Social Cognition: Attention, Priming, and Schemas
Social Cognitive Tricks and Human Perception
Introduction to Human Reaction Experiment
The video features an entertainer demonstrating how humans react in daily life scenarios.
The core of the experiment involves switching out the person talking to unsuspecting individuals to see if they notice the change.
This is characterized as a "social cognitive trick," designed to test human observation and attention.
The primary goal for observation is to understand what is happening, why it's happening, and to identify relevant vocabulary terms.
Most individuals tend to believe they are highly observant.
Forms of Perceptual Blindness
Change Blindness: Refers to the failure to notice something that is changing in front of one's eyes. In the video, this applies to the changing identity of the person interacting with the subject.
Inattentional Blindness: This is a broader category that encompasses change blindness. It describes the failure to notice unexpected objects or events in one's environment when attention is directed elsewhere. In the video scenario, both forms of blindness are at play.
Factors Influencing Observation: Why People Don't Notice
Selective Attention and Relevance: The brain primarily focuses on what it deems relevant. In the video, the experimenter typically asks for directions using a map, which serves as a task that consumes a significant portion of the subject's focus.
This directed focus on the map diverts attention away from other details, such as the appearance of the person asking for directions (e.g., changes in hair or facial features).
The subject's attention is drawn to the task (the map) rather than the individual.
Factors Influencing Observation: Why One Person Did Notice
One particular individual in the video noticed the change, and several factors may have contributed to this:
Enthusiasm and Intentionality: The individual who noticed was described as enthusiastic, making direct eye contact, and showing a higher level of intentionality in their interaction.
Potential Personal Relevance (Speculative): It was speculated that this person might have noticed because the new experimenter was bald, and if the subject shared this characteristic, they might pay more attention to details related to hair or lack thereof.
Environmental Interruption (Siren): A siren at a critical moment may have interrupted the subject's train of thought, causing them to redirect their attention from the map back to the person, allowing for reassessment.
Higher Level of Processing and Engagement: This individual offered to walk with the experimenter to help direct them ("Come with me"), indicating a deeper level of engagement and an assessment of comfort or willingness to interact further. This suggests a more effortful processing of the person's presence and identity.
Theories of Human Processing: Automatic vs. Effortful
General Observation: It is common for people to miss things that, in retrospect, seem obvious, especially if they are not specifically looking for them.
Two Dominant Perspectives in Psychology:
"Lazy" or Automatic Processors: This view suggests humans often function on autopilot, minimizing cognitive effort.
Effortful Processors: This view highlights human capacity for complex cognitive tasks, enabling technological advancements, philosophical thought, etc.
The "It Depends" Principle: In psychology, the most common answer to whether humans are lazy or effortful processors is "It depends." Our processing style is contingent on the situation.
For example, in a rush or trying to get through the day, people are less likely to pay attention to subtle elements.
Three Main Factors Influencing Processing Style:
Interest: High interest in a topic promotes more effortful processing and increased attention.
Time: Having more available time allows for more effortful processing. The individual who noticed in the video might have had more time than others.
Cognitive Load (Mental Load): This refers to the mental weight or resources being used.
High cognitive load: Occurs when many things are being processed simultaneously (e.g., thinking about dinner, work, an argument, listening to a podcast). This leads to more automatic, lazy processing.
Low cognitive load: Required for effortful processing to occur.
Override Effect: High cognitive load or lack of time can override an individual's interest in a topic, preventing effortful processing even if they are otherwise interested.
Optimal Conditions: High interest and ample time lead to the most effortful processing.
Priming: Predisposing Thought and Behavior
Definition: Priming is the process of predisposing people towards thinking, feeling, or acting in a certain way. The textbook definition is "activating knowledge or goals, making them ready for use."
Purpose in Social Psychology: Used to study how subtly suggested cues influence behavior and cognition.
Subliminal Priming: Involves minimal priming outside of conscious awareness (e.g., unperceivable ads in a movie theater).
Results are mixed, and it's generally not considered highly effective due to being too far out of awareness.
Subtler Forms of Priming: Can be more effective.
In-Class Priming Activity (Word Experiment)
Round 1: Participants were asked to fill in a seven-letter word structure:
_____N_for one minute.Round 2: Participants were asked to fill in a four-letter word structure:
____INGfor one minute (technically offering fewer options).Outcome: Most participants generated more words in the second round, despite the more limited structure.
Explanation: The second round effectively primed the "-ING" ending, making it easier to recall words fitting that specific pattern, even though the "-ING" pattern was also available in the broader first task.
The Influence of Priming on Social Judgments and Impressions
Priming significantly influences how we perceive and judge other people.
Examples of Priming's Influence:
Media Portrayal: Media representations of a particular group can prime an individual's perceptions during future interactions with members of that group (positively or negatively).
Social Introductions: If someone one dislikes introduces a new person, there's a predisposition to dislike the new person; conversely, an admired friend's introduction can prime positive impressions.
Environmental Context: The setting (e.g., a date vs. campus encounter) primes different types of questions, observations, and assessment criteria for a new person.
Research Study: Word Find and Person Impression:
Methodology: Participants completed a word find task. One group encountered words like "adventurous, brave, courageous," while another encountered words like "dangerous, reckless."
Subsequent Task (Deception): They were then told they were part of a separate study where they read a detailed story about a person who engaged in high-energy activities (e.g., skydiving, fast roller coasters).
Results: Participants primed with "courageous" words tended to rate the person more positively (e.g., brave), whereas those primed with "reckless" words judged the person more negatively (e.g., problematic).
Conclusion: Subtle primes, even if participants don't perceive a connection between the tasks, can significantly influence impressions of others.
Research Study: Old/Young Word Find and Walking Speed (Controversial/Non-replicating):
Methodology: One group completed a word find with words related to "old people," and another with words related to "young people."
Outcome Measure: The surprising measure was how fast participants walked down a hallway after completing the study.
Original Finding: The initial study found that those primed with "old" words walked slower than those primed with "young" words.
Significance: While this specific finding did not consistently hold up in replication, it introduced the intriguing idea that priming could subtly influence behavior by activating stereotypes.
Schemas: Mental Representations
Definition: Schemas are mental representations of something. They provide a foundational understanding and are best understood through examples.
Example (Apple): Hearing the word "apple" immediately brings to mind a mental image (e.g., red, green, yellow), which is your schema for an apple.
Benefits of Schemas:
Reduces Information Flow: Schemas minimize the amount of new information needed. For instance, knowing someone ate an "apple" for breakfast implies it was a fruit, somewhat crunchy, etc., without requiring exhaustive descriptive details.
Facilitates Inferences: Schemas allow for conclusions that go beyond the explicitly given information. From "eating an apple," one might infer the person is healthy.
Example (Car into a Tree): The statement "I drove my car into a tree" evokes schemas for "car" and "tree," enabling understanding of the event and leading to inferences such as likely vehicle damage or potential physical injury to the driver.
Limitations of Schemas: Schemas can be incorrect. The car example might involve a pickup truck and a small sapling, making initial assumptions inaccurate.
Adaptability: Schemas are not static; they can be adjusted based on new information.
Initial Assumptions: A schema is essentially the first, initial assumption or mental image that comes to mind when a category or concept is presented.
Types of Schemas
There are four main types of schemas:
Self-Schemas: Mental representations of oneself. This includes one's identity, characteristics, and self-perception (e.g., how one perceives their age versus how they physically look).
Object Schemas: Mental representations of inanimate objects (e.g., apples, cars, colors, trees).
Person/Group Schemas: Mental representations of other individuals or groups of people. These are fundamental to social categorization, the process of classifying people into social categories or schemas.
Connection to Stereotyping: Person/group schemas intertwine with stereotyping, which is defined as the assumptions or beliefs held about people because of their group membership.
Schemas are often built upon and incorporate stereotypes.
Implications: While schemas are efficient for processing information (due to limited cognitive bandwidth), reliance on group schemas (stereotypes) can lead to harmful outcomes (e.g., negative perceptions of specific dog breeds like pit bulls).
Automatic Processing: Rapid visual processing immediately categorizes individuals based on cues like skin color, age, and gender, often before conscious thought.
Event Schemas (Scripts): Mental representations or expectations about how a procedure, event, or sequence of actions will unfold.
Examples: The expected sequence of events in a fast-food restaurant (counter, menu, order), a casual dining experience, or a formal dinner.
Challenging Event Schemas: When established scripts are violated (e.g., turning a different direction in an elevator), it can cause confusion, disorientation, or judgment in others.
Contextual Impact: Challenging scripts can be highly problematic in situations with strong social norms (e.g., a religious institution) but might be less impactful in