Chapter 2: Social Cognition

The ways in which we interpret, analyze, remember, and use information about the social world are known as

_____.

• encoding

• automatic processing

• social cognition

• schemas

Social thought is not always completely rational because _____.

• thinking about the social world requires effort

• rational thought cannot completely overcome the effects of schemas

• social thought is always automatic and heuristic

• base rates are frequently ignored

Mental frameworks for organizing and processing social information are known as _____.

• heuristics

• schemas

• anchoring frameworks

• affective states

One way that schemas influence social thought is by _____.

• ensuring that inconsistent information is stored in our memories and retrieved rapidly

• increasing our cognitive load by activating more information from our long term memory stores

• activating the availability heuristic and enabling automatic priming

• acting as a filter to direct our attention towards some information and away from other information

Tracy encounters a member of a certain political group whose views and attributes are inconsistent with her

schemas about that group. What is the MOST likely conclusion that Tracy will make?

• Tracy will completely change her schema about the group.

• Tracy will place this individual into a subtype of those who do not confirm her schema.

• Tracy will completely ignor this information

• Tracy will suppress conscious awareness of this conflicting information, but it will exert an influence on

  her behavior without her awareness.

Schemas affect our use of stored memories by _____.

• making it easier to retrieve information that is consistent with the schema

• reducing the cognitive load on our reasoning abilities so we can search our memories more thoroughly

• activating the anchoring and adjustment process whereby we make social judgments

• showing a strong perseverance effect π strengthening our stored memories

The term "cognitive load" refers to _____.

• the strength displayed by a schema in activating memories

• the amount of mental effort we are expending at a given time

• the relatively rational and orderly process used in making social cognitions

• the number of heuristics we are using at a given time

A self-fulfilling prophecy is _____.

• the process by which schemas sometimes influence the social world in ways to make the world consistent

  with the schema

• the result of over-reliance on mental heuristics and memories

• the end result of having two or more schemas active in our cognitive processes at the same time

• the end result of having two or more schemas active in our cognitive processes at the same time

Simple rules for making complex decisions or drawing inferences are known as _____.

• heuristics

• automaticity

• anchoring and adjustment

• schemas

Those things that are easier to recall tend to have a greater impact on subsequent judgments and decisions. This

fact is known as _____.

• evaluative thinking

• he availability heuristic

• the base rate heuristic

• automatic priming