PSYCH 280 Exam 2 Lecture 10

How people perceive, remember, and interpret information

How people perceive, remember, and interpret information about themselves and others

People change..people respond to being perceived..people are complex because dynamic and not everything about a person is easily observable (like measuring a folder)..not everything about a person is easily observed or understandable..it is a lot harder

Nonconscious
Unaware of what thinking
Unintentional
Involuntary
Effortless
Relied on when not motivated or able to think
Refer to dual process model from yesterday (automatic instinct is to make person, dispositional attribution)..only if motivated we take that second step and consider situational explanations

Going through grocery checkout line
Orienting to sudden sound
Answering 2 + 2 =
Detecting vocal hostility
Detecting which object is more distant

Conscious
You aware what thinking about..spelling out numbers in head
Intentional
Voluntary
Effortful
Require motivation AND ability

Monitoring behavior (e.g., job interview)
Bracing for starter pistol
Searching memory to identify strange sound
Answering 17 * 48 =
Looking for white-haired woman
Parallel parking
Driving?

Tendency for recently used words or ideas to come to mind easily and influence the interpretation of new information

Chronically accessible
Temporarily accessible

Barge article..notion of priming
Accessible and available is how easily comes to mind..more likely to be used for judgments once it is on your mind..in order for info to be accessible, has to be available (be in your brain)..plate and petal example..primed of thinking two different schemas

Available..self is chronically accessible information (to think of things in terms of this)


Priming affects impressions (evaluations of something..either primed to list of words like reckless or foolish, or adventurous and confident)..everybody rates Donald (could be seen either way)…they like him more if first primed with positive traits..temporarily accessfible..priming affects attitudes too (like social category like elderly)…goal pursuit (thinking about goals interacting with mom automatically happen)…goal to be quiet in library

Bargh: concept of warm associate with people too, not just beverage..a totally unrelated experience can bring the concepts to the mind and influence Randy? THE EFFECTS OF PRIMING ARE PERVASIVE..EFFECT MANY ASPECTS OF SOCIAL INTERACTIONS

Pros
Save mental resources
More energy for self-regulation
Things become easier over time
Helpful for routine tasks
Cons
Errors
Interfere with controlled processes

Knowledge structure consisting of any organized body of stored information

Beliefs about self guide processing info that is relevant to self..distinct from self concept (schema focuses on what is most important, not everything)

What we think the traits and goals of characteristics of different types oof people (like stereotype)

What is expected to happen in certain setting

Self
Beliefs about self guide processing info that is relevant to self..distinct from self concept (schema focuses on what is most important, not everything)
Person
What we think the traits and goals of characteristics of different types oof people (like stereotype)
Event (script)
What is expected to happen in certain setting

Direct attention
Memory
encoding
retrieval
Identify things in our environments
Similarity/feature matching

Influence judgments


Memory would be biased to fit schema
We tend to encode and retrieve things (info) that is schema consistent, more easily and more often than information that is schema inconsistent..once they are into memory and asked to recall, easier if fit schema

Automatic processes are pervasive and tend to be helpful (i.e., adaptive), but can lead to mistakes
Automatic processes can be overridden by controlled processes…
…IF there is motivation and ability
…IF we know the effects of the automatic processes

Social cognition is special
Areas of brain that are active when we are thinking socially, and inactive when thinking of nonsocial info
What tell us? Fundamentally different way of thinking
Thinking about others = thinking about the self
..simulate, empathize of imagining how other people thinking by simulating why we would do something or think that way..we are social animals
Social cognition is our default
Social cognition…if we have to switch gears for something else, our default areas of the brain are less active and other areas are recruited..areas to understand people are always ready to go..ready to think about social information..fundamental part of cognition..social is default!