PSYB10H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Representativeness Heuristic
Document Summary
Automatic thinking: automatic analysis of our environment based on our past experiences and knowledge of the world; it is nonconscious, unintentional, involuntary and effortless. Helps us understand new situations by relating them to our prior knowledge. Schemas: mental structure that organizes our knowledge about the social world. We also fill in the blanks with schema-consistent information. Influence the way in which we process information. When applied to members of a social group such as gender or race, schemas are commonly referred to as stereotypes. We have schemas for specific individuals, social roles and how people act in specific situations. Helps us organize and make sense of the world and fill in the gaps in our knowledge. Korsakov"s syndrome: people with no schema= confused. Schemas help us have a continuity and relate new experiences to past ones. It also helps us reduce ambiguity when a certain situation can be interpreted in a variety of ways;
