Lecture 1-2: Introduction & Dual Modes

What is Social Cognition?

The study of how people make sense of other people and themselves. It serves as the intersection of cognitive psychology and social psychology.

Who are WEIRD people?

Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic

Automatic VS Controlled Processes

Automatic processes are unintentional, uncontrollable, efficient, goal-dependent, stimulus-driven, fast, and does not deplete mental resources. Controlled processes are intentional, controllable, inefficient, concious, goal-dependent, requires mental resources and is slower.

What is priming?

a phenomenon where exposure to one stimulus influences responses to later stimuli.

What is subliminal priming?

priming that occurs when exposure to the stimulus is rapid and below conscious awareness (ie shown long enough to be registered by the sense but not long enough to be registered on awareness).

Murphy et al. 1995

Participants were subliminally primed with faces. Participants primed with smiling faces reported liking Chinese characters more compared to unprimed participants. Participants primed with frowning faces reported liking Chinese characters less than unprimed participants.

what is conscious priming/post-conscious automaticity?

Occurs when prime is consciously perceived (registered on awareness) but the effects of the prime are not conscious.

Bargh et al. 1996

Participants were given a scrambled sentence "language task". Participants primed with rude words interrupted the experimenter more often, whereas participants primed with polite words interrupted less often. Additionally, participants primed with elderly words walked down hallways slower versus those primed with neutral or age unrelated words.

What are goal-driven automatic processes?

processes that are midway on the continuum between automatic and controlled processes. They are automatic as they lack awareness of the process itself, don't need to monitor process, and lack intending all specific outcomes. They require intentional processing and are task dependent.

What is goal-inconsistent automaticity?

inability to suppress thought. Sets up an automatic detection-monitoring system, where forbidden thoughts are active and can come to mind more easily.

What is the rebound effect?

Those who try thought suppression end up thinking about the suppressed thought more than those who think about the thought directly.

Intent

requires having options, especially obvious when making hard choices and painting attention to the intended response.