Week 6 - Attributions

Question 1

What is short-termed memory?

Answer 1

Information and input that is CURRENTLY activated and maintained

Cannot be manipulated

(7 plus or minus 2)

Question 2

What is working memory?

Answer 2

Manipulation and attention to ACTIVATED information

Question 3

What is long term-memory?

Answer 3

Information from PAST experience that may/may not be activated

Question 4

List the process of memory

Answer 4

sensory information —> short-term memory —> REHEARSAL—> long-term memory

Question 5

Short term and working memory works on what part of the brain?

Answer 5

Pre-front cortex

Question 6

Long-term memory works on what part of the brain?

Answer 6

Hippocampus

Question 7

Memory is a “_______________” process

Answer 7

Reconstructive

(Influenced by biases, schemas, motives and goals)

Question 8

HOWEVER information that is highly “___________” with schemas may be processed more throughout

Answer 8

Inconsistent

Question 9

What is mood-congruent memory?

Answer 9

People are more likely to remember…

POSITIVE information when in + mood

NEGATIVE information when in - mood

Ex) chew same flavour of gum when studying and taking test

Question 10

What is the misinformation effect?

Answer 10

The process by which CUES that are given AFTER an event can plant FALSE information into memory

Ex) car accident, broken glass using word “hit” vs using word “smash”

Question 11

The use of eyewitness testimony is often “_______” influential piece of trail evidence

Answer 11

Most

Question 12

False confessions can be coerced and fully “____________” by the “confessor”

Answer 12

Believed

Question 13

What is the availability heuristic?

Answer 13

Judging frequency of an event based on the EASE with which it is brought to mind

Schema-based

Question 14

What is the ease of retrieval effect?

Answer 14

Judge how frequently an event occurs on the basis of how EASILY they can RETRIEVE a CERTAIN # of instances of that event

Question 15

True or false. We want to understand why people act and feel and think the way they do

Answer 15

TRUE

Question 16

What does attribution theory describe?

Answer 16

How people explain their causes of their OWN and OTHERS behaviour

We make causal attributions all the time

Often AUTOMATIC and RAPID

Question 17

What are the 2 primary sources the casual schema come from?

Answer 17

1) personal experiences

2) general cultural knowledge

Question 18

What happens when the event doesn’t readily fit a casual schema?

Answer 18

We rely on what is SALIENT or highly ACCESSIBLE

“Top of the head phenomenon”

Question 19

What is internal attribution VS external attribution?

Answer 19

Internal (disposition): persons behaviour was caused by something internal
Ex) attitudes, character

External (situation): ^^^ was caused by something external, we assume most people would behave similar
Ex) situation

Question 20

What is a stable VS unstable stability of cause?

Answer 20

Stable: persons behaviour is RELIABLY caused by the SAME thing

Unstable: ^^ is NOT reliably cause by the same thing

Question 21

True or false. Stability of cause cannot combine in different ways

Answer 21

FALSE

Question 22

What is fundamental attribution error (FAE)?

Answer 22

We OVERESTIMATE the extent to which other’s behavior is due to internal, dispositional factors

While…

We UNDERESTIMATE the role of situational factors

Ex) We often think that actors are like their characters

Question 23

What is the 3 stage model of attribution? (Based on dual-process models)

Answer 23

1)Identification of behaviour —> ATTRIBUTION: 2)automatic disposition inference —> 3)effortful situational correction
***(ONLY IF THEY HAVE SUFFICIENT MOTIVATION/COGNITIVE RESOURCES AVAILABLE)

Question 24

What are observer attributions?

Answer 24

We tend to attribute other people’s behaviour to INTERNAL reasons and ASSUMED their behaviour is caused by their disposition

Question 25

What is false consensus?

Answer 25

We assume other people are like ourselves

Freudian associations

Question 26

What does implicit personality theory mean?

Answer 26

Some traits are more central to others to OVERALL impressions

Cross-situation consistency

Ex) warm vs cold

Question 27

What is a main top down influence example?

Answer 27

Eye-tracking in similarity

In this experiment there was a STRONG focus on the eyes in terms of other parts of the face

Eyes provide critical information

Question 28

Schema-inconsistent information is more likely to be memorable or not memorable?

Answer 28

Memorable

Ex) tap dancing on a coffin at a funeral

Question 29

What is dialectics and what does it mean in collectivist terms?

Answer 29

A way of thinking that acknowledges and accepts INCONSISTENCY

Collectivist culture gather info differently than individual

Question 30

What is the locus of causality?

What are the 2 dimensions?

Answer 30

1) Can be INTERNAL (person) or EXTERNAL (situation/environment)

Ex) I failed a physics exam… should I attribute this to my lack of intelligence or external factors such as it was an unfair exam

2) The behaviour can be STABLE or UNSTABLE

Internal examples:

Ex) lack of physics ability = STABLE = cause ability is relatively unchangeable

Ex) lack of effort = UNSTABLE = effort can vary from situation-situation

Can also be external…

Question 31

Why is it good if someone has an incremental mind-set?

Answer 31

We believe that an attribute is MALLEABLE and can increase/decrease

Often this mind-sets helps a persons ability to GROW and IMPROVE

Ex) parents and their kids

Struggling at school —> “mom thinks I’m stupid”—> “I can’t do this!”

Struggling at school —> “mom thinks I should be trying harder” —> “I can do this!”

Question 32

What is the actor-observer effect?

What do you see this lots in?

Answer 32

AS OBSERVERS we are more likely to make INTERNAL attributions for the behaviour of others

AS ACTORS we are more likely to make EXTERNAL attributions for our own behaviour

This depends…

More likely when we do GOOD on a test —> internal factors

More likely when we do BAD on a test —> external factors

——————————————————————————————-

See this lots in… FINGER POINTING

Question 33

What are the 3 kinds of information needed to make a casual attribution?

Answer 33

1) consistency (time)

2) distinctiveness (situations)

3) consensus (people)

Question 34

What is counterfactual thinking?

Answer 34

Deeply ingrained on how we react to events

We often think about how CHANGING that causal factor could of CHANGED the event

Question 35

What is upward vs downward counterfactuals?

Answer 35

UPWARD: that is BETTER than what actually happened (generally make us feel worse about what happened)

“If only I didn’t have that last tequila shot”

DOWNWARD: alternatives that are WORSE than what actually happened (make us feel better about the past)

“You were lucky- you could of have spine damage and been paralyzed for life!”

Question 36

The “______ ______ ______” help us recognize people we know

Answer 36

Fusiform face area

Question 37

What does “theory of mind” mean?

Answer 37

Set of ideas about other peoples thoughts, desires, feelings and intentions based on what we KNOW about them and the SITUATION they are in

Question 38

How would you build an impression from the top- up?

VS

How would you build an impression from the bottom-up?

Answer 38

Top-up: decoding BEHAVIOURS and the MINDS of others

Bottom-up: perceiving others through SCHEMAS

Question 39

What is transference?

Answer 39

Forming an impression of another person using the SCHEMA one already has for a FAMILIAR person who resembles them

Question 40

What is representativeness heuristic?

Answer 40

Tendency to OVERESTIMATE the likelihood of someone is part of a larger category if they have FEATURES that seem REPRESENTATIVE of that category