PSY100H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Distributed Cognition, Norm (Social), Attachment Theory
Social Psychology
● Social Psychology is based on the fact that a lot of problem solving relies on distributed
cognition
● Distributed cognition is the coordination of groups of people together so that they act in
concert in order to accomplish shared goals
○ What we fail to remember is that most of our problem solving is done w.
Distributed cognition
○ Many of our problems cannot be solved by individuals
● Science requires distributed cognition, as does running a University or an airline
○ Most of the things we do, we do with distributed cognition
■ Usually how our individual cognition is participating in distributed
cognition
● Long before the Internet networked computers together
○ Culture networked people together to tap into the power of distributed
cognition
● Our individual cognition is so embedded in distributed cognition that we often confuse
individually possessing knowledge with having access to the power and knowledge
stored in distributed cognition
○ We think we possess knowledge, but we only have the access info to get
distributed cognition to solve of our problems; we confuse these two
● This is known as:
Source: Prof. Vervaeke’s Lecture slide 4
○ We often feel understand things more deeply than we do
■ We confuse understanding something with having access to power of
distributed cognition
● In one experiment Sloman asked participants if they understood how a bicycle worked
○ Most participants answered that they did know
○ Sloman then provided them with the beginning of a diagram of bike that they
needed to finish in order to explain how a bike works
● Here are some examples of the picture that participants drew
Source: Prof. Vervaeke’s Lecture slide 10
○ None of these bikes work
○ Ppl think they know, but they really don't
○ They have access to distributed cognition, but confuse this with understanding
how bikes work
Source: Prof. Vervaeke’s Lecture slide 11
Source: Prof. Vervaeke’s Lecture slide 12
● There are many of these type of examples
○ We continually confuse possessive knowledge, having it in our minds to
actually having access to distributed cognition
■ We are always solving problems in a distributed cognition fashion
rather than separate individuals
● We are so embedded in distributed cognition, that we don't even realized we are
embedded in it we are
● That’s what the knowledge of illusion shows:Most of our cognition is happening
in a much more social distributing fashion than we realize
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Document Summary
Social psychology is based on the fact that a lot of problem solving relies on distributed cognition. Distributed cognition is the coordination of groups of people together so that they act in concert in order to accomplish shared goals. What we fail to remember is that most of our problem solving is done w. Many of our problems cannot be solved by individuals. Science requires distributed cognition, as does running a university or an airline. Most of the things we do, we do with distributed cognition. Usually how our individual cognition is participating in distributed cognition. Long before the internet networked computers together. Culture networked people together to tap into the power of distributed cognition. Our individual cognition is so embedded in distributed cognition that we often confuse individually possessing knowledge with having access to the power and knowledge stored in distributed cognition.