PSYC13H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Social Perception, Episodic Memory, Cognitive Psychology
Document Summary
Flexible processing is believed to be attained through the operation of two complementary mental modules: the neocortical and the hippocampal learning/memory systems (see mc- clelland et al 1995). Neocortical system (i. e. slow-lear(cid:374)i(cid:374)g s(cid:455)ste(cid:373)(cid:895) (cid:272)o(cid:373)prises people(cid:859)s ge(cid:374)eri(cid:272) semantic memory, beliefs that accumulate gradually through repeated exposure to stimulus events: contents of the neocortical system (e. g. beliefs, expectancies, norms) are highly resistant to modification or change. As schematic knowledge (i. e. neocortical system) provides the cognitive backdrop against which the stimulus world is construed, it would be problematic if these mental contents were susceptible to modification following a single surprising experience. Perceivers must also be able to respond rapidly and adaptively to novelty and surprise; indeed survival may depend on this ability. Given basic cognitive limitations and a challenging stimulus world, perceivers need some way to simplify and structure the person perception process. This they achieve through the activation and implementation of categorical thinking.
