COMN 2111 Lecture Notes - Great Guy, Stereotype, Confirmation Bias
Document Summary
Communication in everyday life lecture november 8th, 2013. In discussing cognition thinking we are really talking about how we name our perceptions the images in our mind. The word symbols we use can"t fully and accurately represent the things they refer to. Things (the world) = complex and dynamic. But the symbols we use to name them = simple and static. We tend to use simple terms for complex subjects like other people. And we forget the word is not the thing/person it represents. We leave out information as we move from specific to general: george is 5"9 , 160 lbs, grad student from another country. Highest level abstractions can be powerful, positive: george is a really great guy. Or they can be our worst language stereotypes: george is one of those we all know about them. We shouldn"t be helping these kinds of people with their education.