Lecture 4 - Social Attention

Attention

selecting info for more processing, whatever occupies consciousness

Encoding

transfer of external stimulus into internal information

Memory

storage and retrieval of information

Faces

salient stimuli, specialized perception system

Where is face processing located in the brain?

Fusiform Face Area (FFA), located in fusiform gyrus in inferior temporal lobe, usually lateralized to right hemisphere

What are invariant aspects of face processing?

consistent aspects - identify, facial structure, etc

What are variant aspects of face processing?

changeable aspects - facial movement, expressions, etc

Gaze cueing

people direct their attention in the direction another person is looking

Joint attention

shared attention of two or more people on a single stimuli

Trait

stable, enduring pattern of thoughts, feelings, behaviors that distinguish individuals and their interactions with the world. Readily inferred from faces.

Todorov et al. 2005

Participants shown images of politicians for one second, asked to rank contestants on various traits. Results: Competence judgements accurate predicted 70% of election results. Judgement of age, attractiveness, likability, and familiarity did not contribute to results. Additionally, participants judged trustworthiness and competence, finding trustworthiness to be based on emotion and competence based on gender and strength of the face.

Memory

constructive and reconstructive - influenced by prior memories and information

schema

organized knowledge structure. Mental representation of a person, event, etc.

Schema-consistent information

info that is similar to existing information is usually remembered better than random information.

source-monitoring

mechanism pinpointing the source of our memory. (where, when, how, etc we experienced a memory)

source-monitoring error

memory error where person misattributes a memory to the wrong source, context, or time.

Misinformation effect

memory error where person misattributes a memory to the wrong source, context, or time.

Loftus and Palmer (1974)

Participants watched a video of a car crash, and were asked how fast cars were going when they contacted/bumped/collided/smashed into each other. One week later, were asked about amount of broken glass. Participants were more likely to recall faster speeds of cars and more broken glass for more aggressive verbs (ie "smashed")

Salience

standing out from the rest.