Psych ch. 8: Cognition

confirmation bias

a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence

What does the Stroop effect demonstrate? a) familiarity with a word can interfere with saying the color of its ink b) an item that looks different from all the others captures attention automatically c) we often fail to detect visual changes that occur slowly or during an eye blink d) people find it possible to deal with categories even when they are hard to find

a) familiarity with a word can interfere with saying the color of its ink

Steve says he has a coworker who is persecuting him. You conclude that Steve is paranoid, ignoring the possibility that Steve really does have an enemy. This is a possible example of which heuristic? a) the representative heuristic b) the availability heuristic

a) the representative heuristic

As people develop expertise in a skill such as chess, what improves? a) their ability to recognize common patterns b) the ration to excitatory and inhibitory transmission in their brain c) the accuracy of their vision, hearing and other senses d) their overall memory and intelligence

a) their ability to recognize common patterns

anchoring and adjustment heuristic

adjusts a previously existing value or starting point to make a decision

dual modes of cognition

automatic/controlled unconscious/ conscious intuitive/ deliberative quick and easy/ effortful system 1/ system 2

suppose you are in a field of brownish bushes and one motionless brown rabbit. You will find it by _____________. If the rabbit starts hoping you will find it by _____________. a) attentive process, attentive process b) attentive process, preattentive process c) preattentive process, attentive process d) preattentive process, preattentive process

b) attentive process, preattentive process

Other things being equal, which children in a class are more likely to be treated for ADHD? a) people who are taller than average for the grade in school b) people who are younger than average for the grade in school c) people whose parents have low expectations for their school performance d) children with greater than average athletic ability

b) people who are younger than average for the grade in school

in decision making, what is the disadvantage of being a maximizer? a) maximizers tend to make decisions to quickly b) maximizers tend to make overall worse decisions c) Maximizers tend to be less satisfied with decisions d) Maximizers tend to be too influenced by what other people have chosen

c) Maximizers tend to be less satisfied with decisions

What is a heuristic? a) an explicit procedure for calculating an answer b) a procedure that carefully tests every hypothesis before testing an answer c) a strategy for simplifying a problem

c) a strategy for simplifying a problem

Someone tells me that if I say "abracadabra" every morning, I will stay healthy. I say it daily and, sure enough, I stay healthy. I conclude that this magic word ensures health. What error of thinking have I made? a) overconfidence b) functional fixedness c) confirmation bias d) the framing effect

c) confirmation bias

in contrast to system 1 (or type 1 thinking) what is true of system 2? a) it is quick and almost effortless b) it evolved earlier in the animal kingdom c) it is best suited to considering and evaluating complex evidence d) it generally leads to incorrect answers

c) it is best suited to considering and evaluating complex evidence

representative heuristic

classifying something according to the typical case. Unfortunately this approach often ignores base rate information

Availability Heuristic

judgement based on how easily something comes to mind

Heuristics

mental shortcuts used to make quick and efficient judgments. Heuristics address cognitive judgment. - availability - representativeness - anchoring and adjustment

schemas

organize our knowledge and influence what we notice, think about, and remember. An associative network similar to a concept map

behavioral confirmation

our behaviors elicit from others what we originally expected. Belief that we have in our minds create the social reality that we experience

attentive process

requires intention and effortt

self-fulfilling prophecy

step 1: Perceiver forms expectancy about Target PERCEPTUAL CONFIRMATION Step 2: Perceiver interprets Target behavior through bias of expectation. Step 3: Perceiver acts according to biased perception; Target responds in kind to perceiver's behavior BEHAVIORAL CONFIRMATION

priming

the process by which recent experiences increase the accessibility of a schema, trait, or concept. Can impact behavior even without awareness

Syntax

the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language

Overconfidence

the tendency to be more confident than correct—to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments.

attention

the tendency to respond to and remember some stimuli more than others

functional fixedness

the tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving

spreading activation

thinking about one of the concepts shown in this figure will activate, or prime, the concepts linked to it

cogntition

thinking and using knowledge

automatic processing

unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time, and frequency, and of well-learned information, such as word meanings pros: more efficient, much faster, sometimes more accurate cons: prone to certain errors, less controlled, overgeneralizations

preattentive process

we can notice things that stand out without effort

phonology

Rules for combining sounds -> words Phonemes (smallest units of sound) Morphemes (smallest units of meaning)

framing effect

The decision-making bias that results from the way a decision, question, or problem is worded

bad part of schemas

can distort what we remember and what we see and can influence us in unexpected ways

Priming a concept is responsible for which of the following? a) change blindness b) the stroop effect c) the stop signal d) spreading activation

d) spreading activation

controlled processing occurs when...

people have the ability and motivation to do so

people will buy meat that claims "90% fat free" but not one that says "contains 10% fat" this is an example of which of the following? a)overconfidence b)the framing effect c) sunk cost effect d) inappropriate use of the availability heuristic

b) the framing effect

controlled processing

"explicit" thinking that is deliberate, reflective, and conscious pros: more controlled and intentional, often more accurate cons: time-consuming, uses up resources, not always more accurate

what schemas do we use?

- AVAILIBILITY Do you have a schema for this person/topic/attitude? if you are not familiar with it then it is not available - ACCESSILIBILTY the ease with which a schema can be retrieved from memory and used in a given situation chronic vs. temporary accessibility

what schemas get used?

- schemas that are chronically accessible due to past experiences or repeated activation over time -schemas that are temporarily accessible. Related to a current goal or from a recent experience

Bargh, Chen, & Burrows (1996)

-Participants complete a scrambled sentence task, then get experimenter in hall to proceed with study. The scrambled sentences had different words related to either rudeness, politeness or neutral -Polite condition (e.g., He was very considerate); rude condition (e.g., He was very inconsiderate); neutral condition -does subject interrupt experimenter? -interruption-> rude condition

where do schemas come from?

-direct experience - indirect experience - media - culture - socialization

Stroop Effect

Explains the decreased speed of naming the color of ink used to print words when the color of ink and the word itself are of different colors.

language

Human language is unique in that it is productive productivity: the ability to combine words into new sentences that express an unlimited number of ideas

Maximizers vs. Satisficers

Maximizing choices: Seek and accept only the best (or aspire to do so): • Price • Quality • Fit • Etc. Satisficing choices: Settle for something that is good enough (merely excellent?) • Criteria • Monitoring • End of story

Semantics

Meaning of words and sentences surface level vs. deeper meaning

Snyder, Tanke, & Berscheid (1977)

Men told to have phone conversation with woman and shown picture of attractive/unattractive woman beforehand and responses were coded for openness and warmth -attractive females had more open and warm responses

factors that impact motivation

Need for Cognition Personality variable: extent to which people engage in and enjoy effortful activities Some people just like to think more than others Accountability Responsibility -> Engagement and Care Bosses, Project Leaders, etc. Personal Relevance Personal stakes -> Engagement and Care Classic Example: Opinions about tuition increases Task/Decision Importance More impactful -> Engagement and Care

Bransford and Johnson (1972)

One third of participants heard that paragraph. One third of participants were told it was about laundry after hearing it. One third of participants were told it was about laundry before hearing it. The only participants who really understood or remembered anything about the passage were those who knew it was about laundry before hearing it. Prior knowledge about the topic activated a "laundry" schema, allowing for better retention and comprehension

language and thinking

Thinking involves mental manipulation of knowledge to reach a goal, solve a problem, etc. Language influences how we think and perceive the world Language ≠ Communication It is a highly-developed mode of communication Birds tweet, bees dance, dogs bark, but we wouldn't call what they're doing using a "language" Languages have grammar: rules that allow us to use arbitrary symbols to convey meaning