Social cognition

Question 1

What are three models of the social thinker?

Answer 1

1. Naive scientist –gathers evidence to test hypothesis.
2. Cognitive miser –uses heuristics
3. Motivated tactician – chooses strategies based on goals. Scientist if motivated to be skeptical; miser if motivated to believe.

Question 2

What is a priming effect?

Answer 2

The unintended influence of prior experience on judgment, thought or behaviour.

Question 3

What is a priming technique?

Answer 3

The presentation of a stimulus that activates a concept in memory.

Question 4

What evidence is there that the target of judgement influences priming effect?

Answer 4

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.

Question 5

What evidence is there that porn can prime some men to view women as sex objects? McKenzie-Mohr and Zanna (1990)

Answer 5

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.

Question 6

What evidence is there that sexualised commercials primes men, irrespective of whether they are macho or androgynous, to view women as sex objects?

Answer 6

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.

Question 7

How might power affect the behaviour of men likely to sexually harass?

Answer 7

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.

Question 8

What are the two processes of mental control according to ironic process theory?

Answer 8

1. Intentional operating process, which searches for distracters. It is conscious, effortful, and interruptible.
2. Ironic monitoring process, which is used to monitor whether the to-be-suppressed thought is resurfacing.
   It is unconscious, less effortful, and uninterruptible.

Question 9

How does ironic process theory work?

Answer 9

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.

Question 10

What are two studies that validate ironic process theory?

Answer 10

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.

Question 11

Describe the cookie study for self-control depletion (Baumeister et al., 1998)?

Answer 11

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.

Question 12

How did Oaten and Cheng (2006) demonstrate the effect of going to the gym on self-control?

Answer 12

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.

Question 13

Self-regulation is…

Answer 13

Self-regulation is the human capacity to control responses for goal-directed action.

Question 14

Self-regulation relies on a _______ energy source that can be ________, but can be ________ with exercise.

Answer 14

Self-regulation relies on a single energy source that can be depleted, but can be strengthened with exercise.

Question 15

What’s the difference between emotion and mood?

Answer 15

• 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.

Question 16

What is affect?

Answer 16

Affect: our current emotions and moods

Question 17

What is the difference between mood-congruent and mood-dependent memory?

Answer 17

• 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.

Question 18

What is Bower’s (1981) affect priming model?

Answer 18

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.

Question 19

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 ___.

Answer 19

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.

Question 20

Mood influences judgments in an _______ manner. It happens via ______ processes. _______ activate different concepts in memory. This activation then alters judgments.

Answer 20

Mood influences judgments in an indirect manner. It happens via memory processes. Moods activate different concepts in memory. This activation then alters judgments.

Question 21

In what way can our mood be used as a direct source of information?

Answer 21

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.

Question 22

What is a potential source of error when using mood to make judgements?

Answer 22

Potential source of error comes when mood is irrelevant to target of judgment.

Question 23

What’s the difference between the affect priming model (Bower) and the feelings as information model (Schwartz)?

Answer 23

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.

Question 24

How did Schwartz and Clore (1983) support the direct model by asking pps about the weather?

Answer 24

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.

Question 25

“Emotions exist for the sake of signalling _____ of the world that have to be ______ to, or that no longer need ______ and _______” (Frijda, 1988)

Answer 25

“Emotions exist for the sake of signalling stages of the world that have to be responded to, or
that no longer need response and action” (Frijda, 1988)

Question 26

According to the Signalling Function of Affect model, what is a negative state for and what does it promote?

Answer 26

Current situation is problematic and something must be done. May promote use of systematic, detail-oriented info processing.

Question 27

According to the Signalling Function of Affect model, what does a positive state tell us and what does it promote?

Answer 27

Current situation is safe and no scrutiny of the environment is necessary. May promote use of heuristics.

Question 28

How might mood affect the correspondence bias and information recall? Describe the relevant study.

Answer 28

Forgas (1998)
Mood induction: participants received positive feedback, negative feedback, or no feedback.

Then read essays on topical issues and had to decide if the views were freely chosen by the author or not chosen.

• Happy mood increased the correspondence bias (fundamental attribution error).
• Sad moods decreased correspondence bias.

Sad participants also recalled significantly more information than happy participants.

Question 29

What evidence is there that happy mood might promote heuristic use?

Answer 29

Participants wrote about: “happy event vs. daily activities” Read a description about an assault case:
Juan Garcia vs. John Garner
Happy participants relied on stereotypes (more likely to think the latino student was guilty), whereas neutral participants based judgments on the evidence provided.

Question 30

Happy moods appear to _______ judgmental errors, suggesting that positive mood increases reliance on _______.

Answer 30

Happy moods appear to increase judgmental errors, suggesting that positive mood increases reliance on heuristics.

Question 31

What’s the difference between hot and cold cognition?

Answer 31

Cold cognition: information-driven processes
Hot cognition: processes that are driven by motives/goals
and feelings

Question 32

What is the difference between directional/accuracy/closure goals?

Answer 32

Directional goal: The desire to reach a particular outcome or form a particular judgment - e.g. want to believe hot girl is nice
Accuracy goal: The desire to form an accurate judgment - e.g. buying car
Closure goal: The desire to arrive at (or not arrive at) a clear conclusion quickly

Question 33

People high on Need for Cognition are more likely to be motivated by ______ Goals and less likely to rely on _______.

Those high on Need for _______ ______ tend to find ambiguous situations stressful.

Answer 33

People high on Need for Cognition are more likely to be motivated by Accuracy Goals and less likely to rely on stereotypes.

Those high on Need for Cognitive Closure tend to find ambiguous situations stressful.

Question 34

Describe a study providing evidence that directional goals can bias information processing?

Answer 34

Pps given colour strip to test good enzyme in body. Two conditions: colour = enzyme; no colour = enzyme.
Pps in the colour condition took 30 seconds longer to arrive at their judgement.

Participants were also less critical of the test when the test results were favourable.

Question 35

How can accountability increase accuracy goals?

Answer 35

Pps told to read personality profile and write biographical paragraph. Condition 1 – go over para with experimenter. Condition 2 –no supervision. When made accountable, accuracy goal created, and pps tend to form more complex, integrated, and accurate impressions of others.

Question 36

How might cognitive load affect accuracy goals? Think of Hilda.

Answer 36

Wanting to be accurate isn’t enough, you also need cognitive capacity. e.g. Hilda. Pps told they would be working with an old woman –so motivated to form accurate judgement –were accurate only when no cognitive load. Otherwise they came up with the same stereotypes as those told they were not working with her.

Question 37

What is the correspondence bias (fundamental attribution error)?

Answer 37

Tendency to attribute behaviour to characteristics of the person rather than features of the situation.

Question 38

When motivated to achieve ______: pps spend less time making judgment, more likely to show bias.

Answer 38

When motivated to achieve closure: pps less time making judgment, more likely to show bias.

Question 39

How can a directional goal bias recall? Santioso et al. (1990)

Answer 39

Participants were told that either extraversion or introversion leads to success. Then when asked to describe a behaviour, chose one that made them closer to the successful trait.

BUT, introverts still rated themselves as more introverted than extraverts, across the board.

So there were some reality constraints. Judgments of self were influenced by current motivational goals AND prior knowledge of self

Question 40

How can effort put into judgements vary across goal type?

Answer 40

If accuracy goal, put more effort into judgements; if closure goal, less effort –take fewer factors into account.

With directional goals, we put more effort into refuting what we want to refute, and don’t scrutinise what we want to believe.

Question 41

Two limits to the motivated tactician?

Answer 41

Reality constraints

Cognitive constraints