Exam 3: Social Cognition: How We Think About the Social World

Zuzanna had a hard time remembering the names of streets when she traveled because they were in a different language. In addition, the buildings did not look like what she was used to, so she got lost several times. These problems emphasize the role of schemas in __________.

Adele is from France, where rabbits are eaten regularly. She can tell you the most tender part of the rabbit, how long to cook one, and how big a rabbit you would need to feed five people. Marsha is from the United States, where rabbits are pets and bring colored eggs to children in the spring. She hasn't a clue about how to cook one, even if she wanted to. This example best illustrates __________.

Carol has a subtle "Mona Lisa" smile that is much harder to detect than an obvious toothy grin. Assume that before you met Carol, a mutual friend described her as warm and friendly. The first time Carol smiled at you, if you were to rely on your schemas, you would probably conclude that she is __________.

When Becky meets her new roommate, she sees that she has her hair dyed blue and has decorated her side of the room with lots of handmade ceramic pots and paintings. She then assumes that her roommate has multiple piercings and listens to punk rock. She has used the __________ heuristic in making this assumption.

Recall that Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson (1968) informed grade-school teachers that some of their students (called "bloomers") would show great academic improvement in the upcoming year. Also recall that students labeled "bloomers" actually showed greater increases on IQ tests compared to students who were not labeled "bloomers." These differences occurred because teachers __________.

Recall that Harold Kelley (1950) told some college students that their guest lecturer was a warm person, and others that he was a cold person. The visitor then lectured for twenty minutes and behaved in a very arrogant way during the lecture. When students evaluated the lecturer, __________.

What is the take-home message from the research on the self-fulfilling prophecy?

According to the authors of your text, there is evidence that all cultures, all humans, have access to the same cognitive tools. How does culture impact the use of these tools?

In trying to decide which of two classmates is smarter, you use the rule that "the faster people talk, the smarter they are," so you choose the classmate who talks faster. You have applied a __________ to decide who is smarter.

Our use of mental shortcuts usually leads to __________.

If both Chinese and Americans are comparing two pieces of art, the Americans are most likely to notice _________.

Researchers asked some participants to think of six times they had behaved assertively and asked other participants to think of twelve times they had behaved assertively, and then asked all participants to rate how assertive they thought they really were. Participants who tried to generate six examples of assertive behaviors rated themselves as more assertive than did participants who tried to generate twelve examples. Why? Schwarz suggests that participants __________.

Wegner (2002, 2004) compared the illusion of free will to which of the following?

Researchers Miyamoto, Nisbett, and Masuda compared photographs of city scenes in the U.S. and Japan. They found that, on average, city scenes in Japan contained more __________.

Recall that a group of researchers interviewed people who had suffered the loss of a spouse or child. They found that the more __________, the more distress the survivors reported.

How reasonable is it for someone to rely on the representativeness heuristic to make a quick judgment?

It is __________ to miss a bus by five minutes than to miss it by an hour because __________.

What is the major advantage of processing information automatically?

We can form impressions of people we interact with rather quickly and effortlessly. We do this by engaging in an automatic analysis of our environments, based on __________.

In a 1932 study, a Bantu herdsman readily recalled the details of a cattle transaction, but the Scotsman had to look up his written record of the event. According to your text, what can best explain this difference in memory ability?