Deck 3: The Core Elements of Social Cognition

Question 1

In which of the following situations are people LEAST likely to make a decision about another person based on the first information they are given, rather than considering all of the information they receive equally?

A) when they are under a time limit to make a decision
B) when they have no reason to think that they will interact with that person again
C) when the consequences of an incorrect decision are fairly trivial
D) when the environment is quiet and comfortable

Answer 1

when the environment is quiet and comfortable

Question 2

The phenomenon of a self-fulfilling prophecy primarily involves:

A) interpretation of information in a way that confirms existing schemas.
B) initially false expectations leading to the fulfilment of those expectations.
C) accessibility of information leading to assimilation of that information.
D) a psychiatric disorder giving certain individuals a different perspective on reality.

Answer 2

initially false expectations leading to the fulfilment of those expectations.

Question 3

Pablo often thinks about the change in moral values in his country as a kind of virus. For example, he thinks that loose moral values spread through the community in a contagious fashion. It is MOST appropriate to say that Pablo is using a(n) _____ to understand morality.

A) metaphor
B) experiential association
C) schema
D) semantic association

Answer 3

metaphor

Question 4

Although she rarely ever thinks about Halloween, whenever Kalina bites into a Braeburn apple, she thinks about this holiday. For Kalina, Braeburn apples and Halloween are:

A) part of a single "eating an apple" script.
B) chronically accessible schemas.
C) in the same associative network.
D) typically salient.

Question 5

What is the somatic marker hypothesis?

A) Emotions are primarily driven by internal changes in the body, rather than any situational factors external to the body.
B) The brain operates primarily as a "somatic marker" of the body.
C) People look to information in their environment when they are trying to rationally make a decision about what to do in a situation.
D) People experience certain bodily changes as emotions, and they come to associate those changes with positive or negative contexts.

Question 6

_____ is the ease with which people can bring an idea into consciousness, while _____ is the process through which an object in the environment elevates the activation of a schema aspect.

A) Salience; association
B) Association; salience
C) Priming; accessibility
D) Accessibility; priming

Question 7

Semantic associations are:

A) mental links between concepts that one has experienced close together in space and time.
B) schemas that have to do with the meaning of words which one has learned.
C) mental links between concepts that share a meaning or which are part of the same category.
D) friends with whom one associates on the basis of shared goals or belief systems.

Question 8

Which of the following conditions must be met for the cognitive system to override the experiential system?

A) motivation to exert higher-level control over the behavior
B) diminished capacity for attention
C) a sense that automatic behaviors are functioning routinely
D) a harmonic synthesis between the cognitive and experiential systems

Question 9

The BEST definition of a schema is:

A) a category of objects or people.
B) a long-term memory of a unique and personally significant event or interaction with another person.
C) any mental structure containing information, rooted in memory, about how to interact with an object or type of person and what its basic properties will be.
D) a person's beliefs about the likely behavior of the people whom he or she knows well (e.g., friends and family).

Question 10

Which of the following statements does NOT describe a way in which the unconscious is smart?

A) Intuition can facilitate smart decisions.
B) Emotions occurring at an unconscious level help us make judgments.
C) The unconscious generates creative ideas.
D) Memories are more accurate once they are stored in the unconscious.

Question 11

The experiential system is _____, while the cognitive system is _____.

A) automatic and intuitive; conscious and controlled
B) conscious and controlled; automatic and intuitive
C) evolutionarily functional; evolutionarily nonfunctional
D) evolutionarily nonfunctional; evolutionarily functional

Question 12

A study demonstrated that people holding a warm coffee cup evaluated a stranger as more friendly than people holding a cold coffee cup. What phenomenon in social cognition does this study BEST clarify?

A) people's need for nonspecific closure
B) the metaphoric element of social cognition
C) people's tendency to form semantic associations
D) the importance of contrast effects in social cognition

Question 13

The cognitive system is the origin of _____, while the experiential system is the origin of _____.

A) explicit attitudes; implicit attitudes
B) implicit attitudes; explicit attitudes
C) bias; rationality
D) rationality; bias

Question 14

Automatic associations based on previous learning through the experiential system are referred to as _____.

A) explicit attitudes
B) implicit attitudes
C) semantic associations
D) impressions

Question 15

Lao is talking to his therapist and his mother about his new romantic relationship. Lao's therapist asks him to discuss at length whether he really thinks the relationship is good for him, and why. On a different day, Lao's mother just asks him for his gut feelings about the relationship. Based on research, what will be the best predictor of Lao's relationship success?

A) The best predictor would be the rational assessment he gave his therapist.
B) The best predictor would be the gut feelings he told his mother.
C) Since Lao doesn't really know what will happen, neither statement is likely to reflect his chances of relationship success.
D) The best predictor would be a combination of his two statements.

Question 16

In priming, an assimilation effect occurs when:

A) bringing a schema to mind causes a person's thinking and judgment to change in the direction of that schema.
B) bringing a schema to mind causes a person's thinking and judgment to change in the opposite direction of that schema.
C) a person sees the figure in an image, instead of the ground.
D) a person sees the ground in an image, instead of the figure.

Question 17

Research suggests that people in a positive mood process information:

A) in terms of relevance to the self.
B) in terms of relevance to others.
C) experientially and heuristically.
D) carefully and deliberately.

Question 18

Sari consciously believes that shoplifting is morally wrong. At the same time, in her circle of friends there are several people whom she admires who routinely engage in minor acts of shoplifting. If Sari is in a situation where she has a clear opportunity to shoplift, what does research suggest she is most likely to do?

A) shoplift
B) not shoplift
C) shoplift if her conscious attitudes towards shoplifting are not active
D) shoplift if her conscious attitudes towards more severe crimes (e.g., murder) are not active

Question 19

Mental short cuts used automatically for making decisions are called _____.

A) impressions
B) somatic markers
C) heuristics
D) experiential associations

Question 20

The need for nonspecific closure refers to people's motive to reach _____, while the need for specific closure refers to people's motive to reach _____.

A) an accurate conclusion; a conclusion that doesn't fit their prior beliefs
B) a conclusion that doesn't fit their prior beliefs; an accurate conclusion
C) a conclusion that fits their preexisting preferences; any possible conclusion
D) any possible conclusion; a conclusion that fits their preexisting preferences

Question 21

What is a self-fulfilling prophecy? Give an example from research demonstrating some of the effects of this phenomenon.

Question 22

What are the relationships between the concepts of accessibility, salience, and priming?

Question 23

Give one example each of research showing the effects of priming on social perception and on behavior.

Question 24

What is an example of research demonstrating the need for nonspecific closure? What is an example of a research finding demonstrating the effects of the need for specific closure?

Question 25

What are two of the three motives behind cognition posited by lay epistemology theory? What is an example of a situation in which each of these motives is most likely to drive cognition?

Question 26

What are a schema, a script, and an impression? Give an example of each.

Question 27

What are some of the major sources of people's schemas? Provide some examples of schemas that we might derive from these sources.

Question 28

Discuss two ways in which research suggests moods influence our social judgments.

Question 29

In social priming, what is the difference between an assimilation effect and a contrast effect? Provide examples of each.

Question 30

Briefly discuss the social cognitive research on rumors and gossip. How do people alter information when they tell stories about events they have witnessed? What are some examples of findings from studies on the effects of rumors?

Question 31

What is the difference between an experiential association and a semantic association? Provide an example of each.

Question 32

What are two ways in which schemas lead us to have a confirmation bias when we are processing information? Briefly describe examples of research relevant to each.

Question 33

List three of the five ways in which the unconscious is "smart," and provide an example from research or theory to illustrate each.

Question 34

Discuss some of the research findings on the effect of priming the concept "elderly." What do more recent findings in this area from Cesario and colleagues tell us about the way that cognitive primes work?

Question 35

In what kinds of priming situations is a contrast effect more likely to occur than an assimilation effect?

Question 36

Briefly discuss at least one way in which the experiential system is involved in judgments and decisions, and one way in which it is involved in attitudes.

Question 37

Discuss a few examples of studies and findings inspired by the metaphoric perspective on social cognition.

Question 38

What are the three conditions that must be met for the cognitive system to override the experiential system in a given situation?

Question 39

What is a dual process theory, and what are the two modes of social cognition that a dual process theory distinguishes between?

Question 40

In social cognitive terms, what is a metaphor? How do metaphors influence cognitive processes? Give one example of a metaphor.

Question 41

Kruglanski's theory of lay epistemology, which deals with how people reach conclusions in their cognition about the world, primarily addresses which basic problem of social cognition?

A) how people form overall impressions of the scenes they encounter
B) the overabundant quantity of information that people are confronted with day to day
C) the relationship between perception, motivation, and processes in the brain
D) the role that memory plays in our perception of novel objects

Question 42

Jose is tired after a long day of activity. Now, at the end of the day, he has to make a decision about what he would most like to eat for dinner. Research suggests that Jose will probably:

A) eat whatever food is recommended to him first and seems "good enough."
B) find and eat the food that would be best for restoring his energy after his long day of activity.
C) eat a food that he always likes to eat, even if it means spending extra effort to get that food.
D) seek out and try a new food which he has never had before.

Question 43

A researcher is interested in determining how people go through a particular decision-making process differently when they are motivated for nonspecific (versus specific) closure. In order to test her idea, the researcher should examine how people engage in the decision-making process under which set of conditions?

A) Half the participants should be political liberals, and half political conservatives.
B) All participants should believe that the outcome of their decision will have very important consequences.
C) Some of the participants are under time pressure, and some not.
D) Some participants have been told the purpose of the study ahead of time, and others have not.

Question 44

In one study, researchers found that participants thought they were more likely to draw a red marble from a jar with 10 red marbles and 90 other-colored marbles, rather than a jar with 1 red marble and 9 other-colored marbles, even though technically this is not true. This study BEST illustrates the pervasiveness of what aspect of social cognition?

A) impressions
B) scripts
C) the cognitive system
D) heuristics

Question 45

Which of the following statements BEST summarizes the perspective of the Gestalt psychology school?

A) Metaphors play a prominent role in our social cognitive processes.
B) People rely on schemas to understand social reality.
C) In matters of perception, the whole image is just the sum of its parts.
D) People construct an understanding of reality through biased and selective acts of perception.

Question 46

The _____ is an unconscious, intuitive, and automatic mode of thinking, while the ____ is a conscious, rational, and controlled mode of thinking.

A) semantic association; experiential association
B) experiential association; semantic association
C) cognitive system; experiential system
D) experiential system; cognitive system

Question 47

A theory which explains phenomena by positing two ways of processing information is referred to as a _____ theory.

A) dual process
B) Gestalt
C) motivated social cognitive
D) priming

Question 48

Siobhan can win money by closing her eyes and picking a red marble from a jar filled with many colored marbles. She is being offered the choice to draw a marble from four different jars. If Siobhan is in a positive mood, thinking about all the money that she could win, then which jar does research suggest she is very likely to draw from?

A) a jar with one red marble and nine other-colored marbles
B) a jar with two red marbles and eight other-colored marbles
C) a jar with 10 red marbles and 90 other-colored marbles
D) a jar with 20 red marbles and 80 other-colored marbles

Question 49

Amartya is interviewing several candidates for a position at his firm. If he makes the right decision with the hiring choice, the firm will prosper, his superiors will look favorably on him, and Amartya will likely receive a promotion. However, if he makes a poor choice, the firm will suffer, and Amartya may even be demoted. When evaluating candidates for the position, Amartya will be primarily motivated by a need for:

A) accurate knowledge.
B) specific closure.
C) nonspecific closure.
D) structure and meaning.

Question 50

Which of the following needs is NOT emphasized by lay epistemology theory?

A) the need for accurate knowledge
B) the need for information quantity
C) the need for specific closure
D) the need for nonspecific closure

Question 51

Which of the following factors is NOT emphasized in lay epistemology theory research as playing a role in the type of cognitive closure that people will seek?

A) the extent to which a relevant preexisting belief that we hold is activated in the situation
B) whether a person has a general preference for simple and clear knowledge
C) the cognitive impairments and advantages that people may have at different developmental stages
D) whether a person is exhausted or unable to focus in a situation

Question 52

Which research perspective emerged in the 1970s to answer the general question of what specific mental processes are involved in the person's construction of an understanding of the social world?

A) the social cognitive perspective
B) the Gestalt perspective
C) the metaphoric cognition perspective
D) the schema-based perspective

Question 53

In the classic study by Tversky and Kahneman (1981) on people's choices when presented with statistically identical treatment options, what was the conclusion regarding people's heuristic processing?

A) People's choices are dramatically changed when they are thinking about possible losses versus possible gains.
B) People always prefer treatments which they believe are going to be the most effective.
C) When it comes to considering life-and-death issues, people weigh all the options carefully and to make rational decisions.
D) When people are presented with statistically identical options, they ultimately choose between the options randomly.

Question 54

In one version of a classic study by Tversky and Kahneman (1981), people are presented with the option between Treatment A that will kill 400 of 600 people, versus Treatment B with a one-third probability that nobody will die and a two-thirds probability that everyone will die. Which treatment do the study results suggest people typically choose?

A) Treatment A
B) Treatment B
C) People typically believe that both treatments should be administered.
D) Since the treatments are statistically the same, people are equally likely to choose one treatment over the other.

Question 55

Facilitated communication with individuals with autism was eventually discredited, as it became apparent that the thoughts of the communicants were actually the thoughts of the facilitators. It seemed that the facilitators were influencing the words that were typed by the individuals with autism, even though the facilitators had no awareness of this. What does this case tell us about the nature of social cognition?

A) People are capable of planting thoughts in the minds of others.
B) Social cognition always involves the direct interplay of two or more individuals.
C) People with autism and related cognitive issues are incapable of communication.
D) Nonconscious, experiential processes can play an important role in shaping behavior and cognition.

Question 56

Compared to people with a high tolerance for ambiguity, people who have a personal preference for clear and simple knowledge tend to seek _____.

A) accurate knowledge
B) specific closure
C) nonspecific closure
D) no closure at all

Question 57

The need for _____ refers to people's motive to sometimes reach a conclusion that fits their preexisting preferences, while the need for _____ refers to people's motive to sometimes reaching any possible conclusion.

A) nonspecific closure; specific closure
B) specific closure; nonspecific closure
C) cognition; experience
D) experience; cognition

Question 58

Which aspect of our cognition is related to the limbic system and brain structures that are older in evolutionary history?

A) the experiential system
B) the cognitive system
C) Gestalt perception
D) the self-concept

Question 59

Kenji is attempting to learn French. He is seated in a library with headphones on, listening to classical music, as he stares at a textbook and tries to memorize French words. In a single moment, a new song comes on that Kenji particularly enjoys, and he suddenly finds it easier to remember the French words he is looking at. In this moment, the French words are being processed by Kenji's _____, while the music is being processed by Kenji's _____.

A) cognitive system; experiential system
B) experiential system; cognitive system
C) schema; script
D) script; schema

Question 60

Heuristics are defined as:

A) aspects of logic utilized in carefully formulated judgments.
B) mental short cuts used automatically for making decisions.
C) mental structures, stored in memory, based on prior experience.
D) impressions that individuals have of important people.

Question 61

Wes is an American Indian. If you ask him, he will tell you that he likes European Americans-indeed, many of his closest friends are of European American background. However, if Wes is alone at night walking on the street, he is more likely to startle if a European American than he is if an American Indian approaches him. This suggests that Wes:

A) has a positive implicit attitude towards European Americans.
B) has a negative explicit attitude towards European Americans.
C) has a negative explicit attitude and a negative implicit attitude towards European Americans.
D) has a positive explicit attitude and a negative implicit attitude towards European Americans.

Question 62

Which task might be used to examine the speed with which people are able to associate pleasant and positive words with examples of members of a stigmatized group?

A) a somatic marker card-playing task
B) an implicit association test
C) a priming task
D) a metaphor priming procedure

Question 63

What is the primary function of an implicit association test?

A) determining a person's "unconscious intelligence"
B) to explore people's network of cognitive associations by asking them to name one word after another without conscious reflection
C) to determine the extent to which people tend to think more implicitly, as opposed to explicitly
D) to determine the extent to which people mentally associate two concepts, even outside of conscious awareness

Question 64

What does current research suggest about the relationship between unconscious processes and decision making?

A) People who are in prison are more likely to have made decisions based on unconscious processes.
B) The unconscious is incapable of making decisions because no concrete thoughts can be formed in the unconscious.
C) Relying on the unconscious to make decisions always results in irrational and detrimental behavior.
D) Impressions and feelings we have on an unconscious level often carry important information about the best decision in a situation.

Question 65

Of the following pairs of attitudes, which set has been shown to have the strongest correlation between people's explicit and implicit attitudes?

A) thin people-fat people
B) Jay Leno-David Letterman
C) Democrat-Republican
D) Yankees-Diamondbacks

Question 66

What does research on the somatic marker hypothesis-including comparisons between people with fully functioning versus damaged brains-tell us about the nature of the unconscious?

A) Emotions are only an impediment to rational judgments.
B) People who cannot make social decisions are incapable of feeling emotion.
C) Emotions are conscious, rather than unconscious phenomena.
D) Unconscious, emotional evaluations are necessary for good social judgment.

Question 67

Which of the following statements does NOT describe a way in which the unconscious is smart?

A) The unconscious generates creative ideas.
B) Memories consolidate during sleep.
C) People are only able to form and express attitudes in the unconscious.
D) Intuition can facilitate smart decisions.

Question 68

What does the research on attitudes suggest?

A) It is not possible to have implicit and explicit attitudes towards an object that are different in valence (or direction) from each other.
B) It is possible for people to have opposite implicit and explicit attitudes (in terms of valence and direction) towards the same object.
C) People's implicit and explicit attitudes towards objects are never correlated with each other.
D) Some people have only implicit attitudes towards a certain object, while others only have an explicit attitude towards it.

Question 69

Takahiro consciously believes that e-cigarettes are probably just as risky as regular cigarettes and not something that one should smoke. At the same time, in past situations he has often found himself surrounded by people he admires who are smoking e-cigarettes. If Takahiro is offered an e-cigarette, what does research suggest he is most likely to do?

A) smoke the e-cigarette
B) not smoke the e-cigarette
C) smoke the e-cigarette if his conscious attitudes towards real cigarettes are not active
D) smoke the e-cigarette if his conscious attitudes towards his friends are not active

Question 70

What is the process of consolidating memories?

A) People filter their memories through schemas and confirmation biases.
B) By explicitly discussing their memories with others, people often transfer their memories from the experiential system to the cognitive system.
C) During sleep, the unconscious organizes and solidifies what has been learned in recent waking hours and days.
D) Eventually, all short-term memories become long-term memories.

Question 71

_____ attitudes are those that people are consciously aware of through the cognitive system, while _____ attitudes are automatic associations based on previous learning through the experiential system.

A) Positive; negative
B) Negative; positive
C) Implicit; explicit
D) Explicit; implicit

Question 72

If a behavior is automatized, this means that:

A) the behavior is so complicated it automatically engages all cognitive processes simultaneously.
B) the person performing the behavior can do so without devoting attention to it.
C) the behavior is a component of a stereotype.
D) the behavior is primarily controlled by the cognitive system of thought.

Question 73

In studies where participants complete a gambling task where they can continually choose between low-risk and high-risk card decks, what was found among patients who have experienced ventromedial brain damage (and therefore lower arousal)?

A) They are equally likely to choose between low- and high-risk decks.
B) They learn over time to choose the low-risk deck.
C) They continually choose the high-risk deck.
D) They choose the high-risk deck only in those instances where their arousal level actually increases.

Question 74

The idea that people experience certain bodily changes as emotions, and they come to associate those changes with positive or negative contexts, is referred to as:

A) the emotion script.
B) the somatic marker hypothesis.
C) the assimilation effect.
D) the implicit association test.

Question 75

Implicit attitudes are more related to the _____, while explicit attitudes are more related to the _____.

A) schema mode; impression mode
B) cognitive system; experiential system
C) experiential system; cognitive system
D) impression mode; schema mode

Question 76

In one set of studies related to the somatic marker hypothesis, participants are asked to choose draws from high- and low-risk decks. Eventually, most participants without brain injury learn to stop drawing from a risky deck. What else is found in these studies?

A) About one third of participants with brain injury consistently draw from the low-risk deck throughout the study.
B) About one third of normal participants are unable to explain why they chose cards from one deck more or less than from another.
C) Participants become very angry when they are forced to abandon the high-risk deck.
D) The arousal levels of all participants are consistently low throughout the study.

Question 77

Which of the following conditions need NOT be met in order for the cognitive system to override the experiential system when unexpected circumstances threaten routine behaviors?

A) synthesis between the cognitive and experiential systems in order for the two to work in unison
B) ability to override the automatic behaviors of the experiential system in the situation
C) awareness that the automatic behaviors of the experiential system are currently inadequate
D) motivation to exert higher-level control over the behavior

Question 78

In one study, researchers asked participants to either provide their gut feelings about their current romantic relationships, or to discuss at length after conscious reflection whether their relationships were good for them. The researchers then tried to use this information to predict the success of these relationships. What did the researchers find was the best predictor of relationship success?

A) people's gut feelings
B) people's more rational assessments
C) neither gut feelings nor rational assessments predicted relationship success
D) a combination of gut feelings and rational assessments

Question 79

What is one method researchers have used to determine what role the experiential system and automatic behaviors might play in a given process?

A) ask people explicitly how they feel about the process at a deep level
B) study the process while the cognitive system is "blocked," for example by asking participants to simultaneously memorize a long list of numbers
C) giving participants arousal-inducing drugs without telling them that they have done so, and then observing how they react to the process
D) ask participants to look at visual illusions and arrays, such as figure-and-ground images, after they have completed the process

Question 80

An automatic association of an object or person as good or bad, based on prior experience, is referred to as a(n):

A) implicit attitude.
B) explicit attitude.
C) script.
D) category.