Deck 2: Social Cognition: How We Think About the Social World

Question 1

Mental frameworks for organizing and processing social information are known as .

A)affective states
B)anchoring frameworks
C)schemas

Answer 1

schemas

Question 2

Elliott,a 43-year-old engineer,has volunteered to teach a group of middle-school students some hands-on engineering basics,hoping to get them oriented toward a math-science career path.Performance of the 1/3 of the group,who are girls,is lower than average.What is one likely cause for this effect?

A)the girls have supported Elliott's belief that girls cannot perform as well as boys in engineering
B)the girls did not engage in self-stereotyping
C)Elliott did not call on the boys more than the girls when he asked questions in the class
D)when one girl did well on a board problem,Elliott did not act surprised
E)the guys were not more highly motivated to please Elliott

Answer 2

the girls have supported Elliott's belief that girls cannot perform as well as boys in engineering

Question 3

A self-fulfilling prophecy is .

A)the process by which schemas sometimes influence the social world in ways to make the world consistent with the schema
B)the result of over-reliance on mental heuristics and memories
C)the widespread belief in the 1920s that banks were insolvent or bankrupt
D)the end result of having two or more schemas active in our cognitive processes at the same time
E)a prediction that is so circular in its reasoning that it only predicts itself

Answer 3

the process by which schemas sometimes influence the social world in ways to make the world consistent with the schema

Question 4

The term "cognitive load" refers to .

A)the strength displayed by a schema in activating memories
B)the amount of mental effort we are expending at a given time
C)the relatively rational and orderly process used in making social cognitions
D)the number of heuristics we are using at a given time
E)the automatic processing involved with the use of schemas

Question 5

Which of the following individuals is exhibiting behaviors or thoughts consistent with priming?

A)After finishing a romantic novel,Natalie passionately embraces her boyfriend and tells him how much she loves him.
B)After watching a horror film,Jane comments on the fact that she did not find the film to be 'scary' at all.
C)Hector,a medical school student,realizes that his sore throat is probably the sign of a mild cold and not a serious illness.
D)Isaac,a psychology graduate student,decides to take his best friend to the hospital emergency room when he discovers that his friend has overdosed on a certain drug.
E)George,a business student,decides that the fastest way for him to become wealthy is to start his own business while still a student.

Question 6

One way that schemas influence social thought is by .

A)ensuring that inconsistent information is stored in our memories and retrieved rapidly
B)increasing our cognitive load by activating more information from our long term memory stores
C)activating the availability heuristic and enabling automatic priming
D)acting as a filter to direct our attention towards some information and away from other information
E)changing to meet the demands of a changing social world

Question 7

Where schemas are concerned,the perseverance effect is .

A)schemas' resistance to change even in light of contradictory information
B)one way that schemas shape our social reality
C)the cause of self-fulfilling prophecies
D)the persistence of memories because of schemas
E)the difficulty associated with suppressing unwanted thoughts and images

Question 8

Elton gets on an elevator in an office building,along with three others.All passengers face front,except a woman,who continues to stand facing the back of the elevator all the way to the 21st floor.The most likely reason for Elton's discomfort for this behavior:

A)he assumes it is some sort of feminist rebelliousness.
B)he believes the woman may have a vision or other problem.
C)the behavior is a contradiction of Elton's elevator-riding schema.
D)he thinks this is an attempt by the woman to gain his attention.
E)he thinks it is an attempt by the woman to change the elevator-riding "tradition" in the building.

Question 9

In a study,participants who were allowed to "express the influence of a prime," during a first task,were by that prime during a second similar task.

A)less influenced
B)more influenced
C)influenced at about the same level
D)unable to complete the second task due to a strong influence
E)so suspicious that there ceased to exist any influence at all

Question 10

The academic performance of certain students dramatically improved when teachers were led to believe that those students were intellectually gifted,regardless of the true ability levels of the students.This result shows the importance of .

A)information overload
B)information processing and base rates
C)hard work without the expectation of after-school help
D)schemas and self-fulfilling prophecies
E)the in-group phenomenon

Question 11

A narrative framework that acts as a kind of script can be called a .

A)schema
B)stereotype
C)epic drama

Question 12

Schemas affect our use of stored memories by .

A)making it easier to retrieve information that is consistent with the schema
B)increasing the cognitive load on our reasoning abilities,making it more difficult to search our memories
C)deactivating the anchoring and adjustment process whereby we make social judgments
D)not allowing the use of memories to reduce cognitive load
E)making the schema itself weaker and less useful in accessing such memories

Question 13

The process during which we interpret,analyze,remember,and use information about the social world is known as .

A)encoding
B)automatic processing
C)social cognition

Question 14

Once it is activated,a schema may have automatic effects on behavior.This can cause individuals to .

A)develop information overload and a temporarily diminished cognitive capacity
B)behave inconsistently with the schema without realizing the stress this puts on their mental frameworks
C)behave consistently with the schema without being aware of the reason for the behavior
D)subconsciously reject their own behavior and modify their opinions
E)notice information that is inconsistent with the schema more readily than consistent information

Question 15

Tracy encounters a member of a certain political group whose views and attributes are inconsistent with her schemas about that group.What is the MOST likely conclusion that Tracy will make?

A)Tracy will completely change her schema about the group.
B)Tracy will place this individual into a subtype of those who do not confirm her schema.
C)Tracy will completely ignore this information.
D)Tracy will suppress conscious awareness of this conflicting information,but it will exert an influence on her behavior without her awareness.
E)Tracy will not lose confidence in her ability to create schemas.

Question 16

When you notice something and then remember it,you are involving the processes known as and .

A)attention; encoding
B)retrieval; encoding
C)attention; retrieval

Question 17

results when the demands on our cognitive system are greater than its capacity.

A)Information overload
B)Schema retrieval
C)Social miscognition

Question 18

Social thought is not always completely rational because .

A)rational thought cannot completely overcome the effects of unpleasant memories
B)social thought is never automatic and heuristic
C)thinking about the social world often puts demands on limited cognitive resources
D)base rates are always relied upon
E)social thought never involves emotional states,a source of rationality

Question 19

One evening,after seeing an)at the Cineplex,you are on your way home.You drive into a store parking lot,where another driver grabs a parking place you had spotted and were waiting for.You perceive the behavior as very .

A)violent movie; aggressive
B)comedy; aggressive
C)drama; meaningless

Question 20

Angelique comes to class,avidly looking forward to her professor's lecture on east Ecuadoran carpet- weaving.Instead,the professor whips out a deck of cards and starts doing close-up magic for the class.Angelique will most likely .

A)encode this as memorable information that is inconsistent with her professor schema
B)remind herself that this is,after all,a carpet-weaving lecture
C)revise her professor schema
D)revise her Ecuadoran professor schema
E)be amazed due to mood-congruent recall

Question 21

Blair watches the newscast each evening,with its usual diet of fires and other accidents.She often eats at Herby's Fried Snacks,a restaurant located in a brick building,despite the fact that her eating there has resulted in bad indigestion several times.She avoids the well-respected Korean restaurant,because the Korean restaurant is in a wooden building.Blair's eating habits are probably being guided by .

A)the availability heuristic
B)an anti-Korean prejudice
C)the anchoring and adjustment heuristic

Question 22

Juanita finds that she has been given too much information about different new cars and their relative merits and drawbacks.She is having a difficult time making a decision about which car to buy because she cannot process all the information she has gathered.This is an example of .

A)non-automatic processing
B)information overload
C)anchoring and adjustment

Question 23

The relatively effortless processing of social information in a non-conscious and unintentional way is known as .

A)supraliminal processing
B)rational introspection
C)automatic processing

Question 24

When making judgments that involve emotions or feelings,we tend to rely on .

A)the representativeness heuristic
B)the ease with which we can recall relevant information
C)the amount of relevant information we can recall
D)automatic processing of emotional information
E)our intuitive feelings on the topic

Question 25

High levels of stress and multiple,competing demands for our attention and abilities can reduce our mental processing capacity.These situations can lead to .

A)information overload
B)schema development
C)the representativeness heuristic

Question 26

The automatic processing of social information involves .

A)a relatively quick,effortless way of reaching conclusions
B)combining affective state with schemas and cognitions
C)encoding of new social information for later retrieval
D)information overload and counterfactual thinking
E)effortful cognitions,heuristics,and inferences

Question 27

One way to manage information overload is to make use of .

A)mental shortcuts,such as heuristics
B)the anchoring and adjustment stratagem
C)automatic priming

Question 28

One of the primary reasons why heuristics are employed as a strategy to process incoming information is that they can be executed .

A)rapidly
B)with considerable self-reflection
C)effortfully

Question 29

Which of the following individuals is MOST likely to experience information overload?

A)A person who is talking on a cell phone while driving a car.
B)A person who is eating dinner while watching television.
C)A person who is singing in the shower.
D)A person who is dancing and talking at a party.
E)A person who is chatting with his wife while dressing for work.

Question 30

In an experiment,researchers had participants unscramble words that were "rude" words e.g.,"hostile")or "polite" words e.g.,courteous).Soon after,participants were more or less likely to interrupt the experimenter who was talking to an accomplice).This is a demonstration of .

A)the occurrence of priming without conscious awareness of the priming stimulus
B)our memory for factual information and its relationship to other information already stored in memory
C)the effects of priming on asocial thought processes
D)the process by which easily available information affects our judgments
E)exposure to subliminal stimuli

Question 31

The relatively effortful and conscious processing of social information is known as .

A)controlled processing
B)subliminal processing
C)heuristic processing

Question 32

Simple rules for making complex decisions or drawing inferences are known as .

A)heuristics
B)automaticity
C)anchoring and adjustment

Question 33

Amanda has lost some money she needs for next semester's tuition.While betting on red,the roulette wheel has come up with five blacks in a row.To try to get her money back,Amanda is now doubling up her bet each time on red,believing that red will come up soon.She bases her belief on the roughly)50/50 odds of red and black occurring over a large number of spins of the wheel.Amanda's strategy appears to be based on .

A)the representativeness heuristic
B)the advice of a successful gambler
C)a magical thinking perspective

Question 34

When making judgments that involve factual information,we tend to rely on .

A)the ease with which we can recall relevant information
B)the representativeness heuristic
C)the amount of relevant information we can recall
D)automatic processing of factual information
E)our intuitive feelings on the topic

Question 35

Norman chronically buys and sells "things" on eBay.He is used to establishing an anchor in negotiating his way toward some endpoint,a sales price,an agreement about delivery time,shipping costs,whatever.The anchor for him is almost always a way of dealing with .

A)others' likely business judgments
B)knowing what the item likely sells for elsewhere
C)uncertainty
D)balancing likely costs with expected profit generation
E)frequent ups and downs in the market price

Question 36

Decisions made on the basis of the representativeness heuristic may be flawed because they tend to ignore information about .

A)base rates
B)schemas
C)rational processing schemes

Question 37

The area of the brain that is most clearly involved in controlled evaluations is .

A)the prefrontal cortex
B)the amygdala
C)the hypothalamus

Question 38

The tendency to use a particular number or value as a starting point to which changes are made is known as .

A)the rating and sliding heuristic
B)the anchoring and adjustment heuristic
C)the representativeness heuristic

Question 39

Suppose you are telling your friend about a woman you just met.You tell your friend that this person seemed very compassionate and was interested in helping others; however,you couldn't recall whether she said she was a nurse or a businesswoman.On the basis of the heuristic,your friend would probably think that she is a .

A)availability; nurse
B)availability; businesswoman
C)representativeness; nurse

Question 40

Research has demonstrated that most people are more sensitive to negative information than to positive information.This is known as .

A)a memory fault
B)the negativity bias
C)the positivist bias

Question 41

Shortly before being interviewed for a job she really wants,Meredith finds that the Human Resources Director was involved in a minor traffic accident during lunch.Should Meredith be concerned that the traffic accident may have a negative influence on the outcomes of the job interview?

A)Yes-research indicates that even experienced interviewers are influenced by their current moods.
B)Maybe-it depends on how much experience the Director has in interviewing job applicants.
C)No-other factors,such as the strength of the applicants who have already been interviewed will strongly outweigh any lingering effect of the Director's mood.
D)Yes-but only if Meredith mentions the accident in a way that accentuates the Director's presumed bad mood.
E)No-research indicates that experienced interviewers are not influenced by accident-related current moods.

Question 42

The tendency to imagine outcomes in a situation other than what actually occurred is known as .

A)magical thinking
B)counterfactual thinking
C)reminiscence thinking

Question 43

When people engage in thought suppression,two processes are involved.The first of these is an automatic monitoring process which .

A)makes attempts to provide distracting thoughts
B)produces a reactance response in people
C)reduces the effects of the rebound effect
D)searches for evidence that unwanted thoughts are about to intrude
E)generates magical thinking as a way of coping with the unwanted thoughts

Question 44

The tendency for people to believe they can accomplish more in a given period of time than they can actually accomplish is known as .

A)the planning fallacy
B)the narrative mode of thought
C)the Buehler effect

Question 45

The fact that faces with threatening expressions are recognized more quickly than faces with any other type of expression suggests that .

A)positive information about the environment can safely be ignored
B)the optimism bias evolved more recently than did the negativity bias
C)the negativity bias is solely due to previous negative experiences
D)bracing for a loss is more appropriate in most situations than positive expectations
E)there may be valid evolutionary reasons for the negativity bias

Question 46

When people engage in magical thinking,they tend to .

A)resist suggestions to suppress unwanted thoughts
B)experience mood congruence effects very strongly
C)overuse the representativeness heuristic
D)make compelling assumptions that are not rational
E)create or notice self-fulfilling prophecies

Question 47

Despite the fact that Lance has had to overcome many obstacles in his life and that things don't always turn out the way he wants them to,Lance still thinks that his future is very bright and that things will turn out for the best in the long run.This is an example of .

A)counterfactual thinking
B)the negativity bias
C)the optimistic bias

Question 48

When engaging in thought suppression,the most probable result of a person becoming fatigued or experiencing information overload is an increase in the frequency of the unwanted thoughts.This is known as .

A)the rebound effect
B)moderating variables
C)a dysfunctional monitoring process

Question 49

We tend to remember facts and other information better when we are in the same mood as we were in when we learned the information.This is known as .

A)affective state determined retrieval
B)mood dependent memory
C)the Ebbinghaus effect

Question 50

Magical thinking .

A)makes compelling assumptions that are not completely rational
B)is the end result of using heuristics
C)can be caused by inappropriate priming
D)makes rational assumptions appear to be compelling
E)is governed by the laws of physics

Question 51

The law of similarity suggests that .

A)things that resemble each other also share other basic properties
B)similarities in two individuals' thought processes will cause them to physically resemble each other over time
C)some stereotypes may be relatively accurate
D)similarity in origins usually leads to similarity in outcomes
E)things that share fundamental basic properties must also resemble each other

Question 52

On September 11,2001 the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked by terrorists.Suppose,on that day,Pedro said to his friend "I can't believe it! For a long time I thought there'd be a serious attack on the United States,and it just happened!" The principle of magical thinking that this would illustrate is .

A)the principle that thinking about an event can make it happen
B)failure to consider moderating variables
C)thought suppression
D)the law of contagion
E)the law of similarity

Question 53

People frequently fall prey to the planning fallacy because .

A)they tend to assume an external locus of control when they are successful
B)they tend to try to plan for too many contingencies that may never arise
C)they tend to engage in magical thinking when contemplating future tasks
D)they focus more strongly on the past than on the future
E)when planning a task,they focus more strongly on the future than on the past

Question 54

Molly and Emily are members of a girls' basketball team who are responsible for helping to organize fundraising efforts for their team.Molly is extremely motivated to complete this task; in contrast,Emily only shows a mild interest in completing the required task.Which of the following statements BEST summarizes the likelihood that Molly and Emily will complete their tasks?

A)Molly's motivation will likely cause her to predict that she will finish her task quickly; however,this will have no effect on whether she actually completes her task quicker than Emily.
B)Molly will definitely complete the task in a prompt manner due to her high level of motivation; Emily might not complete the task at all due to her lack of motivation.
C)Molly's level of motivation should not have any effect on how she thinks about proceeding with this task; consequently,Molly and Emily should complete the task at about the same time.
D)Molly's motivation will probably cause her to become overly optimistic which,in turn,will cause her to not complete the task at all; Emily's lack of motivation will likely cause her to complete the task,surprising even herself.
E)Molly's motivation will probably cause her to become overly optimistic which,in turn,will cause her to not complete the task at all; similarly,Emily might not complete the task at all due to her lack of motivation.

Question 55

Efforts to prevent certain thoughts from entering conscious awareness are known as .

A)thought suppression
B)counterfactual thinking
C)thought monitoring processes

Question 56

When people engage in thought suppression,two processes are involved.The operating process involves .

A)deliberate and effortful attempts to distract oneself with other thoughts or activities
B)producing a reactance response in people
C)generating magical thinking as a way of coping with the unwanted thoughts
D)reducing the effects of the rebound effect
E)searching for evidence that unwanted thoughts are about to intrude

Question 57

Information that is consistent with our current affective state is more easily retrieved than is information that is inconsistent with our current affect.This is known as .

A)the mood congruence effect
B)affective state determined retrieval
C)affect-cognition feedback

Question 58

Affect includes .

A)our anticipated emotions and thoughts
B)the ways we process,store,and use information
C)current emotions and moods
D)the interaction between moods and thoughts
E)memories of past moods associated with a given situation

Question 59

When individuals mentally compare their current outcomes with more favorable possible outcomes,they are engaging in .

A)downward counterfactuals
B)upward counterfactuals
C)motivating counterfactuals

Question 60

Gabriel and Jim were involved in a car accident and they both suffered a broken bone.Gabriel told Jim,"Hey at least we only broke a few bones-we could've died!" Jim's response to Gabriel was "Yes,but I'm now thinking about how I can be a better driver so that I never get in an accident again." Gabriel's statement reflects an)counterfactual and Jim's response reflects an)counterfactual.

A)lateral; lateral
B)downward; upward
C)upward; downward

Question 61

In an experiment,priming of the rudeness trait resulted in participants being more willing to an experimenter who was in the midst of a conversation than did priming of the politeness trait.

Question 62

Sarah supervises a work group of six colleagues in an advertising agency.Recently,the creativity of her work group has not been as high as it should be.To help boost the group's creativity,and keeping in mind the effects of mood on cognition,Sarah might .

A)speak to each member privately about performance issues
B)ask the group to remember what they were doing the last time they were highly creative
C)take steps to put her group's members in a happier mood during work hours
D)promise a bonus or reward for higher levels of creativity
E)remind the group that creativity is an important aspect of their job

Question 63

Our tendency to believe we can accomplish more in a given amount of time than we really can is known as the .

Question 64

are simple rules for making decisions rapidly.As such,these rules occasionally cause us to make poor choices.

Question 65

The ways in which we interpret,analyze,remember,and use information about the social world is known as .

Question 66

The is the part of the brain that is directly involved in simple automatic evaluative judgments.

Question 67

Zoë is in a fairly good mood.Consequently,we should expect her to show an)in her use of .

A)increase; heuristics
B)increase; effortful cognitive processing
C)decrease; thought suppression

Question 68

Describe the impact of schemas on memory.Explain how this may influence social thought.

Question 69

Jason is undergoing treatment for depression.His therapist has encouraged Jason to remember as many details as possible about times when Jason was not feeling depressed.Jason is having difficulties remembering a time when he was not depressed.This is probably because of the effects of .

A)mood dependent memories
B)information evoked memories
C)inappropriate retrieval cues

Question 70

Briefly describe the representativeness heuristic and explain how it is related to the idea of base rates.

Question 71

Increasing the accessibility of a schema by exposing an individual to a specific stimulus is known as
.

Question 72

Many used car salesmen believe the asking price for a car should be significantly higher than the car's actual value.They will then adjust the price downwards for an interested customer.This practice represents one application of the heuristic.

Question 73

We often use our to regulate our feelings.That is,we may to yield to temptation in order to improve our mood.

A)thoughts; consciously choose
B)behaviors; allow our friends to induce us
C)thoughts; be led unconsciously
D)unmet needs; allow out-of-control thoughts to cause us
E)feelings of low self-esteem; feel bad enough

Question 74

People are more easily influenced by others when they are in a positive mood.In part,this is because .

A)positive affect encourages attributions of positive motivations for others' behaviors
B)positive affective states decreases our reliance on stereotypes
C)positive affective states increase our information processing capacity
D)positive affective states increase our motivation to process information
E)positive affective states increases our ability and willingness to pay attention

Question 75

Jack recently had a job interview that seemed to go exceedingly well by all objective standards.However,Jack noted that his interviewer seemed to be in a bad mood that day.To what extent should Jack be concerned about the latter piece of information?

A)He should be aware that he will likely be viewed less favorably by the interviewer than if the interviewer was in a good mood.
B)He should be very concerned about the interviewer's bad mood unless something happened immediately after the interview to improve the interviewer's mood.
C)He should assume that is virtually no chance he will be offered the position due to the interviewer's negative mood.
D)He should not be concerned at all since the interviewer's mood should have no bearing on how he or she evaluates Jack.
E)He should feel encouraged about his job prospects since the interviewer's bad mood will prompt him or her to give Jack the benefit of the doubt.

Question 76

Schemas - our mental frameworks for organizing information about the world - sometimes us from noticing important details about our situation.

Question 77

The mood effect suggests that we will remember information that is consistent with our current moods.

Question 78

Two drivers on a highway are cut off by a third driver.The first driver is startled but shrugs,thinking,"that other driver was careless,but I don't think he noticed me." The second driver is furious,thinking,"that other driver deliberately tried to run me off the road." This scenario MOST clearly illustrates .

A)how mood influences affect and arousal
B)how affect influences arousal
C)how cognition influences affect

Question 79

The heuristic would suggest the following personal rule of thumb: "The more similar an individual is to typical members of a group,the more likely that individual is also a member of that group,regardless of base rates."

Question 80

In general,information that is to remember has a stronger effect on our thinking.This is known as the availability heuristic.