Psychology 2020A/B Study Guide - Social Cognition, Autobiographical Memory, Availability Heuristic
23 Oct 2014
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Document Summary
Chapter 2 social cognition: thinking about people. Categorization the process of recognizing and identifying something. It is the most basic process we use to understand and structure our world. Social cognition the study of how information about people is processed and stored. Schemas: the building blocks of the mind. Categorization; information gain; rapid, efficient decisions => selective attention and interpretation. The basic function of schemas is to categorize objects in ways that impose meaning and predictability. When we categorize something, we assume that it possesses the characteristics of the schema even if we cannot perceive those characteristics directly. Categorization allows us to make assumptions about objects and to direct our attention to those aspects of environment that are most important. Schemas also influence the interpretation of information. Typically, their effect will be that ambiguous information is interpreted in accordance with the schema.
