-dependent memory?
- Mood-congruent memory:
Encode and recall memories/information that are congruent with current mood. Mood serves as filter. If you are in a positive mood, you are more likely to notice and remember positive things than if you were in a negative mood. - Mood-dependent memory:
Fit between mood at retrieval and mood at encoding. Moods serve as a retrieval cue (for recall). We are likely to recall information we encountered before when we are in a similar mood. If you were in a positive mood when you encountered something, you are more likely to remember that thing when you are in a positive mood later.
What is Bower’s (1981) affect priming model?
Network theory of affect. Affect is a node in a semantic network that can activate memories associated with that affect. So mood leads to retrieval of mood-congruent concepts and memories. e.g. Positive events are linked to the node of ‘happy’. When the happy node is activated, the activation spreads to the other parts of the network. When you experience happiness, this will activate the memories of linked events.
Mood leads to retrieval of _____-________ concepts and memories. So when we are making judgments, we use information that is readily _______. You end up using a different knowledge base when you are _____ vs. when you are ___.
Mood leads to retrieval of mood-congruent concepts and memories. When we are making judgments, we use information that is readily accessible. You end up using a different knowledge base when you are happy vs. when you are sad.
Mood influences judgments in an _______ manner. It happens via ______ processes. _______ activate different concepts in memory. This activation then alters judgments.
Mood influences judgments in an indirect manner. It happens via memory processes. Moods activate different concepts in memory. This activation then alters judgments.
In what way can our mood be used as a direct source of information?
You use your current moods as a basis of judgment. When you encounter something or someone, you ask, ‘How do I feel about it?’, and you use your existing affective state to construct a response.
E.g. If you are asked, how likeable is Sarah? You might ask, how did I feel about the interaction? and if you felt good because of your mood, you might conclude that Sarah is quite likeable.
What is a potential source of error when using mood to make judgements?
Potential source of error comes when mood is irrelevant to target of judgment.
What’s the difference between the affect priming model (Bower) and the feelings as information model (Schwartz)?
The affect priming model (Bower) says that informational value of the mood –its relevance to the target –should not matter. Whether feelings influence judgment depends only on the concepts retrieved from memory.
The feelings as information model suggests that the impact of affective states on judgment depends on the perceived information value. If current feelings are attributed to a source that is irrelevant to the target of evaluation, feelings should not influence the evaluative judgment.
How did Schwartz and Clore (1983) support the direct model by asking pps about the weather?
Asked pps, “All things considered, how satisfied or dissatisfied are you with your life as a whole these days?”
- Asked people either on sunny or rainy weekends
- Half also asked at the beginning: “By the way, how’s the weather down there?”
With no reminder, rainy people were sadder. But weather reminder effaced difference between the two groups.
If you attribute current feelings to something that is irrelevant to the target of evaluation (e.g. the weather) then feelings should not influence judgement. There should not be mood congruence. Because we try to use feelings that apply to the right object.
