PSY 2110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Social Cognition, Feeling, Availability Heuristic

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 2110
• Professor: Dave Miranda

Document Summary

Social cognition: how people think about the social world, and in particular how people select, interpret, and use information to make judgements about the world. Automatic thinking: a type of decision-making process that occurs at an unconscious or automatic level and is entirely effortless and unintentional. Can save time but can also lead to inaccurate judgements. Controlled or effortful thinking: thinking that is effortful, conscious, and intentional. Used when we have the necessary time and motivation. Heuristics: mental shortcuts that are often used to form judgements and make decisions. When decisions are complex you cannot only rely on heuristics - can lead to errors in peering the world. Intuition: a decision-making shortcut in which we rely on our instinct instead of relying on more objective information. When taking a multiple-choice exam should you always stick with your rst answer: answer change: wrong to right 51, answer change right to wrong: 25, wrong to wrong: 23%