Psychology 2720A/B Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Representativeness Heuristic, Embodied Cognition, Base Rate

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2720A/B
• Professor: Isaacs

Document Summary

Is the way in which people think about themselves and the social world how they select, interpret, remember and use social information to make judgements and decisions. Two different kinds of social cognitions: automatic thinking looking at a chair and knowing it is a chair, controlled thinking more effortful and deliberate. Humans have an autopilot that monitors the environment, draws conclusions, and direct their behaviour. We engage in automatic analysis of our environments, based on our past experiences and knowledge of the world. Automatic thinking is the thought that is generally nonconscious, unintentional, involuntary and effortless. Schemas: mental structures people use to organize their knowledge about the social world, themselves and that influence the information people notice, think about and remember. People use schemas to influence the information we notice, think about, and remember. Schemas are useful for helping us organize and make sense of the world and to fill the gaps in our knowledge.