Psychology 2720A/B Lecture Notes - Social Cognition, Impression Formation, Illusory Correlation

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

Document Summary

By cognitive processes, we include attention, information processing, impression formation, and memory. These are complex and challenging questions, but social psychologists have begun to provide some answers. We will organize the supplementary material in a manner that parallels the chapter"s principal headings. The key concept in social cognition is schema. A schema is a cognitive structure that contains our knowledge about a person, object, or event. Another, more everyday term for a schema is concept. Schemas contain information about the key features of the object or category, as well as simple rules about how the object or category operates. Your schema of dogs probably includes that they bark, are sociable and loyal, can bite when angry or frightened, and wag their tails when they are happy. The basic function of a schema is to categorize objects in ways that provide meaning and predictability.