PSYCH 1F03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Stereotype
6 Mar 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Our everyday decisions rely on quick categorization abilities. Attention: helps focus finite mental resources on key parts of the active scene. Memory: helps you recall specific thoughts and behaviours which are appropriate to your curre. The cognitive ability to put people, ideas, and objects into categories and concepts helps to effic incoming data stream and make appropriate responses. We quickly process incoming stimuli by organizing them into categories. Without the ability to categorize, every decision becomes overwhelming; every sensory experie completely unique; unable to draw connections from the past; forced to make new decisions for. Classification allows you to treat objects that appear differently into the same category a. E. g. different coloured apples still fall under the same apple category. Predicting uses past experiences to know what to expect. Communication uses specific words to describe ideas efficiently a. Categorization can often feel effortless and operates outside our conscious awareness.
